As Camden goes …
When you’re outdoors this spring working on your lawn and garden, you can protect your family’s health by choosing organic products and avoiding pesticides. Toxic chemicals applied around your home are hazardous to humans and other animals. One study showed that dogs exposed to chemically treated lawns were four to seven times more likely to get cancer than those on untreated lawns.
If you have pets or children who enjoy playing on your lawn, it’s particularly important to minimize their exposure to toxic pesticides.
Runoff from pesticides also gets into groundwater, rivers and — ultimately — the ocean.
You can maintain a healthy and attractive lawn without using synthetic pesticides and fertilizers. If you care for your yard yourself, visit safelawns.org
Camden’s parks and lodging establishments boast beautiful lawns and gardens, which are maintained without use of toxic chemicals. If they can do it, so can you.
Laurie Wolfrum
Citizens for a Green Camden
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The nuclear option
According to Bryan Comby, president of Environmentalists For Nuclear Energy, 730 tons of carbon dioxide are released into the atmosphere every second. Fossil fuels are the culprits and cause significant environmental harm.
Why then does the U.S. continue its use of such undesirable fuels?
Developing technologies and high costs have kept cleaner forms of energy, such as wind and solar power, from more widespread use. However, these energies cannot replace the energy output generated by fossil fuels. Nuclear energy can.
One gram of uranium provides the same amount of energy as a ton of coal or oil, and, according to an April article written by Richard Harris of NPR, “One person’s lifetime nuclear waste would fit in a Coke can.”
Waste management is a topic of great concern, however. Many people forget, though, that spent fuel rods are safely being stored on site at plants worldwide. The radioactive variety housed can be either recycled or reused in the medical and industrial fields. France uses such recycling techniques to produce 80 percent of its elec-tricity. Why can’t the U.S.?
In addition, polls indicate that 67 percent of Americans support the nuclear program. Most environmentalists now even argue that nuclear energy may be the best alternative to reducing carbon emissions.
Mark Lynas, a British journalist, states, “Today, the world is more threatened even than it was during the Cold War. Only this time nuclear power — instead of being part of the problem — can be part of the solution.”
Michael Jorge Senter-Zapata
Blue Hill
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No dirty bailout
The U.S. Senate is about to vote on yet another dirty energy bailout on Thursday, June 10. This resolution would cause Americans to consume 450 million more barrels of oil in the short term, according to the EPA.
Increasing our addiction to oil is a ridiculous idea at this point in our country’s energy history no matter what, but at the moment it is especially unreasonable given the continuing oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. The BP oil spill is the largest oil spill in history, far surpassing the Exxon-Valdez spill and causing extreme environmental and economic problems.
If the Senate passes this proposed Big Oil bailout, it will be like letting the BP spill continue to gush oil for 250 years.
Therefore I strongly urge Sens. Collins and Snowe to vote against this bailout and instead support strong clean energy and climate legislation that reduces our dependence on oil, cuts global warming pollution and creates new jobs. America doesn’t need another bailout that protects Big Oil and corporate polluters and keeps us addicted to dirty, dangerous energy.
Bettina Bergoo
Environment Maine
Portland
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New path for Israel
The deadly confrontation between the Israeli military and activists off Gaza’s coast should not be turned into another stale debate between pro- and anti-Israel activists. Rather, we should use this moment to ask what can be done to improve the situation.
At the root of this disaster is the effort to restrict the flow of people and goods to Gaza. This effort was initiated by Israel (and supported by the Bush administration) after Hamas came to power. This policy failed to improve Israeli security, nor did it weaken Hamas.
It is time for the Obama administration to show leadership on this issue. It should work with the international community — including Egypt, Israel and the Palestinian Authority — to create a new security regime for Gaza.
Mechanisms that guarantee Israel’s security needs — including crossing points monitored to prevent arms smuggling by international forces — are possible. What is needed is the political courage to admit failure and to try a new path.
Bill Fowlie
Harmony
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Remote-control trains
What most people outside the rail industry don’t understand is there is a huge difference between a remote control switching operation and a “single man train.”
Remote control switching operations are done in a controlled environment, a rail yard which is private property and is generally occupied by many employees doing various jobs. There are specific guidelines in place pertaining to remote controls switching operations.
A “single man train” is one person in the cab of a locomotive. That one person has control of 4,000 to 6,000 tons of freight including hazardous materials, hundreds of miles in a 12-hour shift. This is done in an uncontrolled environment through towns and cities all hours of the day and night, weekends and holidays.
Two people in the cab of the locomotives is a fail-safe system in place to ensure safety for everyone. The crew members communicate with each other constantly reminding of restrictions ahead.
Trains going in opposite directions meet at places called sidings or passing tracks. Crews remind each other of when and where trains are to meet.
With only one person in the cab of a locomotive it would only take one simple mistake by a tired and lonely engineer and there could easily be a head-on collision of two trains, each carrying hazardous materials.
How close to the MMA tracks do you live? Seems like an awful gamble to take when it comes to human life.
Scott Wyman
Milo