Posted on 05/07/2009 5:25:02 AM PDT by reaganaut1
Today’s Americans inherited the wealthiest nation in history — but only because earlier generations learned how to feed, fuel, finance, and defend themselves in ways unrivaled elsewhere.
Lately we have forgotten that and instead seem to expect others to do for us what we used to do ourselves.
Take our plentiful, cheap, and safe food supply. Long ago, Americans struggled to create farmland out of swamps, forests, and deserts, and built dams and canals for irrigation to make possible the world’s most diverse and inexpensive agriculture.
Now in California — the nation’s richest farm state — the population is skyrocketing toward 40 million. Yet hundreds of thousands of acres of farmland this year are going out of production, and with them leave thousands of jobs.
Why? In times of chronic water shortages, environmentalists have sued to stop irrigation deliveries in order to save threatened two-inch-long delta fish that need infusions of fresh water diverted from agricultural use. And, for both environmental and financial reasons, we long ago stopped building canals and dams in the Sierra Nevada Mountains to find sources of replacement irrigation water.
So farmers are asked to produce more food for more people in a desert climate with less water — while environmentalists dream of returning to a pristine, 19th-century, sparsely populated California of smelt and salmon in their inland rivers. But the end result will be more imported food from less environmentally sound farms abroad.
Consider energy consumption and supply as well. The United States still has plenty of untapped natural gas and oil — both offshore and in Alaska. We have nearly unlimited coal supplies and oil shale, in addition to the ability to build dozens of new nuclear plants.
(Excerpt) Read more at article.nationalreview.com ...
Sexiest headline of the day............so far.................
Bravo, Bravissimo!! We need the clapping audience photo here!!
Great article.
His comments indicate a background of immorality building in the country, which is also reflected in the current gay marriage and abortion fiascos.
Love me some VDH. People need to read the Great Inflation by Samuleson
“while environmentalists dream of returning to a pristine, 19th-century, sparsely populated California of smelt and salmon in their inland rivers.”
The key word is sparsely populated.
The left have ALWAYS used starvation to achieve depopulation.
They are using the ENVIRONMENT as an excuse with half the country unquestionably believing them.
I frequently tell my students that if we expect the government to right every wrong and wipe every tear soon the government will be dictating to us the "right" way to wipe our rears.
bump
We are beyond stupid and to add insult to injury, our country is being run by “Larry, Moe & Curley!”
Semper Fi,
Kelly
“The left have ALWAYS used starvation to achieve depopulation”
They also use abortion, which is primarily practiced by the poor of the world.
I get so tired of this crap. The Roosevelt generation is as guilty as any in this long slow march into socialism. They built the public institutions that have slowly enslaved us. They didn't dump socialized risk management, socialized retirement, or socialized education. They bought into the Great Society, which destroyed the family structure of an entire demographic, and put it on a credit card. They tolerated easy divorce, leftist professors, and Kinsey's myth, just like our generation does. They hallowed CCC and WPA programs. They allowed the institution of public employee unions. They did nothing about growing Federal power over land use, and just lapped up socialized land entertainment developments instead.
I really feel for our children. Their prospects for freedom and prosperity are disappearing before their eyes.
And that’s exactly how they’re getting it. I believe the term you’re looking for is “getting spitroasted”.
NRO subtitle: The glamorous ends get the attention, never the mundane means of how to obtain them
Victor Davis Hanson Ping !
Let me know if you want in or out.
Links: FR Index of his articles: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=victordavishanson
His website: http://victorhanson.com/
NRO archive: http://www.nationalreview.com/hanson/hanson-archive.asp
Pajamasmedia: http://victordavishanson.pajamasmedia.com/
Nothing a little tax won't cure, especially if it's an international one whose revenues are distributed overseas to line the pockets of the dictators in charge of those countries. Watch it happen.
George Carlin summed it up perfectly:
We’re so self-important. So self-important. Everybody’s going to save something now. “Save the trees, save the bees, save the whales, save those snails.” And the greatest arrogance of all: save the planet. What? Are these people kidding me? Save the planet, we don’t even know how to take care of ourselves yet. We haven’t learned how to care for one another, we’re gonna save the planet?
I’m getting tired of that ——. Tired of that ——. I’m tired of Earth Day, I’m tired of these self-righteous environmentalists, these white, bourgeois liberals who think the only thing wrong with this country is there aren’t enough bicycle paths. People trying to make the world save for their Volvos. Besides, environmentalists don’t give a —— about the planet. They don’t care about the planet. Not in the abstract they don’t. Not in the abstract they don’t. You know what they’re interested in? A clean place to live. Their own habitat. They’re worried that some day in the future, they might be personally inconvenienced.
The ironies are many. Historically the anit-immigration movement has been dominated by labor unions and the Malthusian anti-capitalist left.
Immigration, the free movement of people to vote with their feet has always been a cornerstone of capitalism and freedom. Yet, in the past couple years conservatives who claim to be pro-life have taken to trashing this aspect of the free market. They have adopted the illogical rhetoric of the labor unions and Malthusian central planners. They have advocted a big government solution to immigration.
That isn’t the only irony.
Of course, fresh potable water is a scarce resource, except if you live near the Great Lakes. Reasonable solutions to the water crisis exist.
It would be quite cost effective to pump sea water into the desert interior of CA, AZ, NM, and MEXICO. Basins could be built to contain the water in man-made lakes. Half the water would evaporate into the air creating fresh water rainfall downwind for more usable land downwind.
Nighttime and no wind? There is no requirement that this water supply operate 24/7/365. Do it when it is cost effective.
Brush fires in the area. The option exists to use that water to fight fires. Relatively small retainer tanks or ponds could be built along the way. It wouldn’t have to be used to fight fires. But the option would be there:
Put sea water on the fire but maybe make those lush lawns sick or save those 11 houses from the fire?
The problem with the current environmental movement is the following: too many environmentalists in the city who never grew up on farms or ranches.
I live in Denver and they complain about global warming and plant life dying and saving old growth forests in the mountains, but they burn anyways. They look around the city and they see nothing but buildings while ignoring the large about of trees that were planted in the last 100 years in the Denver metro area, all they see are the roads and the buildings and not the vast amount of trees that have been planted in the Denver area. Show them a picture of the place 100 years ago and they would have thought you were showing them a picture of desert, LOL.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.