Our World and Everything in It

 I’ve read tht Humanities courses are down compared to Business and Marketing in most colleges and think it’s a shame because things like literature can be reassuring. From literature we learn nothing is new under the sun and we get a good view of mankind’s mistakes: wars, plagues, and even abuse of the environment. Enjoy this translated letter to President Pierce by the Indian Chief, Seattle, back in 1855. It speaks for itself. 

     “We know that the white man does not understand our ways. One portion of the land is the same to him as the next, for he is a stranger who comes in the night and takes from the land whatever he needs. The earth is not his brother, but his enemy, and when he has conquered it, he moves on. He leaves his fathers’ graves, and his children’s birthright is forgotten. The sight of your cities pains the eyes of the red man. But perhaps it is because the red man is a savage and does not understand.
     There is no quiet place in the white man’s cities. No place to hear the leaves of spring or the rustle of insects wings. But perhaps because I am a savage and do not understand, the clatter only seems to insult the ears. The Indian prefers the soft sound of the wind darting over the face of the pond, the smell of the wind itself cleansed by a mid-day rain, or scented with the pinon pine. The air is precious to the red man. For all things share the same breath—the beasts, the trees, the man. Like a man dying for many days, he is numb to the stench.
     What is man without the beasts? If all the beasts were gone, men would die from great loneliness of spirit, for whatever happens to the beasts also happens to man. All things are connected. Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons of the earth.
     It matters little where we pass the rest of our days; they are not many. A few more hours, a few more winters, and none of the children of the great tribes that once lived on this earth, or that roamed in small bands in the woods, will be left to mourn the graves of a people once as powerful and hopeful as yours.
     The whites, too, shall pass—perhaps sooner than other tribes. Continue to contaminate your bed, and you will one night suffocate in our own waste. When the buffalo are all slaughtered, the wild horses all tamed, the secret corners of the forest heavy with the scent of many men, and the view of the ripe hills blotted by talking wires, where is the thicket? Gone. Where is the eagle? Gone. And what is it to say goodbye to the swift and the hunt, the end of living and the beginning of survival? We might understand if we knew what was that the white man dreams, what he describes to his children on the long winter nights, what visions he burns into their minds, so they will wish for tomorrow. But we are savages. The white man’s dreams are hidden from us.

I went to Neil Young’s concert at the Fox in Detroit last night. Excellent! First part was unplugged and second part jammin. The first song of the encore was “Cinnamon Girl.” I’ve seen him before and he is always the same, consistent, sounds as tight as the album but better. What’s this got to do with the environment? Neil Young’s latest efforts are geared toward the environment and the war of course all relative to the Bush administration.

The unplugged first part of the show where the man picks up just about any instrument and does one of his many songs did the famous “After the Gold Rush.” Well the verse that says: “See Mother Nature on the run in the 1970’s” was changed to end with “in the 21st century.” That little bit had the crowd cheering from the start. People are aware a change is coming as Young would say it and this crowd appreciated Young’s environmental mode. I made note to pass the moment on. It was a good evening and a very good show. That little cheer from the crowd right off the bat upped my optimism a degree.

When we exited the show and headed up the side street two huge buses were lined up there. One looked like a stainless steel house. Ah, Neil Young’s road digs. The man is setting an example. The buses run on bio-diesel from soybean and/or vegetable oil with 75% less emissions. Other musicians are following suit. Bonnie Raitt tours likewise. Of course Willie Nelson has been touring in buses fueled with vegetable oil for quite awhile. “Jane’s Addiction” even  fuels its generators with the stuff.

We must be getting old because we didn’t hang around to get a glimpse of him coming out to get into his rolling house, but enjoyed the night anyway.  After stopping near our house to catch a local band at a local bar, who were remarkably good after seeing someone like Young, I am deaf today. I had to wonder how deaf these aging artists have become?

