Weather Rangers 40 years out of date

By Joel Carlinsky

Forty years ago, books and magazines were full of praise for the heroic pioneers who cut down forests to turn worthless wilderness into profitable farms. Schoolchildren were taught to look up to captains of industry who did grand things like building factories that belched out smoke which was a sign of progress. Every boy wanted to grow up to do heroic things like killing wild animals like elephants and tigers and gorillas. It was considered a great thing to harpoon whales or chop down redwood trees.

But the world has changed a lot since then. Today, it is standard procedure for any company or government department to do an Environmental Impact Study first, before starting on any project that could have any effect on the environment. No company can expect to just go ahead and start on anything without first taking into account what the effects on the environment will be. Even the military, despite their claim that they are so important they should be allowed to do nearly anything they want, must at least make some show of taking precautions to avoid as much environmental harm as possible.

There are thousands of companies all over the world that make their living as consultants, doing Environmental Impact Studies for proposed projects. Every university in the world has a department producing graduates who are qualified to act as consultants for companies so those companies can decide which projects they can do and which ones they cannot do because they would be too harmful.

The Weather Rangers are 40 years out of date. They are acting as if the last 40 years never happened. As if all the hard work of countless environmental activists trying to raise public awareness of the dangers of unlimited "progress" never happened. The Weather Rangers are acting as if they had a right to do whatever they please with the weather. That is no different from the 19th century captains of industry thinking they had the right to cut down forests or build polluting factories without being accountable to anybody.

Nobody today is just ignorant of the importance of doing an Environmental Impact Study before starting something that could affect the atmosphere. Nobody today can plead ignorance of the need for accountability when undertaking such projects. Nobody needs to have ever heard of orgone to know such a plan as the Weather Rangers propose would be reckless and irresponsible.

Nobody today needs me to tell them there are trained professional ecologists who can advise them. And nobody today needs to be told there are laws to protect the environment and it might be a good thing to look them up and see if what they are planning is legal before starting to do it.

The Weather Rangers are not being just ignorant. They are being arrogant and irresponsible. This earth has suffered enough from such people in the past. I will not keep quiet and let it happen again.