The Tyranny Of The Green

On the old 'John Larroquette show', the most memorable line was said by Liz Torres' character who complained about sorting out her recyclables only to have the garbage man dump them together in the truck. She then says, "I think we should let the planet die."

I now have a strong aversion to the word "green" and while I find that color pleasing the word itself on commercial products and coupled with environmental messages is just plain nauseating. My apologies to all those celebrating the upcoming St. Patrick's Day celebration but I refuse on principle to wear green on March 17th until the country comes to its senses.

Of course, not being Irish, I've only donned that color out of respect for the patron saint of Ireland and it was an unsaid requirement while trawling the Irish pubs of my youth. Despite the fact that man-made global warming has been debunked, the nation has become saddled with green conversions which cost us billions of dollars that end up lining the pockets of pseudo scientists. Al Gore who conned the nation with his "Inconvenient Truth" is now a billionaire thanks to the carbon credits scheme and still lives in an energy-sucking mansion while we're changing our light bulbs, detergent, automobiles and household items to save the planet. What a joke.

There is an excellent article in last April's Investor's Business Daily titled, "The $10 trillion Climate Fraud." That's right-trillion not billion. Guess who's paying for the hoax?

Now that the Middle East has exploded, Americans are fearful that the oil shortage will negatively affect their lives. Like Yogi Berra once said, "It's deja vue all over again."

The energy crisis of 1973 was the impetus for President Carter to propose creation of the Department of Energy and the enabling legislation was passed and signed into law on August 4, 1977. On its website, this department lists all its awards and achievements but the fact is that hundreds of billions later with a budget of $24.2 billion a year, 16,000 federal employees and approximately 10,000 contract employees, we are no closer to being independent of foreign oil. That's how a bureaucracy operates - it produces nothing except a mechanism to drain money from taxpayers. Now the banking, healthcare and auto industry have followed for the same "fix." Heaven help us! Besides awards are merely paybacks for political campaign contributions.

British Petroleum was awarded a safety award for its Deep Water Horizon rig a year before the Gulf Coast disaster. A Politico article by Erika Lovley cited: "During his time in the Senate and while running for president, Obama received a total of $77,051 from the oil giant and is the top recipient of BP PAC and individual money over the past 20 years, according to financial disclosure records." Will wonders never cease?

When the president orders offshore drilling, new refineries and nuclear power plants, and recognizes that the United States has more untapped oil reserves than the entire Middle East, then perhaps I'll pay attention to his energy crisis speeches. Right now he sounds just like Jimmy Carter and if the DOE had adhered to its original mission in 1977 by now OPEC would be an anachronism. Those Middle Eastern oil tyrants would be quaking in their boots if we crank up our own resources - then watch the gas prices sink. I guess we'll have to wait till next year to elect someone with the courage and vision to make that move. Our current administration is either dreadfully incompetent or complicit in this looming crisis.

So pardon me if I have no desire to save the planet. Hasn't anybody noticed how hostile this planet is to human life? Even oxygen has a debilitative effect on our fragile flesh - see what it does to a sliced apple after just one day and you can imagine what it's doing to our innards.

Until then, the green police move forward, crushing all dissent and skepticism about junk science and it can do this because it uses the politico-legal-media complex to inject fear into the populace. Read Michael Crichton's "State of Fear," in which one character says, "Politicians need fear to control the population. Lawyers need dangers to litigate and make money. The media need scare stories to capture an audience."

Read also Myrna Blyth's book, "Spin Sisters," which details how the women of the media sell fear, unhappiness and liberalism to the women of America.

But the late and great Michael Crichton was adamant about exposing the horrors of junk science. At lectures, Mr. Crichton tells his audience that, "Banning DDT is one of the most disgraceful episodes in the 20th Century history of America. We knew better and we did it anyway, and we let people around the world die and didn't give a damn."

Actor George Clooney was struck down with malaria this year when he was in the Sudan. His illness made the news but the millions of Africans who die from this disease never do. Gee, thank you Rachel Carson, goddess of the environmentalists, for saving those birds with your deadly book (The Silent Spring) that led to the ban of DDT and genocide in a continent.

So how can we avoid falling for junk science directives that make millions for the hoaxers and costs us dearly? There's a very useful group in Manhattan - The American Council on Health and Science - that debunks the nonsense and provides us with genuine facts. This organization has been in the business of separating fact from fiction when it comes to medicine and science since 1978. Its primary aim is to help American consumers distinguish significant health hazards from hypothetical or trivial health risks.

At a time when daily news reports include words such as potential pandemic, catastrophic, and carcinogenic, for the sake of sanity we need facts not unfounded panic.

The ACSH publishes enlightening books and pamphlets that are invaluable in sorting out hype and hysteria from bona fide scientific research. "Facts Versus Fears" is a review of the greatest unfounded health scares of all time. It gives pertinent details of the panic, the reaction, and then the actual research conclusions of 27 health scares, including Love Canal, Three Mile Island, saccharin, Red Dye #2, cyclamates, alar, cellular phones, vaccines and autism, and, of course, DDT. This booklet which is in its 4th edition may be ordered through the Web site, www.acsh.org, or by calling (212) 362-7044. Consider donating to this worthy cause.

If more Americans would check the facts before listening to the hucksters of the green, that color would be worth wearing again.

Alicia Colon resides in New York City and can be reached at aliciav.colon@gmail.com and at www.aliciacolon.com