The entire structure of your childhood in America is to create a background strong enough to make good money so that you may live a comfortable life, the American dream if you will.
Although this structure is a logical one to live by, becoming rich has become a priority in people’s lives.
The driven mentality to become successful and rich is one many people withhold nowadays as power and ‘happiness’ are both heavily affected on your bank account. So who wouldn’t want to be rich by any means necessary?
Some people succeed at climbing the power ladder better than others, becoming some of the richest and most powerful men in America.
The lines they are willing to cross to reach these goals of wealth have blurred over time due to the ‘success’ crossing the lines has generated for them. But at what point do the consequences outweigh the successes?
In recent weeks, a new order called Project 2025 has come into play here in the American Government.
This order has a large effect on many very critical and important aspects of America as it is a push to correct lingering issues from the past years. One of these areas being American energy production.
Project 2025 has made it easier than ever to drill and mine public lands and harvest the natural resources within them.
In an Executive order signed by the White House, they state that the goal is to, “unleash America’s affordable and reliable energy and natural resources.”
To reach this goal the American government has given mining companies access to many national parks, taking away protection rights of at least 13 national parks and 433 units within these national parks here in the United States. This list includes the Great Smoky Mountains and Yellowstone.
The goal of this new order has been to raise oil and coal margins, growing the mining industry economically more than ever. But is it truly worth it?
This bill is causing so much more pain than improvements here in America.
Within the first few weeks alone, over 1,000 park employees were laid off because of this new executive order, just adding to the unemployment rate that we as a country have worked so hard to overcome since the COVID-19 epidemic.
Although 1,000 is a low number now, what will happen a month from now under this act? Will it still be a small number when it reaches 20,000 park employees?
What people are failing to realize is that these are not just large forests full of oil and economic possibilities; these national parks are homes.
So many people, animals, and plants are dependent on these lands for survival. What gives us the right to kill and steal the land billions of organisms are dependent on for a few extra bucks?
Each part of these forests saves us from our own demise every day; whether it is the trees cleaning the polluted air we create from driving motorized vehicles, or the water systems that help give us clean drinking water. We are dependent on the forests more than ever before and yet we still want to drill and kill.
This newfound freedom that government officials have given companies to drill will slowly kill our earth. The White House talks about the order, stating that “This will restore American prosperity” But wouldn’t drilling these National forests pull the lands prosperity out of American soil?
This is no longer about left and right, liberal or conservative; this is about life or death.
It is time we finally take our heads out of the dirt and realize that we can not survive without the earth’s natural resources. People are failing to see that we can not survive without the Earth, but Earth can survive just fine, if not better, without us.
If we continue to live in ignorance about the fatality of the executive order, we will quickly begin to decline and eventually be the cause of our own extinction.
It may sound dramatic but giving access to these national parks to these power-hungry companies will do nothing but hurt us, no matter how you look at it.
These companies do not care about the environment and no one person will make a profit worth the damage except for the rich. The money will never touch anyone close to the poverty line.
If we as a country keep letting ourselves and our government prioritize money over global environmental health, we will no longer have a need for money.
Money will quickly become useless if there is no food or water to survive.
It is sad to see so many important, influential people not realize this and won’t until it is too late.
