Essays from West of 98: Honest Environmentalism
Photo courtesy of Lauren Echols Decker
Author’s note: this essay is an adaptation of a series of tweets that I published on Earth Day, April 22.
The environment has been on my mind lately. It is a hot topic in national discourse right now and that discourse centers around climate change. Like it or not, the conversation is happening. It should merit your attention, because rural America and agriculture stand to be impacted by ensuing policy decisions.
I get frustrated when folks contend that the climate is not impacted by humans. Simply put, the combined activity of 7.9 billion people has an impact on a planet. We need only to look at the example of the Dust Bowl to see what humans can do. I once heard a great interview with the late oilman T. Boone Pickens (hardly an environmental activist). He was asked if he “believed” in climate change. He said (paraphrased), “of course humans impact the climate. That is obvious. We just need to figure out to what extent we can do something about it.”
When we refuse to acknowledge our impact on the climate, it shuts out of those more important conversations. Right now, those conversation are terrible for rural America. Activists are ginning up talk of a climate emergency and the need for drastic policy changes. Many of those activists have ulterior motives. They parachute into important conversations to push agendas that are anti-capitalist, anti-animal agriculture, anti-fossil fuel and more. They are passionate and loud. So, when rural America does not participate in the climate conversation, activists run wild. Instead of engaging falsehoods and malicious intent, we surrender the conversation to them and let bystanders assume that activists are telling the truth. We are worse off than if we engaged in the conversation! We need to engage honestly, because we have something to sell.
I’m a Christian, but no matter your position on Earth’s origin, we should agree on basic principles: (1) we have a resilient planet; (2) resilient doesn’t mean impervious to harm; and (3) it is the height of human arrogance to think we don’t owe a level of stewardship and care to the planet. So let’s talk #3. An “externality” is an economic cost or that affects a third party without its involvement. In that way, every single human activity creates an impact—an externality—on the environment. This can be large or small and positive or negative. We cannot fully eliminate these impacts, but we can deal with them honestly and make good policy decisions that minimize impacts in a way that is the best net positive for society.
Right now, agenda-driven activists would like to replace livestock as a food source with lab-grown meat and to replace fossil fuels with renewable energy. Do we think laboratories and wind turbines and solar panels do not impact the environment? Of course they do. We cannot and will not minimize human environmental impacts with ridiculous ideas that exchange one externality for another, more expensive one. The so-called “Green New Deal” includes many proposals like this, but we can only defeat ridiculous proposals with intelligent debate and advocacy.
That’s where rural America comes in. Any policy that removes livestock from the equation is driven by a dishonest agenda. Grasslands (which cover over 1/3 of our land on Earth) evolved symbiotically with the animals that graze them. In the absence of native wildlife like bison, they need to be grazed by livestock. Removing grazing animals from grasslands is often extremely harmful to the natural environment. We need to better manage our grasslands, but that requires grazing them. Similarly, we will not reduce our emissions simply by building millions of electric cars. We can do so with a wide variety of ideas, from renewable options to better fossil fuel technology. Activists who refuse to consider technology like clean natural gas and nuclear energy are not purely pro-environment.
Rural America, let’s lead on climate change. We have a great sales pitch. We should be honest and assertive with it. We need to engage hidden agendas. We need to offer real solutions that are good for the environment and good for the prosperity of our rural communities. We have the ability and frankly, we have the obligation. Let us be the leaders that the world needs us to be.
James Decker is the Mayor of Stamford, Texas and the creator of the West of 98 website and podcast. Contact James and subscribe to these essays at westof98.substack.com and subscribe to West of 98 wherever podcasts are found.