Jon Reisman

The environmental left has given us climate alarmism, unreliable and expensive energy, undefined “equity,” and the equally vague chimera of “sustainability.” What is or is not “sustainable” (and for what period of time) depends on a host of assumptions about technology, resources, and human behavior — assumptions which the environmental left rarely (if ever) articulates, examines, or is transparent about because exposure of their left-wing/Marxist foundations is not an approved disinformation/agitprop strategy. 

Despite claims of reliance on scientific theory, evidence, and rigor, most environmental advocacy ultimately relies on leftist virtue signaling, including stolen land acknowledgements, diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) loyalty pledges, Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS), and, most recently, “ICE Out” protests.

Here in Maine, we have the Senator George J. Mitchel Center for Sustainability Solutions at the University of Maine (https://umaine.edu/mitchellcenter/). The Mission and Vision statement has no reference to sustainability:

Mission: Serving as a leader and valued partner in understanding and solving societal problems related to the growing challenge of improving human well-being while protecting the environment.Vision: Connecting knowledge with action to strengthen our economic, social, and environmental future.

I sent the following note and Maine Freedom of Access Act (FOAA) request to the Center’s Director for any definition of sustainability they might have:

Dear Director Hart (david.hart@maine.edu) -- Last year I discovered that Maine and UMS were promoting equity without defining it. The Mitchell Center was partly responsible for that policy malpractice as you were major players in the Climate Action Plan.

It appears that you have and are promoting sustainability without a definition -- I certainly couldn’t find one on your Web pages. If you have a definition, please consider this a FOAA

request for it. I am preparing a column on the Sustainability Shuffle grift I believe you are promoting.

Thank you.

Jon Reisman (XY/Curmudgeon), Associate Professor of Economics & Public Policy Emeritus, University of Maine at Machias

I have not yet received a reply, and I wouldn’t be surprised not to. I also note that the Center has not removed George Mitchell’s name from their title, as so many others have for being an alleged Epstein enabler. I’m not sure that approach is sustainable.

Some 30 years ago, when the Sustainability Shuffle grift was just getting started, I penned a parody, “It’s Just Sustainability,” sung to the tune of The Bare Necessities. Here are the lyrics:

It’s just sustainability.

Simple Sustainability.

Forget about your profits and your life.

It’s just sustainability,

Old Mother nature’s recipe,

That brings sustainability to life.

 Wherever I wander, wherever I roam,

I couldn’t be fonder of my big home.

The Greens are buzzin’ in the tree,

Makin’ regulations just for me.

When you look under the rocks and soil,

Dig deep and drill for oil,

And maybe try nukes too …

Sustainability of life will come to you

It’ll come to you!

It’s just sustainability.

Simple Sustainability.

Forget about your profits and your life.

I mean sustainability,

It’s why a Prof can rest at ease,

With just sustainability for life,

Now when you’re trading carbon

Fightin’ climate change,

And you offset carbon,

It might seem strange.

Don’t offset the climate change by trades.

Fighting’ climate change

Is all the rage.

You need to think outside the cage,

When you’re fighting carbon and global change.

Have I given you a clue?

 Sustainability of life will come to you

It’ll come to you!

You can see Gene Nichols and the author perform it at the 51-minute mark of a past UMM Groundhog Day musical event at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kgj7rFSdxV8, UMM Groundhog Day Event, YouTube.

Jon Reisman is an economist and policy analyst who retired from the University of Maine at Machias after 38 years. He resides on Cathance Lake in Cooper, where he is a Statler and Waldorf intern. Mr. Reisman’s views are his own, and he welcomes comments as letters to the editor here or to him directly via email at jreisman@maine.edu.