Now what I am about to say may come to a shock to most of you who conceive of conservative Republicans as enemies of the environment, but I consider myself an environmentalist. I am not a extreme environmentalist wacko like many who call themselves environmentalists, because it is always possible to have too much of a good thing. I think that for ourselves and for our progeny that it is crucial to preserve our natural environment. But we should not save the life of a spotted owl if it will cost the job of a hard working logger. We must balance the interests of human life and comfort with the interests of nature. As a Vermonter, I have seen both the city in which my mother lived and the boonies in which my father lives. Some of my fondest memories of youth are hiking out back in the woods behind my father’s house and exploring or swimming and fishing in the lake and streams of the area. It is for these reasons that I think we must pursue a reasonable use and replenishment policy towards the environment.We should use resources in a responsible way and replace them for future use when possible. This is a policy that we currently employ with fish repopulating, planting saplings when we cut down trees, hunting animals like deer only to a certain level, or tapping sugar maple trees for their syrup. The problem that I have with environmentalists is that they try to force their love of the environment on others. I think that it is perfectly acceptable to recycle or conserve energy or even drive an electric car, but to try to make it mandatory to punish those who don’t comply is wrong. Just because some hippies want to eat tofu veggie burgers on recycled plates doesn’t mean I should not be able to have my steak or veal and my soda in a Styrofoam cup. Another problem that I have with environmentalists is the scare tactics and loose facts they use to try to scare or shame people into agreeing with them. The first thing is global warming. Now I don’t know whether there is any global warming occurring, but the fact is its April and we still have snow in Vermont. If the globe is getting warmer, it sure the hell is not happening here. The fact is that even though man may produce pollution through smoke stacks, there are cows spewing methane into the air and volcanoes spewing sulfur and various other material into the atmosphere, which have occurred for millennia and will continue to occur. The reason that I was spurred this week to talk about the environment is that the President is starting to take some heat for his recent policy moves concerning the environment. I think that many of the attacks against him are unfair. However, I would like to conclude with two points.First, we can and should in an environmentally friendly way drill for oil in the Alaska national wildlife reserve. Secondly, whenever some environmentalist wacko cries and moans about pollution ask yourself what is more important to you: the modernization and survival of the third world nations and the billions of people that live within their borders or the life of the yellow spotted fruit fly?
