Leaving a Footprint

In an op-ed at the Washington Times, Keith Lockitch takes environmentalists to task for the never-ending guilt levied on us for our “environmental footprint.”

[F]or environmentalism, the size of your “footprint” is the measure of your guilt. Nature, according to green philosophy, is something to be left alone to be preserved untouched by human activity. Their notion of an “environmental footprint” is intended as a measure of how much you “disturb” nature, with disturbing nature viewed as a sin requiring atonement. Just as the Christian concept of original sin conveys the message that human beings are stained with evil simply for having been born, the green concept of an “environmental footprint” implies that you should feel guilty for your very existence.

It should hardly be any surprise, then, that nothing you do to try to lighten your “footprint” will ever be deemed satisfactory… So long as you still have some “footprint,” further penance is required; so long as you are still alive, no degree of sacrifice can erase your guilt. The only way to leave no “footprint” would be to die.

So should you empty your RV’s septic tank in the sewer? Of course not, but don’t be ashamed of the footprint you make to achieve your own happiness. Our survival and happiness are dependent on our ability to understand and reshape nature, and it the moral right of a reasoning mind to do just that. From our 80-year life expectancy to the tap water we take for granted, “[e]very good thing in our lives comes from altering nature for our own benefit.” So take pride in the human footprint (a task rendered effortless when pondering the image below) and the many more we will make.

One of the first footprints on the moon.