There is a Monroe Twp. Hall Meeting tonight, Oct. 1st., over a proposed 3-acre truck stop where the old “Tourist Restaurant” used to be over the bridge on the way to Bolles Harbor. Sounds bad to boaters already doesn’t it? Truck traffic and boat traffic would be criss-crossing. If a light is put in, the traffic will back up all the way down LaPlaisance Rd. While cars sit in the backup on LaPlaisance they can stare at all the empty asphalt which used to be an outlet mall parking lot.

Which leads me to ask this? What would possess a city to consider:

Filling in protected wetlands without replacing them anywhere else? One acre of the 3-acre truck stop is wetlands, when the other side of I-75 already is a vast wasteland of asphalt nothingness except for one outlet strip and the businesses closest to town.

Dealing with the flood zone. That’s right, the proposed site is in the 100-year flood zone plan. The truck stop is going to have tanks. How are they going to deal with this issue since they have not addressed it yet? There is no plan in place for spillage. 

This truck stop would be next to LaPlaisance Creek and if you’re a resident, you know all of that area is too close to the Lake. If something happens to one of the tanks it will end up in the water.

Why do we need another one? When did Monroe become “Truck Stop Heaven”?
Do you know there are 5 truck stops within 20 miles of this proposed facility? I didn’t realize that. The group called Monroe “CATS,” Citizens Against the Truck Stop, provided this information. There are already:

             2 Truck stops at the Holiday Inn Exit. One has 150 slots, the other has 8.
             1 Truck Stop at Nadeau Rd. with 53 slots.
             Alexis  and West Rds. have huge truck stops.

There are two areas standing empty in Luna Pier that were once proposed truck stops. Why not renovate those properties for what they were intended? The whole LaPlaisance Rd. bridge would have to be redone and the exits. That would make it a major on and off ramp area like West Rd. Going into a water’s edge community is not the ideal spot for this. This looks like a needless waste of land. If you are concerned please attend the meeting tonight. I think Monroe should fight to protect the rural integrity of Monroe and quit invading the land. Monroe Charter Township’s Master Plan states one of their purposes: “to achieve a balance between the continued urban development and the preservation of its natural resources and rural character…” Keep them to their promises.

I  had to jump in here and be a wise guy. Of course no one is interested in a smoking ban. Monroe has a nuclear power plant, a coal burner, and trash dump. Why worry the small potatoes?  We’re being killed off in small increments by more insidious forms of pollution.  No one seems to care as long as our car starts, our house is warm, our tv works, and we eat.

Blowing smoke on someone is a smaller version of blowing our CO2 on everyone else in the world. If second had smoke is irritating, imagine what the rest of the world feels about our CO2? We have a bad attitude. It probably won’t change until the lakes dry up or as some would believe, pigs fly.

Today is the first time a global warming case has reached the Supreme Court. They will begin hearings based on testimony of 12 states that are asking the court to force the U.S. government to order its environmental agencies to control CO2 emissions from vehicles under the Clean Air Act.  Michigan is among 8 of the 12 states that support the EPA.

But do we really trust the EPA? It was originally established to be independent of government, focusing on public health and its relation to the environment. We all know any business or agency’s ethics and motives are only as good as the people governing them. Also, there are other governmental agencies that have an impact on the EPA. The White House Council for Environmental Quality, formerly headed by Phillip A. Cooney is one of them. Cooney was caught editing important data from scientific reports for quite awhile as well as pressuring the EPA to go along, so much so, that in 2002 the EPA removed an entire section on global warming from its annual report about air pollution. In 2003 it published an extensive report of the environment with no information whatsoever about global warming. Cooney came to his position at the council as a lawyer and former lobbyist  for the American Petroleum Institute.  He has no scientific background to make any alterations of scientific data. You might say throw the bum out, but he has already left the position and now works for Exxon Mobil.

James Hansen, a climatology expert from a NASA Space Study, was pressured by his superiors after giving a presentation about human related climate change. He was told it was still an uncertain topic by his administrator. He reported that in 30 years he never witnessed as much White House involvement and filtering of information from science to the public.

