Back to Gaffer's Philosophy
Archives.
The Gaffer's Philosophy:
Part 112: The Environment P4:
July 19, 2004:
Now, let us get to our water. There are two issues involved here. The main one is the pollution of our oceans, lakes, and waterways. An associated issue is the ever growing need for potable water. Many people still have their head in the sand about the severity of this problem. Too many still find the possibility of polluting our oceans inconceivable. While we may continue to deny it, it is happening. Those who continue to deny it are the same ones who once thought the Great Lakes were to big to be polluted. We treated them like infinite sewage sinks. Now Lake Erie is a huge cesspool. The lower end of Lake Michigan is an ever growing cesspool. Even the pristine Lake Superior is polluted.
Our oceans, 70% of the earths surface, are also being polluted by oil, industrial toxins, and sewage. It is becoming impossible to deny because the crap is washing up on our shores along with the dead fish. Eventually, if we continue, our waters will not be able to support any marine life. Without that marine life, the millions of people who depend on it will starve. While we are on that point, over fishing of the oceans is an ever growing problem. To stop that will require cooperation between nations. That cooperation has not been forthcoming to date.
I believe we can solve the over fishing problem by learning to husband the ocean in the same way we husband our animal resources on land. I believe it is possible to have huge offshore sea life farms of all kinds. We learned how to domesticate land animals for the production of meat. Now we need to do it with sea animals. Some of this is already being done. Most of the catfish offered to us in the stores is farm grown.
It does not take much of a stretch of imagination to project that fish farming concept onto shrimp, tuna, and salmon. We need simply to understand the environment in which these species thrive and find or create it. Please don't tell me the people who sent men to the moon cannot solve that problem. 100 years ago you would have told me space travel was impossible. If everyone had that mentality we would still be living in caves.
While we are solving the problems of fish farming we must make honest and serious efforts to stop the pollution. It should be clear, even to government, that we cannot operate fish farms in a cesspool. That is what our oceans are fast becoming, mammoth cesspools. We have got to cut it out. We have to begin seriously punishing people who threaten the future of humankind by polluting our oceans.
As I said, the associated issue with water is the ever diminishing supply of potable water. Part of this is nothing more than a matter of obsolescence. The municipal water supply systems that were put into place decades ago are failing. They are failing as to their limited capacity, but they are also wearing out. This means potable water is beginning to rank with energy as a looming problem.
Conservation is what people shout, but they confuse conservation with the environmental issue. They are different things. Conservation never solved any problem in history. It never will. Hunkering down is not a solution, It is a capitulation. At best it makes problems bearable and postpones the inevitable, but the cost to human dignity is too great. We need to do two things about potable water. First, we need to stop polluting our waterways making water easier to purify. Second we need to modernize, sometimes replace, existing facilities.
And, sure, we also need to stop wasting fresh water. This is not the same as not using water when we need it. It's simply a matter of preventing carelessness. For example, industries that use water from our waterways in their processing must be required to put back as much water as they take out without any accompanying pollutants. the firms who use fresh water in their processing must begin purifying their own water and stop using municipal supplies. That is just good business. We need not run out of potable water and we need not go without water.
Another problem which will loom larger and larger is what to do with nuclear waste. Stuffing it into underground caves is simply postponing the disaster and it will be a disaster. This stuff is deadly. We don't get rid of it by hiding it. I think the only real solution is to stop making it. Again, I get to the problem of research into energy. We are not doing it and we must do it if we are to survive. I still believe fusion is the answer, but we won't know until we put people to work on it.
In the international area we must begin protecting our environment. We must set the example and demand participation by other nations everywhere. For this, political philosophy becomes irrelevant. Everyone must participate.
We must go all around the world and create protected natural environments for all of the endangered species regardless of cost. We must do the same with the jungles and rain forests. They are too precious to lose. We must make big enough areas and guard them with fierce dedicated soldiers. Poachers and exploiters must be kept out even if it means killing them. We may need many new laws because we must do this legally. It is necessary to protect the future of our kids.
We must put a stop once and for all, to slash-and-burn and other destructive farming techniques. Slash and burn is an environmentally destructive method of cultivation often used by tropical-forest root-crop farmers in various parts of the world and by dry-rice cultivators of the forested hill country of Southeast Asia. Areas of the forest are burned and cleared for planting. We are talking about the gradual destruction of rain forests with this technique.
These rain forests are a prime source of some of our most devastating
diseases, but they are the source of many of our new medicines
as well. Unless we preserve the rain forests, we will lose a very
valuable source of new medicines and we will also lose a huge
oxygen and ozone generator. Many of these problems require international
cooperation and America is dragging its feet on that. We not only
need to join the community of civilized nations, we should lead
the way. for that, we definitely need new people in government.
The unethical crumbs we have there now will never do it.
Back to Gaffer's Philosophy
Archives.
|
|
|
|