Environmentalists
create fiery climate in California
Jason
Garthoffner
In
an effort to decrease a wildfire's ability
to spread President Bush responded to the
fires devastating Oregon in 2002 by proposing
the Healthy Forest Initiative. The legislation
would loosen bureaucratic restrictions on
thinning out trees in areas that are deemed
fire hazards.
Knowing
a common sense solution when they see one,
environmentalists denounced this proposal
as silly. To be sure, they are responsible
for the ridiculous regulations the president
has been trying to loosen. Ignoring any
sense of letting nature develop naturally,
these Mother Nature scouts insist that we
unnaturally allow trees and brush to grow
without restriction.
The
resulting overgrowth of such things has
set the stage for the disaster that has
been the wildfires ravaging Southern California.
Almost one million acres have been burned,
dozens of people are dead, and thousands
have lost their homes.
One
example that warrants a scout merit badge
in stupidity is the situation in the Lake
Arrowhead area. It is illegal to cut down
trees there unless they are dead. The primary
cause of death for those trees is the bark
beetles. They have been killing trees by
the hundreds and they cannot be stopped.
Well,
actually they can be stopped. There is a
spray that can be used to kill the bark
beetles and save the trees. It cannot be
used because it kills a certain kind of
mosquito that is protected by guess who?
Those
thoughtful tree huggers think of everything.
Preserving the mosquitoes makes sense when
you think about the need to keep them alive
just long enough for us humans to slap them
dead the second they land on our skin.
Meanwhile
trees up in the mountains near Lake Arrowhead
continue to die, forming rows of matchsticks
ready to ignite. Hundreds of dead trees
remain standing in the area because the
resources to remove them just are not there.
If the fire had reached the town there is
no question it would have burned to the
ground.
At
least the mosquitoes would be protected.
Well, until they burned with everything
else anyway.
Situations
like this are not limited to Lake Arrowhead,
or California. This is a problem present
everywhere in the country. All efforts to
alleviate the problem are blocked by environmental
groups.
For
example, in Arizona every major forest thinning
initiative in the last decade has been blocked
by these groups. The Forest Service estimates
that it costs $100 million to file the defensive
paperwork for these lawsuits.
Environmentalist's
concern for preserving the earth would be
admirable if it were not so counterproductive.
These groups fight so hard to preserve nature
by filing lawsuits that use exorbitant amounts
of paper. Then when they win the overgrowth
they caused allows fires to spread and burn
everything away. Thousands of homes now
need to be rebuilt, and what do you think
is going to be used to rebuild them?
Here's
a hint for the Mother Nature scouts, tofu
and soy beans can't solve everything.
The
next time I hear one of these idiots lecture
me about air pollution caused by automobiles
I'm going to shove their face into the facets
of my car that still have ash in them. Los
Angeles has millions of people with millions
of cars, I have never in my life woken up
to find the place I live smelling like the
inside of a fireplace. The red sunlight
through the ashes was something you would
see in a Robert Heinlein story.
Car
pollution doesn't do that, the wildfires
they helped create did.
You
would think if you listened to the Mother
Nature scouts that Republicans support this
ridiculous notion that the environment should
be our personal toilet. We don't, but common
sense should be exercised when it comes
to preserving nature. Shockingly, our Democratic
Senator Dianne Feinstein has expressed her
support for the Healthy Forest Initiative.
See
scouts, even the anti-gun nazi with a concealed
weapon permit gets it!
Environmentalists
may not be completely to blame for the fires,
but I'm willing to rightly place the majority
of the blood and tears shed over the fires
on their hands. They better not wash them
though; it might affect the water supply.
They would be better off sharing with their
friends the mosquitoes.
Jason
Garthoffner is an art major at Cal State
Long Beach and can be reached at JasD1899@aol.com.
|
