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Opinion

The 3Rs are very important, when it’s convenient, when it’s trendy…….

Published

6 years ago

4 minute read

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, the 3Rs is popular among people and is tossed out there, often, in the news. When it comes to plastic bottles, bags and straws but not when it comes to cars and neighbourhoods, for example.
There are a lot of small cars out there and most often it is an economic decision, but not always. You go to any parking lot, even those in front of discount stores and you will see many new, very large vehicles. The 3Rs do not seem to apply to our vehicles, apparently.
Our neighbourhoods offer another example. We all seem to be clamouring for newer, bigger homes in new neighbourhoods. When I was growing up it was normal to see a family of six living in houses of a 1,000 square feet. Now a family of six is rare but houses of 1000 square feet is rarer, and even rarer still is a family of six living in a 1000 square foot house.
The 3Rs comes into play when you hit retirement and it is usually a health or an economic decision.
Why do we march on Parliament Hill to stop using plastic straws and piping oil if we insist on bigger houses and bigger cars?
History says that we are building on the best agricultural land as we expand our cities with new neighbourhoods. I do not think reducing our arable land or reusing or recycling our farmland into residential neighbourhoods and industrial parks is in the goal of the 3Rs philosophy.
It seems to me that we pave over 1000s of acres of farmland to build newer homes every year, but we are worked up over how many plastic straws hit our waste management sites.
Every city has older run down neighbourhoods, ignored or avoided by homebuyers and politicians. Often times they become rentals or the first step on the property ladder, seldom thought about in the 3Rs scheme of things. Focusing on appearances and not on the potential it often easier to build or buy new houses in new neighbourhoods.
I live in an older neighbourhood, a mid century home, with deer visiting my yard. I have a view of trees and a short walk to the creek. I also have decade old cracks in my sidewalk, a shrub growing in my street. The neighbour’s house sold recently but it was a hard sell and it went for less than it was bought for almost 10 years ago. A realtor mentioned that people want new, modern homes inside mid-century houses. They see antiques and character as simply old.
So the politicians are only following the wishes of the populace when they abandon the 3Rs, pave over farmland to make room for new homes, new roads and new conveniences.
Are we only environmentalists when it is convenient and only in trends?
I do not wish to live in a cave, but I think that there is a sense of disproportionate importance in our lives that needs addressing.
Maybe the answer is paving new roads out of used plastic bags and straws, and building new houses out of bricks made of compacted trash. Maybe, and this may be unrealistic, we could just reduce the number of neighbourhoods, recycle our old houses and reuse abandoned schools.
Just a thought.

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Andrew Scheer exposes the Mark Carney Canadians should know

Published on February 22, 2025

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Daily Caller

NEWT GINGRICH: Europe’s Elites Were Finally Told To Take A Look In The Mirror

Published on February 22, 2025

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From the Daily Caller News Foundation

By Newt Gingrich

In an amazing show of courage, Vice President J.D. Vance offered an intervention for some of our European allies.

That is the best way to think of the two historic speeches he made in France and Germany last week.

In Paris, Vice President Vance pledged the United States would do whatever it takes to lead the world in the development of Artificial Intelligence. He went on to assert that Europe’s automatic response to regulate technological change rather than adapt to it was doomed to fail.

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Vance warned the Europeans that the Trump administration would retaliate to protect American high-tech companies from being fined and regulated by the European community.

Then, Vance went to the Munich Security Conference. It is the annual meeting of European leaders concerned about defense and threats to peace. The Vice President shocked the Europeans by launching a frontal assault on the decay of their political system.

As Vance put it:

“But while the Trump administration is very concerned with European security and believes that we can come to a reasonable settlement between Russia and Ukraine, and we also believe that it’s important in the coming years for Europe to step up in a big way to provide for its own defense, the threat that I worry the most about vis-à-vis Europe is not Russia, it’s not China, it’s not any other external actor.  And what I worry about is the threat from within, the retreat of Europe from some of its most fundamental values — values shared with the United States of America.”

He then went through a litany of specific complaints about the behavior of different European countries. They ranged from failing to control immigration, suppressing free speech, and Brussels seeking to control and define futures of independent countries such as Hungary and Romania.

The leading French newspaper, Le Monde (their equivalent of the New York Times) asserted that the American Vice President was declaring “ideological war on Europe.”

Le Monde was right. The European elites have been decaying for at least two generations. They hide behind their privileged status and take ideological positions that feel good but are destructive. Europe’s failures are devastating for most everyday Europeans.

I have personal knowledge about this. I have a Ph.D. in Modern European History – and I have lived in France, Germany, Belgium and Italy. As a young Army dependent, we were living in France when the French Army came back from Algeria, killed the French Fourth Republic and brought back General Charles de Gaulle to establish the Fifth Republic.

It is now the longest serving non-royal government in French history.

The European elites value each other’s opinions more than they value serving the people of Europe. The European elites live in a fantasy world of green policies that destroy industries and jobs, welfare policies which destroy the work ethic, and immigration policies which undermine the popular culture. They simply hope for a peaceful world without a strong military.

Meanwhile, state enforced speech codes protect Islamic extremists at the expense of local citizens.

The result has been a steady decline of European culture, economic development, and defensive capacity.

The Afghan Islamist who wounded more than two dozen people and killed a mother and her two-year-old daughter with a car two days before the supposed security conference signals the willful avoidance of reality at the heart of the elite European worldview.

To be clear, I admire European civilization. I believe America is far stronger and safer if Europe is healthy and capable of growing and defending itself.

I hope vice president Vance’s intervention at least starts European elites thinking about what must be done to revive their continent.

For more commentary from Newt Gingrich, visit Gingrich360.com. Also subscribe to the Newt’s World podcast.

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