Going Green By Loosing Green

We are being forced to go "green" by ever growing governments who have hopped on the environmentalism bandwagon. To the casual observer, this seems like a noble idea to help clean up pollution but it has costs, big costs. When Kermit the Frog sang "it's not easy being green", he wasn't kidding. Turns out its not exactly cheap either. It turns out it doesn't matter to environmentalists if you're a poor villager in Kenya or a middle class person living in a North American city. We're all being called upon to pay more and more for this initiative, and it's hurting.

Toronto, or as I like to call it "San Francisco North" has become quite overzealous on the green fad. Seems each week, the council cooks up a new scheme to "help the environment." Recent efforts have to do with garbage. Toronto wants to charge you extra, on top of your taxes, for how much garbage you put out. Basically, you pay to "rent" this bin and you pay more for a larger bin. On the outside, this seems to make sense. That is until you consider the fact that the quality of garbage pickup service has been declining across the GTA. Everyone is paying higher and higher taxes each year but getting less service in return. Will this bin system in Toronto improve garbage collection? Well, no, they never said it would. The sole purpose of this bin concept is to encourage people to throw out less garbage for the sake of the environmentalists. It won't improve the system. Not only will it not improve the system, it will encourage illegal dumping. People with large amounts of garbage will just dispose of it elsewhere rather than paying for the larger bin. The REAL purpose of this project is to help Toronto pay for the dumping site it purchased near London for $20 million. What makes matters worse is that large areas of Toronto still do not receive regular recycling pickup.
Of course, once Toronto adopts an idea, the rest of the GTA will likely follow suit. Here in Halton, we used to get recycle pickup once a weak. It was reduced to twice a month. Garbage collection is also inconsistent. Wednesday is garbage day but it has been known to happen, on several occasions, where garbage is not picked up until Thursday. Just another case of paying more for less.

Garbage collection is only one case, in a long list, where this environment fad is forcing us consumers/taxpayers to shell out more of our hard earned money, so the elites in our society can feel good about themselves. Gasoline is another excellent example. Arguably the government's most lucrative tax next to income. We are paying more and more at the pump, and we're being forced to contend with both government and oil company greed. What's worse, environmentalists are demanding that prices be kept high so people use less oil. So basically, we loose our mobility for them to feel good.

Electricity is another example of government greed that is hiding behind the cloak of the environment. We've been paying insane amounts thanks to the McGuinty government here in Ontario. Now he wants us to use smart meters to help conserve. Apparently to reduce emisions form coal plants. Turns out the high price of electricity is making the government a tidy profit and hides their incompetence from closing Lakeview.
Electricity is not only an issue here in Canada. According to the documentary The Great Global Warming Swindle, environmentalists are forcing developing countries to use the most expensive forms of electricity generation there are (solar and wind) rather than cheaper hydrocarbon (oil and coal) based alternatives. Sure, solar panels can run a few lights but they can't be used to run a smelter or an assembly line. Heavy industry requires a lot of electricity and solar and wind power are simply too costly and inefficient to provide it. These countries need heavy industry to develop so they are being kept in an economic hole to "save" the planet. That's why we have so many countries, literally sitting on gold mines, that are dirt poor.

Of course, this is typical. The ordinary person is always forced to pay more in order to keep the liberal elites happy.