Do you feel 'green guilt'?

Study: Americans don't feel pain for disproportionate use of Earth's resources

This is a rush transcript from "The Five," July 13, 2012. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

GREG GUTFELD, CO-HOST: Welcome back to kittens today.

So, NPR science guy Richard Harris reports that Americans don't feel guilty enough about their evil consumption. Mining a survey of countries and their habits, he says Yanks don't feel the pain that the disproportionate use of the Earth's resources warn.

Well, the only usage I feel guilty about is the electricity it takes to power NPR. How about we change NPR to "no public resources"? Let's see how long they gripe about us using up the world's energy supply. But fat chance, Democrats for big government ensures that government will always look to fund the mouthpiece for the left.

So, who should feel guilty? Well, environmentalists, for one, who push the ban of DDT which allowed malaria to kill tens of million of people. You never see that in Hollywood movies.

So forget disproportionate use and consider our disproportionate success. The richer a Western nation is, the more the left wants you punish because you proved them wrong. And most greenies gravitate towards a nation's failings to mask their own. See Al Gore, if you can find him.

So, what should you feel guilty about? Well, here's my list: Not calling your mom every day. Not returning weights to the rack at the gym. That's awful. Leaving clothes on the dressing room floor at Old Navy. Nobody has to pick them up.

And most important, not sending me photos of yourself in acrobatic poses. After all, the Earth will be here longer than me. So make every day with me count.

ERIC BOLLING, CO-HOST: Greg, I send you those poses all the time. You never send them back.

GUTFELD: Not of you. I asked for your wife.

BOLLING: Oh, OK.

DDT reference, very good.

GUTFELD: Thank you very much.

I was going to talk about tap water, what they did to tap water with chlorine. But then I get in the weeds, Andrea, do you not feel guilty enough about the terrible things we do?

ANDREA TANTAROS, CO-HOST: By the way, I was in a pretzel pose the other day, and I just couldn't reach the camera. I'm really sorry.

Do I feel guilty? The left has made me feel very, very guilty. I feel like if I put a bottle of water not in a trash can, that is designated recycle -- I feel like someone is going to impale me with a stone or newspaper in Manhattan.

But I just want to point out is this the name NPR that the headline this week, "Friendly skepticism greets Romney at the NAACP"? Friendly skepticism?

GUTFELD: The survey was done by National Geographic, a project called Greendex, which makes me sad, Bob, because I love National Geographic. It was an entertaining read. Now they're brainwashed.

BOB BECKEL, CO-HOST: I'm not sure they are brainwashed. The reality is that we do consume much more per capita.

GUTFELD: But we also create --

BECKEL: We create a lot of things. That's true.

But the question is not that we consume more. Are we doing everything we can to consume less? Which would be in everybody's interest.

And I think the answer to that clearly is no.

(LAUGHTER)

BECKEL: Because all of you fossil fuel fanatics continue to believe that we can drill our way out of this.

And alternative energy is the way to go. And I think that's a legitimate argument.

GUTFELD: Tell that to a third world nation where they die from burning fabrics and wood --

DANA PERINO, CO-HOST: Dung.

GUTFELD: -- yes, dung that kills them. They would love to have fossil fuels, I imagine.

BOLLING: Does it make me a bad guy because I want to drive my SUV and have my wife meet me at the barbecue and I put up a whole bunch of lighter fluid on the charcoal and I light it up and I make some nice steaks?

BECKEL: You're a bad guy to begin with.

BOLLING: I want to do that every day, Bob, because it creates jobs.

BECKEL: The amount of water wasted in this city alone, infrastructure dripping billion gallons of water a day -- I was in the Peace Corps in Philippines and that could have taken care of the entire area of the Philippines that desperately needed water. That might be something you want to think about.

GUTFELD: If only it would rain.

Dana, shouldn't we be proud of the great stuff that we do?

PERINO: We should be. I know a little bit about this. We talk about economic growth. This is a winning issue for Romney to talk about economic growth. I made a little chart --

GUTFELD: I can't wait to see this.

PERINO: I don't know if anybody can see it. I don't know --

GUTFELD: Look at this.

PERINO: Maybe not.

OK. So here is the thing. If you are a country, a third world country, I wrote down Eritrea, for example, third world country -- you don't have a lot of output and so you don't have a lot of pollution.

As you grow as a country economically, your pollution goes up. So like China. But then as you -- there is a point where -- I can't remember what the curve is called. You turn the corner and you start spending your own money, your GDP, your economic money, your growth on things to help improve the environment. That's what we do here. We have rules that you have to have coal-fired power plants, scrubbers, strip out the pollutant before it goes in the air.

The best solution for improving the environment is strong and growing economy.

GUTFELD: I think that's a good point.

TANTAROS: I just think -- we all agree we want a better environment. But spending all the taxpayer money to do it, that's where people --

(CROSSTALK)

GUTFELD: All these energy efficiency standards do nothing.

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