Beyond the Ranch Gate
By Blaine Davis Contributing Editor
A Fool’s Perspective on the Environment
their climate change narrative would have us believe that the end of the Earth is imminent. Having lived in the shadow of a 400-foot-tall smokestack at a nearby coal-fired power plant for more than 40 years, I have yet to grow a third arm or any other appendage, but I sure have enjoyed heating, cooling and power to perform many tasks in both my professional and personal lives. I am sure that there have even been a few enjoying this power to re-charge their Teslas, Volts and other hybrid means of transportation. Again, the “greenies” would have us further believe that the pollution or “fall-out” from this plant would wreck our eco-systems and food sources, if not our very lives. I contradict such with the yearly agricultural abundance of grains and livestock produced within the very same county. Without the energy capacity of such a plant, producing and processing of such harvests would be in peril, along with everything modern technology has given us, including some of the best healthcare in the world. The majority of these environmental activists would like to return to their misconceived, Edenistic days of horse and buggy and expunge petroleum and the internal-combustion engine. My retort to that,“Watch your step when you cross Main Street; that’s not mud!” The green movement with their stance against petroleum ignores the fact that only 40 percent of a barrel of oil is used
to produce gasoline. The rest produces things from medicine, cosmetics, plastics, cleaning products (which played a huge role in the recent pandemic) to asphalt for the roads they traverse in their hybrid cars, saving the Earth. Even renewable energy products from wind turbine parts and solar panels and even batteries, for their “earth-saving” hybrid cars rely on petroleum. Most ironic in all of this is a ballpoint pen made from petroleum was leveled against the very industry that provided such in that of a presidential signature. Closer to home, specifically our farm, fertilizers derived from petroleum have risen more than 300 percent, along with the rising costs of other inputs from chemicals to irrigation gas means the profit margin is dire and consumer food prices will have the same fate. Several talking heads point to simply substituting animal manure for chemical-based fertilizer to combat input costs. But haven’t the green activists told us animal agriculture is bad for the environment? These same activists have our children indoctrinated with false and foolish rhetoric such as 30 years ago, the elementary-age daughter of some friends came home from school with today’s lesson,“If it’s yellow, it can mellow and if it’s brown, it must go down.” I surmised this had to do with the “porcelain throne,” and left me wondering what
AFTER COMPLETING my early morning ritual at the local coffee shop and choking down the inflationary price of a cup of Joe, I arrive at my desk to find an email with more disturbing news. An online purveyor of fine cigars has declared a shortage on the horizon for these “sticks.” Having experienced past shortages of everything from computer chips to beef and just today, baby formula, what could be next? With each day’s news reports of war in eastern Europe the answers are becoming apparent. Ukraine, the size of Texas and a top five producer of the world’s supply of commodities from sunflowers to wheat, can only lead to food shortages as reports of their plantings will be reduced by 17 percent. Combined with this limited supply and Russia controlling access to the seaports on the Black Sea, commodity prices will rise. The aggressor, Russia, – a large supplier of petroleum with daily sales of $1 billion, much to Europe and even the United States, previously energy independent under the previous administration – is only making this worse. With the stroke of a pen in the form of a presidential executive order, this has become evident at our gas pumps. Even more alarming, this act threatens our national and allies’ security. Compounded with this run-away inflation and shortages of the mere necessities, the green movement and
20
CALF News
■ June | July ■ www.calfnews.net
Made with FlippingBook - professional solution for displaying marketing and sales documents online