I am a conservative, Republican environmentalist.

written on February 25, 2009
by David A. Leas

I have probably upset the Democrats with the words, “conservative, Republican” and I have upset the Republicans with the word, “environmentalist”.

My advice to both is to take a deep breath and listen to my story. Save your outrage for what I am about to tell you.

First, let me provide a little background information. I live in a housing development that was built in the late 1960’s. It consists primarily of three bedroom stone or brick homes. A few houses, like mine, have had family rooms added onto the house. This is a middle class neighborhood in a small city located in a rural Indiana county. This neighborhood is friendly, clean and well-maintained. In the winter the snow is shoveled from the sidewalks and driveways. In the summer flowers are planted and the yards are mowed.

The residents of this neighborhood are pleased and proud to live here.
 

"The residents of this neighborhood are pleased and proud to live here."

Now, let’s flash-back to two days ago. In the morning, after having filled my travel mug with coffee, I stepped out of my house and I glanced at my front yard. What I saw was very unpleasant. (If this were a video documentary the camera would zoom in and out on the object and the scary music would play reaching a climatic and sudden cessation). Sitting in my yard, apparently thrown from the car of a passing jerk (I mean motorist) was a half-empty, super-sized beverage cup from Hardees'. Some sub-human, irresponsible idiot threw their trash in my yard.

Why? Why could they not wait until they got to their home to throw away their trash? Could they have not waited until they were at the car wash or at a gas station to throw away their trash? Have they no pride in their community? Do they not care about the environment? The obvious answers are no, no, no and no!

A short drive along any highway will demonstrate that this short-sighted, uncaring, irresponsible person who threw trash in my yard has also trashed other yards, streets, highways, fields, creeks and even parks.

This obvious lack of caring and the complete lack of responsible stewardship of our planet must stop. This is the only place humans have to live. If we destroy this planet, we destroy humanity.
 

"This obvious lack of caring and the complete lack of responsible stewardship of our planet must stop. This is the only place humans have to live. If we destroy this planet, we destroy humanity."

Alright, at this point in my narrative some of the Democrats are cheering and saying, “Go Davy, Go Davy” (well probably not that, but they are saying some words of agreement and encouragement). The remaining Democrats and most of the Republicans are saying, “Now wait a minute. One cardboard cup is not going to destroy the planet.”

That is true. Even if that one guy littered daily, that is only 365 cups. No problem, right? What if only 10% of the population littered every day. That’s only 11,089,756,000 cups. Of course that doesn’t include the sandwich wrappers, straws, napkins, and bags. It also doesn’t include soft drink bottles, water bottles, beer bottles and cigarette butts.

Caring about our environment does not make a person a tree-hugging liberal freak. It only means that you care about your community and the well-being of your children’s future on this planet.

Conclusion: When humanity, by being short-sighted, uncaring and irresponsible, weakens and damages the earth, through senseless littering, we are guilty of defacing a beautiful work that God has made.
 

That is why I am now a conservative environmentalist.


 
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