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DEATH BY ENVIRONMENTALISM
Aug 9, 2001
MARINA DEL REY, CA--It was revealed last week that four young firefighters burned to death in late July while fighting a forest fire in Washington state--because Forest Service officials didn't think they could allow helicopters to extract water from the habitat of an "endangered" species of fish.

"What is outrageous in this tragedy," said Robert Tracinski, a senior fellow at the Ayn Rand Institute and a columnist for Creators Syndicate, "is that there was ever any question about taking the water. The bureaucratic mix-up (Forest Service officials did have the authority to take the water) only happened because of the widespread environmentalist presumption that saving fish is a non-negotiable goal, which takes precedence over saving humans."

Tracinski noted that the "firefighters deaths are perfectly consistent with long-standing federal water policy in the West, such as the recent withholding of irrigation water from Klamath Basin farmers in Oregon. If, for the sake of fish, we are sacrificing these farmers' livelihoods--what's to stop us from sacrificing firefighters' lives?"

Ayn Rand Institute senior fellow Robert Tracinski is available for interviews.

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