Extreme environmentalism, which it has now become, is a fraud perpetrated on a naïve public that doesn't know any better. Global warming, the Kyoto Treaty and other environmental laws and treaties are bunk and most of you know it. Your philosophy, propaganda and radical agenda is "protect the environment at all costs", the U. S. Constitution and the rights of free American citizens and property owners be damned. Contrary to your belief, humans are not a stain on the Earth. We are in fact part of the evolutionary and natural process of Earth and those processes, not environmentalists or governments, will determine the final outcome. We will but only tickle the grander elements such as the Sun, the moon and the Earth itself, none of which is predictable, much less measurable. A few spewing volcanoes or an episode of Sunspots can totally invalidate any measurements taken. The variables are just too great to model.

Environmentalists have brain washed an entire civilization into believing that environmental protection has a higher priority than constitutional rights, protections and safeguards and perpetrated on free citizens by a rogue and oppressive government at your urgings. You took over Oregon, Washington and California and you have taken over many local and State governments, as well as the U. S. Congress, all the while beating the drums of the "environment" into the heads of naive citizens who live in cities and have no stake in unconstitutional takings. You have disenfranchised rural landowners and made them victims of your crimes. You decimated an entire culture of loggers, mill operators and wood product employees in the Pacific Northwest and forced them into bankruptcy and divorce and scattered them to the four winds because of your distorted desire to "save" one stupid owl that was going extinct for natural causes that had nothing to do with logging or loss of habitat. The real fact is that 99.9% of all species that ever lived on Earth are now extinct and the Endangered Species Act is bad legislation for that very reason and should be repealed. You use junk science to win your battles and extort monies from naive citizens to fund your radical agendas in court.

You "people" have the mistaken, naive and dangerous mindset that privately-held, rural land is your land to do with as you will. It isn't. It belongs to the millions of individuals that own it in fee-simple title and paid for or inherited it and the inviolate right to own that land by those individuals is protected by the 5^th and 14^th Amendments to the U. S. Constitution. You don't own it and neither does any State or the Federal Government.

People live in rural areas to raise their families and get away from the cities you infect and all of the noise, crime, pollution, traffic and congestion that high-dense urban areas produce. Not everyone wants to live like the Sierra Club envisions; 25-story buildings with 800 sq. ft. apartments, in a concrete jungle, where the poor saps drive their bicycles to work.

Unfortunately, the U. S. Supreme Court has not, once and for all, answered the question of TAKINGS by government under the 5^th and 14^th Amendments. Each case brought before the court has been tried separately and the beleaguered landowner has to sue the government every time there is a TAKING. The Courts' rulings have been too narrow.

Nevertheless, when compared to the 5^th Amendment, Government exercises TAKINGS under the so-called police powers of Government every day. The 5^th and 14^th Amendments are abundantly clear and I will repeat an excerpt here for your review.

"No person …………… shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property without DUE PROCESS of law; nor shall private property be taken for PUBLIC USE without COMPENSATION." Environmental Protection is, without a doubt and unequivocally, for public use.

The issue is not whether Government can exercise the right of POLICE POWERS that have been upheld by the courts. The issue is, does that exercise end up being a TAKING under the 5^th and 14^th Amendments. Restricting certain building types to certain zones falls under the police powers. Intentionally polluting a waterway or aquifer should be dealt with accordingly as a crime.

However, TAKING away the right of use of 65% of someone's property as King County, Washington has now done, is clearly a TAKING and if demanded by the Government to protect the environment (clearly a public benefit) then the Government and the public at large should pay compensation to the landowner under the Constitution. If they can't afford to pay, then they shouldn't pass the law.

My other issues with environmentalists have to do with their getting in the way of a free society to provide the resources necessary to keep that society going economically. Environmentalists have stopped oil refineries and nuclear power plants from being built for over 25 years. That's why a gallon of gas is now over $2.00 and will not likely come down and that's why our power capacity is at or near maximum. Environmentalists, in concert with radical international environmentalists, are trying to lock up private lands in the U. S. for biospheres and wildlife corridors without compensating the owners of the private lands they want to take. Environmentalists have stopped drilling for oil in areas of known oil reserves, thus making us more dependent on foreign sources and driving up the cost of oil and oil-associated products, accordingly. The unnecessary cost for overt and radical environmental protection has been in the Trillions of dollars since it became in vogue and it has severely weakened our economic engine, reduced our power capacity and eroded our constitutional form of government almost beyond repair.

Government, at your behest, has finally gone too far and an uprising is brewing. You have way too much power but you have stepped on the wrong toes. You are truly the enemy of a free society and in our opinion your actions are just shy of treason.

Ron Ewart

Fall City, WA

425 222-9482