The first Earth Day was organized in 1970 to address public concerns about the environment. Many of these questions are completely reasonable. [emphasis, links added]
For example, in 1969, oil slime along the industrialized coast of Ohio’s Cuyahoga River drew criticism, which drew national awareness of the need to reduce water pollution.
Similarly, in California’s coastal city, most notably in Los Angeles, the exhaust of unleaded gasoline causes air pollution, so you can’t see a few miles away from the hills.
We have come a long way in 51 years.
This month, as Americans celebrate Earth Day on April 22, we face challenges legitimate environmental priorities and priorities chosen through special interests with ulterior motives, and environmentalism is to be subject to environmentalist sentiment.
These are ten issues of environmentalism being abused, and its consequences are of no benefit to the environment and even harm.
(1) We are in a climate crisis
We can also start with the most controversial environmentalist claim that our planet is at risk of catastrophic climate change. The problem with this claim is two aspects.
First, it is still strong (if suppressed) about whether the data really supports this claim. There is enough evidence that even if they are even increasing, the average global temperature will not rise rapidly.
There is also ample evidence that extreme weather events have not increased, but rather that we find their capacity to improve, with the increase in population making more people live in places particularly vulnerable to extreme weather.
Second, even if the climate catastropheists have some authenticity, it cannot completely change our entire energy infrastructure. The technology is not ready and without funding, most countries will not participate.
Adaptation is our only rational action.
(2) Too many people
This seems to be the case based on the 1970 inference, because the global population was growing rapidly at that time.
Even in countries that continue to experience rapid population growth, growth rates follow the same pattern of decline.
But today, in almost every country, reverse is now the fact: the birth rate is much lower than the alternative level.
Even in countries that continue to experience rapid population growth, growth rates follow the same pattern of decline. The United Nations now estimates that the global population is about 10 billion, and it is expected to decline thereafter.
This means the rapid population growth we have seen over the past two centuries, in which the global population has exceeded 8 billion from 1 billion in 1804 to 2024.
There is no trend anywhere on Earth that contradicts this pattern. Human beings face too few futures, not too many.
(3) We used up all the “fossil” fuel
Although technically this is correct, this situation is not as far as the famous predictions made by American geologist M. Hubbert in 1956, claiming that U.S. oil production in the United States would peak in 1970 and then glide to a permanent decline.
In the United States and around the world, new technologies and discoveries put all oil reserves, as well as gas and coal, at record highs, despite increased demand.
According to an authoritative statistical review of global energy, based on current consumption, proven reserves can provide 61 years of oil, 50 years of natural gas and 208 yuan.
However, this seriously underestimates the big picture, as proven recyclable reserves have been expanding. The “unproven” reserves waiting to be discovered can easily double the remaining time.
This does not mean we should not continue to research new energy sources. But we have a century or more to solve this problem.
(4) Biofuels are renewable and sustainable
There is actually nothing farther than the facts.
Biofuels never provide a small portion of our energy needs, and attempts to expand it beyond niche products have produced disastrous results.
Take California as an example alone, the current yield of ethanol from corn crops is 500 gallons per acre. Californians consume 13.6 billion gallons of gasoline in 2023.
Since ethanol is 33% less than conventional gasoline, this means that replacing gasoline with carbon neutral ethanol requires 20.3 billion gallons of ethanol production, while ethanol production requires 63,400 square miles of irrigated farmland and more than 120 million acres of water.
To see this, The entire irrigated farmland in California totals about 14,000 square miles, and the entire California agricultural sector consumes only about 30 million acres of water each year.
Globally, biofuel crops have consumed approximately 500,000 square miles, offsetting only 2% of global transport fuel consumption.
(5) Offshore wind energy is renewable and sustainable
Absolutely not. Wind turbine blades, on land or at sea, usually kill raptors, vultures and other giant endangered birds, as well as bats and insects. Offshore, there are other harmful effects.
The electromagnetic field of submarine cables produces birth deformities in marine organisms and creates magnetic fields that destroy the orientation capabilities of certain fish. Their low-frequency operational noise destroys the sounds made by fish for mating, laying eggs and navigation.
The turbine “increases sea surface temperature and changes the fluid dynamics of the Shanghai surface in ways that scientists do not yet understand” and “whip off the ocean sediments and produce highly fuzzy awakenings, which are 30-150 meters in length and several kilometers in length, have a significant impact on the plant chains of the plant chains, the basis of the marine food chain.”
California's official plan is to install 25,000 GW of offshore wind energy in a floating wind farm 20 miles offshore.
California’s precious marine ecosystems are destroyed by the presence of 2,500 floating wind turbines every megawatt-hour, each of which will suffer nearly 1,000 feet in height.
They will need 7,500 cables to connect to 4,000 feet of the seabed, as well as 2,500 high-voltage cables.
Expect taxpayers and taxpayers to subsidize a project that could cost $300 billion or more to build may only last 10-20 years.
Great Reading Break in America
