Duncan - Re: The world at large vs. protest groups.
When reading the rhetoric and arguments of the environmentalist and average N.I.M.B.Y. one is left wondering as to their totally myopic and self-serving thinking. They are quite content that citizens of other parts of the planet allow resource extraction, so that they can live in the modern world.They are perfectly content living in wooden houses or apartments. Go to work in steel-reinforced buildings and on weekends pack their steel-/oil-based automobile with manufactured clothing. Happily driving their CO2 emitting vehicle fitted with oil-based tires, on oil-based roads and go camping in campsites that have been carved out of the living forest that they are purporting to protect. Where no doubt they go fishing or forage for shellfish in their oil-based kayaks whilst using oil-or steel-based implements.Alternatively they go boating on lakes in a watershed area with petroleum spirit-based engines without consideration to the pollution that they produce.They think nothing of living or working in a city that pumps raw sewage into the sea. But they are the first on the bandwagon decrying industry when a company wishes to use water in a responsible manner.Of course, a large part of their downtime will be spent playing with their hand-held device. The plastic one. Which is made with heavy metals; lead, chromium, cadmium, mercury, beryllium, bromine, brominated fire retardants, brominated hydrocarbons, chlorinated hydrocarbons, arsine and hydrogen chloride etc., all contained in an oil-based outer casing. Which is then discarded when the latest device with the go-faster-stripes is transported from China on a CO2-emitting, single-hulled vessel.Everything we use in today's modern society is either grown or extracted from the earth. We must do so whilst considering the environment. However, we can only exploit minerals where they are found.Some citizens believe everything that they think, some believe everything that they hear but the majority of us look at the overall picture and realize that we cannot, and do not live in isolation.Ian KimmDuncan