Goods News For Normal People Equals Bad News For Liberals

You'd think that the discovery of vast reserves of natural gas in an impoverished African nation would be good news. The New York Times thinks otherwise.

The New York Times, of course, is wringing its elegantly manicured hands.  And why not?  The soil of the Karoo desert is “fragile,” and the extraction of the natural gas will involve fracking.  What will happen to the sheep?
The Times finds a local farmer who is worried about exactly that.

“If our government lets these companies touch even a drop of our water,” [the farmer] said, “we’re ruined.”

This is what the New York Times Wishes To Preserve

Ruined!  By wicked natural gas companies feeding the world’s hydrocarbon addiction.  The farmer in question has a herd of 1400 sheep.  (It was 2000 last year before a drought forced the slaughter of 600.)  One somehow suspects that the farmer will find some other way to make money when the district becomes a major gas producing center.  And, worst case, roughnecks eat a lot of meat.