This posting uses an article from the Cosmopolitan magazine. Not a place where you would expect to find something about global warming. The title of the piece is “8 Signs You’re Not the Environmentalist You Think You Are” by Yvette d’Entremont. It is not too profound but it has a lot of honest values that most would be environmentalist never are exposed to. I have extracted just pieces of the author’s reasons why they have been misled. If you read all of her article, she makes some more good points
The following are the eight signs:
1. You buy only organic.
Organic is definitely not better for you, and it uses older, dirtier farming techniques that are, across the board, not as environmentally friendly. Contrary to rumors, organic farming uses pesticides, in some cases equally toxic pesticides that need to be applied more frequently.
2, You avoid GMOs like the plague that you’re sure they are.
But despite what you may have heard, GMOs have actually been a gift to the environment. GMOs, or genetically modified organisms, refer to crops that have had a gene inserted in the laboratory to give them a desired trait
I’ve asked third-generation farmers for their thoughts on GMOs, and they’ve said without fail that they apply less pesticides than ever before thanks to GMOs.
3 You’re pro-clean-coal.
In reality, clean coal just doesn’t exist. It’s an oxymoron like “a pleasant root canal” or “Donald Trump’s good hair day.” Clean coal is, at best, a marketing term. Yes, coal-burning plants are less dirty than they were years ago, as regulations are in place to restrict the amount of impurities such as nitrogen and sulfur that can be released from coal-burning plants. A more accurate term would be “cleaner coal,
You’re anti-nuclear energy.
4. If we’re going to have an honest conversation about climate change solutions, nuclear energy has to be an option. I’m not saying this because I’m against other sources of renewables. Rather, we’re a minimum of a few decades away from being able to meet all of our energy needs with solar due to myriad reasons (infrastructure scale-up, low solar energy capture rate, accounting for seasonal variability in solar energy generation just to name a few).
5 You support PETA and Greenpeace.
Because both of these organizations are pretty full of s**t.
PETA kills animals. No, really, they do. They present themselves as being pro-animal in every way, but if you turn an animal into the PETA run shelter, it stands about an 86 percent chance of being put to sleep. And though PETA has said they aren’t involved in the actions of radical organizations like the Animal Liberation Front, which has firebombed animal testing labs, their website still offers a statement of support, comparing ALF to the French Resistance and Underground Railroad: “Throughout history, some people have felt the need to break the law in order to fight injustice.” Meanwhile, the FBI calls ALF’s actions arson and domestic terrorism.
Greenpeace is no picnic either, protesting and spreading misinformation on Golden Rice. This glowing yellow rice is a genetically modified strain of rice that produces beta carotene, the molecule that your body converts to vitamin A. It can grow in any environment that naturally grows rice. Annually, half a million people worldwide go blind from vitamin A deficiency, and the company that spent over a decade researching and developing Golden Rice is planning to give it away for free as a humanitarian effort. Greenpeace’s logic? It’s genetically modified, so it’s bad.
6. You love your Prius.
Guess what? The Prius isn’t a miracle that’s going to wipe out a hundred years of damage from burning fossil fuels. Even with a plug-in vehicle like the new Prius Prime, you are still taking energy from a grid that runs on fossil fuels.
7. Your environmental heroes include Leonardo DiCaprio and Al Gore. Al Gore was famously charged with having a house that used 20 times the amount of electricity than the typical residence does. He claimed shortly thereafter to have bought carbon credits and divested to other forms of energy to have made up for it, but it didn’t go anywhere near close to bringing him to practicing what he preached.
What about Leonardo? He got mauled by a bear to win that Oscar, if that’s not environmentalism, what is? Well, all that jet-setting around the world doesn’t make up for owning a hybrid. Leo infamously spends a lot of time on the world’s largest yachts, and those aren’t fueled by solar cells or unicorn tears quite yet. He’s also traveled across an ocean and a continent by private jet to pick up an award for his environmentalism. Was the plane lifted by helium balloons or his ego
8. You love a good grass-fed steak.
The problem with animal agriculture is that, even if it’s grass-fed, it’s still a huge contributor to greenhouse gases. Agriculture contributes 24 percent of our greenhouse gases, and one of the more potent contributors is methane. Whether your cow lives on grass or grain before it hits your plate, it’s releasing methane. Some research is showing that grass-fed really isn’t better for the environment than the steak that costs way, way less.
Well that’s her pitch and she deserves a shout out.
Perhaps my next blog will be about the big time reasons for the bogus story the warmers are trying to sell to the public.
cbdakota
Climate Change Sanity 