Our World and Everything in It

Bush’s mention of global warming in his state of the union address recently is a bunch of hot ur um lukewarm air. We need to reduce our use of gasoline. This from an oilman? What? – Big oil has finally made enough money @ $1146 per second? Just sitting here typing this line would pay for my college debt. When I see Bush shell out subsidies to alternative energy producers, I’ll believe he is in earnest. When I see ethanol pumps springing up everywhere and actual hydrogen plants instead of another stack on the ole coal burner, I’ll believe it.

 
And what about Monroe? Of all the non-environmental things we have in our county, the coalburner is the absolute worst for pollution. The kind that lands everywhere and is bad for our health.  It’s already the second largest coal burner in the country and we’re expanding it. At least someone I know noticed a new stack. I write this and in the back of my mind I remember catching the headlines somewhere that the mercury levels in our lakes and water in the N.E. are 5 times higher than previously thought and increasing. 

 
Burning coal is the biggest generator of air born mercury. Mercury in pure form is not so toxic because it is heavy and passes quickly through the body. But there is smokestack mercury which either comes out as particles and falls quickly or as an aerosol which is so tiny it can and does travel anywhere around the globe. When it does fall and land in water which is low oxygen, it is consumed by bacteria. The bacteria add carbon and whalla, methylmercury forms. This stuff is more dangerous because it stays in the body a long time. So the little fish eat the bacteria. The big fish eat the little fish and get more mercury. Then we eat the big fish and, well you know. We’ve been told to stay away from the big fish. Exposure to mercury of this sort can cause fatigue, tremors, vision disorders, and kidney, brain, and circulatory damage. Lovely. It’s in the air!

 
This methylmercury is accumulating quickly in our wetlands. So the level in birds is rising. 178 once pure species of birds were tested and found to have alarming levels of mercury. Wetlands are also ticking bombs. If they ever burn, all the years of mercury accumulation goes up at once into the atmosphere. There are many of these “sinks” in Alaska. Global warming has brought drought in some areas there that are full of peat. Once peat dries all one needs is a match and poof. Pristine Alaska will be shrouded in a methylmercury cloud.

 
And about the Great Lakes, what do you think? The Legacy Act has people out there dredging up God knows what and parking it near the water again, near me. It’s got mercury in it. So DTE throws another stack up to get more mercury going and the cycle continues. What’s the sense? Isn’t the Great Lakes Legacy Act a big waste of time and money if we’re just going to park the refuse near the water again where it can leach back in? And we continue to churn out more carcinogens and mercury with bigger coal burners. There oughta be a law. Oh that’s right, laws have been relaxed and big energy, industrialized farming, ISO standards, etc., are all about the honor system in this administration. So much for ethics where there’s a buck to be made.

 
There is a race to get pending and new permits for roughly 150 new coalburners across the country right now. The rush is on before a new congress clamps down. We’re so busy with Iraq, stuff like this is happening everywhere. The new plants will be built under old regulations.  They can let the pollutants fly without a gasification process where at least the emissions are collected and stored. Nice huh? Eleven of the plants are in Texas. I hope they’re in close proximity to the Bush ranch. What do you think?

This entry was posted on Friday, January 26th, 2007 at 12:48 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.