WARNING: If you care, this post is especially upsetting. If you feel vulnerable, hungry, upset already or tired, DO NOT READ IT! If however, you need to get your juices flowing or a bit of inspiration & ammunition for tomorrow's WALK FOR A NUCLEAR-FREE FUTURE, April 23rd 2011, between the Kewaunee nuclear facility and the Point Beach reactor site, read on! I'm sure that I'm not the only one feeling this level of frustration.
Today, Earthday was in the news, pretty much all day. I normally listen to Wisconsin Public Radio and they were not much different. Having participated in every Earthday since it's inception, I thought that I was reasonably aware of the environmental issues that confront us, the history and ethical dilemmas that are most often trotted out to stop real or meaningful change from taking place. The "experts" that I heard were apologists for the nuclear industry, folks encouraged by the "additional" natural gas reserves that are becoming available through hydrofracking and people who are still banging the tired old drum that global warming is still unproven and that oil dependence is a necessary evil. I used to consider WPR to be one of the best public broadcast services in the country but if this is the best they can do, then they don't deserve to be funded with tax dollars. Now, we have a whole year to prepare for next year's Earthday shows. Do you think we could put together a set of programs by then that would cover environmental issues from an ecological perspective? Corporate interests rule the air 365 days each year. Especially here in Wisconsin, where the idea of Earthday was first dreamed up, we should at least be able to hear educated and inspired programming about the dire consequences of continuing to pollute from those who are educated, truthful and committed to changing the future for the better.
We have illegal dumping, hazardous waste being injected into the ground, permit violations, polluting industries, unregulated emissions of dangerous chemicals, deaths occurring from fly ash (a waste product from burning coal) fugitive emissions from coating and plating factories and paint shops, and virtual ignorance about all of these issues on the part of the general public, yet the programming today was focused on how rosy a situation we find ourselves in. My experience is either quite different or there is a separate United States, where these purported experts reside, hiding out there somewhere. My city of about 100,000 lies at the bottom of a sixty-mile-long valley that holds over one million individuals. We have smog, though the locals don't like to call it that. We have hazardous air alerts. During these times, strenuous work is supposed to be avoided but most laborers are granted no reprieve by their employers. Our fish are tainted and the rivers that flow through town are dangerous to touch during the heat of summer. Admittedly, there have been some improvements, but our governor has been to town to see what he can do to stop the further clean up of the river because it is "too costly" to dredge the toxic compounds out of the sediments. Industries continue to benefit from the despoiling of our "commons" and the public is expected to tow the line and continue to pay taxes that support business while public health is degraded, programs are cut back for the truly needy and the far right continues to turn their backs on any and all social responsibility. The cowboy up mentality is coming back to defy logic and proportion.
Gone are the days when unbridled individualism ruled the high country. Nowadays, if we all took a shit down by the creek, we would soon find that we were living along a shit river. Perhaps I'm expecting too much. Maybe the environmental movement has been infiltrated by corporate apologists. I just can't imagine how we could let them rule the air on the one day each year we are supposed to be getting ourselves educated about what we can do as individuals, families, neighborhoods and communities to solve the pressing problems that daily threaten our health and welfare. I got more and more angry throughout the day and tried my best to forgive the utter lack of comprehensive knowledge evidenced by the litany of guests. Late in the day, one of the hosts tried to make the case that because many of the environmental issues were so complex, that this made them hard to solve. in defense of the guest, the woman responded that no, this is not the case. She made the point that all ecological issues converge on a single point. We all have to eat and in the realm of food production we can find the intersection of virtually every other issue that one can think of. Feeding ourselves, and making sure the food is wholesome and nutritional ,can go a long way to healing the planet. The simplicity of the issues was also mentioned. You don't need to know what a part per billion is to know that some things cause sickness and death and other things do not. Of course you can kill yourself with salt, but that is a vital nutrient. there is not benefit that can come from eating PCB, dioxins or car "piddle". Even if you give a toxic substance a cute name, it can't transform it into something wholesome.
Ko-towing to the wealthy has allowed many of the most insidious problems to increase exponentially. Waiting for the world to change might be a catchy song title, but it is no way to save a planet. Making excuses for continuing to degrade the air, water and soils can only lead to death and pain, injury, plummeting property values and dislocation. The recent changes in policies that could have reduced pollution, operating costs and utility prices, as well as providing opportunities for living more sustainably on the Earth have been a living nightmare from which we may never wake up. The issues that are most on the minds of people who make every day Earthday were barely on the table for discussion today and one wonders why? It seemed to me that the non-experts had done more for the planet than those who were cluttering up the airwaves with pablum and ameliorating public outrage at our lack of commitment to these essential issues. Perhaps it is too much to ask that we should try. In a country that allows doctors to kill over 200,000 individuals per year with medical mistakes, a land that wages war at will against imagined foes, a country that has imprisoned half the adult male population of a single "ethnic" group because of ill-conceived drug policy, expecting a rational approach to healing the environment is too much to ask. It just gets a little disappointing when one hears the same rhetoric about how "business will be negatively impacted" if we make them exhibit a conscience, how we have to pick between jobs or the environment or that we would lose market share in the world economy if we started doing the right things. The extremely wealthy can still afford to buy a bit of heaven. as long as they have their millions to spend on their retreats, the rest of us can just live in the hazardous waste sites that are our cities. If I could swim in our river, eat the fish or breathe the air without feeling ill, perhaps I would consider the problems solved, but I'm coming on to fifty and have never enjoyed all of these things where I have lived. In the old days, I could go on vacation a few times each year and at least get a taste of parts of the world that were still relatively clean and unspoiled. Now, my vacations are far less frequent and the return only reminds me of how little I want to breathe the air, drink the water and sometimes I wonder if I should even grow my own food here under the plume of poison that wafts over my house. One company alone, in my city, admits to discharging over a million pounds of toxic compounds into our air. If we are doing so well, why can't people living in Green Bay, Wisconsin catch a break?
