Letter: Protect Our Environment

As an old timer, questioning what I am now leaving not only for my children, but my grandchildren, the worst of the worst environmental disasters of my lifetime (and there have been many), was the “Deepwater Horizon” matter. They called it an oil spill, but it wasn’t a “spill,” it was a drilling disaster. A deepwater mining exploration that has truly devastated the Gulf of Mexico, the Gulfstream, our coastline, the eastern coastline and all countries affect by the Gulfstream.

The Deepwater Horizon drilling fractured the ocean floor. They couldn’t stop the spewing their drilling had released. The truth of the matter is that they still haven’t stopped the “seeping.”

The same sort of drilling continues. Not everything that is “old” and great for drilling, is “good” for us now. It was sad for me to hear Donald Trump, with his “drill baby drill” new energy policy, with “what’s her name” cheering him on. Why do people and companies profit off of destroying our environment, while disregarding our future? Not only our future; but those we brought into the world.

Look, if you allow energy companies to set the standards of their drilling — deep sea, off shore, on shore — and you keep on seeing the disasters toward the environment that I have seen in my own lifetime, you might understand where I am coming from. Drilling for oil, coal mining, fracking, nuclear power plants, natural gas — look at the record of disasters, and you might start thinking about your children and grandchildren, too. If you aren’t, I actually fear for “us.” I mean, you really need to read more!

Start thinking about who is benefiting, who is losing and wondering if there isn’t a better way that generates large benefits that are not negatively just wiping out all of us, but preserving our entire world.

Patricia D. Curry, The Acreage