My message to radical environmentalists.
You want cleaner air.
Stop using your car, don’t ride in bus’s, trains, or planes.
Remove your homes furnace.
Don’t use electricity.
Don’t use fossil fuels.
You want cleaner water.
Stop flushing your toilets, washing clothes, dishes, don‘t take baths, or showers.
You want agricultural pollution to stop.
Don’t consume agricultural products (meat, poultry, dairy products, vegetables, fruit etc.).
You want industrial pollution to stop.
Don’t use anything that modern manufacturing produces (electronics, plastics, clothing, etc.)
You want mining to stop.
Don’t use anything made from mined materials (metals, concrete, glass, etc, etc).
You want logging to stop.
Don’t use anything made of wood, or wood products.
You want hydroelectric dams removed, and nuclear power plants shut down.
Don’t use electricity.
ARE YOU GETTING THE PICTURE?
Give up those things, and………………….
You would be without every necessity required to survive in modern society.
Or is it, you believe you are better than everyone else.
You can use everything that in one way or another causes some pollution, but no one else can. That makes you a hypocrite.
Some small degree of degradation to the environment is necessary to enjoy out standard of living. All rational people realize that. To think otherwise is irrational.
Certainly, we all want a clean environment to live in.
The key is to minimize environmental degradation, without lowering our standard of living. That requires balanced environmental compromises.
In order for America to maintain its position as a world power, requires economic grow.
Economic growth requires some small degree of environmental degradation.
Otherwise, America cannot remain competitive in the worldwide marketplace.
If you are anti-mining, ponder this.
The U.S. has the highest environmental standards and the most stringent mining regulations in the world. Without domestic mining, this nation could not even maintain its existing infrastructure. Without domestic mining, this nation will become dependent on foreign supply source of almost every basic necessity Americans use. Which will cause higher, and higher foreign trade imbalances, in the coming years, as well as an ever increasing deficit spending, and national debts. Owed to other countries, who most certainly don’t care about this countries well being.
In 2007 (the latest year for which statistics are available), the U.S. mining industry provided: 376,310 direct jobs & 1,079,400 indirect jobs.
Total mining payroll - $22.1 billion, generating $64.6 billion throughout the economy
$98.4 billion of finished mineral, metal and fuel products; building block materials that were further transformed into consumer and industrial goods creating an additional $1.8 trillion in value added products.
Source: Northwest Mining Association - The U.S. Mining Industry: Indispensable Catalyst to Economic Recovery and Energy Independence
http://www.nwma.org/whoweare.asp