"My views on the environment are rooted in my belief in Creation. I don't believe that life on earth began spontaneously or as a result of some haphazard, random selection process; nor do I believe that nature is oh-so-precariously balanced. I don't believe that earth and her ecosystem are fragile, as many radical environmentalists do. They think that man can come along, all by himself, and change everything for the worse; that after hundreds of millions of years, the last two generations of human existence are going to destroy the planet. Who do they think they are?
I resent the presumptuous view of man and his works. I refuse to believe that people, who are themselves the result of Creation, can destroy the most magnificent creation of the entire universe. We cannot comprehend many of the wonders of the universe. The human mind, or that small percentage of it that we use, is incapable of imagining the size of the universe, its origins, or even where it is. Although some incredibly arrogant scientists believe they are capable of scientifically unlocking every mystery of the universe and of understanding everything in purely material terms, I believe that there are certain things that the mind of man simply cannot discover or ascertain. there are certain things we were not meant to understand, cannot understand, and must accept on faith. ....... [he talks about how in awe he is about the perfection of this small sphere (earth) located in this small solar system, located in this small galaxy, located in this endless universe] ... then says, "We humans had nothing to do with the earth's creation, its placement, or its functioning. We are only part of it, which is not to downplay our role or significance in this world. [but] we are as much a part of it as any of its other inhabitants, both animate and inanimate; as much as the redwood tree or a spotted owl, as much a part of it as a glacier. But environmentalists paint humans almost as an aberration; as the natural enemy of nature. According to them, we are capable of destroying this wondrous planet merely by being ourselves. That is true vanity, or what I call humanity vanity. ..[he goes on to discuss many examples].
"...humans are the only creatures capable of cleaning up the messes made by themselves and all other creatures. ...The fact is, we couldn't destroy the earth if we wanted to. The earth is over 4 billion years old. The arch-enemy of nature, man, has been on the planet no more than 200,000 years. Man cannot even come close to creating the powerful forces of nature - many of them damaging and destructive - yet these forces have been around for the same 4 billion years the earth has. And the earth is still here. Imagine that! [he then goes on to describe how impossible it would be for man to "destroy the planet", even if we dedicated all of our mental and physical resources to the effort.] ...
"...Now, I want to make it clear that when there is damage to the environment, there is no one who wants to fix it more than I do. ... [but] we don't have to punish progress in order to fix the environment. ... The key to cleaning up our environment is unfettered free enterprise, our system of reward. The more economic growth we have, the more a prosperous people will demand a cleaner environment. The poor have other things to worry about, such as feeding their families. For a study in contrasts, look at the level of man-made pollution in countries with totalitarian regimes. Pollution in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union is horrendous. If you go there you will see dead, not dying, forests. You will see three-eyed fish in streams. When no one owns private property, there is no incentive to keep it clean and pure because no one has a stake in keeping up its value. ...
"...Yet the environmentalist wackos go out of their way to find fault with everything in America. They criticize our profit motive, even though it's given us the most sophisticated pollution-control technology in the world. ...Our prosperity has created a leisure class that has too much time on its hands, so they use it to complain about America. In the process they also enhance their self-esteem. If they agree that things are wrong and need to be fixed, they also believe they are the ones who should have the power in society, not some business owner or civic leader. These people "Care". They care so much that caring becomes a crutch that makes them feel special and more noble than the rest of us. [the "guuuud" people]. ... Many of these people have replaced religion with secular environmentalism. Some of them even worship the earth goddess Gaia. When they get together, their gatherings take on the air of a religious revival meeting. There were 750,000 people in New York's Central Park recently for "Earth Day". ... [ he then talks about methods used by environmentalist wackos, including attempting to criminalize much of the food we eat, etc., etc.] ...
"...It's interesting to note which environmental hazards these people really worry about. It is those that are caused by business or man-made things. ... [gives comparison examples] ...
"...My friends, the earth is a remarkable creation and is capable of great rejuvenation. We can't destroy it. It can fix itself. We shouldn't go out of our way to do damage, but neither should we buy into the hysteria and monomania which preaches, in essence, that we don't belong here. We have a right to use the earth to make out lives better.
".. I want to make it clear that there are some decent environmentalists. My comments are directed at the doomsday fanatics who want to sharply change the American way of life. The Sierra Club wants to limit the number of kids you can have to two. They are trying to limit the way you drive your car. They are trying to stop people from preserving food by irradiating it. They are into power and controlling people's lives. They go way beyond their nominal environmental agenda.
Decent environmentalists are those such as the Audubon Society. Did you know that they have a wildlife refuge in Louisiana that has oil rigs on it? Audubon members carefully monitor the rigs so that there is no damage, and the revenue the oil companies turn over to them helps pay for additional efforts they make to preserve wildlife. ...." ~ Rush Limbaugh
Excerpted from pages 152-168 - Chapter 15 entitled, "Sorry, But The Earth Is Not Fragile" in his 1992 book, "The Way Things Ought to Be"
the Tribeca Film Festival is a confab of weirdos and rabid "impeach Bush" types.
that basically settles that. Oh, they screened a nice pro abortion piece by the authoratative, trustworthy, and unbiased Planned Parenthood, too. go figure.
I would rather be arrogant and dismissive than wrong.
But who's he calling inept!
Related link:
Of Dodos and Filmmakers - A Reflection on Randy Olson's Flock of Dodos
Design Paradigm website ^ | April 2006 | Cornell IDEA club
Posted on 04/30/2006 3:25:40 PM EDT by Tirian
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1624226/posts
[snip]
As I noted in the posting, the article cites the movie's use of negative "red state" associations -- interesting.
1 posted on 04/30/2006 3:25:43 PM EDT by Tirian
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1624226/posts?page=1#1