Many people equate things like discrimination, racism, environmentally unsound policy, with conservatives. The fact is, I know of at least one recent Senator who was a member of the KKK… a democrat. As I recall, President Lincoln was a…Republican….and if you look at the various issues concerning race, environmental policy, etc, you find that there are members of both parties supporting both sides of the various issues. The difference to me is that the media really highlights and pushes their agenda which is slanted towards the liberal view. This isn’t a big surprise, since that is the way the educational system is slanted, especially in the liberal arts. So naturally, conservatives are portrayed as old, angry, white, homophobic destroyers of the environment. And unfortunately, the vast majority of the media perpetuates this belief but it just isn’t true.

Anyhow, I am here to tell you, I care about the environment and want to do the right thing to conserve and steward our resources. In my own conservative way, I want to be green. I believe the difference between conservatives and liberals is that at the heart of the liberal agenda is the redistribution of wealth, which has not a lot to do with caring for the environment. Liberal policies like Cap and Trade serve only to reduce jobs and increase the prices of anything which is produced using energy.

Global Warming caused by man-made emissions? I have not yet seen convincing evidence. In fact, as a young kid, I remember Earth Day, 1972, and being told by my teachers that all our resources and 70 to 80% of all species living on earth would be dead within the next 10 to 15 years due to “Global Cooling”. I was worried and asked my dad about it. He said, “don’t pay any attention to those idiots”. I said, “but that is what my teacher says”, and he said, well, we will see… There was talk of polluting the poles to make them darker to absorb more heat and as I look back now at the predictions of those “experts” I tend to agree with my dad, idiots. Now I look at the same crowd squawking about “Global Warming” and wonder, what will they be saying in another 20 to 30 years. Now, does the Earth heat and cool on a cycle, yes, sure, but I am convinced that the temperature of the earth is determined by the sun and sun spot activity and not man made emissions.

That said, I believe it is our responsibility to take care of our planet and steward its resources wisely. Reducing waste, controlling emissions, conserving resources are all things we should be doing but not because we want to redistribute wealth but because we want to take care of the human beings that live on this planet. We should be taking steps to make the planet a better place for us and generations to follow. Where I have an issue with current environmental policy is where it actually puts trees, plants and birds, etc, higher in importance than human beings. Of course we want to preserve nature, keep water clean, breathe pure air, work to preserve plants and animals but I believe we can find ways to do it without destroying the economy, industries, or generally redistributing wealth.

New energy technology research is something we must continue to pursue and support but there does not seem to be any great break-through on the immediate horizon. For now, we have to make the best with what we have. We have clean burning coal, geothermal, and even nuclear power that we can use right now. Nuclear power is something people tend to cringe at, but it is safe, and advanced technology even allows the waste to be recycled and reused. If we took steps to upgrade our current systems with the technology that we now have, we would achieve good results.

A lot of people will tell you how “green” France is, well, it’s nuclear power that they rely on. I don’t see why we can’t either.

Engineering products to last longer or designing throw away products which decompose quickly will reduce our landfill needs. There are a lot of great ideas out there to harness in order to better steward our environment and enhance the economy.

Forests need to be cared for as well. We need to make destructive forest fires a thing of the past. Responsibly managing forests by building fire breaks and controlling the undergrowth is necessary in order to prevent the whole thing from burning out of control and threatening not only the indigenous wild life, but also the human beings that live nearby.

Conservation areas like Sauvie Island need to be encouraged. (A fine example of Conservatives at work by the way.) Hunters, sportsmen, fishermen and environmentalists can get along as we have seen there.

Bottom line. Being “green” is important for us and future generations. It shouldn’t be about the redistribution of wealth or placing plants and animals higher in priority than human beings. It is about responsibly stewarding the resources that we do have…to me, that is being green.