October 22,2019: Energy and environmentalism * Letter to the Editor * OPINION * Del Rio News-Herald
Letter
to the Editor,
Energy
and environmentalism
We like
popping our popcorn in the microwave; but do we know what microwaves are made
from and how they are powered?
We enjoy
our smartphones especially social-media-platforms; but do we know what smartphones
are made from and how they are powered?
Asking
young children: Where does milk come from? They naively answer, it comes from the store.
The
correct answer is: Milk comes from cows. They’ve probably never heard about or seen
a cow. They probably don’t realize the meat in their hamburgers comes from cows.
The
raw materials used in the manufacture of household appliances, smartphones and
automobiles to name just a few, comes from the mining of minerals and metals.
The electrical
outlets that are all around the house don’t just magically produce electricity when
you plug something into them, to warm food in microwaves and charge those devices.
The electric-power-grid is fueled primarily by coal, oil, and natural gas. And
how do we get those natural resources of coal, oil and natural gas? Well, by
mining and drilling them of course.
The
voices of hard-working miners and drillers had for so-long not only been
forgotten, but were outright ignored and attacked in favor of radical
environmentalism.
Responsible
mining and drilling together with the preservation of the natural resources of rivers,
woodlands and wildlife that all people hold dear can stand alongside each other;
because people also hold dear good employment opportunities and economic
prosperity.
Both can co-exist side-by-side, they don’t have to be mutually
exclusive.
Because
mining and drilling was viewed by the radical environmentalists as a threat to nature
it was wrongly treated as the enemy. The end of mining and drilling decimated the
economy and stifled job creation.
America
is on the road-to-recovery: from being an energy-deficient country to being an
energy-independent country, not beholden to foreign regimes, even to-the-point
of becoming an energy-exporting country.
The mining
and drilling communities are being restored beyond their former glory days with
expanding operations America is enjoying having environmentally-responsible
energy production running full-steam ahead.
Marian Casillas, Ed.D.
Del Rio, Texas