I've just spent the better part of a week inundated with information on environmentalism because of Earth Day 2008. It is amazing what the media and environmentalists don't want you to know about their movement. Here is an oversimplification of some of the facts of environmental protectionism.

The environmentalists' movement has levels of fanaticism that rival, and in some instances exceed, anything that has been spewed by other fanatics.

Environmentalists are responsible for the terrible wildfire seasons that have been plaguing the western states.

Environmentalists are responsible for families bringing deadly toxins into their homes.

Environmentalists are responsible for the growing food shortages around the world and rising food prices at home.

Environmentalists are responsible for rising gas prices and the United States dependence on foreign petroleum.

And then there is the non-debatable fictional "facts" of global warming. In Christopher Columbus' day all of the experts believed the world was flat, and this belief was a non-debatable "fact." In Galileo's day it was an irrefutable "fact" that the sun, stars, and moon circled the earth--the true center of the universe. Both of those "facts" are wrong--as is the consensus that global warming is a man-made phenomenon. The fact is that "global" climate data has only been collected since the 1880's. Over the decades there has been more data collection points added as educated populations have circled the globe. The data is horribly incomplete, and using a century's worth of data to extrapolate millenniums worth of weather and climate is fuzzy thinking by scientist. They can theorize that human activity is responsible for global warming, but they cannot prove it. What can be proved is the data shows a cooling trend from 1998 to today. As the third world industrialized without the stringent environmental laws imposed on American business--the climate models show the earth is cooling. Cooling has begun to accelerate to the point where the ice caps are replenishing at an astounding rate--but you won't hear this from the environmentalist friendly media because they don't want American's to know that last year's story is really bad science. And, the environmentalists are sure that they would loose decades of hard fought behavioral changes on the part of the American public if the truth was widely known.

Osama bin Laden's name strikes fear in the hearts of many non-Muslims. As a Wahabbi practicing Muslim he believes Sharia law and its stringent rules will redeem the world. In other words, return the world to third century practices and teaching, and we will all be better off than living in a modern world. Is this terribly different than the outlook of the most strident environmentalists?

Environmentalist use terms like "rewilding" to describe their goal of returning North America to a "natural" state. Some even believe that the environment should be returned to the time before the continent was populated by hunters who pillaged the large carnivores and herbivores in North America. They believe the eco-system is unbalanced due to a shortage of large predators on our continent. They would like urban areas to have footpaths for the migration of these large carnivores. I guess we should all want more black bears and coyotes in our yards. Dave Foreman, of the Rewilding Institute in New Mexico is one of the foremost proponents of this movement. His past credits include the group Earth First! and The Wildlife Institute. The Wildlife Institute is considered the founding organization of Earth Day.

There is a wildfire today in Los Angeles County near the community of San Marino. This is an area that has not experienced a wildfire in over 40 years, which has left a very large fuel source for the fires on the steep mountainsides surrounding the communities. Last year Southern California experienced massive wildfires in nearly every county and there were huge economic and personal losses throughout the region. Prior to the environmental movement foresters used controlled burns and wildfire management techniques that allowed underbrush and dead growths to experience periodic burns. Then the environmentalists began suppressing all natural and manmade burnings to return forests to their "natural" state. The foresters and fire professionals overlooked one simple fact--fire is a naturally occurring event in the wild. Prior to man's commitment to suppress fires, a naturally occurring wildfire would take place about every decade. Fuel in the form of dead plant material would be returned to the earth in the form of ash, native trees and plants that require a burn before they can re-generate would grow, and the larger trees would be spared because the fires did not burn hot enough to damage them. The modern firestorms decimate the landscape and kill every living thing in their paths, lead to massive soil loss due to mudslides, and take generations to recover from. Chalk one victory up to the law of unintended consequences.

Mercury is a lethal heavy metal and neurotoxin linked to mental retardation, lethargy, autism, chronic fatigue syndrome, to name a few. It is also the component that generates light in a compact florescent light (CFL) bulb. If you break one in your house you are exposing your household to toxic levels of mercury. The Environmental Protection Agency has three pages of instructions on how to deal with disposing of the toxic waste from the bulb. A key word of advice is to NEVER use a vacuum cleaner to clean up the debris from a broken bulb and be prepared to throw your bedding away if you break one on or near your bed. You can download the instructions from the EPA website located here.

Rachel Carson's groundbreaking book Silent Spring is considered the foundation of modern environmentalism. First published in 1962, Carson's vivid writing took the chemical industry to task for damaging the environment without regard to the long term consequences of their poisons. As a result of the book, and the millions of irresponsible pesticide users, DDT was taken out of production and removed from the marketplace. DDT was a powerful tool in the fight against mosquitoes and the diseases they carry to humans.

Environmentalists have chosen to protect the life of disease spreading pests over the lives of the world's children. While I do not advocate the widespread use of any pesticide, properly applied DDT could spare the lives of 1,000,000 people a year who die in Sub-Saharan Africa. Malaria is responsible for nearly the same number of annual deaths as the AIDS epidemic. But, this is one of those truths that the environmentalists don't want you to know. A few pennies could save a million, mostly children, a year. DDT treated mosquito nets and the treatment of thatched roofs where the mosquitoes like to live has the potential to save lives. Malaria affects the lives of another 350 million or more Africans a year--much more that the 1.7 million infected by AIDS per year. The lifelong suffering of Malaria's victims is incalculable. Apparently the life of a poor child in Africa holds little value to environmentalist eager to return the world to a pre-industrialized state.

But remember, population control is one of the pillars of environmentalism. Is natural selection by mosquito bite is an acceptable form of population control? I say no.

Rising food prices are grabbing headlines around the world. In January of 2007 the first news reports of tortilla shortages in Mexico appeared. This week's headlines spoke of Asian rice shortages and hording here in the U.S. The price of staples like eggs, milk, and butter have risen 40% in the last few months, and you can thank the environmentalists for these increases and shortages. Biofuel has been another of the pillars of environmentalism. Fossil fuels are bad--biofuels are good the environmentalists and their media prophets tell us. But, the fact is to make biofuel farmers move acreage from the production of food to the production of fuel. Corn for tortillas and livestock feed is now distilled for biofuel. Eggs, meat, and milk cost more. Thank the 2005 energy bill passed by the Democratic led congress for the price increases at the grocery store. Congress legislated the use of biofuel and the energy companies began buying feed corn.

And finally, what about rising prices at the gas pump? There are three factors causing rising prices.

First, there has been unprecedented speculation in the petroleum futures. Speculators who had been investing in risky mortgages moved their money to petroleum futures when the mortgage market collapsed due to their involvement. You can thank them for $120 barrel oil.

Next, the weakening dollar has reduced U.S. buying power abroad.

But the largest issue is the environmental restrictions on domestic oil exploration and drilling. The Alaska National Wildlife Refuge is 19.2 million acres of federal land that sits atop enough petroleum reserves to replace oil imports from Saudi Arabia for up to two decades by some estimates. 19.2 million acres is roughly the equivalent area of 345 Irvine Ranches. Drilling in the refuge would require about 2,000 acres, roughly half the equivalent of Los Angeles' Griffith Park's 4,100 acres.

Environmentalist don't limit their intervention to exploration in Alaska. There has not been a new refinery build in the U.S. in approximately two decades. This reduces the amount of gasoline that is delivered to the marketplace and causing supply and demand price increases.
Again, these are complicated issues that really require more space and time. But, if your budget is stretched thin at the pump and grocery store, or your home is in a burn zone, and you're concerned about world hunger and health--think about environmentalism and the societal and global costs associated with the teachings of scientists with un-provable theories.