MARK MACDONALD
BRITISH COLUMBIA – As rabid environmentalists froth at the mouth concerning the imminent apocalyptic destruction of the earth, their collective voices rise to a fever pitch.
If something isn’t done immediately, then the earth won’t be around in 20, 30, 50 or 100 years, they cry. They are, you see, saving the planet for their children and future generations, with religious zeal. There won’t be a world worth living on for their kids and grandkids.
One supposes they also realize that they won’t be here if that were to happen. Still, they’re going to “save the planet”, repeating lines conceived and uttered first by former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, never stopping to analyze or consider that his proclamations have failed to materialize – and we thank God for that.
They are so concerned about the physical environment, they say, and preach to everyone reducing consumption of anything and everything connected to the petroleum industry. Yet they never stop to look to look at how everything from drink containers to food packaging and chip bags are created from petrochemicals. Or that the lifestyles and health that we enjoy are due, to some degree, to the fact that we have foodstuffs and drinks protected from contamination because of plastic and petroleum derivatives.
It is equally baffling to consider that, as this generation is so concerned about the physical future of the earth and what we will pass on to our descendants, that they give nary a thought to the financial disaster that those to come will be saddled with.
Record debt and government spending completely out of proportion to the populace’ ability to pay. Surely people realize by now, as inflation shoots through the roof, that money is not free. Pandemic paycheques manufactured by the government weren’t grants – they are bills to be repaid, in many cases. Even if one didn’t partake of the largesse, everyone is paying for governmental decisions that printed money and shoveled it off the back of the truck to anyone who said they had a need during the Covid panic. When minimum wages were simultaneously hiked, surely, they realized that the overburdened private sector was not going to pay for it. Those that managed to survive are doing what they have always done – pass the price on to their customers. In the end, the buyers always pay.
Isn’t it striking that while the eco-religious are adamant about the weather in 20-30 years – and willfully overlook they can’t predict the weather in 2-3 weeks’ time – because of how it will affect future generations? And at the same time saddle them with unprecedented debt that will likely n ever allow them to enjoy the lifestyle they’ve grown up with?
It’s incredibly short-sighted and selfish.
If there’s one way to keep third world economies in third world economies, it is to push affordable energy out of their reach, so they’ll never be able to climb out of poverty by producing goods that the rest of the world will buy and help them build wealth.
As the attack on energy persists, it is also becoming clear to many that while those with money can afford to pay more, the poor cannot. It’s become the ideology of the rich and famous – to fly around the globe in fuel-guzzling jets while musing about green energy and lecturing the lower classes to consume less. They probably will, because they can’t afford the cost of new alternative-energy – only those that have, can.
Even the Canadian government’s demonization of petrol fuels, justifying their punitive taxation and – let’s face it – revenue generation thereby, punishes those that have not. The wealthy can afford to pay it, and the middle class will find a way to pay it because they have to. But those on the lower end of the income scale can’t. The government attempts to alleviate their pain by offering various rebates and government signed cheques, placebos of sorts to ensure the lower income masses don’t rise up and revolt.
So as governments continue down this path on a global scale, it ensures that economically weak countries will remain so and perhaps even regress further, due to their lack of means to pay for ever increasing energy. Domestically, it ensures that those who don’t have will find it even more difficult to become a “have”, which means their families will be denied opportunities like meaningful post-secondary education to break cyclical familial poverty. Without proper education, their children – our future – will be doomed to government dependency. They’ll never be able to get ahead.
Not to mention that 70 percent of marriage problems are economic, so a lack of money in the home results in relationship problems as the staples of life are harder to obtain and vacations and pressure relievers become distant dreams. Marriage breakups increase, which means it’s even harder for children from single family homes to get the guidance, provision and protection they need to move onwards and upwards.
All of these are byproducts of energy poverty. And the ironic thing about this – as industry in China and Russia undo much of the pollution reduction in other nations – if North American politicians would allow our resources to be extracted in our ethical way, we would have more than enough revenue in government coffers to pay for all the things we need now – including health care – and in the future.
So forgive those who haven’t jumped on the eco-bandwagon yet, and likely never will. Maybe they just smell the political machinations behind all of it and don’t like they see. Or they realize that leaving an economic future for the next generations is just as important as the environment.
Mark MacDonald is President of Communication Ink Media & Public Relations Ltd. and Author of the book “It Worked For Them, It Will Work For Me: The 8 Secrets of Small Business I Learned From Successful Friends”, which can be obtained by reaching him through: mark@communicationink.ca
