Benji Backer
Appearances
Ask Dr. Drew
Save The Earth (From Bad Politicians) w/ US Congresswoman Harriet Hageman & Benji Backer – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 463
Well, look, it's great to be here and it's great to be with the Congresswoman. We were talking before we got on. She's the representative of my favorite state and the state that I hope to be a resident of very soon. So it's great to be here with both of you. I have this very deep frustration about the environmental movement, which is that it's been co-opted by partisan politics.
Ask Dr. Drew
Save The Earth (From Bad Politicians) w/ US Congresswoman Harriet Hageman & Benji Backer – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 463
The environment is one of the few issues that should not be caught up in partisan culture wars. We don't actually have very different ideologies when it comes to solving this challenge when it comes to outcomes. And for so long, you know, before I was born, the environment was something that transcended party lines. But today it's been co-opted by the left to be made into a political issue,
Ask Dr. Drew
Save The Earth (From Bad Politicians) w/ US Congresswoman Harriet Hageman & Benji Backer – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 463
Well, look, I completely agree with that. And, you know, caring about the environment is not only a privilege, but it's also something that is a hobby for most Americans. It's really tapping into the fact that caring about the environment, whether you hunt or you hike or you fish or you ski, it's something that we share as Americans.
Ask Dr. Drew
Save The Earth (From Bad Politicians) w/ US Congresswoman Harriet Hageman & Benji Backer – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 463
And tapping back into that, putting the environment back into environmentalism. and taking the politics out of it is actually how you do it first. It's something that we have the same desired outcome for. We all love spending time outdoors. We know the importance of clean air and clean water. We know the importance of biodiversity and wildlife. This is something that we understand as Americans.
Ask Dr. Drew
Save The Earth (From Bad Politicians) w/ US Congresswoman Harriet Hageman & Benji Backer – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 463
Almost half of the U.S. is biodiversity, and it's worse across oceans, which the congresswoman just mentioned. Over half our biodiversity is being destroyed by humanity. We have a duty to protect it, but we have to take the partisan politics out of it. And to do that, you have to look at sensible solutions.
Ask Dr. Drew
Save The Earth (From Bad Politicians) w/ US Congresswoman Harriet Hageman & Benji Backer – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 463
The solutions that the left has proposed, which is taking away energy, it's taking away people's cars and their livelihoods, is not the way to getting to solutions. It's innovating our way out of the problem and it's conservation, not preservation. We can get into that, but those are all values that conservatives hold and liberals should hold.
Ask Dr. Drew
Save The Earth (From Bad Politicians) w/ US Congresswoman Harriet Hageman & Benji Backer – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 463
And together we could work towards real outcomes if we put the politics aside.
Ask Dr. Drew
Save The Earth (From Bad Politicians) w/ US Congresswoman Harriet Hageman & Benji Backer – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 463
Well, look, first on your point, it's a great point. I would say that the loudest voices that are the most extreme are actually the minority, thankfully. Most Americans aren't extreme environmentalists.
Ask Dr. Drew
Save The Earth (From Bad Politicians) w/ US Congresswoman Harriet Hageman & Benji Backer – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 463
The future of environmentalism cannot be dominated by Greta Thunberg and AOC and these radical voices because they actually don't speak for the majority of Americans, including left-leaning Americans. Most Americans want pragmatism on the environment. Most Americans want conservation and sensible measures to be taken. It's just not dominating in the media cycle that we have today.
Ask Dr. Drew
Save The Earth (From Bad Politicians) w/ US Congresswoman Harriet Hageman & Benji Backer – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 463
What that looks like is, the leftist approach so far has been this preservation, don't touch anything. The environment is to be protected at all costs, which I'm the biggest environmentalist out there. But when you have this kind of hands off approach, which is what preservation is, then you have these intense wildfires like we've seen out in the West.
Ask Dr. Drew
Save The Earth (From Bad Politicians) w/ US Congresswoman Harriet Hageman & Benji Backer – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 463
You have all these other problems that exist because you're not in there actively managing and making sure that ecosystems and biodiversity and humanity are all thriving at the same time.
Ask Dr. Drew
Save The Earth (From Bad Politicians) w/ US Congresswoman Harriet Hageman & Benji Backer – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 463
When you allow local landowners and you allow local stakeholders to be involved in the process of taking care of the environment, you get the best results because local people know how to take care of their local environments best. Farmers, ranchers. Slow down.
Ask Dr. Drew
Save The Earth (From Bad Politicians) w/ US Congresswoman Harriet Hageman & Benji Backer – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 463
Doesn't that make things better?
