People love to see landscapes, national parks, the outdoors – anything that strikes us with such great amazement. We are taken aback with such places as the Grand Canyon or Yellowstone National Park. Entire vacations are planned specifically to visit these natural wonders. Many people, if asked if they enjoy and want to protect these resources, would say yes. However, despite this love of these striking landscapes, the United States might look quite different in the next few years if the current President has his way.
Owning property and having all these visitors means there is a cost for the upkeep and preservation of the land for all to enjoy. With the current Trump administration, the policies that they are trying to impose make it quite clear they have no respect for nature. Take a look at the recent executive order to review numerous national monuments. Similarly, the Dakota Pipeline is another fine example of politics leading the way for environmental destruction. If the decision is made not to keep these landmarks, they will most likely be sold to some greedy corporation that only wants the land for the resources available. They would have no intent on preserving the beautiful mountains, or the vast forests and rivers. They only see dollar signs and want to find ways to make more of them, or get rid of the ‘unnecessary expenses’ that come with these places, or they want to increase profits for the power companies behind them.
One way they want to do this is to lift environmental restrictions on corporations, with the idea that profits will increase if they don’t have to spend money on being good stewards of the earth. In the short term, yes, this will reduce MONETARY costs, but will increase the detrimental impact on HUMAN HEALTH. Companies will dump toxic waste into rivers and streams because they can. This might not affect anything immediately, but over time, these chemicals will show up into the municipal water supply. Peoples’ health will slowly deteriorate, and maybe then will the government realize what’s going on. Maybe not though, seeing how long things such as the Flint water crisis goes on without reparation.
This is quite the contrary to other countries that realize the importance of protecting nature. Many countries in the European Union, as well as other parts of the world, realize the importance of preserving and maintaining natural resources. They see the immense benefit of using renewable sources for energy and goods. If we do not properly care for the land, the countless minerals, resources, and overall natural beauty of the Earth, then the human race will not be able to survive.
In the end, I am fearful that we will lose many of our prized and famous landmarks at the expense of increased pollution and destruction of land. Peoples’ heath will begin to suffer, while the blame gets shifted to numerous random parties. No one will own up to these terrible actions to increase profits at the expense of mankind. I’m all for making money, but not at the cost of our natural resources and beautiful national parks. These are irreplaceable and the well being of our Country’s own people cannot be ignored.
