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.

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.