NEWSLETTERS
SUBSCRIBE
Colorado Politics

Print Edition

Log in
My Account
Log in
Subscribe
My Account
Log in

The Colorado Springs Gazette: Environmentalists embarrass themselves at Denver protest

By 10/15/2019 | updated 6 years ago

Teen global warming celebrity Greta Thunberg seemed rational and mature during the Climate Strike in Denver on Friday. That’s because the rest of the scene was an ice-age-to-the-left of absurd.

Children have good reason to defend their futures and every right to protest. Adults should show them responsible ways to discuss the important topic of climate change, how humans can adjust and what humanity can do to improve the environment.

The Denver protest achieved none of this, doing more harm than good for the cause.

Random teenagers held signs suggesting strangers have sex with them instead of F-bombing Mother Earth. A toddler’s sign said, “let’s eat baby boomers.” Another placard said, “EAT the RICH SAVE the PLANET,” as a speaker on stage asked the crowd to hold hands and celebrate unity.

Organizers paraded young kids on stage to lecture about environmentalism with words they could barely pronounce. Adult speakers introduced themselves with genetic credentials that attested to minority status. Climate change, they insisted, takes a disproportional toll on Indians and other minorities.

At least one speaker said climate change harms members of the LGBTQ community more than others.

That message should offend LGBTQ individuals and those who love them. LGBTQ does not mean weak. Rising heat and sea levels don’t much care about sexual orientation. As such, they probably affect LGBTQ individuals no differently than anyone else.

From start to finish, this was an embarrassing carnival of self-pity, blandishment of grievance and evangelical catastrophizing about an imagined any-day-now Armageddon that targets minorities first. Children were used as props for it all.

We heard rumors Thunberg would win the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday. Instead, it went to Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. A champion of capitalism, Ahmed joined an armed uprising as a young man against his country’s Dergue Socialist regime. The Nobel committee chose him for promoting peace between Ethiopia and neighboring Eritrea.

Though Thunberg and her followers sincerely hope to improve life for all of humanity, their agenda would not move the world toward peace. If society eliminates fossil fuel production and consumption within decades, people will suffer and die.

Contemporary life without fossil fuels spells poverty. It means insufficient agriculture to continue the world’s steep reduction in hunger and starvation. People in underdeveloped countries would lose hope for relatively clean energy to heat homes and workplaces.

Millions of more humans would go without shoes and clothing and the building materials essential for basic shelter.

The war on fossil fuels means a massive new demand for batteries, which causes a substantial escalation of child slaves working in foreign mines without protections of the EPA and OSHA.

Domestically, Indian reservations hold about 35% of America’s fossil fuel resources, reports the Indigenous Environmental Network. Department of the Interior maps show nearly 54 billion tons of coal, 38 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 5.4 billion barrels of crude beneath Native American land. It amounts to more than $1.5 trillion in untapped wealth, based on information from the Council of Energy Resource Tribe

The U.S. Department of the Interior’s Indian Affairs division works as a liaison between tribes and industry to support future fossil fuel production. The right legal social justice support could help Indians prosper from energy below their lands.

Outside the reservation, modern fracking means six-figure hard-hat salaries. To eliminate fracking would kill thousands of high-paying jobs in Colorado alone.

Traditional fuels do not doom life on Earth, no matter how much propaganda activists channel through innocent kids. Fossil fuels – like the climate – do not hate Indians, gays or other minorities. They heat homes, help to grow food and end poverty without prejudice. That’s no good reason to skip school and strike out against them.

Tags
Avatar photo
The Gazette editorial board

Reporter

PREV

PREVIOUS

The Pueblo Chieftain: Vote ‘yes’ on ballot issues 4A, 4B

As the old joke goes: “Everybody complains about the weather, but no one ever does anything about it.” Well, quite a few people complain about Pueblo schools, too. But there is something they can do about it. Among the issues on the November ballot is 4A, which would give Pueblo School District 60 authority to […]

NEXT

NEXT UP

The Pueblo Chieftain: Our picks for council races

We believe that the Pueblo City Council, like many organizations, can benefit from a mixture of youth and experience. That is why we are recommending one newcomer and two experienced hands for the three open seats on the council. First, there’s the at-large seat, which is chosen by voters citywide. For this position, we favor Lindsay […]
Welcome Back.

Streak: 9 days i

Stories you've missed since your last login:

Stories you've saved for later:

Recommended stories based on your interests:

Edit my interests