By Joe Schaller
Guest Columnist
The Sun’s headline in the May 8 issue “Gov. Lujan Grisham’s cleanup collects 60,000 pounds of litter” might more aptly be: “Political virtue signaling costs taxpayers $60/pound for litter pick-up.”
We’re supposed to be impressed by 60,000 pounds and 7,000 volunteers? Our governor didn’t mention the $3.6 million cost to taxpayers for the “Breaking Bad Habits” collectivized task. That comes to 8.5 pounds of trash per volunteer, costing $60/pound. I doubt if anybody strained their back. Yet I’m not too proud to toot my own horn and jump on the virtue-signaling wagon as well. For some 20 years, I’ve gathered hundreds of pounds of trash a year discarded along Coyote Canyon Drive bordering the reservation. At $60/lb, that adds up to about $240,000.
Globally, litter has a direct correlation with impoverished economic conditions. Rather than dopey costly government ad campaigns, how about stimulating economic freedom (New Mexico ranks 50th) with deregulation of businesses. And could citizens show a little individualism and neighborhood pride fer cryin’ out loud.
And then there was the Heinrich chemophobic weedkiller legislation article. I thought Sen. Martin Heinrich fancied himself as an environmentalist. His No Immunity for Glyphosate Act does nothing to protect the environment nor human health. Why would Heinrich suddenly be so passionate about this non-issue? Could it have something to do with Donald Trump’s executive order promoting glyphosate weed-killer production and protecting manufacturers from frivolous lawsuits? Is this just another case of leftist Trump Derangement Syndrome rearing its ugly head?
Heinrich’s legislation aims to prohibit the use of federal funds to implement or enforce Trump’s glyphosate executive order. Yet the left-wing Environmental Protection Agency clearly states glyphosate poses no risks of concern to human health when used according to current labels. You could make a better case for banning all the carcinogenic technology metals and toxic minerals in nonrecyclable solar modules; cadmium telluride, hexavalent chromium, arsenic, and an array of other poisonous substances, however the renewable (and not so clean) energy industry is one of Heinrich’s top donors.
Trump’s executive order’s environmental benefits of glyphosate in farming include reduced soil erosion, preserved moisture, reduced CO2 emissions, lower toxicity to animals than other herbicides, protects native ecosystems in forestry and national parks, not to mention lawn and garden management. The higher crop yields mean less land usage and stable food prices. Trump, the tree-hugger? Ironic, isn’t it.
Overzealous chemophobic bans of beneficial chemicals by virtue-signaling eco-fascist alarmists have a long history. The global DDT bans of the 1970s and 80s – primarily to protect birds when not applied properly – caused an estimated 30 to 60 million deaths in Third World countries, most of them children under five years of age. In 2006 the World Health Organization formally endorsed the renewed use of DDT.
The GMO (Genetically Modified Organisms) scare led to food shortages in Third World countries over 20 years ago. Like glyphosates, GMOs have tremendous benefits to the ecosphere.
Of them all, the war on fossil fuels has had the greatest negative impact by alarmists denying the world’s impoverished — including McKinley County — access to reliable and affordable electricity. Heinrich has been complicit with our governor’s Energy Transition Act goal of banning fossil fuels here in the nation’s most energy-impoverished state. It spells economic devastation.
In conclusion, as a citizen watchdog challenging our leftist establishment for over 20 years, I’ve written nearly a hundred libertarian conservative articles and letters in several Gallup and Albuquerque publications. I thank the Sun’s Babette Herrman for printing many of them. I don’t write what I can’t back up and have established credibility and integrity. I learned long ago that deranged inaccurate responses from triggered liberals go with the territory. Their bullying only adds fuel to my fire.
