I appreciate and love the Earth. I respect it. I try to do my part in taking care of it. I believe it was created by a Higher Power and is not a result of spontaneous evolution over trillions of years. Nothing so beautiful or as elaborate and complex as this planet could have happened just by chance."...All things denote there is a God; yea, even the earth, and all things that are upon the face of it, yea, and its motion, yea, and also all the planets which move in their regular form do witness that there is a Supreme Creator" (Alma 30: 44, The Book of Mormon).
By taking care of the Earth, we show the Lord that we are grateful to Him for this beautiful place to live. When we choose on our own accord to conserve energy, reduce the waste we produce, reuse items that can be used more than once, and recycle materials that can be used again for many purposes, we are taking care of our planet.
I think "Earth Day" and efforts to increase awareness among nations on how to take care of this planet are important. Laws which prohibit excess of harmful substances which pollute the environment that have been passed over the past several decades have protected peoples' lives and preserved the uses of our lands and waters for many different purposes.
Now, I really disagree with the environmentalists and politicians who seek to impose their agendas on the climate and the environment. I think that they are taking what has been a good thing with what has been done to set up basic protective guidelines and procedures and are now, seeking to push it too far.
What is too far? The claim that there is a climate change crisis, ie. "Global Warming," and that we humans are solely responsible for it. I feel they are going too far to an extreme when they seek to pass laws that would force responsible hard working citizens to carry a huge burden with taxes to pay for less effective energy production methods and increasing energy costs. I am not against using renewable energy sources like wind, solar, and water, etc. However, when timelines are imposed on the energy producing companies and penalties are enforced for not doing enough quickly to move towards "cleaner" energy sources by these particular politicians and environmentalists, I feel that this is yet another way in which the government is moving to take away certain liberties and freedoms from its citizens that it has no right to control.
"Going Green" is kind of like the "Organic" craze that is sweeping our nation's food markets. Organic food is probably more healthy for us, but it is also costs so much more. Every American is not able to afford to buy only "organic" food. Thankfully, they don't have to. Thank goodness there remain "non-organic" forms of food still available on the market so that average American families can still afford to put food on their tables.
The same thing applies to energy--every American can not afford the "organic" or "green" forms of energy. If there are people and companies who independently choose to produce energy from renewable cleaner sources, than let them! And let me make the choice to buy their products or not. I can't help but ask rhetorically whether the U.S. government will start subsidizing food stamps and energy stamps for those of us poorer Americans who can not afford to eat organically and "go green"?
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