Growing up I never really thought much about how politics and the environment intersected. I knew that my passion for the environment was never even considered by most politicians, and that those who did “get it,” were scoffed at for being “Tree Huggers.” To me that was a badge of honor, because I have hugged more than my fair share of trees in teaching kids to use other senses than their vision.
Now that I’m older I see a connection that I was oblivious to before. It is in corporate interest to keep people distracted with fancy watches and clothing so the public doesn’t think about where those items are made, what’s done with the leftovers, the packaging and the broken item. It’s also been in their best interest to make sure that the people who vote see the pretty package, appreciate the convenience and money, and don’t want to be given a “downer,” by thinking about the consequences.
This coming election it’s crucial that we engage ourselves, neighbors and family, along with any others we can, to use the power of the vote to protect our home planet. It’s not only about having a chance to contribute. Now it’s about self-preservation. Citizens who can vote need to engage in conversations with their elected officials, explaining their concerns about the pipeline, alternative energy, food safety, and climate change. Not voting doesn’t show your frustration, or your disapproval. It just shows you don’t care. Not voting amplifies the voices of the corporations, as their purchased candidate doesn’t have to explain their stance to a face. They can continue to spout the misinformation that they hear because they have been saved from that face to face confrontation.
In the upcoming election we will hear a lot about the economy, which we’ve all been condition to consider as paramount. Being poor is not pleasant, I know, I’m basically still there. But having no air to breathe, no water to drink, is a death sentence, with no hope of climbing out of that well. Environmental justice is usually considered to be about the urban poor, dumping chemicals in low rent areas, because “those people,” of no concern to any of the corporate officials. Efforts are constantly made to lessen the voices of those people who live in these areas, so that “out of sight, out of voice means doesn’t exist.”
They do exist, and because of the concentration of wealth, the consumerism of our economy and the consolidation of our media, the numbers of “unheard,” is growing. Everyone has a right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, according to our founding fathers. It doesn’t state “those who live off dividends, play at country clubs and support the arts are entitled to happiness.” But that is how our government is starting to skew.
Environmental justice is everyone’s concern. Through television and other media forms, rural areas are now being portrayed as backwater, “hinterlands,” where only un-educated, socially awkward people live. A rural suburb is fine, but a true rural area is disposable. That’s been made obvious by Kinder-Morgan’s choice in this NED pipeline route. The public comment made at an earlier meeting referring to our region is “North Korea,” is an obvious statement as to their concern for the people here.
We need to exercise our voices. We need to make sure that future elected officials firmly state that they hear our concerns and will act on them in an appropriate way. Moving the pipeline isn’t the answer. Not having the pipeline is. Our elected officials should owe their positions and power to the people who voted to put them there, not the lobbyists and corporate backers who paid for them to be there. Call your representatives, attorney general, senator, even town officials and tell them that our region is not inconsequential. Remind them that environmental justice is critical; rich isn’t more important that poor, urban is not more important than rural.
The older I get the more I see that agriculture, food and the environment are forgotten when making decisions. We let people tell us that air, water and food are not as important as jobs, and money, when reality is that jobs and money can be sourced elsewhere, but we can’t make clean air, clean water or safe food if we lose the areas that protect and produce it.
We don’t just need to get people to vote with their environment. We need to wake up the citizenry to vote, and make their opinions known to those who are elected. People need to relearn how to work together, how to protect and promote the resources we have to provide for our families. I’ve come to believe that there is a direct correlation between voter turn out and corporate domination. The more self-involved we become as a population, the richer the 1% gets, and the more our resources, both financial and natural, are lost to our control. Vote for the environment, and vote for your own self-interest!
Wednesday, September 10, 2014
Friday, September 5, 2014
Important Homes
Why are some houses more important than others? I understand that buildings that house many different families have a higher impact when it comes to destruction and personal loss. But in the natural gas planning process certain areas are identified High Consequence Areas, meaning that those areas that have the densest population receive the highest attention, and the greatest protection. That makes sense, but does it mean that other areas should receive inferior protection?
High Consequence Areas, referred to as HCA’s, include areas of dense population, areas that include water supplies and those of unique environmental importance. These areas are deemed “more important,” and are scheduled to receive the highest quality pipes, equipment and attention. But I put to the appropriate authorities, where do they think the water supply comes from?
Reservoirs and water tanks do not usually include underwater springs, though ours in Ashburnham does. For most cities and towns, including the metro-Boston area, their water supply comes from rivers and watersheds many miles away. In fact, for Lowell, the Quabbin Reservoir cities, Wachusett Reservoir towns, and others in New England, the water in their municipal water supplies come from the “rural areas” north and west of Boston. The concept of “crucial water supply,” needs to be more correct than simply a water tower or a reservoir. Our homes, those of the “Blasted Towns,” are just as vital as urban areas, though our density may be sparser.
In the national news we hear repeatedly about how many homes are lost during wildfire seasons, and while these are terribly sad losses, these are people who knew they lived in a place subject to wildfires. I grew up in the Midwest, so I knew that tornadoes were a risk for me. For those who choose to live in the Mississippi River bottom land, they should know that they are living on an active floodplain. That’s why those who farmed there before them usually used the land for crops or livestock, but kept their houses on higher ground. But the current need for “waterfront property,” has gotten in the way of realism. With the current rise in floods and storms, these people are having to make adjustments to include the realities of nature.
