No, RFK Jr. Is NOT a Climate Change Extremist

[mikegriffith1]

There is much more to the environmental debate than climate change. Industrial pollution of water and soil is a major problem. Plastic pollution of rivers, lakes, and especially the sea is a serious and growing problem. And, sad to say, many if not most conservative politicians have been on the wrong side on these issues.

Too many conservatives turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to industrial pollution of our water sources and soil because they view complaints about this pollution as excessive, exaggerated liberal attacks on big corporations, when in most cases the complaints are valid.

For all the good things Trump did--and he did many--he went way too far in rolling back environmental regulations, and he refused to join the EU's agreement to track and limit the trade of lower-quality, mixed, and contaminated plastics, even though he admitted that maritime plastic pollution is a serious problem.

RFK Jr. is rock solid on water and soil pollution.

"But, Mike," my conservative friends tell me, "Kennedy buys man-made climate change and wants to stay in the Paris Climate Agreement." My answer to this is (1) that Kennedy has spoken against the more extreme and wasteful green energy measures that Biden included in the Inflation Reduction Act, and (2) that Kennedy has made it very clear that he will not take any actions on energy that are going to cause substantial economic harm, that he understands that we cannot phase out use of petroleum and natural gas until we have viable alternatives to them.

 

[JoeB131]

There is much more to the environmental debate than climate change. Industrial pollution of water and soil is a major problem. Plastic pollution of rivers, lakes, and especially the sea is a serious and growing problem. And, sad to say, many if not most conservative politicians have been on the wrong side on these issues.

Too many conservatives turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to industrial pollution of our water sources and soil because they view complaints about this pollution as excessive, exaggerated liberal attacks on big corporations, when in most cases the complaints are valid.

No, they do it because Conservatism has become a bunch of corporate shills, who will go along with any abuse that big corporations want to inflict on the rest of us.

Most of them are too stupid to realize that they are the ones who are dying from this, but Hate Radio tells them that environmentalist are commies.

 

[mikegriffith1]

If you want a detailed look at RFK Jr.'s environmental policies, here's the page on his official campaign website that presents them:

The Best Environmental President in American History

Learn how Kennedy will protect our environment from corporate corruption and contamination.

www.kennedy24.com

An excerpt:

In contrast with Kennedy’s lifelong efforts to fight corporate corruption and contamination of our environment, Presidents Trump and Biden both appointed corporate lobbyists to fill federal regulatory agencies. Trump rolled back dozens of environmental rules for big polluters, and Biden has given corporations billions of dollars of taxpayer money for false environmental solutions.

FYI, Kennedy founded the Waterkeeper Alliance, which is now the largest clean-water organization in the world.

Finally, it is worth repeating that RFK Jr. has stressed that he does not support the call for an immediate ban on fossil fuels, and that it would be economically devastating to stop using fossil fuels before we have a viable alternative to replace them. This distinguishes him from the green extremists, who simply don't care what would happen with a sudden ban on fossil fuels and who have yet to explain how we would replace the thousands of vital goods made with petroleum byproducts.

 

[JoeB131]

Finally, it is worth repeating that RFK Jr. has stressed that he does not support the call for an immediate ban on fossil fuels, and that it would be economically devastating to stop using fossil fuels before we have a viable alternative to replace them. This distinguishes him from the green extremists, who simply don't care what would happen with a sudden ban on fossil fuels and who have yet to explain how we would replace the thousands of vital goods made with petroleum byproducts

Not sure how Brainworm thinks that his crazy sounds less crazy by saying something no one else has really proposed.

Last time I checked, Greta Thurnburg wasn't on the ballot in November.

 

[mikegriffith1]

One clear indication that RFK Jr. would deal with environmental issues in a reasonable, responsible manner is how he dealt with Conoco's attempt to do oil drilling in the Huaorani area in Ecuador.

Despite fierce opposition from extreme environmentalists, Kennedy worked out a compromise with Conoco that would have allowed Conoco to drill for oil in the Huaorani region but in a responsible, eco-friendly way and with independent oversight. He even got Conoco to agree to clean up the polluted, abandoned drilling areas that Texaco had left behind years earlier, and to give a portion of their profits to the Huaorani people. Moreover, the Huaoranis themselves strongly endorsed the Kennedy-Conoco deal.

But, long story short, some American green extremist groups sabotaged the deal, over the objections of the Huaoranis themselves. As a result, a while later, an Ecuadoran oil company started drilling in the region and with no regard for the Huaoranis or the local environment, and the radical American environmentalists were powerless to intervene because the oil company was an Ecuadoran company.

Dick Russell discusses this revealing incident at length in his book The Real RFK Jr.: Trials of a Truth Warrior (New York: Skyhorse Publishing, 2023), pp. 121-125. Russell also deals at length with the attacks against Kennedy regarding vaccines, the lockdowns, his father's death, Sirhan Sirhan, and JFK's death. However, most of the book deals with Kennedy's upbringing and his outstanding record as an environmental lawyer.

 

[mikegriffith1]

Two other cases highlight RFK Jr.'s non-extremist approach to environmental issues and his differences with green extremists: (1) his willingness to work with conservative interests in northern New York to reach a reasonable compromise over water protection for the Catskill Watershed, and (2) his siding with the fishing industry against the Cape Wind Project, which proposed building a massive wind farm near the coast at Nantucket Sound.

In both cases, Bobby incurred the wrath of radical green groups because he dared to take business interests into account and dared to conclude that those interests had valid points that needed to be addressed in any final solution.

Reading about these cases has helped me to understand why several far-left green groups have condemned RFK Jr. as a sellout and have even accused him of being almost as bad as Trump on the environment--which is a ludicrous charge when it comes to industrial air and water pollution.

New York Times bestselling author Dick Russell discusses these cases in his 2023 book The Real RFK Jr.: Trials of a Truth Warrior.

 

[JoeB131]

But it was only Fantasy
The wall was too high, as you can see
Try as he might, he could not break free
and the worms ate into his brain!