Thursday, March 10, 2011
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Water Matters
Back in October, I wrote about the basic value of water and how important it is to us all. "There's something about water. It is the most basic element for life on our planet. Our bodies are composed mostly of it, the planet is literally awashed in it. It falls from the sky and floats as vaporous clouds in myriad shapes.
We take it for granted.
For most of us in the United States, we simply turn on or open the faucet and water freely gushes out."
"[...]In the city where I was born there were very few places where you could see how water worked in springs or streams. Our urban area paved over most of these water sources a hundred years ago thinking that is was healthier to do so. But at the same time we as a society were dumping our waste into the streams and rivers, literally using them as toilets.
I think we know better now." [...]
I'm not so sure we know better now. We continue to take it for granted.
And now the New York Times has published an extensive report on just how bad we have neglected and abused our water resources when it comes to the drilling of natural Gas in The Marcellus Shale.
This issue is not going away anytime soon. Our storm water and waste water infrastructure in the Pittsburgh region alone is a $10 Billion dollar issue. And there's big money involved with the oil & gas industry pumping out this fossil fuel as fast as they can at the expense of our environment. Even the officials we paid to protect us at the PA DEP have now turned into lobbyists for the oil & gas industry. Nothing will save us from the greed and destruction unless we rise above the economic arguments. We know that facts can be spun by the industry and their PR juggernaut is impressive. But if we are to save ourselves we are going to have to look beyond economics and look to our most basic human values. I am hoping we don't destroy the environment for the sake of energy.
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