But for those of us in the Blasted Towns we built or bought our homes wishing to live in a more rural area. Not because we’re anti-social, but because we appreciate the gifts of the land, and the sense of community that is often found in these smaller towns. We did not buy, or build, with the idea that the land we struggle to grow things in would be blown out from under us, by an energy company who wants to avoid denser population while they raise more millions of dollars selling natural gas overseas.
Why is it okay for a company in Texas to come into another area and destroy the natural resources of those areas, so that they can profit off the natural resources of another place? Isn’t it time we started valuing and using the resources we have nearby our homes and workplaces, instead of trying to move things around to such detriment? Our forefathers chose to settle in certain areas because there was adequate energy, water and food supply, and they carved out shelter where they could. While I’m not suggesting that people in the Midwest go back to sod houses, we do need to start living within the natural rules of the planet.
The truth is that there is no place that is of less or more significant than any other place. No people, no wildlife, no water is dispensable. The Dept. of Transportation explains HAC’s on their website, but the reality of those statements are that they deem some places more disposable than others.
As we are learning more every day, our planet is getting smaller, and more sickly. While the media and others focus on the economy, the reality is that money won’t make more water, won’t grow trees back to filter soil quickly enough, or replace the lost soil in even an elephant’s lifetime. We don’t have time to wait for others to learn. We need everyone to understand now – The water and air belong to the planet, and they should not go to the highest bidder, or densest population. There is enough, with care, to be shared evenly, but not if we continue to let the energy companies continue to write the rules, run the airwaves and be flexible with the truth.
If you hear about a “cleaner fuel” called gas, or natural gas, please realize that it comes from underground, and it is best left there. It is like methadone for a fossil-fuel addicted planet. It doesn’t solve the problem, it just replaces it with another.
No person’s home is more important than any others. No animal or plant is more important than another. It’s time we accept that there are three kingdoms on Earth, and they aren’t found in atlases. They are plants, animals and protists, not Kinder Morgan, BP and Exxon. Stand with your neighbors, of all species, and protect your home by working to stop energy expansion and promote renewable energy, personal conservation and industry responsibility for maintenance. That is within our power, the kind of power that is endless, and renewable!
High Consequence Areas, referred to as HCA’s, include areas of dense population, areas that include water supplies and those of unique environmental importance. These areas are deemed “more important,” and are scheduled to receive the highest quality pipes, equipment and attention. But I put to the appropriate authorities, where do they think the water supply comes from?
Reservoirs and water tanks do not usually include underwater springs, though ours in Ashburnham does. For most cities and towns, including the metro-Boston area, their water supply comes from rivers and watersheds many miles away. In fact, for Lowell, the Quabbin Reservoir cities, Wachusett Reservoir towns, and others in New England, the water in their municipal water supplies come from the “rural areas” north and west of Boston. The concept of “crucial water supply,” needs to be more correct than simply a water tower or a reservoir. Our homes, those of the “Blasted Towns,” are just as vital as urban areas, though our density may be sparser.
In the national news we hear repeatedly about how many homes are lost during wildfire seasons, and while these are terribly sad losses, these are people who knew they lived in a place subject to wildfires. I grew up in the Midwest, so I knew that tornadoes were a risk for me. For those who choose to live in the Mississippi River bottom land, they should know that they are living on an active floodplain. That’s why those who farmed there before them usually used the land for crops or livestock, but kept their houses on higher ground. But the current need for “waterfront property,” has gotten in the way of realism. With the current rise in floods and storms, these people are having to make adjustments to include the realities of nature.
But for those of us in the Blasted Towns we built or bought our homes wishing to live in a more rural area. Not because we’re anti-social, but because we appreciate the gifts of the land, and the sense of community that is often found in these smaller towns. We did not buy, or build, with the idea that the land we struggle to grow things in would be blown out from under us, by an energy company who wants to avoid denser population while they raise more millions of dollars selling natural gas overseas.
Why is it okay for a company in Texas to come into another area and destroy the natural resources of those areas, so that they can profit off the natural resources of another place? Isn’t it time we started valuing and using the resources we have nearby our homes and workplaces, instead of trying to move things around to such detriment? Our forefathers chose to settle in certain areas because there was adequate energy, water and food supply, and they carved out shelter where they could. While I’m not suggesting that people in the Midwest go back to sod houses, we do need to start living within the natural rules of the planet.
The truth is that there is no place that is of less or more significant than any other place. No people, no wildlife, no water is dispensable. The Dept. of Transportation explains HAC’s on their website, but the reality of those statements are that they deem some places more disposable than others.
As we are learning more every day, our planet is getting smaller, and more sickly. While the media and others focus on the economy, the reality is that money won’t make more water, won’t grow trees back to filter soil quickly enough, or replace the lost soil in even an elephant’s lifetime. We don’t have time to wait for others to learn. We need everyone to understand now – The water and air belong to the planet, and they should not go to the highest bidder, or densest population. There is enough, with care, to be shared evenly, but not if we continue to let the energy companies continue to write the rules, run the airwaves and be flexible with the truth.
If you hear about a “cleaner fuel” called gas, or natural gas, please realize that it comes from underground, and it is best left there. It is like methadone for a fossil-fuel addicted planet. It doesn’t solve the problem, it just replaces it with another.
No person’s home is more important than any others. No animal or plant is more important than another. It’s time we accept that there are three kingdoms on Earth, and they aren’t found in atlases. They are plants, animals and protists, not Kinder Morgan, BP and Exxon. Stand with your neighbors, of all species, and protect your home by working to stop energy expansion and promote renewable energy, personal conservation and industry responsibility for maintenance. That is within our power, the kind of power that is endless, and renewable!
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