The State Department pressured an international panel of representatives known as the Artic Council to alter their report on global warming. The final draft withheld recommendations for policy to reduce green house gas emissions in order to stop its horrible impact on the Artic. The State Department was also successful in ousting Dr. Robert Watson who chaired the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) since 1996. During his time the IPCC produced a report that predicted an increase of 2.5 to 10.5 F in avg. global warming by 2100 with new evidence it was due to human activities. Exxon Mobil opposed the proposed regulation of CO2 and wanted Watson out. The State Department complied. Dr. Watson lost the support of the U.S. and his position as chair.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service developed a brochure on ways to curb agricultural greenhouse gas emissions. They managed to send the first printing but the White House’s Council of Environmental Quality objected to it and a reprint was canceled. 

As I stated in a previous blog, many Americans are wondering how our environment got so bad, so fast. Well this White House accomplished what they set out to do. Appointments to key environmental positions throughout the administration were filled by people that were once employed by the tobacco industry, and are now busom buddies with the petroleum industry. By altering scientific facts, they’ve attempted and succeeded in concealing from and confusing the public about the ever-increasing effects of global warming due to CO2 emissions. The biggest culprits of CO2 emissions are jet airliners, automobiles, refineries and coal burning facilities.  I watched a CBC segment by The Fifth Estate called “The Denial Machine.”  Phil Klapp cornered Jeffrey Holmstead, EPA Assistant Administrator for Air and Radiation about altering scientific documents. Klapp had in his hand documents with visible alterations. As he read the changes, it was clearly understood they were meant to dilute the message of the reports. We weren’t just duped about the war folks. We’ve been lied to about the state of our world. And now the race is on to clean it up. It can be done and hopefully the U.S. will emerge as a model in that endeavor. It will take each and every one of us to do our part.  

     There are all types of casualties we endure on a daily basis especially during times of war. Losing someone or something precious can happen moment to moment. And although our lives are upset to the point we don’t think we’ll recover, we do. I just wonder how many people realize the biggest casualty of all is happening in small increments every day that none of us will recover from if we don’t turn it around.

Our environment is taking hit after hit, and many of us still do not know that when it’s stated we have 10 years to do something, it does not mean we have ten years before we start doing something. It means if we do not start today toward reversing global warming by controlling our pollution it will be irreversible within 10 years. It’s a good idea to control pollution to begin with. By all the water bottles I see these days, I realize that everyone does get the idea that maybe our water isn’t all that clean, and probably our air.  What I also see by those same water bottles is that we really aren’t getting it at all. Where do you think those plastic bottles go? If your community recycles that’s great. If you recycle on your own, then bless you, but unfortunately only 70% of all our garbage is recycled. Those bottles end up in landfills of which there are approximately 6000 in the U.S.  Plastic takes around 500 years to decompose. Do we love our children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren? Then what are we doing?

The intent of this news blog is to be in your face about our world because we’re all in this together, and if you or my other neighbors don’t jump in and help, the experience of living won’t be what we once knew. Right now it is what it is “An Inconvenient Truth” as Al Gore aptly named it. Many of our little conveniences in life may have to be abandoned to save our earth, save ourselves. It’s a rude awakening, but the sooner we snap out of it, the sooner we turn it around. No more burying our heads in the sand or waiting for “they or them” to do something. They or them is us, all of us.

Anyone who has any questions about anything environmental feel free to blog. If you know something you don’t think the rest of us are aware of blog it. If you don’t quite believe in global warming yet let us know why. Anyone who has already adapted his or her lifestyle differently to save on anything let us know how, so we might adapt. One idea becomes a ripple that becomes a wave and the whole community benefits.

None of us are perfect angels about the environment. I still drive a gas hog, although I’m looking at all hybrids and beseeching Ford to revive the cobra body style with an electric/ethanol motor. I’m a baby boomer that wants a hybrid sports car. Any baby boomers out there want to weigh in on that? Doesn’t an environmentally friendly sports car sound good? My tip to any other gas hog drivers out there, consolidate your running around. I’m down to 2 days per week. Group up and ride to work together. Quit running your kids around and enjoy family nights. Quitting our rat race can help the environment.