Monday, August 20, 2012

California Just Doesn't Get It

For those few of you have followed my blog over the past couple of years you are aware that California is a state which is not high on my list of places that I would want to live. There are some places that such as Yreka that catch my eye, but I temper my desires with the knowledge that it is still in the state of California and governed by the boneheads from San Francisco and the LA Basin.

Linked here is an excellent article by Victor Davis Hansen that pretty sums up how the boneheads in San Fran and LA have completely screwed up a state that at one time was the world’s fourth leading economy.

It also highlights, in my opinion, the hypocrisy of the leftist-led environmental movement. The left screamed that water rights to the Central Valley farmers needed to be cut drastically or eliminated completely over a tiny little three inch fish. I am not so heartless that preserving the environment is a worthwhile endeavor; I really do think there needs to be a balance. And we are smart enough to make it happen. But it seems to me that the leftist are never interested in working to achieve this balance; they are only interested in what they want, consequences to humans be danged.

But in this case the environmentalist based their entire case for saving the delta smelt on one utterly biased study. As pointed out in the article, even after the water cuts to farmers were made, the fish has not shown any signs of recovery. The article further points out that the environmentalist aren’t even able to concede that maybe it wasn’t the water diversion that is causing the problem, but rather the discharge of treated water may actually be the culprit.

Where the hypocrisy comes into the play is how when there is one study that supports their cause it is enough to bolster their argument and take it into a friendly court. But when the concern is something like oil exploration or mining, no amount of environmental studies is enough to allow a project to move forward. The environmentalist cry that more studies need to be done, especially when previous studies show that the mining or oil exploration will do little to no environmental damage.

It reminds me of the spotted owl issue that nearly shut down the lumber industry in the PACNW, and for which many local economies is still struggling to overcome, even 25 years later. The environmentalist latched on to a study that showed the spotted owl could only survive in old- or second growth timber. There were other studies out there that showed this might not actually be the case. But the environmentalist prevailed. Towns like Toledo, OR, Lincoln City, OR and Forks, WA have never completely recovered. Some towns have actually disappeared. Oh sure, many of these towns now support robust tourism (when the overall economy is humming). But these tourism related jobs can in no way replace the high-paying timber harvesting and processing jobs that were once abundant up and down the Oregon and Washington coast and Cascade mountain ranges.

As it turns out, the spotted owl was quite able to adapt to a wide variety of terrain and environmental conditions, which one study did point out. The spotted owl now flourishes, in old growth stands, second growth stands and stand of timber that are harvested like slow-growing corn. Even to this day, I’d be willing to bet you would be hard pressed to find an environmentalist who would be willing to concede that maybe they were wrong.

4 comments:

  1. I was living in central Washington state when the spotted owl issue was going on, and had friends living in far western Washington state who were grade school teachers. They told me of children coming to school who were living in tents year-round in the woods. Their parents had made their living in the timber industry, and thanks to the environmentalists (and the government), could no longer do the only work they knew. Since they were considered self-employed, they weren't eligible for unemployment. The kids were coming to school hungry, so my friends spent their own money to give them breakfast. It wasn't just a few kids, either. Regardless of what these families went through, though, thank goodness the spotted owls were saved!!!


    though!!!

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  2. For 10 years my main job was to keep these enviro-terrorists from closing a nearby military installation. The best article on their tactics was in the Nov 22, 1999 New Yorker magazine -- I think the title was NO MORE PEOPLE. I've watched some of the bigger groups like Center for Biological Diversity do this for almost 2 decades and they are methodical and uncompromising. They go directly to litigation because there is no compromise or negotiation for them.

    They don't give a rat's behind about the critters. They are using the Endangered Species Act (ESA) to re-engineer society, reduce jobs and herd people back into cities. They choose the TARGET economic contributor first, then get species listed using litigation against USFWS, sue for critical habitat where they enviro's want it (even if USFWS says it is not necessary) and then start filing suit after suit to stop the activity and jobs.

    They reduced the board foot lumber production in AZ and NM by 83% in less than 10 years by practicing this tactic with US Forest Service and the Mexican SPotted Owl, which I believe was their trial run to workout the bugs in their process. Great work for the owl habitat -- it all has burned up since then due to the restricitons on forestry practices for the owl. Funny part is that the US FWS often admits that they don't have enough info and can't afford research to find out what these species really need in their habitat. Sometimes the mandatory conservation measures hurt the species as much as they hurt the job market.

    Politicians won't touch the ESA for fear of being labelled a 'bunny-killer.' The law is so out of date that there is no real definition of a species -- it was written before DNA testing was established. We have an endangered species down here that is identical to a common species, except that it's mating call is different. I'm not kidding -- specially permitted scientist and technicians must play a tape of the mating call and see what answers to determine if the species is here -- once a year for about 3 weeks we can do the surveys...

    On top of all this, these legal terrorists will lie and use creative math to inflate impacts. They give large grants to researchers but only if they give the 'correct' interpretations. Sadly, they solicit funding from the very people whose lives they plan to wreck -- oh and they get $$ from big foundations. For example, I don't buy Patagonia brand outdoor gear because they fund these loonies. I could go on....

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  3. The delta smelt is nothing more than a bait fish. What really gets me about these Darwin worshiping envirowackos is their total hypocrisy on the things that their preacher Darwin taught. What about survival of the fittest? How are species going to "evolve" if they keep jumping in and screwing around with the natural order of things. If it were up to them, T-rex and apatosauri would still be roaming the earth.
    They love the circle of life until it gets in the way of their cause, then they are all about getting in the way to safe this or that.
    I do believe we need to be responsible and good stewards of this earth, that is what God wants us to do. However, we are never to put any plant or animal above humans as this is an abomination to God who created US in HIS image, not the animals or plants.
    Paintedmoose

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  4. I forgot, I seem to recall a story about some spotted owls nesting in a sign at K-mart store in some place like Redding, Ca or something. I used to like the bumper sticker saying to wipe your butt with this and it was a picture of a spotted owl.
    Paintedmoose

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