Last Saturday night at about 8:30, I turned my dorm room air conditioning and lights on. Why? It was the third annual Earth Hour, and I am fed up with hearing environmentalist rants everywhere I go.Should we take care of the Earth? Of course. Diminishing aesthetics and limited resources make conservation logical to a point. However, certain individuals and politicians take environmentalist attitudes too far.
From vilifying soccer moms and their SUVs to actual legal decisions like the Clean Air Act, the environmentalist movement ““ best intentions aside ““ has reached a point where it is directly dangerous to our life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.
The excess of the movement is evident all around us ““ often in the form of lectures from those who don’t seem to be following their own militant advice.
Even a simple thing like using the restroom here on campus submits students to the “green” cause.
The “Remember … These Come From Trees” stickers on towel dispensers around campus might be the most obnoxious example. TheseComeFromTrees.com quaintly calls its adhesive product “the world’s first guerrilla public service announcement.” I instead think of them as a subtle reminder that I can’t even wash my hands without a lecture.
The same can be said of television. Californians can’t even turn on the TV without the state shoving a “Flex Your Power” ad down your throat. Some of these public service announcements declare that “Global Warming … (is) a choice.” Is it? According to the program’s site, the “Flex Your Power” partners include government agencies. If government involvement continues along this path of activism, citizens won’t be given much choice any longer.
And of course, there are the celebrities gracing us inferior plebs with their morality.
When Betty Nguyen of CNN asked Edward Norton what he was personally doing to conserve energy, the actor-turned-official ambassador for Earth Hour 2009 spouted generic tips and encouragement to average Americans. Only when Nguyen pointed him in the right direction did the actor-turned-“goody two-shoes” squeeze in a reference to his Prius.
I guess I shouldn’t be that surprised. Celebrity activism is usually just accusatory lecturing. It’s not like Sheryl Crow was ever going to wipe her greasy face on those absorbent sleeves she designed to combat the evils of disposable napkins.
This style of hypocrisy is all too evident among the green elitists and represents a key argument in the conservative counter to warm-mongers.
Republican commentators love to point out examples like Leonardo DiCaprio’s electronic, remote-controlled, automatic deodorizing toilet (because more than DiCaprio’s high-and-mighty tirades are full of B.S.).
However, every time Sean Hannity references something like Al Gore’s private jet, I feel like telling the former vice president, “Well done!”
That private jet of his is the epitome of capitalism. For one, I’d say Al Gore is a pretty successful man. If he has the legal means and desire to own a private jet, a little thing like the rainforest or Sean Hannity’s big mouth shouldn’t stop him. And secondly, Gore has books, DVDs and a Nobel Prize all centered around his environmentalist spectacle. If it takes a jet to promote his fiscal way of life and bring peace to his fans (a.k.a. consumers), so be it.
In a way, this tattletale style of reporting is almost hypocritical as well. Capitalists like Hannity should be glad the system still flourishes within the green movement.
The free market is that little system that offers up opportunity while allowing our lives to run smoothly, and this crucial cog in the clockwork of American prosperity is severely threatened by extreme environmentalist efforts.
Cap-and-trade programs are a perfect example. This system directly contradicts the free market because it is the antithesis of freedom ““ namely, regulation. It allows a government to say what companies or even individuals can do with their resources and output.
Even if you were to assume that the fiscal ramifications and production continuity of such measures wouldn’t affect you as a consumer (which, of course, is absurd) the environmentalists in government are constantly dreaming up new ways to screw the average American over in the name of “conservation.”
For example, the California Air Resources Board considered forcing new cars to use special reflective paint, figuring this would somehow limit air condition use. Thankfully, the ARB discussion was brief as such efforts were deemed to be “”˜not cost-effective’ today.” Please note the added emphasis on today because there’s no telling what the government might decide to do tomorrow (that is to say, after graduation when these responsibilities are fully our own).
All this being said, last Saturday at about 8:30, it was uncomfortably warm and dark in my dorm room. My energy consumption is not arbitrary or contemptuous. It is simply what I need to live and to do so happily.
If you want to talk about environmentalism until you’re green in the face then e-mail Kelly at kbowers@media.ucla.edu. Send general comments to viewpoint@media.ucla.edu.