Socialism Versus Nature

John Stossel

June 09, 2023

Source: Bigstock”Greed of the fossil fuel industry” is “destroying our world,” states Sen. Bernie Sanders. Youths concur. Their service? Socialism.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez states socialism creates “an environment that provides for all individuals, not simply the fortunate couple of.”

“Rubbish,” says Tom Palmer of the Atlas Network in my new video.

“Wherever socialism is tried, it creates nasty contamination.”

Palmer, unlike Ocasio-Cortez and the majority of us, invested great deals of time in socialist countries. He as soon as smuggled books into the Soviet Union.

What he’s seen persuades him that environmental-movement socialists are wrong about what’s “green.”

“We tried socialism,” says Palmer. “We ran the experiment. It was a disaster. Worst ecological record on the planet.”

In China, when socialist leaders saw that sparrows ate important grain, they motivated individuals to eliminate sparrows.

“Billions of birds were eliminated,” states Palmer.

Federal government officials shot birds. People without guns banged pans and blew horns, scaring sparrows into staying aloft for longer than they might tolerate.

“These bad tired birds fell from the skies,” says Palmer. “It was madness.”

I explained that, enjoying video of people killing sparrows, it looked like they mored than happy to do it.

“If you stopped working to reveal interest for the socialist objectives of the party,” Palmer reacts, “you were going to remain in difficulty.”

The Celebration’s campaign prospered. They eliminated nearly every sparrow.

However “all it takes is two minutes of thinking to figure, ‘Wait. Who’s going to eat all the bugs?'” states Palmer.

Without sparrows, bugs increased. Bugs destroyed more crops than the sparrows had.

“Individuals starved as an effect,” states Palmer. “People confuse socialism with … a ‘nice government’ or a ‘federal government that’s sweet’ or ‘made up of my good friends.'”

Socialism implies central preparation. That ends badly.

“What AOC wants to do is essentially offer the Pentagon, or comparable agencies, control over the entire society. She believes that’s going to turn out well,” says Palmer. “It’s a joke.”

China’s main planners keep making errors.

Many Chinese lakes and rivers are brilliant green. Fertilizer overflow developed algae blooms that eliminate all fish. A Lancet research study states Chinese air pollution kills a million people each year.

Wherever socialism is attempted, it develops nasty contamination.

In the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin desired cotton for his army. His central planners decided it ought to be grown near the Aral Sea. They drained so much water that the sea, once the 4th greatest inland lake on the planet, diminished to less than half its size.

“Soviet planners triggered catastrophic ecological costs to the whole population,” says Palmer.

I push back. “That was then. Now the rules would be different. Now the guideline would be: ‘green.'”

“All the time we hear socialists say, ‘Next time, we’ll get it right.’ The number of next times do you get?” asks Palmer.

Yet American media still often say socialists secure the environment. A New York City Times op-ed claims “Lenin’s eco warriors” developed “the world’s biggest system of many safeguarded nature reserves.”

“These are not nature maintains,” Palmer responds. “They use it as a disposing ground for heavy metals, for radioactive waste– in what sense is it a nature protect?”

Capitalists damage nature, too. Free societies do need government rules to secure the environment.

However free enterprises with residential or commercial property rights often secure nature better than bureaucrats can.

Personal farmers, discusses Palmer, are “worried about the capability of the farm to grow food next year, every year, (even) after that farmer is gone. Why? Because the farm has a capital value. That’s the ‘capital’ in commercialism. They wish to optimize that.”

Commercialism likewise secures the environment since it creates wealth. When individuals aren’t worried about starving or freezing, they get interested in securing nature. That’s why capitalist nations have cleaner air.

Likewise, capitalists can pay for to spend for wild animal preserves.

“When no one has property rights and people are bad, tigers and elephants are thought about a burden … They kill them,” says Palmer. “When you’re wealthier … you care about the environment.”

Socialists state they care, however the real world shows: to protect the environment, industrialism works better.

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