Earth Day

photo credit Unsplash

Since today is Earth Day, let’s ask ourselves, what exactly is the problem with green energy and improving the environment? It doesn’t make a lot of sense to destroy the only planet we have, so why are there so many people out there that seem absolutely determined to oppose any and all environmental regulation?

We Americans have a strong sense of independence. We don’t like regulations/restrictions on our freedom. But we also have a strong sense of justice, fairness, and what is right. Should your neighbor have the freedom to throw their trash on your lawn? That doesn’t seem fair or right, but restricting their ability to throw trash on your lawn, is in fact a restriction on their freedom. Most people would agree this is a reasonable restriction. Who wants to have their neighbours’ trash on their lawn! So there needs to be a balance between freedom and fairness. This balance is necessary in all areas, including environmental regulation. We all enjoy drinking clean water, breathing clean air, eating healthy foods. These things don’t necessarily happen without regulations. Unfortunately, there are plenty of unsavoury characters out there willing to sacrifice our health for profit. Yet, we don’t have the ability, nor the time, to personally research and determine the safety of every aspect of our lives. Nor would we, as individuals, have the power to enforce any sort of safety standards. Therefore, we need some sort of agency that we can trust to do this for us. Currently, the government is in the perfect position to provide us with the necessary solution. Our tax dollars can easily aid research in determining reasonable safety standards. Then, these standards can be enforced by the justice department to ensure that our safety is not being compromised. Our government was established by the people, for the people. As such, it’s not wrong to expect our government to use our tax money to support public safety. Environmental regulations are just one component of public safety. One that we should all be able to rely upon.

So just as you would not want your neighbor to throw trash on your lawn, we should not have to live in fear of some individuals trashing our planet and/or our health in order to turn a profit. Environmental restrictions aren’t an intrusion on our freedoms, they are just part of a necessary balancing act, one that is needed to provide for a fair and better world for each of us.