Environmental Contradictions: Are We Really Green?
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- Date Submitted: 04/06/2015 04:15 PM
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Environmental contradictions: are we really green?
In his May 6, 2002, Newsweek article “Being Green At Ben & Jerry’s” author George F. Will informs his readers on the questionable relationship between environmentalism and politics. He provides us examples to illustrate the contradictions in environmental policies. Will tries to show us how opponents of increased energy production are not necessary looking out for our country’s general interest, or at least many times they tend to ignore facts when they are reasoning. He starts out making his point by talking about how the Senate overruled the House of Representatives decisions on drilling on the Arctic Nation Wildlife Refuge in Alaska, saying that would not be significant quantity, even when “ANWR could produce, for 25 years, at least as much oil as America currently imports from Saudi Arabia”( par.1). He also stated when the energy bill was accepted on raising the amount of ethanol in gasoline, it was clearly just to improve agriculture and to buy the farmers’ votes, to clean America’s air was only an excuse. He also tells us his opinion why we can’t talk about energy crisis in America. Will goes in to great detail on explaining that America has an enormous deal of reserves in oil and also other unexploited energy sources. He is mostly blaming environmental policies, and the political interest beyond it, for not using these domestic resources. In the end of his article Will finishes up with an example: Ben & Jerry’s ice cream is a poster child for environmentalism, but Will points out the controversy while the company takes pride on “being green“ they use a lot of energy throughout their ice cream making process and they create a lot of waste, “While making that much milk, a cow produces eight gallons of manure, and flatulence with another eight gallons of methane, a potent "greenhouse" gas. And the cow consumes lots of water plus three pounds of grain and hay, which is produced with tractor fuel, chemical...
In his May 6, 2002, Newsweek article “Being Green At Ben & Jerry’s” author George F. Will informs his readers on the questionable relationship between environmentalism and politics. He provides us examples to illustrate the contradictions in environmental policies. Will tries to show us how opponents of increased energy production are not necessary looking out for our country’s general interest, or at least many times they tend to ignore facts when they are reasoning. He starts out making his point by talking about how the Senate overruled the House of Representatives decisions on drilling on the Arctic Nation Wildlife Refuge in Alaska, saying that would not be significant quantity, even when “ANWR could produce, for 25 years, at least as much oil as America currently imports from Saudi Arabia”( par.1). He also stated when the energy bill was accepted on raising the amount of ethanol in gasoline, it was clearly just to improve agriculture and to buy the farmers’ votes, to clean America’s air was only an excuse. He also tells us his opinion why we can’t talk about energy crisis in America. Will goes in to great detail on explaining that America has an enormous deal of reserves in oil and also other unexploited energy sources. He is mostly blaming environmental policies, and the political interest beyond it, for not using these domestic resources. In the end of his article Will finishes up with an example: Ben & Jerry’s ice cream is a poster child for environmentalism, but Will points out the controversy while the company takes pride on “being green“ they use a lot of energy throughout their ice cream making process and they create a lot of waste, “While making that much milk, a cow produces eight gallons of manure, and flatulence with another eight gallons of methane, a potent "greenhouse" gas. And the cow consumes lots of water plus three pounds of grain and hay, which is produced with tractor fuel, chemical...