This week on the 22nd we celebrate Earth Day.  If those on the hard Left are to believed, as a Conservative I’m supposed to be for destroying the environment in the name of profit.  I’m not supposed to give a damn about the birds and the trees, the flowers, and the streams.  Because I’m skeptical of the idea of man-made climate change I’m a Flat-earther.   This is yet another fallacy that the Left continues to propagate.  Just because they say something, does not make it true.  It does not make much sense either.  The more conservative parts of the country tend also to be some of the more rural, where the farms and ranches are, where Americans live closest to the land.  These areas have the greatest concentrations of hunters, farmers, and sportsmen in the country, in short, those with the most to lose by not respecting Mother Earth.

Liberals, on the other hand, tend to be concentrated on the coasts, in the big cities where the population has long since divorced itself from the land.  If they wanted to get away from all the pollution where would they go?  Probably somewhere inhabited by a large number of conservatives, most likely a “red” state.

Take for instance the notion that conservatives are for gutting environmental regulation.  I’ve listened to a lot of political speeches, and I don’t recall any Republican ever calling for this.  What I do hear is that our environmental regulations need to make sense, they need to balance the need for a clean environment with human needs.  I think a sustainable balance can be achieved.  For the most part, existing regulation does this.  Where it does not yet, I believe that we can have clean air and water without sacrificing economic development.

Recently possible GOP Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee gave what I thought was a great answer to the global warming, environmental question:

“I was in college when we were told in “Time” and “Newsweek” said on their covers that if we did not do something very bold and quickly, we would all freeze to death. And we were entering the ice age. Now we are entering an age in which we will all burn up and everybody near the coast will drown. There has always been climate change. But the earth is an amazing body. I believe the earth is the Lord’s creation, and I believe when he created it, He made it to be adaptable, and one of the reasons it stood through all the ends of history is because if there is a change, it is able to adapt. The more urgent thing I believe exists is that we always treat this earth like we would if we were Boy Scouts at the camp. Leave your campsite in as good or better shape than when you found it. But don’t be so silly as to not enjoy the campsite. Take good care of the earth. But for heaven sakes, enjoy that which has been given to us for our own pleasure, purposes, and prosperity. That ought to be the driving force of our policies there.”

I could not have said it better myself.