Environmentalists are the Chicken Littles of our society.

They work people up over bogus manmade “disasters”: The globe is warming! There’s a hole in our ozone layer! The spotted owl needs old-growth forests to survive!

Then, Americans rush to spend billions correcting questionable problems.

We’re still wasting billions, for example, to remove asbestos - despite a court order lifting an Environmental Protection Agency ban and evidence that the type used in public buildings is harmless. Through 1991, school districts squandered $160 billion on asbestos removal. That’s money lost for books, supplies and buildings.

The environmental movement has given us all an appreciation for our natural surroundings. But you can’t underestimate the economic devastation caused by uncompromising greenies.

In the first year after the Northern Spotted Owl was listed as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act, 75 mills closed for lack of a stable logging supply. Millions of acres are still locked up despite proof that the owl isn’t endangered nor dependent on old forests.

A Sierra Club official revealed the environmentalists’ true motive in making the spotted owl its cause celebre when he said: “The Northern Spotted Owl is the wildlife species of choice to act as a surrogate for old growth protection, and I’ve often thought that thank goodness the spotted owl evolved in the Northwest or we would have had to genetically engineer it.”

Now, eight environmental groups plan to appeal to a North American Free Trade Agreement committee if President Clinton signs a salvage logging bill. Imagine! If the greenies have their way, an international group from countries with questionable environmental credentials would sit in judgment on the United States!

Anything and any means to achieve a myopic end.

We spent 10 years and $537 million to find that acid rain “is not the environmental crisis some scientists suggested.” Nor was PCBs. Dioxin. Or Alar.

Environmentalists don’t admit their mistakes. Nor industry successes. They won’t tell you that we have 23 percent more standing trees today than 40 years ago.

All they want to do is run around and scream, “The sky is falling.”

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