POLITICS AND NATURE

"Take the Cuyahoga River, which caught fire about twenty years ago because it was filled with so much junk and sludge. We set out to clean it up, we rolled up our sleeves, and we did it. I'm sure some regulation was used, but the major factor was good old American know-how."  Rush Limbaugh, The Way Things Ought to Be

He's Such An Idiot

Good Old Rush. Rushbo. Talent on Loan from God. Crafter of the Excellence in Broadcasting whatever it is. He's successful. No one can deny that. Boasts 20 million listeners each week. He fancies himself a King maker. The problem with the (formerly?) legally drug addled blowhard is that he plays loose and free with facts and his affect on listeners is astonishing. Well educated people with good jobs listen to the man and believe everything he says. Take the quote above, for example.

The Way Things Ought To Be was published in 1992. Just in time for his rise to unbelievable fame due to his Clinton Hating. But that is not why I'm pondering this subject. Cleaning up the environment takes money, time, and effort. I am so astonished that people buy into his garbage. Just look at the facts of his simple statement quoted above and what he leaves out.

The Cuyahoga River caught fire in 1969, elevating attention to polluted waters throughout the country. The river empties into Lake Erie, called a dead lake at the time. According to the EPA (www.epa.gov/glnpo/aoc/cuyahoga.html), the river had been catching fire since 1936. The largest fire was in 1952 which cost over a million dollars to clean up.

The 1969 fire spurred 100 million dollars investment from Cleveland and it helped raise awareness thus being a significant factor in Congress passing the Clean Water Act of 1972 and the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement. So his "I'm sure some regulation was used" is just a stupid statement. How can those of you who support him not see this?

That was just the beginning. He's right, the river is substantially cleaner than it was thirty years ago. There is still work going on and this work costs money.

"The major factor was good old American know how." How true. But know how without cash and no profit building possibilities, ain't going to get you anywhere. Believe me.

Finally, just because it is irritating, "WE set out to clean it up. WE rolled up our sleeves, and WE did it." I can't imagine that fat fuck rolling up his sleeves for anything. When they were discussing cleanup of the Cuyahoga, he was busy getting out of serving in the military. The examples of this man's obnoxious pomposity are astounding.

The Real Deal

The point Limbaugh tries to make has some merit. Technological fixes are definately helping. Yet, with faulty logic and partial information, he supports a free market ideal which won't clean up over a century of pollution related industrial activity. I don't know how to make it clearer....environmental cleanup takes money. The environment is what economists call an externality. There is no profit in it and nobody pays for its destruction.

I've written it before but even Adam Smith allows for taxes to be used to maintain public lands. Scorecard (http://www.scorecard.org/env-releases/land/), a website tracking pollution, estimates there are 1300 superfund sites listed on the National Priorities List throughout the United States existing within one mile of where 11 million people live. Good News for North Dakota, there are no superfund sites there. There are only two in both South Dakota and Wyoming. The highest concentrations are in the Northeast, LA and San Francisco, and around the Great Lakes.

The Center for Public Integrity (www.publicintegrity.org/Superfund/report.aspx?aid=870states) there are 114 dangerous toxic sites that are "not under control." They cite Census data and a review of governmental data showing that 25 million people live within 10 miles of these sites and there are "more than 100 schools located within one mile" of them.

Superfund began in 1980 as an effort to identify and clean up the nation's most toxic areas. According to the Center for Public Integrity, the EPA has become extremely secretive and won't share information, even with Senators Barbara Boxer and John Thune.

Quite frankly, its hard to find much pertinent, timely, evaluative information at all about superfund on the web. It has fallen off the radar and nobody cares. Most of the people living near the sites are poor anyway. I'm sure Rush doesn't live near a superfund site. I know I don't. Arizona doesn't have too many sites and none in Northern Arizona. So I don't have to worry too much about having problems with toxicity in the water around here.

Who Pays for What Needs to Be Done

Technological issues and American know how are critical to the success of efforts aimed at living in some sort of harmony with the environment. Business need not shut its doors but it needs to learn how to conduct actions more efficiently and sustainably. We are no longer in the industrial age. Environmental cleanup, however, needs to be paid for somehow. There is so much work to do and so little money to go around. We have developed a thoughtless model pitting successful profit making activity against environmental health.

Businesses are getting more efficient and leaders are learning about what can be done. The truth about Cuyahoga is nature heals over time. American effort does work but it needs people to care and get involved. Costs rise whether social action takes place or not. The 1952 fire in Cuyahoga cost over million dollars. I don't know, and don't know who does, what the social costs are in terms of greater illnesses, or the cost of people my age growing up without the knowledge of environmental value.

One of the most promising aspects available to us as a society resulting from environmental cleanup is the opportunities for jobs in new journeys moving into the future. Ignorant capitalism is no answer. Full faith and trust in corporate America to alleviate the most pressing issues will lead down the same path we have been travelling for over 100 years. Hope springs eternal.