I don't understand....

I really don't understand climate deniers, fracking advocates, those people who are destroying God's green earth. For years, before environment was a big concern, I worried that we were covering the earth's surface with concrete so that it could not breathe. I still think it's true.
Now I worry that we drilling deep into earth's core. Recently two wells exploded near Karnes City TX, an area of heavy fracking. The explosions spewed oil and chemicals into the area, destroying a wide swath of fertile land.  Families had to be evacuated--some may never be able to return home if decontamination is not possible. In North Texas I believe they've called a halt to drilling in areas experiencing frequent earthquakes--we never had them before.
The majority of scientists agree that fracking is bad for the earth, bad for people, and should be stopped, so I'm at a complete loss to understand legislators who pass laws like the one Texas Governor Greg Abbott just signed forbidding communities to have any control over whether or not there is fracking in their area. The city of Denton had voted on such a ban, and it passed by a large vote of the populace. Now their vote is null and void.
It seems that legislators who pass these laws are not thinking beyond the immediate moment. They aren't thinking at all about the earth we leave to our children and grandchildren. They aren't thinking of the wildlife populations and natural flora and fauna that are destroyed. It's the same problem we've witnessed for years with clear-cutting Amazon forests.
One thing I fear I do understand is that those behind this environmental damage are thinking with their pocketbooks--sure, there's money for Texas in fracking and, quite possibly, under the table money for some legislators. Plus some property owners are getting rich allowing fracking on their land. I think fracking and climate change denial and laws that tie the hands of the EPA are a product of greed--and greed may yet do us all in.
On my soapbox next, possibly, what greed is doing to nutrition. Oh, so many causes, so little time. That's what polluters don't understand--so little time. It's not a future problem. It's here and now.

These are the things that irritate me

You know that wonderful song that Julie Andrews sings in The Sound of Music? "These are a few of the things I love." It irritates me that all I can think after reading the newspaper, such as it is, and watching TV news, is "These are a few of the things that irritate me," a curmudgeonly point of view at best.
One is states passing religious freedom bills actually designed to isolate our LBGT population. Such virulent hate. A Catholic bishop said it was a just reaction because if you baked the cake, you became a participant in the marriage. A Facebook cartoon asked if it logically followed that if a gun store owner sold a gun used in a murder, was he then a participant in the murder? For Lord's sake, people, let others do what they want and tend to your own cabbage patch.
Similarly, the war on the poor disturbs me. Again, it's based on irrational hate. Forbidding welfare recipients to use food stamps to book a cruise makes sense except that it's completely illogical. How many welfare families do you think book cruises? Hey, folks, they're just trying to scrape by. Yes, I read about the welfare recipient who planned to take a $14,000 trip to Vegas--can't remember the story. But forbidding the poor to buy steaks and seafood, to go swimming, to do a lot of things that most of us regard as normal? That's perpetuating the cycle by putting the burden on their children--besides, fish is healthy and not always that expensive. No, you don't have to eat lobster.
Today, on International Autism Day, the governor of Illinois (my once-home state) announced a cutback in funds to deal with autism. Great timing, Governor whatever-your name is!)
Fracking concerns me greatly--I read statistics on the number of earthquakes in Oklahoma before fracking and the number now--absolutely mind-blowing. But I know it's true in North Texas too, and now I read that fracking is increasing radon levels. Wonderful! I firmly believe if you mess with Mother Nature, she'll win in the end.
Guns on campuses--I think this must have been proposed by someone who had no college-age kids. I had four of them, and I'm not sure I'd have all of them today if there had been guns on the TCU campus, at football games and frat parties College kids are great, for the most part young people finding and forming themselves, but they aren't quite in control yet. Give them guns and a little alcohol, and it's like a recipe for a fertilizer bomb.
And then there's Senator Tom Cotton--what can I say? Why hasn't somebody investigated him for ethics--or low IQ--or something?
Other times I see glimmers of hope. A Catholic high school in West Des Moines refused to hire a teacher once they knew he was gay. Students and a significant number of parents protested the discrimination, and the teacher was hired. Sometimes I think the young people of America are going to save us.
On a personal note, I didn't mean to unload so much of my personal angst in last night's blog, but I am amazed and eternally grateful for the support and offers of help. Believe me, it's getting better. With a humble thank you, good night.
 

What's wrong with the world--well, one thing

A friend called today and during the conversation mentioned that he'd had a bite from a gas company about a lease on his acreage southwest of Fort Worth. It was, he said, sweet money. The problem was where to put pads so they and the trucks didn't disturb his road and his house. Then he said, without hearing his own irony, that if you drive through Johnson County it's a wasteland because of all the pads.
I said fracking would pollute his land and deplete our already compromised water supply--this is a rancher who frequently bemoans the lack of rain. Somehow I forgot to mention earthquakes, but I finished with a pronouncement: fracking, already banned in some places, should be universally banned.
"Yeah, well it ain't gonna happen. There's too much money in it."
"And that," I pronounced grandly, "is what's wrong with the world."
From the other end I heard, "Maybeso. Bye."
I was reminded of the late great author Elmer Kelton who, talking of the drought of the 1930s, said our grandfathers didn't know what forces they were unleashing when they plowed up the thick sod of the prairie to build huts and plant crops. The trouble today is we know. Scientists have warned about pollution from fracking, the use of endangered water supply, and I believe studies are still out about earthquakes but some are convinced it's no coincidence that we have them so often in areas where drilling is common to excessive.
I truly believe that the earth is a gift to us, and these days we abuse that gift terribly by fracking, by pouring endless miles of cement on its surface so that it can't breathe, by clear-cutting forests. All in our quenchless thirst for money. And I think it will all come home to haunt us.
We have people around the world who are working tirelessly to be "green," to cultivate nature, and respect the earth. And we have people who are just as busily working to destroy it for their own profit.
Not sure what my next rant will be but that's the one for today.