LETTER FROM THE EDITOR 2/05/08
The 'green' thing has been grabbed by media and corporations, even though presidential candidates have avoided the subject like a toxic dump. But unlike the early 1970's, when the environment was a real issue, most people today don't even know what it really means to be environmentally aware.
Harsh words, but true. Yes, using fluorescent light bulbs helps a little, despite the mercury they contain. Driving a compact model instead of an SUV helps even more, though it's still driving and thus using up oil and polluting the air. (As an aside: While there have been major outcries against the huge increases in the price of gasoline, there has been no public outrage at the multi-billion dollar year end profits of the oil companies; though the profits beg the question: if price hikes were due to legitimate costs from barrels of overseas oil, why are U. S. oil companies making so incredibly much money?)
But back to green: what, exactly, does the concept mean to you? Because, other than light bulbs and cars and knowledge of the term 'global warming,' most people can't even describe what green is.
Example: it's winter, and driveways and roads ice up. Municipalities have trucks that liberally dump earth and gravel on plowed roadways. Homeowners fling salt onto the icy asphalt and concrete around their homes.
There is no outcry against the use of this salt, though it is certainly changing the salinity of the soil where it is used, making it more arid and desert-like. Plants won't grow in saline soil. Is making the earth saltier an act of pollution? Does anyone ever even think about it?
What about the stuff used to provide more traction on the roads? Taking small stones and dirt from one place and depositing them in another must have some effect on the environment; even if it's only to change the composition, and fertility of the earth where the stuff is used. Does anyone even ask questions about it?
And I have wondered about the paper, glass and metal I so carefully recycle. I have not been able to find out where it goes when the trashman takes it away. One would think the recycling companies would be so proud of their efforts that they would create a transparent trail from pickup to re-use, but no. In fact, I challenge anyone out there to find out where the stuff actually goes, and if it's really recycled. Are the blue bins and yellow bins just feel-goods for those who sort their garbage?
And what about that garbage? I personally take pride that I don't need to put out my huge garbage pail more than once or twice a month because I'm so careful not to create waste. But is that just me? I can't find any fans of green bringing up the subject of learning to lower the amount waste we generate.
So the next time you see a beautifully produced TV commercial from a chemical company, with stirring music and rolling green fields to prove they are not polluting, ask yourself some questions. What exactly are they saying? Where do they offer proof that what they are saying is true? If a mining company has really left no trace after extracting the earth's minerals, or a chemical company has eliminated any trace of pollution, why don't they offer a map to the Elysian fields they show?
I am thinking that voicing concern about our changing environment is merely another fad, like it was in the '70's. But today, with even less sincerity than we showed in those years. There are PETA members demonstrating to treat animals more kindly, but no demonstrations about developers taking their homes to build bigger ones for humans. No demonstrations to stop cattlemen from allowing their animals to graze on public park land, polluting streams with cow flop that kills the fish living downstream.
It's not only about global warming, but about what we do to ourselves as well. Ever see a beautiful, pristine blanket of fresh snow beside the freeway in the morning? Notice how it has turned black and gray and grubby in the afternoon? That black stuff that comes from motor vehicles will hit the ground when the snow melts, rise in the breezes when dry, and be inhaled into your lungs when you breathe. Proven: particles in the lungs cause cancer, whether inhaled in the form of tobacco smoke or road dust.
The buzz words and feel-goods about green are easy, and do feel good. But if we're serious about the health of our planet, we have to do the hard work of investigating and acting upon what we find from those investigations, of uniting nationally as citizens to stop un-green wherever we find it.
But down underneath, we know we won't interrupt our lives to do anything like that. And we don't even realize how fast we are moving towards the world Jackson Brown so wisely sung about in "After the Deluge."
Wina Sturgeon, Editor