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Green is Greed

October 26th, 2009

Save the earth.  Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.  Reduce your carbon “footprint”.  Buy a hybrid vehicle, or better yet an electric vehicle.  Use recycled plastic bags at the supermarket.  Better yet, use cloth bags.  All of this makes perfect sense.  It’s common sense.  It’s all good… Or is it?

This whole recycle thing started about 20 years ago or so.  I remember as a teenager that the town required us to separate our garbage.  We had a bin for each color of glass – brown, green and clear.  I had to bundle newspapers – we were not allowed to place them in a paper bag.  I also had to bundle cardboard.  I don’t think we were recycling plastic in the 80′s, but it came later in the early 90′s.  And then, there were certain types of plastic that we couldn’t recycle.  What a pain.  Throwing away garbage was like sorting mail at the post office.  But we all need to do our part to save the planet.

The US Government makes laws to reduce the amount of carbon emissions from automobiles.  This is great, the air really is so much cleaner, at least it seems so.  And we are encouraged to buy energy-efficient appliances to save electricity, which in return reduces the amount of carbon released into the atmosphere.  Replace your inefficient incandescent light bulbs with ultra-efficient fluorescent light bulbs.  At the same time, we will save money on electricity.

In my opinion, we are being deceived.  I have a couple of key points that need to be pointed out.  Before you scream that it’s all BS, just sit back and think about it for a bit.  It took me years to figure out what’s going on, and I have gone back and forth on the issue, but I think I finally get it.

1. We are saving the environment

This is the emotional propaganda that is used to sell this to you.  Today, I went to Lowe’s to replace one of my ultra-efficient fluorescent light bulbs (yes, most of my house has these).  First off, the replacement bulb for the bathroom was $5!  But I’m doing my part to save the earth.  Umm, until I look on the light bulb and it states CONTAINS MERCURY.  Hmmm, now that doesn’t sound so eco-cool, does it?  Mercury is so incredibly toxic, why would we now start putting this into lightbulbs?  We took it out of thermometers because it was so toxic.  All of these “green” bulbs are going to wind up in a landfill, and will ultimately contribute to poisoned groundwater. And since the US Congress has outlawed incandescent bulbs as of 2014, you will have no choice but to use these mercury-laced bulbs.

A similar thing can be said for batteries for electric cars, but I would expect there would be a lot more control over this.  I do not think all of those electric batteries will wind up in a junk yard.  Time will tell how that plays out.  I see a lot of toxic batteries in our future, and I cannot see how this can be managed on a grand scale.  The verdict is still out on that.

We are buying energy-efficient Energy Star rated appliances!  We are saving on our electric bill and reducing our carbon footprint!  WOW!  Wait a second…  Read my next point.

2. We are saving money on our electric bill

I only wish this was true.  It may be true in the short-term, but that’s not the electric company’s goal.  Why would they want us to pay them less?  This makes no sense whatsoever.  The truth is that in this digital age, the electric infrastructure is being taxed like never before.  The need for electricity is great, so the utilities need us to reduce our usage while they upgrade the power grid.  Nuclear energy could easily solve this problem, but that’s not going to happen anytime soon.

Electricity service is being deregulated in PA in early 2010.  And guess what?  Our rates are increasing by 34%!  Deregulation is happening in states across the country.  Now that we are all brainwashed into reducing our carbon footprint and saving energy and lowering our bills, they go ahead and raise our bill by one-third!

3. We are reducing our carbon footprint

It’s baaaaad for the environment.  It causes cancer.  In fact, the government wants to tax you if you use too much of it.  The government likes to tax things that they know people are going to use (even though they shouldn’t).  Think of alcohol and tobacco.  They do not outlaw it, they over-tax it.  You can expect taxes to increase on petroleum products.  Count on it.  But what scares me is a carbon tax.  They want to tax you if you buy something that has a high “carbon footprint”.  Do you understand what this means?  If you buy a TV that does not meet certain environmental “standards”, they will tax you.  They are not going to force these TVs not to be made, that would be too easy.  They want your tax money.

4. And the TRUTH of the reality is…

Green has nothing to do with saving the earth.  The entire movement, while possibly founded by the hippies and tree-huggers, has been hijacked by the government and has ulterior motives.  While not necessarily bad, Green is greed.  I just wish they would tell us the truth.  Here are the reasons that we are hell-bent on green:

a) GREEN equals something for nothing – “Give” your recyclables to your town who can sell the resources in bulk to suppliers and make money.  Sounds fine, but most towns have ordinances that require you to do so.  Personally, I should be free to sell my recyclables to the highest bidder.  The only recyclable that really has any true value is aluminum due to the market value of the metal itself.  Furthermore, the recycle process actually is a money-loser, while at the same time creating a huge “carbon footprint” to be green and recycle.  And more than half of recycled materials wind up in a landfill anyway.  The entire recycle process is a contradiction of the green initiative itself.

Remember paper bags at the grocery store?  Those were green.   There was no harm to the environment.  Paper is a renewable resource.  You can plant more trees.  We were forced to use plastic bags because it was more eco-friendly.  Huh?  Plastic bags made from oil that wind up in our landfills?  And what about all of those metal cans we used to have?  Remember Hawaiian Punch and the like?  Now it’s all plastic.  Plastic from oil.  Why?  It is cheaper.  Now they sell cloth bags at the supermarket, because we are all realizing that the switch to plastic was never really a good idea to start with.

It all comes down to money.  Plastic is cheaper than paper or metal.  That’s the truth.  And the only way not to destroy the environment when using these materials is to recycle.  We were fine the way it was before.  It comes down to corporate profit.  They just play on the emotions of people.  It’s all a scam.

b) GREEN equals the switch to more ELECTRIC power. This is the same electric power that is now being deregulated and increasing in cost.  This is all being done for a reason, and it has nothing to do with reducing our carbon footprint.  Not a thing.  So what could it be?  I know what you are thinking.  This is happening all over the world, not just in the USA.  And you are correct.  The reason is so obvious and simple.  Too simple.  But the connection between green and the truth is never communicated.  It all comes down to the goal of energy independence from the middle east, which in turn will take the money out of their hands and place it into the world’s leading governments.  Electricity is the new oil.

In order to make electricity the new oil, you must make people not want to use oil.  Make them feel guilty for destroying the environment.  But tax the hell out of them in the process.  What you are now seeing is a carefully planned strategy to shift the power from the middle east to the world’s leading nations.

Now you can speculate on your own, but one thing is for sure.  It all comes down to money and power.  Let me say it again: money and power.  Your government doesn’t care about the manatee or the fish or the trees or the carbon in the air.  They care about the money and power (and tax dollars).

I am for saving the manatee and fish.  (Sorry, trees are a renewable resource that should be used.) But I happen to be a fan of common sense and truth at the same time.

While all of this green seems great, it’s a huge lie in the process.  They are generating all kinds of harmful waste and toxic chemicals and materials in the ongoing quest to go green.  The idea of green sounds nice, but so do unicorns and rainbows.  I’m not sure true green is possible.

I’m all for saving the earth and stuff, but I don’t like deception.