Benji Backer
Appearances
The Brett Cooper Show
Can b00bs Save The Planet? | Episode 15
So much of what the climate community does is counterproductive. This is a perfect example of the hypocrisy of the environmental community, which is that we are going to destroy the environment to claim that we're saving it. I just think that the environmental movement's not honest with themselves. Like, there is no perfect solution to things, right? It makes sense.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can b00bs Save The Planet? | Episode 15
that you have to create a road to have a conference in Brazil. But then don't lecture people on how evil they are when they're doing something much more minimal than that in their own day-to-day lives.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can b00bs Save The Planet? | Episode 15
The environmental movement should stand for the 80% of Americans that care about the environment and want sensible policies to solve those problems. That's what the environmental movement should be about. There's no organization out there, and that's what Nature is Nonpartisan is dedicated to doing, is representing those people and also pushing for sensible policies that work for every American.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can b00bs Save The Planet? | Episode 15
I think most of us are tired of the back and forth on a lot of policies, right? Like it's just radically left policies and then we have to undo those policies and then we just kind of go back and forth until we, if you look back, we don't really actually make progress because there's all this back and forth. If you don't have a,
The Brett Cooper Show
Can b00bs Save The Planet? | Episode 15
sensible approach between the right and the left that actually stays true over decades of time and doesn't get undone by the next administration, you don't make progress. And the reason why that matters is, I mean, we've lost a third of the biodiversity in the United States since 1970. 95% of the biodiversity in Latin America and the Caribbean has been lost since 1970.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can b00bs Save The Planet? | Episode 15
Around the world, like we're losing the nature around us. And we need reforms to help us, you know, make sure that we're protecting those places, but also doing so in a way that helps humanity.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can b00bs Save The Planet? | Episode 15
So it's really easy to critique something. It's a lot harder to come up with solutions as you are critiquing something. So what conservatives should have done, and what we can do, it's not like too late to do this, is say, here's what we don't like about the left's ideas. Here's what we should do instead. We've done a good job of critiquing, rightfully so, bad ideas.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can b00bs Save The Planet? | Episode 15
We've done a really bad job proposing our own ideas. And that has actually harmed us in the end as conservatives and the country. And I think, again, it's not too late to change that course.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can b00bs Save The Planet? | Episode 15
I believe that we can reclaim that term as people who care about the environment, who want to conserve it in a smart way for future generations. No matter if you hunt, you fish, you ski, you take care of a farm, you ranch, we all have a connection to nature that is undeniable. That makes you an environmentalist, or at least it used to, and it should again.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can b00bs Save The Planet? | Episode 15
This is an American identity, cultural opportunity to reclaim something that we all share, make it something that's all American again. and make it about the environment again. Make environmentalism about the environment again.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can b00bs Save The Planet? | Episode 15
When people think of environmentalists, they don't think of people who care about the environment anymore. They think about AOC. They think about Bernie Sanders. They think about Leonardo DiCaprio or Greta Thunberg. And these are people who don't really care about the environment. They care about growing their own brands, and they...
The Brett Cooper Show
Can b00bs Save The Planet? | Episode 15
They care about basically making a political statement that is actually not just a political statement, it's an extremist political statement. What politician's gonna look at soup being thrown at a painting and think, oh, now I know exactly what I need to do to help the environment. Like, that does not help at all. They're not even hearing from hikers and skiers.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can b00bs Save The Planet? | Episode 15
They're hearing from radical people who don't have any ideas behind them. They just have complaining and they just have extreme actions. And so it basically has made the environmental movement completely ineffective.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can b00bs Save The Planet? | Episode 15
Over 80% of Americans self-identified as environmentalists. back in 1990, because it was like everyone agreed that we love these places, we love our home, we love nature, and instead that got co-opted by partisan politics.
The Brett Cooper Show
Can b00bs Save The Planet? | Episode 15
I would blame Al Gore and people on the left for that, but now when people think of the environment, when they go hiking, when they go hunting, when they go fishing, when they go skiing, they don't actually think about how much they're enjoying their love of nature only. They're also thinking about, you know, the fact that this is caught up in political culture wars and it's so unnecessary.