Planet Earth cannot afford any more help from these so-called environmentalists

In the Clark Fork Valley Press on Feb. 20, there was a column written by Morlene Plouzek who is president of CAN in Thompson Falls. In this column, she did battle with some imaginary opponent called an anti-environmentalist. She further states that anti-environmentalists have not come up with any solutions.

I take issue with this type of a statement. It is inflammatory, accusatorial, and totally false. 

For one thing, I have been an environmentalist since 1945, when my government teacher began indoctrinating me to help save our planet from garbage being strewn by thoughtless citizens, to trees being unnecessarily clear cut and other thought provoking ideas that would lead a child in the right direction of being told what to think, and not how to think.

I did, however, fully grasp the idea of picking up gum wrappers and other types of spoilage which would harm the beauty of our planet, while some of my fellow students began to think like the professional “greenies” of today.

They follow the leader, but they have few original ideas of what should really be done to save the planet. They have their heroes, such as Al Gore, who has led them down the yellow brick road with such wild ideas of “the sky is falling,” when he lies about the real cause and effect of global warming.

As we are taught how to use our intelligence, we will learn better how to combat some of the problems that face Planet Earth, but the key here is learning how to use intelligence, rather than following the lead sheep over the cliff.

Most of the so-called self proclaimed environmentalists who I have met today are very quick to follow the leader without using their God-given intelligence. Half truths about global warming have been turned into a rush to oblivion and a cost of trillions of unnecessarily spent funds to combat a non-existent enemy. 

The science is not in. It has not been proven, and it can not be proven that CO2 emissions are causing global warming.

There was a sighting of a polar bear stranded on a floating piece of ice in the wrong time of the season, and the word was quickly spread among the un-intelligent that the polar bear will be extinct in a few short years because of CO2 emissions. That is a proven lie. The fact is that the polar bear population is increasing.

The Polar Ice Cap receded temporarily, and it was reported that the oceans will rise by many feet to flood the world because of CO2 emissions. That is a proven lie. The fact is that the ice build-up is increasing as we speak. 

Global warming is a natural thing that happens. It comes and it goes, as it has for tens of thousands of years. That science is in and it is proven.

I can go on and on about the absurdity of the statements put out by Al Gore and his close financial investors, who are reaping a fortune on the scare tactics that CO2 emissions are causing global warming, but I want to address something else that this author had to say in her column.

She condemned the Troy Mine, the Libby Asbestos Mine, the pollution cleanup at Mill Town and other mining costs to the environment.

My grandfather worked the mines in Butte. He worked the mines in Black Diamond, Wash.

He worked as a boiler maker and a pipe fitter during the war on ships that had asbestos dust as part of their environment.

He did not like to work under these conditions, but it was a job that supported his family at the time, and he was darned happy for the opportunity to have a job.

The present day miners who have jobs at the Troy Mine probably feel the same way.

They have their choice not to work under those conditions, but they choose to earn very good wages that happens to supply necessary minerals for the betterment of the planet.

While it is true that some industries are more hazardous than other, it does not mean that the industry needs to be eliminated. It means that owners in partnership with communities continue to make work places less hazardous for the employees and less hazardous for the community. 

And, they have been doing just this sort of thing in spite of the “greenies” sabotage and their desire for complete elimination of jobs and industry that prop up a “free” nation of “free” people.

Ms. Plouzek would be better off helping honest employers to make their working conditions safer. Instead, she wants to eliminate the industry and punish the men and women who “choose” to earn excellent wages to support their families and in the process, supply necessary items for humanity and Planet Earth.

This author and other so-called professional “greenies” who call themselves environmentalists would be better off talking to true environmentalists, like me. If you don't trust me, give Roger Lund a call. He is one of the most intelligent environmentalists (a retired forester) that I have ever met.

He can tell you a thing or two about the damage that so-called self proclaimed environmentalists have done to the cause of true environmentalism.

Most of this damage has cost this nation millions of acres of lumber burned in forest fires, have eliminated hundreds of thousands of jobs in the lumber industry, the mining industry, and in the perfection of better fuel usages, and has prevented the abstraction of oil from places where we can get it right here in the United States.

This adds up to trillions of dollars lost to the economy of this nation.

Like I say, Planet Earth can no longer afford the intervention of professionally paid self-proclaimed environmentalists.

I also want to add this. It was not I who caused these people to earn their title of shame. 

Les Wood

Plains