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Wednesday, August 15, 2007

The Human Cost of Environmental Radicalism

Think I'm too tough on the environmental wackos?

Try reading Walter E. Williams' new column as he recounts the cost of elevating God's lower creation above that which He said was created in His image:


- New Orleans flood control that might have made a difference in Katrina

- Lives lost to malaria due to the prohibitive hysteria around the use of DDT

- Fire proofing that could have prevented the World Trade Towers from crashing down

- Better insulation that would have saved the space shuttle Columbia astronauts

- The thousands dead from driving around in cheap plastic excuses for cars


Humans are to be good stewards of the planet God has given us. But plants and animals are NOT more valuable than human beings, with an eternal soul, created in the image of God. We should worship the Creator rather than created things.


2 comments:

Ed Darrell said...

Everybody else is to blame, but not Williams. Figures.

New Orleans flood control would have worked, but Williams opposed the programs to build better levees, and he opposed the taxes required to pay for them.

DDT is no panacea against mosquitoes. Beating malaria requires solid government programs, and governments to follow through. Williams opposed the U.S. appropriations for anti-malaria programs in Africa and Asia, and the Bush administration failed to deliver the money appropriated even after the old Environmental Defense Fund scolded Bush for claiming environmental groups were standing in the way -- all it would have taken was for Bush to send the money, and DDT was waiting to be sprayed where effective.

Fire proofing maybe could have saved the World Trade Center -- but that's a government regulation issue, and Williams has consistently stood against government telling private entities how to build buildings.

Thousands dead from cheap plastic cars? Balderdash. He doesn't account for any of the deaths in SUVs. Plus, the more fuel-efficient Camry I drive today is much safer than the smaller, less-fuel-efficient Oldsmobile I used to drive.

Williams is a smart guy, but he's got his facts wrong on almost every one if these issues. And as someone who has watched him now for 30 years, it's interesting to see him blame a lack of action when he called for exactly that lack of action before. It would be entertaining, even, were it not so deadly as Williams describes.

DDT use, by the way, ultimately spread malaria. It killed off the creatures that prey on the mosquitoes that spread the parasite. Sometimes being a good steward is the right thing to do. God wasn't stupid when He designed the planet.

Bob Ellis said...

I'm sorry, Ed, but you've got it completely backwards. It was government regulation that REQUIRED all these environmentally-conscious and human-harmful things.

And there are fewer deaths in SUVs than in the toys they call cars these days. I think you're confusing deaths that result when plastic cars run into SUVs (which are still to some extent built like real cars).

And you're right that God was pretty smart when He made the Earth. He made it to be a lot more durable, self cleaning and self renewing that environmental wackos could ever believe (but then, they believe it wasn't designed, just an accident, so no wonder they're so afraid something might go wrong with it).

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