I wish I did...
Wasn't on much yesterday. Comcast tech showed up, after two or three months of complaining about our service (slow and hanging internet). I kept say the problem was outside...tech confirmed that and we got a break on our bill for the time frame.
Anyway, it seems the environmentalists want us to return to an earlier time...when people had less impact on the Earth. Perhaps laudable in some respects...but if there is a problem, it's because there are too many people on this planet.
The comment about Dave's TC-40 was humor, but it did make a point. One shouldn't complain about businesses wanting to make money (and employ people) if one uses the very implements (the TC-40) produced by those businesses.
As far as the mules' environmental foot print...I don't know, but as Dave wrote, you can "recycle" a mule into dog food. Now...if we were discussing cows...their flatulence produces a lot of methane...and that's a greenhouse gas.
Too many people? Yes. There are certainly too many people to sustain our lifestyles as we know them. I think that illustrates the issue of the human race being more or less on autopilot as it has been for the past several thousand years. Eventually that "no-limits" mindset--which we know to be physically impossible on a finite planet--will catch up with us. I think that is happening now and I wouldn't be surprised if the process accelerates.
When we start bumping into limits we are forced to make choices that never applied in the past--one of which should be curtailing population growth. That basic process of making choices is the source of much angst; people resent being forced into making choices which is essentially a triage of their preferred lifestyles. There is anger and denial about that which can be seen everyday right here on TBN.
An element of social discord is introduced in that the more wealth one has, the less those choices need to be made. As usual, those with the least will bear the greater burdens. It has always been so. For example, somewhere on the continuum of personal wealth, a Tier-4 price increase becomes an unbearable outrage, a direct assault on one's chosen lifestyle--people do not like being forced into choices and they will look around for someone or something to blame. Almost always they will fail to identify the correct target.
I think that is the case when environmentalists are cast as anti-job or anti-business when that is not true for the great majority. Being anti-pollution is not anti-business; it is anti-bad business--businesses lacking a sense of social responsibility. I am in favor of smart business. People who make "green" products that are durable, work well and are manufactured efficiently with appropriate materials have my respect. Products designed with a thought-out cradle to grave strategy that minimizes waste, raw materials and conserve energy are admirable and need to become the norm.
On an individual level concerning my TC40 or pair of mules, I plead guilty to not living as minimally as I could. We
could all live in Unabomber shacks and walk to the post office but that isn't really what environmentalism is about. Environmentalism means making good, informed choices and more importantly, gracefully accepting that those choices are necessary if we are to live within our limits.
I have made choices that limit my environmental footprint by harnessing solar energy for heat and electric. I will continue to make those choices. If I were buying a new tractor I wouldn't whine about Tier-4 requirements. I don't complain about the DEF used in my Dodge Cummins. I don't reach for the Roundup or pesticide sprays. I don't grab my gun just because I see a coyote or some other critter. I do my best to be a good steward of the earth by maintaining habitat that minimizes my human footprint. Whether or not doing those things and making those choices will be enough remains to be seen by future generations.
Roy should have thought of that.
