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Having been involved in art, social activism and the union movement my entire life, I have seen a lot and done a lot. The most disturbing aspect of years of activism has been the observation and realization that America haters and communists of a wide variety have used well meaning people associated with civil rights, war protests, the environment, health care, etc., as dupes to do their bidding and to give them money.
There were several languages spoken in my family because my of father's family struggle to escape religious and political oppression and find freedom and opportunity in America. Had they known that America was to be turned from near Nirvana into a clone of Havana, they could have saved a few miles on their journey.
The environmental movement should be based on free individuals making free choices. I know of more capitalists who have contributed to environmental restoration and preservation and new technology than communists. The best way to advance a healthier, greener world is to make money and use it wisely. New technology and wise living will do more than communist rhetoric and forced programs.
Examine where the money you donate to environmental causes really goes. For example, lumber is a sustainable resource when properly managed. Lumber companies plant and care for more trees than the government and more than the Sierra Club and other so called environment groups ever have. If the various environmental groups spent a fraction of the massive amounts of money that they take in on planting trees rather than paying themselves exorbitant salaries, filing lawsuits and running ads, we would be one big forest. Oh, and yes to left-wing political causes.
Capitalist companies have trashed the environment in the past. Of course, so have all humans to one degree or another. And by the way, so have animals and so have plants. More fish have been killed by naturally poisonous algae than humans. And by the way, Nature fights back. Mosquitoes have killed more humans than all the wars in history put together. Tobacco introduced by Native Americans has killed more Europeans than Europeans killed Native Americans with guns and small pox. Skin cancer has killed millions of humans. Pollution and starvation and disease have killed hundreds of millions of people.
It is a dog eat dog world. If Jesus, Buddha, Moses, Mohammed and Walt Disney could not turn this world into Utopia, I doubt if the communists or environmentalists or anyone else can.
Beauty in art and in Nature is the result of proportion and balance. Aristotle once said that happiness is the result of a balance between health, wealth, friendship, virtue and knowledge. Having been a life-long conservationist, social activist and artist, I believe that human problems can be better solved with common sense and technology than extremism on either end of the scale.
I truly believe that instead of so-called "cap and trade" or any other thinly veiled ploy to destroy capitalism, it would make more sense to develop new energy sources, better smoke stack cleansing, and greater energy savings, etc. In the interim, we should plant trees, trees and more trees to "off set CO2" — I call my plan "Plant and Grow."
If greening the environment was the only issue, we could solve it with good sense and good will. However, when you throw in people with political and financial concerns, it gets messy fast.
***Pablo Solomon is an internationally-recognized artist known primarily for his drawings and sculptures of dancers. He has been featured in books, magazines, newspapers, radio, TV and film. He and his wife are also well known for their conservation efforts and have been "going green" for over 30 years. They reside on a historic 1856 ranch north of Austin, Texas, which was nominated for the highest award in Texas for environmental restoration and preservation in 1997-98. Pablo was featured in an April 2009 National Geographic article on the first Earth Day by Mark Anderson and in numerous green articles.
