Will politics trump Earth Day enthusiasm?
Earth Day 2010, the 40th anniversary of the original sponsored and promoted by the late Sen. Gaylord Nelson, began with a bang and ended with a whimper. Communities all over the country staged restoration and trash pick-up events Saturday on public lands and waterways. Good show.
In Bozeman, 30 tons of used glass containers were collected at a local park for recycling, which is usually limited to cardboard, plastic and cans. Recycling advocates hoped the huge turnout would impress civic leaders to restore provisions for city or county glass recycling. Authorities say the financial incentives aren’t there to invest in glass crushing machinery or hauling glass to the nearest facility in a neighboring state. Well, who said they should make a profit on recycling anyway? Isn’t it enough to keep it out of the landfill?
The week started with a package from my sister containing my Earth Day T-shirt, designed every year by one of her high school students. At mid-week, the long-awaited energy and climate change bill was scheduled to be unveiled Monday, the result of a six-month bipartisan effort by senators John Kerry, Lindsey Graham and Joe Lieberman.
By Saturday, the plan began to unravel when Arizona passed an immigration law that raised hackles with politicians facing tough reelection races this year. This includes Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada who basically gets to decide which legislation will make it to the Senate floor.
Kerry said Graham threatened to withhold his support for the climate change bill if Reid pushed the immigration issue first. Overhauling immigration laws is a contentious process that might cost Republicans dearly in mid-term elections. Graham branded Reid’s reshuffling of the Senate agenda “a cynical political ploy.”
The climate legislation seemed to have enough Republican support and could pass relatively quickly, pleasing environmentalists who strongly back cutting greenhouse gas emissions 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020. Carbon controls would vary in different sectors of the economy rather than an across the board cap-and-trade scheme.
Journalist Tom Friedman said on Sunday that China and India would be giving high fives if we ditch climate change legislation. Anyone who doesn’t feel the necessity for change simply hasn’t been paying attention. You don’t have to be a tree-hugger to know that we can’t wait much longer to act and that the rest of the world is waiting to see what we do.
An AP story last week reported the chemistry of Earth’s oceans is changing faster than it has in hundreds of thousands of years. Carbon dioxide absorbed from the atmosphere is lowering the pH of seawater, making it more acidic, according to the National Research Council. Rising acidity threatens coral reefs, fish and other sea life.
Since the first Earth Day, carbon dioxide levels in the air have risen 19 percent, pushing annual world temperatures up one degree Fahrenheit; polar ice caps are melting at an alarming rate; glaciers are disappearing; and ecosystems are subjected to infestations of pests, such as pine bark beetles, that are devastating western forests. Power plants and factories used to account for 85 percent of air pollution but with government regulation, they now emit only 15 percent. The rest is now indirect source pollution coming mostly from factory farms and livestock production.
Which reminds me that another nod to Earth Week was the PBS airing of Eric Schlosser’s Oscar- nominated documentary film, “Food, Inc.” Here in Bozeman, where the film was shown at the local arts center last month, citizens are organizing to establish 1,000 new gardens, designed to engage more of us tending the earth and providing healthy, locally produced food. I did my part Saturday attending the last indoor farmers market of the season where I bought eight little greenhouse grown seedlings of lettuce, kale and broccoli. They are now perched on a sunny windowsill awaiting the warmth of May and transplant to large pots on my balcony.
In what was once considered solid Republican territory, I’m seeing enormous change in people’s tolerance levels for pollution, reckless use of chemicals on gardens and farms, and energy waste. Still a bastion of individual liberty-there’s a vigorous Tea Party group in the area-citizens seem to be calling for some government regulation over sectors that have run amok.
I appreciate the frustration of states along our southern border subjected to violence spawned by illegal drug and immigrant smuggling. They’ve been waiting a long time for decisive action from the federal government, or even just increased funding for INS agents. But many state and local law enforcement officers don’t support Arizona’s new law because they fear legal action by the ACLU and MALDEF for “racial profiling.” Legal immigrants and citizens of Latin descent also oppose it because they fear police harassment. There are echoes now of Nazi and Soviet era movies, where police demanded, “Let me see your papers.” It appears that one way or another this law is destined for the courts.
How Reid thinks the Senate can sort this all out quickly is beyond me. Passing energy and climate change legislation, already in work for six months, seems easier by far. And, of course, the Wall Street Transparency and Accountability Act is waiting in the Senate wings.
May Earth Day enthusiasm trump politics just this once.