The Big Spill: Obama Could Do More
In the June 21 issue of the Greenfield Recorder, the newspaper’s editor writes of President Obama and the BP oil spill, “…I just can’t see how he could be doing any more than he’s doing.”
First, Obama and Congress should put the CEO of BP in prison for at least 10 years. Second, they should seize all of BP’s assets and use the money to hire more workers to clean up the Gulf and stop the spill. Third, Congress and the president should raise gas taxes to the level they are in Europe (about $6 per gallon) and use the money to improve the nation’s trains, buses, bicycle lanes and sidewalks.
Eesha Williams
Brattleboro
Clear-Cutting, Continued
We live in a strange world of doublespeak, where contradictory thoughts and half-truths are accepted at face value. One local example: “Clear-cutting threatens reservoirs, wildlife, air quality, aesthetics, tourist industry…” If only an actual scientist or forester with direct expertise could be persuaded to wade in and address the real issues.
Here are a few inconvenient truths that might give pause to the activists. (1) Trees are like giant sponges. They suck up huge amounts of water and send it up into the air. They don’t filter water and then put it back into the reservoir. Water supply management requires controlling and harvesting the forest as needed.
(2) Wildlife needs open space as much as forest cover. The native Indians burned Massachusetts forests for centuries in order to maintain open space and support wildlife.
(3) Our air quality is impacted massively by our use of fossil fuels for autos, power plants, industry and home heating, not by work we do in our forests.
(4) The natural beauty of our landscape derives from the mix of open spaces, forests, hills, valleys, water and towns. Forests are only one item in this mix. Should we be converting our farmland and manicured front lawns back to picturesque wilderness?
(5) Tourism in our economy depends on destinations, attractions, scenery, infrastructure and amenities like restaurants, lodging, recreation, cultural events, roads and the hospitality of local people. Our forests are by no means the critical or endangered piece of this complex puzzle.
Cultures always clash, with little tolerance for each other’s myths, life styles, economics or thought patterns. Suburbanites will always see nature differently than farmers and foresters.
Derrick Mason
Russell
Screening for Terrorists
The recent attempted car bombing in New York City by Faisal Shahzad, a naturalized American citizen who was born and raised in Pakistan, reveals the susceptibility of this country to acts of terrorism.
Although the explosive devices planted in New York City did not work, this event serves to point out that New York City continues to be a target for terrorism. Other cities could be potential targets for Taliban and al Qaida terrorists from Middle East countries or by a minority of U.S. citizens with loyalties to these groups.
We have to carefully screen people trying to enter the U.S. from high-threat countries. We have to infiltrate agents into terrorist organizations outside and inside this country. We should report individuals who threaten this country or profess loyalty to countries and organizations that espouse the destruction of the U.S.
We need to tighten up and enact laws that will allow us to document individuals who gain naturalized American citizenship by marrying U.S. citizens, and who might be threats to this country. Particular attention should be paid to applicants from countries that house, support and train terrorists and promote terrorism.
Donald A. Moskowitz
Londonderry, N.H.
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New Energy Policy Needed
It was very disconcerting to hear Energy Secretary Chu’s advocacy for nuclear power in a recent interview with Rachel Maddow. In reference to the “safe storage” system for nuclear waste in place now, which supposedly protects the radioactive waste generated from nuclear plants from leaking for 60 years, he mentioned that the nuclear industry has 50 years to figure out how to store the radioactive waste safely long-term. Who knows what is to transpire between now and that time in terms of things that might threaten that “safe storage” such as an earthquake or a terrorist attack on a nuclear plant? And considering that 27 old nuclear plants continue to leak radioactive tritium, can we really be sure the “safe storage” is safe?
Chu’s statement represents the same kind of reckless thinking that has brought the current oil disaster to the Gulf Coast. This kind of thinking erroneously assumes we can trust the oil industry or the nuclear industry to evolve their technologies to deal with the environmental disasters they create.
The 1979 disaster in the Gulf was caused by a malfunctioning blowout preventer. The rig was owned by a company [that later merged with] Transocean. The technology used to try to cap the well included lowering a containment dome over the well, the top kill and the junk shot. Nothing worked until the relief wells were drilled and in place nine months later. For nine months catastrophic amounts of crude oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico. Despite the fact that the oil industry is the most profitable industry in history, the technology for dealing with environmental disasters they create has not been improved in 30 years.
We cannot continue to gamble away the safety and protection of our natural resources. When policy decisions are made about the transition to safe, clean energy technologies, environmental advocates, not industry lobbyists, need to be at the table. Figuring out a safe, sustainable energy policy is not impossible; it just works well for the oil and nuclear industries to have the public think that way.
Amelia Shea
Peterborough, N.H.
Correction: Last week, in “Look Up and Drive,” we inadvertently misidentified Vermont Gov. Jim Douglas, whose name we know well from our writing about the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant, as Jim Davis. Our apologies to the governor and to our readers.
