Pollution from big smokestacks, car emission, industrial effluents and sewage remains a serious problem. Recycling and government-mandated efficiency programs promote the false illusion of environmental progress. Sifting and sorting trash does not save forests or lakes. Conserving newspaper pulp, aluminum, glass and gasoline does not conserve rivers, wetlands or shores. Fertilizers, pesticides, growth hormones and genetic engineering allows to transform earth and sun, corn and wheat, chicken and cow, into edible calories more efficiently.
Soft alternatives are less green because they use more land.
Fossil and nuclear fuels extract more power from less of the earth s surface than solar, wind, biomass and other soft alternatives, and are therefore greener. Wealth is green. Wealth, not poverty, supplies the means to conserve the wilderness.