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Earth Day
I am not a religious man. I think there is, broadly speaking, no greater good than human flourishing. In that sense I am, again broadly speaking, a humanist.
Our flourishing requires that we consume the resources of our planet. In an ideal, imaginary world we could do so without diminishing those resources: we could live infinitely sustainable lives of comfort and security.
But we don’t live in such a world. We live in a world that is in most cases and in varying degrees inhospitable to our species unless tamed by human action. And so we tame it, consuming its resources — including finite non-renewable resources — in the process.
We extract the Earth’s resources, consume other species, create pollution, emit greenhouse gases, cut down and pave over and excavate and build. We sometimes do those things foolishly, in ways that ultimately harm us more than help us, or that are needlessly destructive of our planet. We should try to avoid that, while accepting that there will be environmental and resource tradeoffs, and that such tradeoffs are necessary and appropriate because human flourishing remains the greatest good.
Those who call for the rapid and large-scale replacement of fossil fuels with wind and solar power, or who call for rapid and drastic cuts in carbon emissions, are probably not placing the welfare of humans first. They may believe they are, but neither current science nor the state of the global environment supports that belief.
Of course, some who call for these things place less value on human flourishing than they do on environmental issues. Some, it seems, place very little, if any, value on human flourishing.
Monday is Earth Day. I appreciate our planet. I appreciate how we have learned to use it to increase our comfort and security, to enhance human flourishing so that most of the planet’s billions of humans live in a state of prosperity unimaginable just a few centuries ago. I want us to continue to use the planet that way, while making reasonable efforts to place fewer demands on it while continuing to raise the standard of living for all of humanity.
Happy Earth Day. I will, as is my habit, be spending the entire day on Earth.
Published in Environment
The words “human flourishing” don’t exist in the vocabulary of Leftists. Power and control of humans are the most important goals; we can’t leave those people on their own, ya know…
God wants us to flourish too.
All you need to know about earth day can be summarized in one name:
Ira Einhorn
i don’t even know what the phrase means.
He’s probably held in contempt by the Greens because he mummified the woman he killed, instead of composting her.
you can support a good environment without being a climate alarmist.
for earth day, I submit this Walter Williams article on climate alarmism.
Environmentalists’ Wild Predictions, by Walter E.Williams | Creators Syndicate
Yes.
Twitter, which I visit as my continuing penance for having once been a hot-headed young man, is full of climate alarmists. They hide behind science like Hamas hides behind schoolchildren, posting lurid graphics purporting to show the looming apocalypse in deepening shades of red.
They use the term “science denier” as aggressively as other activists use the -phobe suffix, and for the same reason: it serves to discredit anyone who challenges them and spare them having to defend their apocalyptic predictions.
I’ve taken to calling such people “climate zealots,” in hopes of capturing the quasi-religious aspect of their faith.
Henry, you are way too reasonable. That makes you completely out of fashion with today’s great thinkers from our esteemed Universities. It also makes you a dangerous liability. Be careful, very, very careful!
I have heard (and read) many of these people explicitly say that human welfare is low (or non-existent) on their list of priorities. These are the people who see people as nothing but their negative impact, and do not see any potential for positive impact by humans, or the potential that a new human might create something wonderful or worthwhile. So they are pushing to discourage people from reproducing. No probably about it – they do not value the welfare of humans.
I mentioned in another post a long time ago: Even though it’s been around for more than 50 years, no one ever heard of ED before about 1992. That was just after the Soviet Union went out of business. And that’s why ED became so popular: it was a new outlet for liberals who were still reeling from the guilty verdict of history pronounced upon their great socialist hope. I remember it very well from being on a college campus then. About 1992 it just came out of nowhere.
I almost put this bumper sticker on my car, but I decided I didn’t want it to be an incendiary device
I will offer a minor disagreement. Lots of leftists use the expression “human flourshing” as one of their rhetorical trump cards.
In the Chinese version of this sticker, the image of the globe is centered on Africa.
Concerned about ED, then go to your local pharmacy and pick up a dozen of the little blue pills.
I find it amusing that RFKjr has a jihad against Big Pharma for being corrupt and lying and having corrupted medical science and government regulators, but still promotes the wacky idea that we have to de-industrialize to stop a climate crisis because Al Gore and few paid off scientists say so. For now on, Earth Day is “Skeptic Day” on my calendar.
Speaking of God (and “Earth Day”) isn’t today the beginning of Passover ? Isn’t this an important day on the Jewish calendar? I’ve not seen one post on it here or the holiday mentioned anywhere in the news – just on my calendar. We just had a major eclipse “pass over” the US – and how “spiritual” that seemed. I wonder is anyone thinking about what the Jewish people are going through right now – students right here in the US – not to mention in Israel?? Never forget??!
The world is remembering the earth and there is a cult-like worship of environmentalism today – who is thinking about God today?
Earth Day gives me ED
The person that I associate most strongly with the words “human flourishing” is Sam Harris, an atheistic Leftist.
The committed Leftists seem, to me, to be highly motivated by a desire for “flourishing.” They do not seem to be motivated by power and control for their own sake. I think that they are often incorrect in their view of the facts and in the efficacy of their proposed solutions.
I’m in Baltimore for Passover again. I’ll probably have a post to write when I’m back home.
This is why I think the other Henry is religious in some kind of way. Almost everyone is in my view of human psychology. His ultimate good is human flourishing. The pagan Greens view the preservation of Earth at any cost as the ultimate human good. What is your ultimate good is essentially your G-d. For me the advancement of scientific knowledge is about the highest good be because I agree with Aristotle that humans are most godlike when they use their reason.
Leftists think human flourishing is dangerous for the planet. Their model program is best described in the book Playing God in Yellowstone, specifically as regards management of the elk herd there. Read it and weep.
If there is a Uranus Day, I don’t see why there can’t be an Earth Day, too.
Humans flourish best when the planet is healthy.
KE, sure. But a pristine planet — a planet in perfect “health” from the perspective of many environmentalists — and human flourishing are not compatible, and that’s the point.
For the left, in order to keep the planet healthy, the human population must be culled, like the elk herd of the Yellowstone (read the book) by whatever means available, so that it doesn’t overgraze its range. Forced sterilization, abortion, mass slaughter, anti-fertility vaccines, fentanyl ODs, starvation, pandemic diseases created in labs, bring in the wolves, maybe bring back guillotines or gas chambers and ovens, provide nuclear weapons to terrorists, limit energy availability, etc and etc and etc, All for fun and profit.
The Leftists are playing God with the Planet, not just Yellowstone. They want to move on to bigger and worser things.
This is what is so idiotic about population control. Our whole system is dependent on population growth. Social Security and Medicare are Ponzi schemes. You have to have indiscriminate borrowing all of the time or the system collapses. All of this stupidity is primarily leftist, and it’s anti-libertarian. These people are out of their minds. Nobody in. power is thinking or planning about any of this.
Europe has the same population issues, actually even worse. Which is why they’ve been importing muslims who want to kill them and destroy their society.