On Being "Green"

My late friend Henry Lamb opened my eyes to the fraud of UN Agenda 21 and the environmentalist proponents of sustainability’s “green” agenda.  All of a sudden, everything around me became “green” and “sustainable” – ads, buses, trucks, cars, homes, flyers, construction materials, electronic billboards, gadgets, toys, shopping bags, stores, banks, the military, and companies. Businesses are ecological now and everything they do is “sustainable” for the Earth whether that is true or not.

Nobody wants to live in a polluted area, no matter what political leanings he/she may have. Most Americans take good care of their environment and volunteer to clean pollution. We passed some good regulations years ago and we have cleaned up our act in many areas, giving new life to formerly abused habitats, reducing pollution drastically. However, all this faux “greening” around me is nauseating and so is the EPA.

I started watching with purpose the behavior of my liberal neighbors, who comprise more than ninety-five percent of the surrounding population, and made some interesting observations. I see the eco-nuts shopping in their environmentally friendly Priuses and Smartcars, wearing “Diversity is Great” t-shirts and exhibiting Coexist bumper stickers with religious symbols, carrying dirty re-usable shopping bags with a smug and superior smirk, mixing meats and veggies in the same unwashed bag.

I am not an engineer to calculate the footprint of producing a re-usable bag vs. a plastic bag and the ultimate damage to the environment. I do know that both are made from petroleum by-products. I also know that it is unhealthy and dangerous to re-use eco-friendly grocery bags that are not laundered frequently and thoroughly.

I get dirty looks when I take out grocery store plastic bags and reuse them for trash, dirty kitty litter, and recycle the unused bags. Judging by the scant content of recycling trash bins in the street, liberals do not recycle much, in spite of the loud and obnoxious “save the planet” rhetoric. Perhaps they cook everything from scratch, never use any packaging, and live like the Wild West pioneers.

There is bright red communism inside the “green” environmentalist power grab and control. The country is spending billions it does not have in order to appease the “green” egos and the money making political machine.

We must pay punishing carbon taxes but Al Gore and Hollywood can fly their jets shamelessly while lecturing us on cutting our carbon footprint, turning the thermostat down in winter, up in summer, buying $50 light bulbs or mercury laden compact fluorescent light bulbs, driving less, riding bikes, walking, or staying home for the sake of the planet.

We are spending money borrowed from China in order to advertise that we are “green” and to reinvent the wheel. Our President wasted billions of dollars on alternative and expensive green energy, and “saved or created” non-existent green jobs, causing generations of future Americans to be slaves to a national debt far exceeding Gross Domestic Product.

Rep. Darrell Issa asked a BLS representative recently what the definition of a “green job” was. I was curious myself and I got my answer from President Obama’s highly qualified professorial administration. Any job can be green if you tweak the definition - bus driver, floor sweeper, Salvation Army employee, antique dealer, college professor in an environmental studies department, repair shop mechanic or clerk, any worker in a place that recycles, oil lobbyist, and the list can be endless.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) defines green jobs as any products and services that “collect, reuse, remanufacture, recycle, or compost waste materials or waste water.” Rep. Darrell Issa said, “Any type of business that sells used goods is a green job, according to BLS.” By this definition, a flea market seller has a green job. (The Blaze, Becket Adams and Jason Howerton, June 8, 2012)

If I increase public awareness of environmental issues, I have a green job. If I drive a bus instead of a car, I have a green job. If I drive a two-seater tin can called the Smartcar, I am green. If I teach about environmental doom and gloom, I am a green employee. If I make a movie about nature, I am green. National Geographic is definitely a green company. If I work at the zoo and scoop poop, I have a green job. If I compost my garden, I am green.

It has been evident for almost four years now that the Labor Department has been manipulating employment data for political purposes. Rep. Issa, chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, indicated that the Obama administration has reclassified ordinary jobs as “green jobs” in order to prove that billions of taxpayer dollars have created green and eco-friendly jobs, and to increase President Obama’s re-election chances. The government should actually create jobs not attempt to snow job the taxpayers.