*Atlas Ideas: Against Earth Day * *Why on Earth. . . Are We So Worried about the Planet?<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1102557226931&s=14360&e=0016pryrcr0X4FpzEcqkM_cMyn4quFlpSo_JqxvIvgkq5AZnpTy8uA15sTE6IICoeY0oA_OwVp__jA9eHFdv3r71mSl1cGB5iJtcjRljAzixEGvonwWTigwwV5vUIU3r0cPkMINfcQ9f9tYmBTv1A6IIS_gPv5JmlUU> * by Bradley Doucet
Posted April 18, 2009 - Spring has sprung at last here in Montreal. Leaves are sprouting on the trees, birds are chirping outside my window, and young women are baring their legs prematurely. The arrival of spring also means that in a few days time, millions of people throughout the world will celebrate another Earth Day to express their worries about the state of the planet. Though global temperatures have stagnated and even fallen somewhat in recent years, concern about global warming is still high on environmentalists' agendas. The frigid winter we just experienced, they say, is due to La Niña and solar cycles. Then again, the disconnect between continually rising levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and recent global cooling could also reflect our imperfect understanding of feedback mechanisms in the climate system. Uncertainties about the complex role of clouds, especially, translate into substantial uncertainties in scientists' computer models. According to self-described heretics like physicist Freeman Dyson, those models "do not begin to describe the real world that we live in." And yet, despite all the missing pieces of the puzzle, we continue to worry. Rich Enough To Care One reason we worry is that we can afford to.... Read Bradley Doucet's entire analysis at The Atlas Society.<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1102557226931&s=14360&e=0016pryrcr0X4FpzEcqkM_cMyn4quFlpSo_JqxvIvgkq5AZnpTy8uA15sTE6IICoeY0oA_OwVp__jA9eHFdv3r71mSl1cGB5iJtcjRljAzixEGvonwWTigwwV5vUIU3r0cPkMINfcQ9f9tYmBTv1A6IIS_gPv5JmlUU> >From the Atlas Society Archives: Against Earth Day<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1102557226931&s=14360&e=0016pryrcr0X4G-rQTr8SyT9C7PD2Le59WyAD-bvRAMDeXgMlWcmYKzzAANzyMVkgthAsSkOz-1YGBA4cXNT7TTTutkqCS-O_vt1onU-D8w1X5zIsaAhzlfoRwbQ6KH7HiFjMQmxfBrAMu3uzw4fgVivnIr_CdFBsuD6RFPhzwOKiZPDviqJvYlzHlwAVvUm9Rc> Death by Environmentalism<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1102557226931&s=14360&e=0016pryrcr0X4HRra1X_RT1cqNFq64yHJdwMu8pKtL6FknxJqbOGRYWGzX6sILR86l9c62-SK_4TRX-SX6sth05PfXHthnHV56m8Q0t-4BJB5j6E1HWHKgxdrGNRO_U93mL10tOHtx1E98p3tjfW6fqedxoDEePzZSvWUwSxrvQTCQ=>, by Robert Bidinotto What does it mean, in practice, to hold a philosophy that values pristine nature, apart from any use that humans may make of it? The question is urgent because just that is the fundamental premise of the environmental movement, and the consequences are human deaths. Extracting Ourselves from the Wetlands Quagmire<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1102557226931&s=14360&e=0016pryrcr0X4EHi_SIvLXcjssuAnGw-GsCctCand10tb2TYjiJ5SbTibrDxJ1P0sv3uhV8BGPfoJdbkiMGEKbAFAwTk9Le2mXmoJWoQYZQW7GINk9qW1j2h3XciMwWqf5cMaDhd7LzWg8b9coDd17bdY4pSebzikEx4J-DA0fCgFQ1WiwTauLR0V1wwyfgj8MuCWVQVOJT8K8=>by Edward Hudgins Only moral confusion or worse - a deep hatred for all things human could cause anyone to put the welfare of bugs and bogs over people. But individual humans, not pests and damp dirt, are of supreme value and have rights. Anti-Human Earth Day<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1102557226931&s=14360&e=0016pryrcr0X4FBgcjqFsopwFeM0tXSV7Eziodz4WBwwKy79thxBSolXG_SxLqFYiL8AvUhc_OdCr1QAAVQzDlLKo2kjdX1an1KgNfArugcxgQ3SW3OuLcc9knQ62bTicM4P1ZguwxnEh-0ZvnmHVG_YtVD1HL91iQOimmr8A8P1pw=>by Edward Hudgins Earth Day, April 22, is a religious holiday that should make us all into atheists. For many people Earth Day is simply a day to think warm and fuzzy thoughts about clean air, crystal lakes, verdant forests and soaring eagles. Until the 1990s May Day marked the worship by the communists of an abstraction called the "workers" at the expense of real flesh-and-blood workers and every other human being on the planet. The result was human carnage. Now Earth Day marks the worship by eco-extremists of the planet itself at the expense of all we humans who inhabitant it. If the cult continues to grow, the results will be the same as that wrought by the Reds. *Thomas answers the question: *Nature and Wilderness: to heck with them?<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1102557226931&s=14360&e=0016pryrcr0X4Hg67QSB7E8_DSw2voV2taKzY7Km9cLBLfhRdpCEvhqBOsNtBP5vUYMLldpFDrH1Rc-kKYMd6RX1rrFfN9dtlSSlCnxuII0eq88cKl5AvCTAp_p5bS4XiyW2i89zsKKcYqdO72XxN97G33yggnAjWEy> Why are Objectivists apposed to environmentalism? How should people deal with nature and wilderness in the Objectivist view? "Take what you want, and pay for it," argues William Thomas, following Ayn Rand. In this answer posted Feb. 12, 2009<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1102557226931&s=14360&e=0016pryrcr0X4Hg67QSB7E8_DSw2voV2taKzY7Km9cLBLfhRdpCEvhqBOsNtBP5vUYMLldpFDrH1Rc-kKYMd6RX1rrFfN9dtlSSlCnxuII0eq88cKl5AvCTAp_p5bS4XiyW2i89zsKKcYqdO72XxN97G33yggnAjWEy>, Thomas notes that between property rights and individual initiative, people can care for the values that matter to them. And that includes nature and wilderness, insofar as they are of value to people. The Atlas Society website contains over 170 questions and answers about Objectivism. You can view them all or ask your own question by visiting our Q&A section<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1102557226931&s=14360&e=0016pryrcr0X4E5rUvY8yIiPnfA6uSVxrpk5AL8jfO3v2GtvWrHxdqOs3XLub4FOFDcgJT6hTrDTHfR3X-Peqv9WpmbR_HwVs5hYPLNNcTJ80TmMnxnG_6grnxR9a3gm6YHkf60gqu-VRlrAOlZRSD9sQ==>. The Atlas Society: The Center for Objectivism Forward email<http://ui.constantcontact.com/sa/fwtf.jsp?m=1101077151804&ea=bruce.majors%40gmail.com&a=1102557226931> [image: Safe Unsubscribe]<http://visitor.constantcontact.com/d.jsp?v=001hKHmuNj9Yg0OS4duvFNkqmDxGhwi-4QoMMORGIPv_P9ApSq1BoniMsox5zWReyERuu8sitfySHY%3D&p=un> This email was sent to [email protected] by [email protected]. 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