David Hadley: Common Sense Environmentalist

For years, David Hadley has been a common sense environmentalist.

As President of the Beach Cities Republicans, he wrote a number of great editorials for the Daily Breeze, in which he outlined his views on the environment.

Here's one about the Big Green agenda pushing aside all education that our kids need.

The Democratic Party is so desperate to smear Hadley, who is consistent and honest, that they have had to pour over his previous writings.

Strangely enough, his previous editorials make him all the more worthy of re-election!

Saving the Earth one guilt trip at a time

By David Hadley Beach Cities Republican Club

POSTED: 04/21/11, 12:01 AM PDT | 0 COMMENTS

My wife and I have our kids in Manhattan Beach public schools, and for that we feel lucky. However, this week does not bring out the best in our schools.

Manhattan Beach Unified School district is one of the highest ranking school districts in the state of California, with Hermosa Beach leading the way as the highest ranking!

And yet, what are the kids learning about?

That's right - it's Earth Week! (When did Earth Day become Earth Week anyway?) Let me share a few of our family's many Earth Week stories:

Isn't one day enough? And what were David's kids learning about?

The rigged carbon footprint test. One of our kids was given an assignment to go to a website, answer a dozen lifestyle questions and find out how many Earths it would take to support the world's current population if everybody lived that same lifestyle. The real agenda of the assignment was revealed when a family friend entered the lowest energy choice for all questions and still "learned" the Earth couldn't support two-thirds of its population on such a basis.

Huh? This sounds ridiculous. The Big Green agenda has nothing to do with science, and everything to do with politics.

But surely a good science experiment, right? Actually, it was assigned in Spanish class, and the website was entirely in English.

What?!

David campaigned on a platform of improving education. Check out what is going on in our schools.

This is crazy!! 

The environment pledge of allegiance. The following is on the wall of our elementary school library:

"I pledge allegiance to the Earth,

and all the Life which it supports,

one planet in our care,

irreplaceable,

with sustenance and respect for all."

What? I thought that schools were supposed to invest in their youth a love for God and country, to teach their rights and responsibilities as citizens. Core classes like Spanish should focus on the subject matter, should they not?

Casually Googling this pledge makes clear that its proponents don't view it as a complement to the U.S. Pledge of Allegiance, but rather that it should supersede our allegiance to our country. It is also an impossible pledge to fulfill; the human species would be dead in two weeks if we foreswore consuming all animal and plant life.

Good point. The Democratic Party wants to shame David Hadley just because he cares about people.

Really. Really sad.

The acknowledgment of guilt. This Stalinist chestnut comes in many forms. One of our kids was required to write a letter of apology to the Earth for the damage that she had done, and to promise to do better in the future. Our kids have sat through videos about the imminent demise of the planet due to (pick one): climate change, overflowing landfills, air pollution, animal death from pollution, lack of fresh water, etc.

Are you kidding me?! This indoctrination is harmful as well as stupid. Once again, David's kids were learning about all of this in classes which are not chiefly focused on science.

The green wrist band. This public display of support for the environment has become de rigueur for all fashionable students. Don't leave home without it!

OK, maybe a few overzealous teachers and parents, right? What is wrong with that? Several things, I submit.

First, we are at risk of raising kids who are unduly pessimistic about our planet's future. Do you know that America has cleaner air, cleaner water and fewer toxic substances such as lead in our environment than it had 50 years ago? Our kids need to learn both the good news and the bad.

That's right. A number of Republican Presidents were open conservationists who cared about the environment.

Second, we are at risk of losing perspective. We absolutely have environmental challenges. But we have lots of big challenges, ranging from an obesity epidemic to entitlement programs that are mathematically certain to bankrupt our country if not reformed. It is indoctrination, not education, to scare our children with unbalanced information about one of the challenges they will face as adults.

Perspective and balance. What should be focusing on? Carly Fiorina understood these challenges, too, when she was running for President. Climate chance is a non-issue compared to the imminent threats posed by Islamic terrorism. How about fighting Al Qaeda before protecting the Florida Keys!

Third, these topics are generally too complex for grade-school children. We don't teach economics until high school or college because it is a complex discipline involving trade-offs and the allocation of scarce resources. Environmental studies are similarly complex. Perhaps as a result, much of what passes for environmental education at the grade-school level is quasi-religious Earth worship.

Great points. Emotionalism is trumping reason and reality. Environmental activists are turning into extremists precisely because their agenda is so divorced from biology. Isn't environment concerns supposed to be rigidly ensconced in recognition of facts and procedures?

Fourth, we risk not focusing on the main job: education. Three in 10 Americans did not finish high school on schedule in 2010. Of those seven in 10 who did, many are functioning at a remedial level. Yes, the South Bay is better than the national average, but all California schools are subject to a state requirement to implement an "Environmental Education Initiative." Our schools have 180 days per year and every day they give to Earth Week is a day lost to another subject.

Hadley sounds like a teacher. Perhaps he spoke with some teachers who complain about the intense pressures to meet categorically deadlines, along with testing, professional development, and societal pressures from students, parents, and administrators. As a former teacher myself, I can relate to these constant demands on our educational time.

I consider myself an environmentalist. 

Let that sink in. Republican David Hadley is an environmentalist. You read it right here, folks/

Because most Americans value our environment so highly, we have achieved cleaner air, cleaner water, a different balance of development and preservation, and other environmental goods. Our (market-created) wealth and our priorities have allowed us to do these things, and I am very glad. If America continues to create wealth, I am confident we will continue to invest more of it in a better environment.

So happy Earth Day! As we celebrate, perhaps educators and parents can resolve to stick to well-established scientific facts, role-model good environmental stewardship and bring the same balance and optimism that we bring to other aspects of our children's futures.

Final Reflection

Before running for office, Assemblyman David Hadley demonstrated himself to be not just an environmentalist, but a common sense one.

Prudence, deference, and respect for individual liberty and basic necessities must overcome the fanaticism which has taken over local schools and the Green movement in general.

I find it fascinating that Democrats, so desperate to tear down Hadley, had to scour older editorials from five years ago. Much of his writing affirms his down-to-earth (pun intended) approach to Republican outreach. He puts the needs of students and their families ahead of esoteric agendas.

A high-uality education is paramount.

The need for fiscal discipline and a solvent future remains at the forefront of good government.

And ... we can care about the green without spending our own green (as in money) in the process!

David Hadley is chairman of the Beach Cities Republican Club (www.socalgop.com/bcrc). The views expressed in this column are Hadley's and not the club's. Write to him at davidfhadley@gmail.com.