We celebrate the 50th anniversary of “Earth Day.” We are also reminded that Vladimir Lenin was born on this day in 1870.
Coincidence? I don’t know. We do know that there is anti-capitalism streak in the environmentalist movement. Just check out AOC!
Do any of the people who started “Earth Day” know what Lenin’s ideas did to the environment in communist countries?
The collapse of the Soviet Union opened up many of those countries enslaved behind what Prime Minister Churchill called “The Iron Curtain.”
We learned many things:
- The economies were really backwards compared to those on our side, i.e. East vs West Germany for example; and,
- Their cities were really dirty and polluted.
In fact, The New York Times wrote this in 1990:
While efforts to restore clean air to the United States have met with partial success, there is a far greater ecological disaster brewing in Eastern Europe, a report on worldwide air pollution said today.The report, issued by the Worldwatch Institute, a Washington-based environmental group, warned that gains in the West are quickly being negated by the unrestricted burning of high-sulfur brown coal and diesel fuel that is blackening cities across Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union.
It was obvious that the communist world was polluted because of a lack of property rights as well as the absence of freedom or the rule of law. It’s no coincidence that democratic states, like the US or Western Europe, are more sensitive to pollution or dirty rivers. In general, elected representatives are more sensitive to the air that their constituents breathe or the water that they drink.
So is it a coincidence that Earth Day and Lenin’s birthday are on the same day? I don’t know but someone forgot to check what Lenin and the gang did to the water and air in communist countries.
Maybe they should change the date and remember someone who actually cared about clean water and fresh air.
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