Fear of global warming is driving some people absolutely bonkers. Case in point: I was watching the news tonight from Perth and saw some professor opining that millions of feral (non indigenous) Australian animals should be killed in the name of fighting global warming. After chuckling that such a recommendation wouldn’t exactly endear him to the animal rights folk, I thought—this is nuts! So, I looked it up. Yup. It’s a serious proposal. From the story:
According to a study commissioned by the Nature Conservancy and the Pew Environment Group, 9.7 billion tonnes of carbon is stored in the nation’s central forests, grass and woodlands. However, through better land management, such as culling wild animals, reducing wildfires, limiting tree clearing and allowing vegetation to regrow, another 1.3 billion tonnes of carbon could be stored by 2050 – the equivalent of taking 7.5 million cars off the road every year for the next 40.
Pew spokesman Barry Traill said a program of culling feral camels was already underway, but needed to be extended. “When feral animals belch they release methane, a particularly noxious greenhouse gas, and every single camel or water buffalo releases the equivalent of around one tonne of carbon dioxide each year,” News.com.au quoted him as telling reporters in Canberra.“When you’ve got hundreds of thousands, in some cases millions, of these feral animals, it’s a very large amount of pollution each year.”
This will never happen—the outcry would be enormous. Nor should it. But it shows how global warming hysteria has so distorted some of the big brains’ thinking that they propose ever more extreme—and cruel—policies in the name of saving the planet. I repeat: This is nuts.
Dear Reader,
Can I be direct with you?
War abroad. Socialists on the rise. AI upending human life. Endless uproar online. The modern attention economy doesn’t want readers — it wants users enslaved to the tyranny of the present.
First Things is the antidote: literary excellence, timeless truths, and a fixed point of reference in a culture that has lost its bearings.
But we can’t do it without readers like you.
Our goal: Raise $150,000 by November 1 to sustain First Things in the year ahead.
Your gift anchors readers in the permanent things.
Make your Fall Campaign gift now using the button below.
If you have any questions or would like more information, please contact Giovanni Del Piero, Director of the Editor’s Circle, at gdelpiero@firstthings.com or 212-627-1985.
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE
The Church in the Age of Therapy
In 1966, Philip Rieff wrote in The Triumph of the Therapeutic that “Religious man was born to…
Canada’s Deadliest Blind Spot
On September 20, the Daily Mail ran a story with the provocative headline, “Our 83-year-old Christian grandmother…
The Faithful Joy of Dolly Parton and Fulton Sheen
Dolly Parton and Fulton Sheen seem to have had little in common. She favored rhinestones; he wore…
