Our country is enjoying a booming economy. The improvement has sent the stock market to new highs, and many Americans have more money in their pockets than ever before.
Yet even with all the progress we've made, some folks aren't satisfied. They want more, any way they can get it. Barriers have been conveniently pushed aside in the rush to make as much money as possible. To accomplish that goal, many of the laws and regulations that stood in their way have been eliminated.
As a small business owner and a capitalist, I want to make a buck as badly as anyone. But I'm shocked at what lengths some Americans will go to in order to make money. It's a hell-bent-for-leather quest, as old-time Texans would say, and these people seem to believe there are no consequences for their actions.
They refuse to be honest and say, "Yeah, we need to get out of that climate change stuff. It'll keep me from making money." They conveniently ignore and trash the facts presented by 97 percent of the world's scientists to denounce what the rest of the world's countries and the Pope are calling global warming.
We are the only country in the world backing out of the Paris Agreement, and we're doing it simply to make money. Members of this administration are lying through their teeth when trying to justify not believing the obvious. What's worse is they know they're lying. Or maybe the lust for money has clouded their judgment to the point where they believe the lie.
The EPA is going to let the states handle coal-fired plant discharges, but what it doesn't say is that it's doing it to allow coal companies and coal-fired energy plants to continue to make more money at the expense of clean air. House Republicans are introducing bills to gut the Endangered Species Act, but don't say, "To make more money." But it's true.
And when our national monuments are reduced in size and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is opened up for exploitation, they know better than to cheer, so they cross their fingers and say, "We need the oil," even though they know the world is awash in oil and renewable energy is moving into the energy picture.
The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, one of the last pristine places on earth, will be crisscrossed with roads. After numerous rounds of drilling and the possibility of open pit mining, the once vast herds of caribou, as well as polar bears and musk ox that roam the tundra will be a thing of the past. The rush to make every dollar they can comes at the expense of our health, our environment, and our children's futures.
Sure, clear-cutting a 10,000-acre swath of our national forests will make some folks a lot of money, but it will leave scars on the land that will take a generation to recover. That doesn't stop Bruce Westerman, our congressman, from offering a bill that would let that happen.
Our legislators try to ignore efforts to save the Buffalo National River as a hog farm pollutes it, because they wouldn't want to be associated with folks who would try to stop someone from making money.
Our elected officials brag about getting rid of regulations. Those regulations are there for maintaining the quality of life everyone wants.
They give lip service to draining the swamp, but in reality they're poisoning the swamp, clearing the trees, polluting the water and killing the fish. Every time we look deeper into a regulation that has been removed, we find out it's being removed to let a company or individual make more money while ignoring the environmental impact.
And the recent huge corporate tax cut, which will add $1 trillion to the national debt by 2020, is the ultimate giveaway. The chickens will come home to roost on that greedy grab.
A lot of Americans must believe the sole purpose of life on earth is to accumulate wealth. They must be living under the mantra of "Who dies with the most stuff wins."
When people talk about the future of their grandchildren, it's always in a glowing and positive manner. If you quiz them further, they tell you their hope is that their grandchildren and great-grandchildren will have a better quality of life than they did.
But how can a person say that, knowing the dismal world that they are creating for their grandchildren to live in? A world of endless wildfires, super hurricanes, tornadoes, and a drought that will create a worldwide famine. A child born today will easily live to see the cities of New Orleans and Miami become unlivable due to massive flooding caused by global warming, if we don't reverse it.
But many of those same children's parents will scoff at the 97 percent of the world's scientists who tell them that. It's an overriding desire to make money that taints the minds of many to the point that they won't believe the facts. And the facts are evident.
Calling all cougar counters: Keep turning in those cougar sightings! Great response so far. The sightings report, complete with pictures, will be in my Sept. 16 column. It will surprise a lot of folks.
Richard Mason is a registered professional geologist, downtown developer, former chairman of the Department of Environmental Quality Board of Commissioners, past president of the Arkansas Wildlife Federation, and syndicated columnist. Email richard@gibraltarenergy.com.
Editorial on 09/09/2018