An Even Greener New Deal: Save the Planet. Kill the People.

Perhaps Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) is more enlightened than we’ve given her credit for. 

I’ll be the first to admit that academic credentials aren’t a reliable indicator of intelligence and they certainly aren’t a prerequisite for common sense.  So maybe, as AOC suggests, we should rethink what we humans are entitled to in this world.  I’m up for the challenge.

Let’s start by stating the problem in its simplest form:   Humans are ruining the earth -  building things, destroying things, taking up space, using things, killing things, eating things, polluting things… constantly consuming and never enhancing.  So vulgar. So primitive.  Shame on us.  Bad humans!

But it didn’t used to be this way.  No, there was a time before industrialization when man didn’t rape and pillage the earth for her natural resources.  We killed the occasional woolly mammoth to feed the tribe (circle of life thing) but we didn’t bulldoze rainforests, destroy the atmosphere with our industrial toxins and overharvest our oceans to the brink of extinction. 

What went wrong?  Did we become more savage than our caveman ancestors?  Or have our offenses become so egregious that Mother Nature can no longer use her innate balancing mechanisms to compensate for our crimes? 

Regardless of the cause, the green movement tells us we have some repenting to do.  Our reparations include shunning fossil fuels, cattle production (they fart too much), mass transportation (or individual transportation for that matter), luxuries of air conditioning and heating, selfish procreation, etc.  (Self-flagellation adds a tragically masochistic legitimacy to many liberal campaigns today but I’ll leave those observations for a different discussion.)  Most of us aren’t so simplistic to suggest these sacrifices are necessary to deter nature’s fury, as a Fay Wray sacrifice might appease Kong and deter him from unleashing his fury on his otherwise disrespectful intruders.  

That would sound silly.

On the other hand, if we are ‘sinning’ against nature we should understand the principles we’re violating rather than just list individual transgressions.    Implicit to the guilt trip cruise the green new deal is pitching is an acknowledgement that we have been abusing nature, neglecting her, not listening to her, hurting her feelings, not letting her sit at the grown-up’s table.  Unless we change our ways we will repeat our mistakes.

OK. Let’s think about that.   How have we disrespected nature by rebuffing her corrective gestures?

Foundational to any climate change driven agenda is that that humanity has been driven to the brink of disaster by our insatiable appetite to ravage the earth and atmosphere of her generous natural resources.  But this wasn’t a problem 200 years ago when the population of the earth was about 1/6^th of what it is today.  Without as many people we wouldn’t need as many planes/trains/ships and automobiles or the fuel required to move them around, fewer factories making goods, less electricity/gas/coal/oil to them run, fewer food animals to eat, less real estate developments to develop and pollute...  By unanimous consent we would not have a climate crisis if we didn’t have so many pesky people!  Hmm.  Could this be what nature has been trying to tell us?

Maybe plagues were natures’ function for keeping human population growth in check.  The Black Death of the 14^th century was one big corrective event, wiping out 200M people with smallpox.  The Justinian plague of the first century claimed only 25M  but by some estimates wiped out half of the European population.   Businesstech magazine published an article in October of 2014 that estimated the number of deaths that can be attributed to various diseases. 

·        Cholera – 40M

·        Influenza – 50M

·        Smallpox – 500M

·        Tuberculosis – 1B

·        Malaria – 1B+

But we humans have selfishly developed vaccines for each of these, thereby denying nature her cleansing process to preserve balance and harmony in our world.  AIDS has only been around since the 80s but has already claimed 36M lives.  Yet we spend trillions worldwide trying to ‘fix’ it as if it’s a problem.  Are we telling nature to shut up while the grownups talk?  And what about artery bypasses, transplants, cancer therapy, cholesterol lowering medications, low sodium diets… aren’t we throwing off the balance of nature by living past our expiration dates? 

I just wish someone who lectures us so passionately about our sins toward mother earth would have the guts to follow their argument to its logical conclusion.  Here are a just a few policies we might see in campaign 2020:

• No more vaccinations.  Not fair to cheat nature, we all take the same chances. If nature selects you to survive, say thank you and life a productive life for future generations.  If not, feel good that you gave up your spot to someone who probably had more to contribute.

• No healthcare coverage after age 75 – you’ve used up all the resources you’re entitled to, don’t be globally selfish.   No surgeries, transplants, gene therapy or medications.  Take comfort knowing that the trillions you would have sucked up in health care costs will go to a better cause like building windmills and solar panels.

• Ban health clubs and fitness gyms.  Survival of the fittest is nature’s way, so if you need an artificial environment to stay healthy you’re cheating.  Keeping it fair is the only way the system works.

•  Revoke seat belt and motorcycle helmet laws.  Just good Darwinism. 

If you believe this stuff, say it out loud. But maybe record it first so you can hear what it sounds like. Could save yourself some embarrassment.