Ask Dr. Drew
Save The Earth (From Bad Politicians) w/ US Congresswoman Harriet Hageman & Benji Backer – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 463
Well, that unknown EPA administrator, like the congresswoman was mentioning, that's 3,000 miles away from the problem, yes, does not know how to take care of the area better than the person who lives there does. And so you wonder why we have worsening wildfires. it's because we're not allowing local communities to take care of their forests.
Ask Dr. Drew
Save The Earth (From Bad Politicians) w/ US Congresswoman Harriet Hageman & Benji Backer – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 463
The government's coming in saying you're not allowed to take care of your forests. And if you want to help fight forest fires... It's why we have homeless.
Ask Dr. Drew
Save The Earth (From Bad Politicians) w/ US Congresswoman Harriet Hageman & Benji Backer – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 463
Yeah, look, I mean, when economies are strong and people's livelihoods are good, the environment ends up being protected because then we actually can go in there and protect it. I was touring a native tribe in Washington State a couple of years ago, and I asked the tribal member how they are so economically successful because this is one of the most economically successful tribes in the country.
Ask Dr. Drew
Save The Earth (From Bad Politicians) w/ US Congresswoman Harriet Hageman & Benji Backer – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 463
And also how they helped restore the salmon population because they also helped do that. And they said those two things went hand in hand. The fact that we were economically successful allowed us to put the money into restoring the salmon population. It allowed us to conserve the salmon population because we weren't worried about taking care of our basic needs.
Ask Dr. Drew
Save The Earth (From Bad Politicians) w/ US Congresswoman Harriet Hageman & Benji Backer – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 463
Humans interact with the environment every single day. Us being on this call takes up energy and takes up resources that takes from the environment. We have a role in protecting it, but that means we need to be involved in it. And that's why conservation is so much better than preservation.
Ask Dr. Drew
Save The Earth (From Bad Politicians) w/ US Congresswoman Harriet Hageman & Benji Backer – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 463
Well, I think what I'm concerned about is that we allow the radical extremes to continue dominating this conversation, because right now it's an all-or-nothing approach. We either need the Green New Deal or we're not going to do anything. We're just going to overdevelop the country and not care about the environment whatsoever. I'm over-dramatizing that.
Ask Dr. Drew
Save The Earth (From Bad Politicians) w/ US Congresswoman Harriet Hageman & Benji Backer – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 463
But that's kind of how the conversation is going. We're trying to drive a conversation that's right there, balanced in the middle. Like you said, it might not be the most sexy these days in the news cycle that we're in. But We've put together an amazing group of people.
Ask Dr. Drew
Save The Earth (From Bad Politicians) w/ US Congresswoman Harriet Hageman & Benji Backer – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 463
We have the former head of the Sierra Club and former Trump cabinet members who are working closely with this administration on our board together. Because there's a lot of shared outcomes that we have at Nature is Nonpartisan that we believe Americans want on behalf of our environment in a sensible way.
Ask Dr. Drew
Save The Earth (From Bad Politicians) w/ US Congresswoman Harriet Hageman & Benji Backer – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 463
And the AOCs of the world and the people who only critique the AOCs and don't provide their own agendas are the problem. And I would say the congressman probably understands that better than anyone because she's in Congress dealing with those sorts of realities every single day. There's no incentive to solve problems right now.
Ask Dr. Drew
Save The Earth (From Bad Politicians) w/ US Congresswoman Harriet Hageman & Benji Backer – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 463
The incentive is to just oppose the other side's ideas and create fear-mongering. I saw the National Park Conservation Association say that Donald Trump was about to destroy, and it was the beginning of the end of the national park system in the United States because he's the president. When in reality, he signed the biggest national park bill
Ask Dr. Drew
Save The Earth (From Bad Politicians) w/ US Congresswoman Harriet Hageman & Benji Backer – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 463
bill into law when he was president last time he doesn't want to destroy the national parks but they're dictating that message and americans are following so we have to take this issue out of that back and forth otherwise we're not going to get the results that we need and we're trying to pierce our way through that i'm assuming you guys are both working with the interior department and i would call doug bergham a friend i used to go to north dakota when he was governor and give presentations on various things on his behalf his wife's
Ask Dr. Drew
Save The Earth (From Bad Politicians) w/ US Congresswoman Harriet Hageman & Benji Backer – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 463
Completely agree, and there's nobody that understands the role of balance and conservation than Doug Burgum. I mean, he's a passionate outdoorsman. He understands the importance of energy. He doesn't pick winners and losers when it comes to energy, and he cares deeply about protecting nature. our national wonders. Now, what he's done, the left is not going to give him credit for this.
