hahahahaha ... good one Michael. But on a more serious note, Virginia,
I don't consider myself a "tree hugger". I eat meat, wear leather and fur too. But, when our land fills are overflowing with plastic waste I tend to lean toward the tree hugger side.
Let’s stop and think for a moment. What happens to us when we use up all our God given resources? Then what?? Let’s also think of the destruction of the planet. The more we cut and drill the more devastation we suffer.
Take Alaska for example. Drilling for oil there will cause erosion that will erode the ecological system which in turn causes hardship for the animal life, like the Caribou. The drilling local is smack in the middle of their calving grounds. What gives us the right to say that Gods creatures should be desamated because we allowed ourselves to become dependent on oil. Some of the residents of Alaska rely on the Caribou as a source of food. Now we are affecting the food supply by our lust for oil.
Which, leads to the push for off shore drilling. How can we even begin to understand the reprocusions here when we haven’t even explored 1% of the ocean? There are new species being discovered every day in the oceans all around the world. More drilling increases the risk of oil spill – remember the Exxon Valdez. Granted that was a shipwreck but there have been oil rig spills in the past too. But, who really knows since spills under 1,000 barrels don’t need to be reported as it is considered “small”. These rigs also create waste of many kinds. Shovels, bags, pipes, tubing, hose, and many other forms of debris can be found littering the bottom of the ocean around the rig sites. Oh, and then there is the chemical waste. According to the EPA arsenic, lead, mercury, cadmium, barite, chrome lignosulfate, petroleum hydrocarbons, vanadium, copper, aluminum, chromium, zinc, polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons, radionuclides, and other heavy metals are released into the water which causes great harm to the marine life, ultimately effecting the entire regions fisheries, food chain, balance of the ecosystem, health, and the (our)enjoyment of nature.
Here is a thought. Let’s explore our other God given resources, like Solar, Wind, Water power. Our technology today if applied in the right directions could prove most fruitful. Not to mention we used an estimated 7.55 billion barrels of oil a year. The recovery of oil from my Alaska example would provide enough oil to provide us with, oh, maybe a year and a half (maybe) of usable oil. Doesn’t really seem all that productive when you factor in the harm it will do.
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