Dear Friends,
Every day as I drive I find detours, roads closed for repair and construction, buildings being torn down, trees being cut down, grassy areas, pollination fields paved over. Off shore drilling, wind turbines, oil tanker spills, are damaging our waters. Plastic debris continues to find its way into our oceans; 5.25 trillion pieces a year in fact of which 269,000 tons float to the surface while 8 million tons remain on the ocean floor. It is estimated that this plastic will take one thousand years to biodegrade. China is the number one culprit, the United States is also on the top of the list fish eat the plastic, fish larvae prefer it to their natural food source. Birds also consume plastic it is of course not nutritional. Now science is working on producing ice cream from the same plastic we drink water from. What is being done to change this? Do you hear any of the candidates or elected officials talking about saving our planet? Poll after poll shows that wind turbines are not popular with voters and yet they are being constructed with blades the length of a football field, when they wear out they are dropped where they will remain, they decompose and they are not recyclable. While they do not require rotating at high speeds like a fan, they do rotate and the vibrations of their rotation have an effect on sea life. Sea lions, dolphins, whales, sharks seem to be reacting with unusual behavior.
Let us revisit our litter, I drive and I see so much litter along our roadways; from fast food meal bags to boxes, large plastic trash bags containing who knows what to furniture and tires. Throw in the decaying carcasses of what has come to be known as road kill.
We have groups and clubs that don orange vests and shirts to rake, shovel, and scoop this pollution into Bags (plastic bags) in which what they collect will be taken to landfills and buried where it will sit for decades. Oh there’s noise made about saving the world from plastic, supermarkets are going to stop using plastic bags to pack your groceries in. Townships are working on banning plastic bags for trash and yard debris. Today I joined my wife food shopping, we bought; chips and pretzels in plastic bags, pre sliced meats and cheeses in plastic wrappers, ready to eat salads in plastic bags, our fresh produce that we hand pick is bagged in plastic (if you are able to open them) where we are told at check out they no longer pack your groceries in plastic bags to help the environment. We as a country produce all types of new products that will make our lives easier with little concern for the impact on our environment.
I am going to ask you to do your homework before voting, call the candidates, I do, go to town meetings, watch and listen to the debates, know who you are voting for and what they stand for, not just what party you vote for. Government wants what is best for you? Let me mention the Trail of Tears after taking away their weapons, and the near extinction of the buffalo the main source of food for many tribes, for sport. This is our land, our home, we live on it and it is able to provide us with all we need to live, that is until we take more than we need and destroy it.