Ask Dr. Drew
Save The Earth (From Bad Politicians) w/ US Congresswoman Harriet Hageman & Benji Backer – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 463
He is the major funder of the Teddy Roosevelt Presidential Library at Teddy Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota. He's one of the biggest advocates for the environment I have ever seen. And he's probably the closest to nature that we've had for any DOI secretary in recent history, at least in my lifetime. He's the best advocate that we can have for the environment.
Ask Dr. Drew
Save The Earth (From Bad Politicians) w/ US Congresswoman Harriet Hageman & Benji Backer – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 463
And that's why we're working with him on a plan called Making America Beautiful Again, which hopefully will take shape soon.
Ask Dr. Drew
Save The Earth (From Bad Politicians) w/ US Congresswoman Harriet Hageman & Benji Backer – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 463
Well, one of the one of those important things that RFK focuses on is the importance of sustainable, regenerative agriculture and just healthy food systems. And the United States creates and produces food better than anywhere else in the world. And that's not just a talking point. It's the it's the truth.
Ask Dr. Drew
Save The Earth (From Bad Politicians) w/ US Congresswoman Harriet Hageman & Benji Backer – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 463
I mean, they're cutting down the rainforest to grow food there when we could be doing it here. in the United States and supporting American farmers. So I'm totally all in on his agenda there. But let me say something about the unlikely allies that President Trump has put together. That's the unlikely stakeholders that we can put together to protect the environment too in a sensible way.
Ask Dr. Drew
Save The Earth (From Bad Politicians) w/ US Congresswoman Harriet Hageman & Benji Backer – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 463
What the congressman just talked about, we need reform on the Endangered Species Act so that it's more effective. Not so we can kill off endangered species, so that it can be more effective. And that's what we're working on with this administration, not just ESA reform, national parks, wildlife, ecosystem restoration.
Ask Dr. Drew
Save The Earth (From Bad Politicians) w/ US Congresswoman Harriet Hageman & Benji Backer – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 463
Let's restore America's beauty and our environment because that's what's in disrepair. And it's not because fossil fuels and the right killing every animal. It's because our two party system has no incentive to solve problems.
Ask Dr. Drew
Save The Earth (From Bad Politicians) w/ US Congresswoman Harriet Hageman & Benji Backer – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 463
And if Donald Trump steps in and says, we wanna make America beautiful again, we wanna protect America's ecosystems and wildlife and beauty, and we wanna do it in a conservation first way, allow local stakeholders to lead when it comes to these efforts and put our natural beauty first to stop talking about climate change and carbon emissions in the atmosphere and China and all that stuff.
Ask Dr. Drew
Save The Earth (From Bad Politicians) w/ US Congresswoman Harriet Hageman & Benji Backer – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 463
Let's protect the environment here at home. I think we can actually get really far and reform these policies to make the environment protected in a more efficient, sensible way and stop wasting government taxpayer dollars on programs that don't work. They actually hurt the environment more than they help. And that's the sort of approach that I think this president is going to deploy.
Ask Dr. Drew
Save The Earth (From Bad Politicians) w/ US Congresswoman Harriet Hageman & Benji Backer – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 463
And I think RFK and other members of his cabinet are going to support it, and it will be one of his greatest legacy items.
Ask Dr. Drew
Save The Earth (From Bad Politicians) w/ US Congresswoman Harriet Hageman & Benji Backer – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 463
Well, first, I think Checkout Nature is nonpartisan. We're launching on March 20th in the center of America, the Geographic Center, Belfouche, South Dakota, where we'll be launching the new environmental movement of the future.
Ask Dr. Drew
Save The Earth (From Bad Politicians) w/ US Congresswoman Harriet Hageman & Benji Backer – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 463
We're basically recreating and rebranding the entire environmental movement as it was supposed to be, a nonpartisan issue that puts Americans first and the environment first at the same time. Check that out. But also, I think If you have been dismayed by the environmental conversation over the last few decades, I don't blame you, but engage.
Ask Dr. Drew
Save The Earth (From Bad Politicians) w/ US Congresswoman Harriet Hageman & Benji Backer – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 463
We need sensible people engaged in the conservation environment dialogue. They haven't been for a while. We've let the inmates run the asylum and the crazy people dictate the policies. You care about it more than they do. You care about the environment more than anybody else because you are sensible. Engage. We need you.
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.