OPINION:
Green, once the calming hue of nature, has become a more complicated color as April 22 ushers the spring celebration of Earth Day. A movement rooted in conservation has sprouted into a political thicket entangled in global conflict. Saving the planet is a worthy endeavor, but unintended consequences of the effort are throwing shade on the outcome.
On its face, Earth Day remains as inviting as a walk in the park. “Now is the time for the unstoppable courage to preserve and protect our health, our families, our livelihoods … together, we must Invest in our Planet,” reads Earth Day 2022’s website. “Because a green future is a prosperous future.”
Not content with preserving nature with simple acts like tree-planting, though, the United Nations has repainted humanity’s future as more perilous than tramping through poison ivy. A new report from the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change claims global warming resulting from the use of fossil fuels is nearly unstoppable. The world is “on a fast track to climate disaster,” concludes U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
Europe’s subsequent commitment to the “green” agenda has led its nations to forswear their own energy resources and purchase fossil fuels from Russia instead. President Vladimir Putin, in turn, has used its energy windfall to ravage neighboring Ukraine. The shelling of fuel storage tanks, power stations, factories and sewage plants has reportedly spread toxic pollutants across the Ukrainian landscape, leading Deputy Environmental Minister Iryna Stavchuk to warn the conflict could lead to “a global environmental catastrophe.”
For his part, President Biden has attempted to dampen the price effects of war-disrupted fossil fuel supplies by lifting a U.S. ban on E-15 gasoline. The mixture contains 15% corn alcohol, a higher proportion than the typically available E-10 blend. While drivers can expect to save a dime per gallon, they can expect to pay for the savings in other ways. Because E-15 contains comparatively less energy, their gas mileage will suffer. And since it more easily evaporates, summer smog is forecast. How green is that?
Boosting corn mandates for ethanol means more fuel for vehicles, but less crop for food. This comes just as the fertile farmland of Ukraine, a breadbasket for hungry nations, remains fallow this spring due to fighting. Unsurprisingly, the Chicago Board of Trade reported Monday that corn futures topped $8 a bushel for the first time in nearly a decade. With food prices on the rise, the World Food Program is warning of famine on the horizon.
The complications of going “green” are enough to daze Mother Nature. Fears of fossil fuels’ global-warming effects — mixed with the impact of Biden ethanol requirements on food supplies and Russia’s toxic war on human health — constitute a higher-order environmental dilemma with no simple solution.
If leaders playing planetary healers are to avoid giving the green movement a black eye, they should recall the wisdom contained in the Hippocratic oath: First, do no harm.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.