Environmentalists Use Environmental Justice to Kill Millions Per Year
Environmentalists are enlisting minority groups such as African-Americans and Latinos to help them stop use of fossil fuels in the name of ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE. They claim minorities suffer more from health effects due to fossil fuel use because they live closer to power plants. Thus we need to replace fossil fuel power plants with renewable energy sources of solar and wind. No thought is given to higher priced electricity that results from these energy sources and how this impacts minority communities.
Based on faulty science, the environmental movement has called for banning use of the following products:
1. DDT is banned for alleged weakening of bird eggshells.
2. Genetic modified foods, such as corn and rice, must be banned for alleged health effects.
3. Nuclear power should be banned because it is unsafe and spreads nuclear weapons proliferation.
5. Fossil fuel use should be banned because of health effects and catastrophic global warming caused by carbon dioxide from combustion.
The banning of DDT in Africa has allowed the spread of malaria throughout Africa with hundreds of millions sickened and annual deaths estimated at over 600,000. There is no evidence genetic modified foods produce adverse health effects and there loss has led to food shortages and adverse health effects in Asia and Africa. Nuclear power is demonstrated as one of the safest methods of electric power generation and its use extends the life of fossil fuels. Chlorine is used to treat drinking water and a ban would put the earth in peril; millions would die annually. The world's vast supply of coal, oil, and natural gas allow cheap electricity for the whole planet with its life-saving benefits.
Problems with Africa
A June 29, 2014, article in Forbes "Electrify African and Save Hundreds of Millions of Lives" by Jude Clemente quantifies the tragedies of life living in Sub-Sahara Africa because of electricity shortages. One factor for shortages is the environmental movement's demands electricity generation fossil-fuel free. The article is so compelling it is given in entirety at the end of this note. Particular interest is the table Africa's Forgotten Calamity: Electricity Deprivationshows speech's by politicians who preach problems of global warming when talking about Africa and neglect to mention electricity shortages. These comments are made in the name of environmental justice.
Urbanizing the World
In a later Forbes July 22, 2014 article, "Urbanization: Reducing Poverty and Helping the Environment", Jude Clemente showed how urbanization reduced poverty and helped improve the environment. The planet went from 29 % living in cities in 1950, to 39 % in 1980, to 53% now, and to an estimated 70 % of a 9.6 billion population by 2050. Urbanization makes it easier to supply energy to the population, reduces pollution because it is easier to control, and leaves more land as free space. He wrote, “In particular, coal-based China and India are in the midst of the largest urbanizations in world history, and it will continue for decades.”
There is a direct correlation between poverty level and annual electricity use in kilowatt-hours (kw-hr) per year per capita. These extremes range from 13,500 kw-hr per capita in the United States to 75 kw-hr per capita in Ethiopia where 75% of the population lacks power. Fossil fuels are concentrated energy forms and require less land areas than renewable sources such a solar, wind, biomass, and biofuels. Thus fossil fuels are necessary to uplift the world from poverty. The environmental movement’s attempts to ban fossil fuels are a killing form of environmental justice.
EPA Jumps Into the Fight
A July 24 EPA News Release:
EPA Issues Policy Supporting Tribal and Indigenous Communities
WASHINGTON – Today, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Gina McCarthy signed theEPA Policy on Environmental Justice for Working with Federally Recognized Tribes and Indigenous Peoples, reinforcing the agency’s commitment to work with tribes on a government-to-government basis when issues of environmental justice arise.
“All tribal and indigenous communities deserve environmental and public health protection. Through this agreement, we are reinforcing our commitment to tribal communities, especially in addressing issues of Environmental Justice,” said Administrator McCarthy. “We know that tribes are uniquely impacted by a changing climate, which highlights the importance of this agreement and other agency actions, including funding research through the STAR Tribal health grants.”
More information on:
Whether EPA’s plans for environmental justice for Tribal and Indigenous Communities improves or makes lives more miserable requires more study.
It is quite apparent fossil fuels are necessary to combat poverty in the world and their use will not be banned on a global basis. Attempts to ban fossil fuel use in the United States are futile and not worth wasting time for discussion. Some Christian organizations have jumped onto the ban of fossil fuels in the name of environmental justice. It is hard to reconcile this type of reasoning when a basic principle of Christianity is to help the less fortunate.