What is Green Gone Wild – Elevating Nature Above Human Rights about, and why did you write it?
Dr. Roger Bate, of Africa Fighting Malaria, has said: "The world environmental movement, while trying to be a friend to nature, has unfortunately often been an enemy of man."
For nearly a half century, most of the mainstream media and much of the general public have accepted the environmental movement's claim that it occupies the moral high ground because it is trying to save hundreds of struggling species of wildlife and plants that will go extinct without its efforts. Although these representations are misleading and even erroneous, many people have bought into the movement's years of clever marketing and public relations.
Yet, Dr. Bate's real point, that the environmentalist movement has "often been an enemy of man," rarely receives mention in the mainstream media, so the general public is largely uninformed about the numerous heavy burdens that it imposes on people.
Green Gone Wild - Elevating Nature Above Human Rights was written to educate and inform the general public. It was not written for lawyers or scientists, but with regular people in mind -- people who want to know the truth about modern environmentalism and its harsh treatment of the human species.
In today's environmental culture, Green Gone Wild is a politically incorrect book in that it shines a light on modern environmentalism and refutes its claim to the moral high ground. For example, it describes:
- how modern environmentalism was birthed in the 1960s -- not with real science -- but with politicized science and fear-mongering;
- how the movement's demonizing and ultimate banning of the once life-saving chemical pesticide, DDT, has lead to the deaths of countless millions of the world's poor people from malaria – with more than a million of them continuing to die from this preventable disease every year;
- how the environmentalist drafters of the Endangered Species Act deliberately replaced the time-honored scientific definition of "species" with a political definition, so that they could declare many plants and animals "endangered" that are not true species at all, but purely "political" species;
- how the political agenda behind the Endangered Species Act has made it one of the most heavy-handed, shockingly expensive, and biologically ineffective laws in our nation's history.
The real-life stories briefly described below, and the many others told in Green Gone Wild, demonstrate how the ESA's pro-species – anti-people bias has enabled the federal government's and environmentalist organizations' harsh practice of protecting wildlife species in total disregard of people's lives, livelihoods, and private property rights.
- In 1965, Hurricane Betsy pushed a 12-14 foot storm surge from the Gulf of Mexico into New Orleans' Lake Pontchartrain, causing 58 deaths and $1 billion in flooding damage. To prevent a recurrence in this low-lying region of the country, Congress appropriated funds to construct huge hydraulic gates, modeled after those the Netherlands built after flooding from a 1953 storm killed 2,000 people. The Lake Pontchartrain barrier gates would close off the two passages into the lake through which Betsy's storm surge had traveled when a future Category-3 hurricane approached the city. In 1977, after major funds had been expended and just as construction of the gates was to commence, an environmentalist organization obtained a court injunction stopping the project on the grounds that shrimp and shellfish residing at the mouth of Lake Pontchartrain would be "disturbed" when the gates were closed. In August, 2005, Hurricane Katrina pushed a 12-14 foot storm surge from the Gulf into the lake exactly as Hurricane Betsy had done. Over one thousand New Orleans residents died, not from the hurricane itself, but from the subsequent flooding caused by the storm surge, and thousands of others lost their homes, businesses, and jobs.
- In July, 2001, 14 firefighters were trapped in a canyon of the Okanogan National Forest in Washington State when a 100-acre wildfire that had been nearly extinguished the night before came back to life. The helicopter that was scheduled to scoop water from the nearby Chewuch River and drop it on the sleeping embers at 10 a.m. didn't arrive until 3 p.m. when the wildfire was roaring out of control and the firefighters were scurrying for their lives. Four young firefighters didn't make it. Shortly after the fire passed, firefighters learned that the helicopter's five-hour delay was due to the presence in the Chewuch River of three species of so-called endangered fish, which U.S. Forest Service officials were afraid might be harmed by the water-scooping helicopter.
- On September 16, 2004, Hurricane Ivan slammed into Perdido Key, a barrier island situated off Florida's Gulf coast, with winds of 130 mph and a storm surge as high as 12 feet. Many residents lost their homes and business structures. But when those property owners sought to rebuild and return their lives to normal, instead of the federal government assisting them, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service informed them that their now home-less lots were being designated as habitat for the endangered Perdido Key beach mouse and that their rebuilding would "harm" the species. So, while these property owners are barred from rebuilding because their government says the mice need their land, they still have to pay their mortgages and taxes on their vacant lots.
- For many years at the beginning of the annual dry season in California's Riverside County, the county fire chief notified Winchester-area residents whose homes were vulnerable to grass and brush fires that they should disc a firebreak around their homes to prevent the dry foliage from helping a wildfire reach their structures. Because of this practice, few homes in the area were destroyed by wildfires. However, beginning in 1992, these homeowners were informed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that due to the discovery of the endangered Stephens' kangaroo rat in the area, they were no longer to disc firebreaks because doing so would "harm" kangaroo rat habitat, subjecting violators to prosecution, fines, and even jail. Under this threat, local residents stopped discing firebreaks around their homes. As a result, the "California Fire" of October 1993, destroyed 29 homes near Winchester, including that of Anna Klimko. With tears streaming down her cheeks as she dug through the rubble that had been her home, Ms. Klimko asked: "For what? A rat?"
How did we reach this mentality, where nature is elevated above human rights? What kind of thinking is it that would motivate the government to protect mice, rats, and other species but turn its back on human beings in their darkest hour of need? How did those beliefs affect efforts to combat insect-borne killer diseases such as malaria? How did they translate into laws such as the Endangered Species Act, along with policies and agencies empowered to enforce them at virtually any cost to human beings? How much do we pay for such treatment, not just as victims, but as the broader taxpaying public? How well do policies designed to protect endangered animal and plant species actually perform their mission? How sound is the science involved? What is the record and practice when the science is shown to be wrong? What is the case for reform, and how has the government responded to reform efforts? Will the government continue to forbid families from rebuilding their houses after a natural disaster strikes, because of a mouse? Will more people be condemned to death by flooding because construction measures to prevent it are blocked in order to save a few shrimp and shellfish?
Green Gone Wild examines and thoughtfully addresses each of these questions. It concludes by offering a series of substantive recommendations for making the Endangered Species Act more people-friendly while also making it more effective in protecting and preserving truly struggling species.
Ultimately, Green Gone Wild is a call for common sense and balance in crafting and enforcing the laws, policies, and practices that govern the relationship between the human species and the plant and wildlife species. A sustainable civilization requires a constant balancing of our needs for a healthy environment, including clean water, clean air, and a full and diverse natural world, with our needs for jobs, places to live and work, transportation, energy, food, technological and medical advancement, and the like. Achieving this balance is a critical challenge if we are to remain a free, prosperous, and caring people.
