IN some if not many minds, the environmental movement “Save The Planet” started only in the last half of the 20th century. Concern over the welfare of the earth started long before that.
After becoming president in 1901, Teddy Roosevelt established 150 national forests, 51 federal bird reserves, four national game preserves, five national parks and 18 national monuments on nearly 100 million hectares of public land. As a result, wilderness areas were protected from exploitation and the national government took control through various government agencies.
In the 1970s great concerns were properly raised over air and water pollution and contrary to some thinking, these concerns have led to actions that have had major positive impacts where implemented.
But like many endeavors, even noble ones, it is big business.
Greenpeace is known for its direct actions and raising environmental issues to the public. Greenpeace activist leaders control what is estimated to be a $360 million global environmental empire. That is in light that many “environmentalists” blame “capitalistic greed” for the destruction of the environment.
Note that the whale was “saved” from extinction by the commercialization of both crude oil and electricity. Not from the goodness of the human heart and the warm fuzzy feelings we get contemplating the wondrous “Leviathans of the Deep.”
The Weyerhaeuser Company, founded in 1901, is an American timberland company that had an operating income in 2022 of $3.08 billion on revenues of $30 billion. Weyerhaeuser owns nearly 5 million hectares (50,000 square kilometers) of timberlands in the US and manages an additional 57,000 square kilometers of timberlands in Canada.
Each year, Weyerhaeuser cuts only about 2 percent of their forests, and plants about 150 million tree seedlings to replace the cut. No trees, no profits.
Basic environmental degradation such as removing forests and ocean/river pollution occur mainly in poor nations. While some environmentalists would prefer we all eat tree bark and insects, as usual, it is the poor who will suffer first and with the greatest harm.
However, if you want to save the planet, it is probably a good idea to make people rich.
The HumanProgress.org project published an article “True Environmentalists Should Prioritize Economic Prosperity.” “Some environmentalists have wondered about the feasibility of future ‘climate lockdowns to tackle a climate emergency.’” They appear to fail to account for the well-known correlation between economic prosperity and environmental quality. People can afford to care about the environment only when they have enough income to cover their basic needs. If their survival depends on killing an endangered animal or cutting down a rare tree, then so be it.”
During the Covid lockdowns, in Kenya, “The killing of giraffes skyrocketed. Given that a ton of giraffe meat is worth almost seven months of the average Kenyan salary, it is unsurprising that desperate locals have resorted to slaughtering the endangered animal. In Colombia, the poaching of endangered pumas and jaguars also rapidly increased. In India, tiger numbers were steady, as incomes have increased for the last two decades. But, since the lockdowns were imposed, various reports have highlighted an upsurge in tiger poaching and illegal hunting.”
“The environmental scientist Jesse H. Ausubel, for example, suggests that once a nation achieves a GDP per capita of $6,200 [in 2021 dollars], deforestation stops or afforestation occurs. In conclusion, poor people depend on Mother Nature to survive. Rich people, in contrast, can decouple themselves from the environment, protect wildlife for future generations, and return vast swathes of land to nature. Now, what environmentalist wouldn’t want that?”
Get rich and save the planet.