In the Bible, God commands man to be a good steward to the Earth. In the last few decades, wildlife management has transformed from hunters protecting Nature while maintaining the balance, to environmentalists demanding that man protect predators that compete for the food supply. While it was conservationist hunters that led the charge against wanton littering and destruction of nature, environmentalists have prophesized the coming Ice Age in the 70's and 80's, Global Warming in the 90's and 2000's, and now settled on "Climate Change" to hedge their bets in both directions.
Climate change is real. It runs in cycles with decade long, century long, millenium long and probably longer cycles. There have been multiple ice ages, including the mini-ice age of the Christian age, from which, with no factories, the Earth warmed. And with diminished cattle, it's not likely that the methane producing sheep and cows had much of an effect either. If anything, the diminished production of methane should have produced a colder, not warmer environment, when they froze or starved to death, along with their human ranchers. The Great Lakes were created by melting glaciers, as well as were numerous canyons around the world. The "ice bridge" across the Aleutians melted long before Al Gore claimed the swimming polar bears were drowning, or the first steam, much less the first gas combustion engine was invented.
In the name of saving fish, California has created a desert, preventing farmers from irrigating their farms. Environmentalists have worked diligently to repopulate the West with wolves, that feed on the same meat humans eat. Conversely, they have worked hard to stop hunting of the same prey by men. Meanwhile lions and wolves are preying not only on deer, but also California pets, and occasionally even human children and adults. Meanwhile the same prophets of doom have encouraged the move from rural "carbon neutral" residences, where food and future furniture are produced, to the heat producing concrete jungles where criminals prey on humans.
Sure, it was a sensational story about a "cute mammal" by a popular TV host, Jeff Corwin, but does the California need one more sea lion in a population of hundreds of thousands? And does America really have so much money that the best way we can spend it is to spend tens of thousands of dollars on a sea lion surgery?
The resurgence of the sea lion population has corresponded with a decrease in the fish available for fishermen to harvest and eat or sell to others to eat, because sea lions eat those same fish, or the fish the fish themselves eat to reach maturity. It's called the food chain and humans compete with other animals for food, including for vegetables, as well as fish, and sheep. Pressure on food is increased because environmentalists have also pushed for grains to be burnt up in transportation, rather than allow the continued use of the transformed, decomposed life of thousands or millions ago, we call "fossil fuels."
The prophets of doom claim that somehow the use of electricity produced by fossil fuels in utility plants is better than the use of fossil fuels in cars. The "Peak Oil" scare now appears to be a part of a plan to artificially increase the price of oil, in order to strangle the American economy, and it is working, still as gasoline is nearing prices that Representative Dingell as well as Al Gore campaigned to attain, through other artificial means.
The current Administration is telling us that we must spend Military Budgets on upwards of $25/gallon on bio-fuels, ie. food for human and deer and cattle, because fluctuations in oil prices may cause us to pay $3/gallon or $4/gallon instead of $2/gallon on fossil fuels that nothing can eat. It is telling us that we must stop using conventional electrical generators and purchase solar generators at a cost greater than all the energy it is expected to ever produce. It is telling us that we must buy these things now, increasing the costs of electricity to the military, because it is cutting the budget for weapons the military needs to keep the Nation safe. There is no financial logic to it, but they claim that by increasing the amount of fuel needed to power bases in Afghanistan, it will somehow reduce the risk to Troops that have to transport that fuel. And somehow that putting solar power on post housing at Parris Island, NC, is a key to that plan.
The same politicians have attempted to force us to convert to toilets that won't flush a turd and $10 light bulbs made in China that are considered toxic waste requiring special disposal.
Whether one believes in the Bible's guidance for Humans to be good stewards of the Earth, or the "altruistic" Save the Earth religion, the top of the food chain are humans, due to intellect, rather than brawn. Whether "some" wish to acknowledge it, or not, with 7 Billion people on this rock, we have to "manage" the environment, including the animals we share it with. Just like a farmer, we have to end life (weeds & insects) to allow other life (grain & vegetables) to grow. Just like a rancher, we must cull and protect the herd from other predators, so we can send members of that herd to the grocery store. Just like a forest manager, we must select the best trees to allow to grow to maturity and reproduce because an abundance of dead and decaying trees becomes fuel for the fire that burns the entire forest.
Being good stewards of nature means we must decide when a species needs greater hunting pressure and when a species has been over-hunted by other predators to the point that tens of thousands of dollars must be spent to save a single specimen, rather than allow it to re-enter the food chain as food. But to burn up food to produce energy, when traditional, non-food sources, such as oil and natural gas are still abundant is a course towards greater starvation of animals and humans, at all levels of the environment.
It is hardly surprising then, that coastal game fishing produced more when the food, i.e. fish waste such as guts & tails of other fish, were fed back into the ocean around cannery plants than now, when sea lions are sent back into those waters to eat what fish swim in those same waters. Nor is it surprising that the most healthy wild animal populations are in those states which manage the population with hunter friendly goals of healthy numbers, than in places were deer view humans as fellow prey.
Being good stewards includes cutting down trees, hunting wildlife, and planting grains. It means maintaining a balance of predator and prey, including those predators with whom we compete for food. But it doesn't mean that we spend tens of thousands of dollars to save a single specimen of an overpopulated species, just because its cute. Of course, it does appear that Al Gore has now made more jetting around the world in fossil fuel guzzling private jets and SUV's selling his prophecy of environmental doom than he made growing tobacco while campaigning for higher prices on cigarettes.
Stumble It!