Today, Earthday was in the news, pretty much all day. I normally listen to Wisconsin Public Radio and they were not much different. Having participated in every Earthday since it's inception, I thought that I was reasonably aware of the environmental issues that confront us, the history and ethical dilemmas that are most often trotted out to stop real or meaningful change from taking place. The "experts" that I heard were apologists for the nuclear industry, folks encouraged by the "additional" natural gas reserves that are becoming available through hydrofracking and people who are still banging the tired old drum that global warming is still unproven and that oil dependence is a necessary evil. I used to consider WPR to be one of the best public broadcast services in the country but if this is the best they can do, then they don't deserve to be funded with tax dollars. Now, we have a whole year to prepare for next year's Earthday shows. Do you think we could put together a set of programs by then that would cover environmental issues from an ecological perspective? Corporate interests rule the air 365 days each year. Especially here in Wisconsin, where the idea of Earthday was first dreamed up, we should at least be able to hear educated and inspired programming about the dire consequences of continuing to pollute from those who are educated, truthful and committed to changing the future for the better.
We have illegal dumping, hazardous waste being injected into the ground, permit violations, polluting industries, unregulated emissions of dangerous chemicals, deaths occurring from fly ash (a waste product from burning coal) fugitive emissions from coating and plating factories and paint shops, and virtual ignorance about all of these issues on the part of the general public, yet the programming today was focused on how rosy a situation we find ourselves in. My experience is either quite different or there is a separate United States, where these purported experts reside, hiding out there somewhere. My city of about 100,000 lies at the bottom of a sixty-mile-long valley that holds over one million individuals. We have smog, though the locals don't like to call it that. We have hazardous air alerts. During these times, strenuous work is supposed to be avoided but most laborers are granted no reprieve by their employers. Our fish are tainted and the rivers that flow through town are dangerous to touch during the heat of summer. Admittedly, there have been some improvements, but our governor has been to town to see what he can do to stop the further clean up of the river because it is "too costly" to dredge the toxic compounds out of the sediments. Industries continue to benefit from the despoiling of our "commons" and the public is expected to tow the line and continue to pay taxes that support business while public health is degraded, programs are cut back for the truly needy and the far right continues to turn their backs on any and all social responsibility. The cowboy up mentality is coming back to defy logic and proportion.
Gone are the days when unbridled individualism ruled the high country. Nowadays, if we all took a shit down by the creek, we would soon find that we were living along a shit river. Perhaps I'm expecting too much. Maybe the environmental movement has been infiltrated by corporate apologists. I just can't imagine how we could let them rule the air on the one day each year we are supposed to be getting ourselves educated about what we can do as individuals, families, neighborhoods and communities to solve the pressing problems that daily threaten our health and welfare. I got more and more angry throughout the day and tried my best to forgive the utter lack of comprehensive knowledge evidenced by the litany of guests. Late in the day, one of the hosts tried to make the case that because many of the environmental issues were so complex, that this made them hard to solve. in defense of the guest, the woman responded that no, this is not the case. She made the point that all ecological issues converge on a single point. We all have to eat and in the realm of food production we can find the intersection of virtually every other issue that one can think of. Feeding ourselves, and making sure the food is wholesome and nutritional ,can go a long way to healing the planet. The simplicity of the issues was also mentioned. You don't need to know what a part per billion is to know that some things cause sickness and death and other things do not. Of course you can kill yourself with salt, but that is a vital nutrient. there is not benefit that can come from eating PCB, dioxins or car "piddle". Even if you give a toxic substance a cute name, it can't transform it into something wholesome.
Ko-towing to the wealthy has allowed many of the most insidious problems to increase exponentially. Waiting for the world to change might be a catchy song title, but it is no way to save a planet. Making excuses for continuing to degrade the air, water and soils can only lead to death and pain, injury, plummeting property values and dislocation. The recent changes in policies that could have reduced pollution, operating costs and utility prices, as well as providing opportunities for living more sustainably on the Earth have been a living nightmare from which we may never wake up. The issues that are most on the minds of people who make every day Earthday were barely on the table for discussion today and one wonders why? It seemed to me that the non-experts had done more for the planet than those who were cluttering up the airwaves with pablum and ameliorating public outrage at our lack of commitment to these essential issues. Perhaps it is too much to ask that we should try. In a country that allows doctors to kill over 200,000 individuals per year with medical mistakes, a land that wages war at will against imagined foes, a country that has imprisoned half the adult male population of a single "ethnic" group because of ill-conceived drug policy, expecting a rational approach to healing the environment is too much to ask. It just gets a little disappointing when one hears the same rhetoric about how "business will be negatively impacted" if we make them exhibit a conscience, how we have to pick between jobs or the environment or that we would lose market share in the world economy if we started doing the right things. The extremely wealthy can still afford to buy a bit of heaven. as long as they have their millions to spend on their retreats, the rest of us can just live in the hazardous waste sites that are our cities. If I could swim in our river, eat the fish or breathe the air without feeling ill, perhaps I would consider the problems solved, but I'm coming on to fifty and have never enjoyed all of these things where I have lived. In the old days, I could go on vacation a few times each year and at least get a taste of parts of the world that were still relatively clean and unspoiled. Now, my vacations are far less frequent and the return only reminds me of how little I want to breathe the air, drink the water and sometimes I wonder if I should even grow my own food here under the plume of poison that wafts over my house. One company alone, in my city, admits to discharging over a million pounds of toxic compounds into our air. If we are doing so well, why can't people living in Green Bay, Wisconsin catch a break?
No comments:
Post a Comment