To the Editor:
I read Ted Bartolec’s opinion “Environmentalists want to control people’s lives” and was struck by the anger, frustration and narrow mindedness of his views. Unfortunately, many people are like this and some realities of the environmental movement need to be brought to light.
The environmental movement (meaning to take care of and preserve our environment so that we and future generations have clean air, water, and ground to grow our food) is not new. In 1739, Benjamin Franklin (obviously un-American) and others petitioned to stop waste dumping and remove tanneries from Philadelphia's commercial district. Woodrow Wilson founded the National Park Service in 1916. DDT was banned from agricultural use in 1972.
In California, the air quality has increased dramatically in the last 20 to 30 years: NOx and HCs dropped from 1.6 to 1.2 million tons/year, ozone dropped from 0.58 to 0.18 ppm, and Stage 1 Smog alerts dropped from 118 to 0 days. All this with 2 1/2 times the miles driven. More of those Socialists and liberals trying to clean up our air.
It isn’t the environmentalists that are the fear mongers. They simply want us to clean up our act so that we have clean air, water and food and can live a healthy life. It is those chasing the almighty dollar (not so almighty anymore) who use fear by manipulating the financial numbers to hide the real costs of our current way of life. It’s easy; don’t take into account the true cost of pollution from a coal-fired plant: lost ecosystems from mountain top removal and mining waste, acid rain, mercury contamination, particulate matter and other toxins from burning. The fear is that you will realize just how expensive coal and its byproducts are. If all these costs were added in, coal would be priced at 5-10 times its going rate.
In reality, it is the environmentalists who are patriotic. They are standing up and trying to protect Americans here, so that we can continue to thrive in this nation. It isn’t about saving the whales, seals or polar bears. It is about saving ecosystems that we are a part of so that we can save ourselves and create a decent life for our children.
Perhaps Mr. Bartolec would prefer we use up our resources, so that the government has to ration them, and live in a wasteland. I do not.
Take a good look at your children and those in the neighborhood. A really good look. What kind of life do you want them to have?
Look around you. Read. Research. Then participate and be a part of the solution.
Jack Sol-Church
Wilmington
