I want to share with you what I wrote to Fifty-some friends on a New Year’s note I sent in lieu of a Christmas card. . .
After realizing what our President has done, I’m so anxious about what will happen to the dolphins and whales as the oil companies start depth-sounding for their positions. He has no conscience and no consciousness. It’s beyond worrisome at this point and I hope he can be stopped. I’m in deep prayer about all this. My stomach gets nauseated sometimes.
This blog is not to slam Mr. Trump, though, unfortunately, it has to do with, what I say~ and many others also say is~ a terrible decision that President Trump has made. My intention is to call attention to the plight of these magnificent animals whereas the DOCA children and so many other causes get a great deal of attention.
On Monday I’ll write my traditional Right-to-Life blog on the Anniversary of Roe v. Wade.
Today I’m writing on behalf of the Right-to-Life of our beloved Whales and Dolphins who will placed into mortal danger by the President’s decision to open our coastal waters to offshore drilling for oil.
Consider this: The seismic blasts the companies use to “sound” for oil are so devastatingly loud that these animals cannot hear one another communicate.A baby can’t hear where his mother is even nearby.
Imagine dynamite going off in your neighborhood every 10 seconds. Now imagine you can’t leave. That’s how marine life experience offshore oil and gas exploration!
Please watch this three-minute video produced by the National Resources Defense Council and you’ll understand: Click here.
And now here are the facts:
New York Times / Thursday, January 4, 2018 / WASHINGTON — The Trump administration said Thursday it would allow new offshore oil and gas drilling in nearly all United States coastal waters, giving energy companies access to leases off California for the first time in decades and opening more than a billion acres in the Arctic and along the Eastern Seaboard.
The proposal lifts a ban on such drilling imposed by President Barack Obama near the end of his term and would deal a serious blow to his environmental legacy. It would also signal that the Trump administration is not done unraveling environmental restrictions in an effort to promote energy production.
While the plan puts the administration squarely on the side of the energy industry and against environmental groups, it also puts the White House at odds with a number of coastal states that oppose offshore drilling. Some of those states are led by Republicans, like Gov. Rick Scott of Florida, where the tourism industry was hit hard by the Deepwater Horizon rig disaster in 2010 that killed 11 people and spilled millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.
Mr. Zinke said the drilling plan was part of “a new path for energy dominance in America,” but said he planned to speak with Governor Scott and other state leaders before the proposal was finalized. “It’s not going to be done overnight,” he said.
Oil industry leaders cheered the reversal, calling it long overdue.
“I think the default should be that all of our offshore areas should be available,” said Thomas J. Pyle, president of the American Energy Alliance. “These are our lands. They’re taxpayer-owned and they should be made available.
As you can see, these guys have no clue to what other kind of harm they will be causing. These precious animals could go extinct. Or if they do know, they just don’t give a tinker’s dam.
Pope Francis, in a letter sent to a conference on Oceanic Development in September 2017 would remind us ~ if not our Administration.
The oceans are the common heritage of the human family.Only with a deep sense of humility, wonder and gratitude can we rightly speak of the ocean as “ours”. To care for this common inheritance necessarily involves rejecting cynical or indifferent ways of acting. [ . . .} we remain indifferent before the loss of coral reefs, essential places for the survival of marine biodiversity and the health of the oceans, as we witness a marvellous marine world being transformed into an underwater cemetery, bereft of colour and life (cf. Laudato Si’, 41).The oceans unite us and summon us to work together. As His Holiness noted in Laudato Si’, “everything is interconnected”.
Our world today needs to see that the oceans are a crucial resource in the fight against poverty and climate change, both of which are intrinsically linked For all too long, it has been thought that the sheer vastness of the oceans would allow for negligence, the disposal of toxic waste, and freedom from oversight by the authorities. [. . . ]It is time to work with greater responsibility to safeguard our oceans, our common home, and our brothers and sisters, today and in the future.
The book of Genesis teaches that in the beginning “the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters” (1:2). This verse reminds us that the oceans hold particular importance for many religions. Spirituality can provide powerful incentives for the protection of the oceans, and, more generally, for the care of all creation (cf. Laudato Si’, 216). “Science and religion, with their distinctive approaches to understanding reality, can enter into an intense dialogue fruitful for both” (Laudato Si’, 62).
And my prayer. . .
O God, I’ve always wanted to swim with the dolphins in the ocean,
but never had the chance like my friends did in the buff.
Please allow us to get the President’s decision reversed
to save these magnificent creatures from suffering and death.
And even more so, even further harm to our oceans by devastating oil spills.
The oceans! The Dolphins! The Whales! The coral reefs!
These are your glorious creation, O God!
Let not these men destroy or degrade them!
This we ask as we ask all things, through Jesus Christ our Lord!
AMEN!
Now, before you go, I have an eight minute meditation for you with music of whales and dolphins swimming together. Please take time to watch it and learn about these magnificent animals! Click here.
Dear Sisters and Brothers,
Father Bob's Reflections 