Schreiner’s Media Landscape

Irony is lost on the born-again- not to mention truth, facts, what’s really in the Bible and whose side God is on. But despite the Radical Christian Republican Party’s lack of a sense of humor, the bizarre and utterly groundless religious statements coming from their Twin Cities tent service are so sad they’re funny. Sarah Palin and the Republicans are now basing their efforts to make the oil companies richer, pollute and destroy the Earth even faster and further, and usurp the rights of innocent people in Iraq on “God’s Will.”

IS THIS IN THE BIBLE? DID I MISS IT? WHERE DOES GOD SAY THAT ANYWHERE? HOW DOES A FORMER BEAUTY QUEEN AND ATV DEALER KNOW THIS IS WHAT HE WANTS?

If I was God, I’d sue.

It’s always interesting when someone vehemently and convincingly claims innocence of a crime for years then abruptly admits they indeed committed the offense and want to get the punishment over with as quickly as possible. That’s what’s happened in the case of a West Valley City mining operation that finally ‘fessed up that they dumped deadly selenium into some of Utah’s signature waterways including Great Salt Lake.

There are a number of environmental criminals still running around free and claiming innocence: chief among them Crandall Canyon mine owner Robert Murray. But as independent media coverage, resulting public outrage and political pressure grow, hopefully more of these liars, thieves and environmental murderers will meet justice.

Now let the investigation of the Bush Regime into its protracted efforts to destroy America’s natural places begin. And so too- the claims of innocence.

The controversy over how- or even whether- to save Great Salt Lake from mercury and other toxic substance pollution, is heating up again after the discovery of even greater levels of killer chemicals. What the announced or written controversy is really doesn’t matter. Kennecott and other mining, energy and big polluters to blame for the problem continue to dodge their responsibility for keeping their work areas clean.

The root of the problem is that for years, these companies have been allowed to operate with comparative impunity in the name of commerce. Now that the environment is eclipsing commerce in the minds of many Utahns, and even a handful of our political and religious leaders, our big polluters are struggling with the concept of stewardship, even while the LDS Church- who runs the place- embraces stewardship more and more each day. I even expect to see President Monson out at the Downtown Farmers Market tomorrow.

Utah’s making international environmental news over alarmingly high levels of toxic mercury in Great Salt Lake. It’s no secret that concrete makers, coal-burning power plants, refineries, mining and fossil fuels pump most of the mercury found in ground water into the air and it eventually falls to Earth. We know that eating fish or water birds from mercury-laden water is hazardous, so much so that Utah’s and other health departments across the country have issued warningx to not eat too much from our poison ponds.

Contentions that mercury is appearing naturally seem to be swimming upstream from the obvious truth that Great Salt Lake is a popular spot for a long list of migratory birds who have either adapted to the toxic levels- or have not yet dropped dead. But could this be a case of “no harm, no fowl?”

Most of today’s articles and stories from the Olympics are about foreign journalists’ first encounters with Beijing’s air pollution. But most of these writers come from big cities including Salt Lake City (left) who have some of the worst air, quantities and forms of airborne pollutants in the world. As critical as I am of the Chinese, it’s time the editors of American media recognized and restate for the benefit of their audience and in the interest of fairness and accuracy that air pollution is a global problem of which THE UNITED STATES AND ITS CITIES ARE THE MAJOR CAUSE.

When athletes start dropping from breathing problems, warnings or other societal alterations occur, those stories should be done. But I think we’ve already gotten the message that Beijing has bad air. Salt Lake City, Los Angeles, Houston and other big U.S. cities cannot claim the moral high ground on this issue. America can get away with being preachy about things like democracy, human rights and even product safety when it comes to China. But pollution isn’t one of them.

When I lived in Kalamazoo, Michigan from 1997-99, my house was near a small lake which no one ever used. So I bought a boat. But not the kind you think of as a “boat”: the one with beds, a kitchen, room for eight, motors, sails, radar, 12-inch cannons. This was an inflatable boat: a German model by Sevylor called, appropriately, the “Fish Hunter.” It looks like either a bizarre cartoon character or a Navy Seals assault craft. Back then, it cost about $100. Their website says it’s now $158 but it’s $110 on eBay.

After a long week of TV non-news-sense, I would blow a Saturday afternoon just paddling around, letting the sun fry the sociopathy out of my ethically-abused body. I could float along shore to see how close I could get to the great blue herons and other beautiful birds that lived there (pretty close, actually though herons are pretty skittish). After I left Kalamazoo, I only used the Fish Hunter a couple of times during my stops in Burlington, Vermont and Champaign, Illinois. But recently on a week vacation in Park City, I hauled it out again.

After MacGyvering a way to inflate with our bike tire compressor instead of the foot pump, saving about an hour of leg exercise, Abbie and I paddled around nearby Jordanelle Reservoir and- ironically- had a gas. We watched as the intolerable loud and smelly Jet Skis and motorized craft zoomed past us, creating big wakes that tossed us around and added to the fun. I’d forgotten how fast and maneuverable the Fish Hunter is. Most of all, I’d forgotten how much fun it is just floating around on a hot, lazy afternoon not producing any greenhouse gases or other pollution, working my upper body by rowing, and seeing more of Utah’s spectacular scenery from a different perspective.

I haven’t taken it out on Great Salt Lake yet. It’s perfect for getting to those fresh water marshes ringing the lake where all the wildlife live. Yeah, I know it’s a petroleum product. But if you’ve got a choice between a plastic-coated, noise, water and air-polluting pond rocket or a zero-maintenance, zero-polluting bucket of fun, give me the Fish Hunter any day. Especially Saturday.

The excellent on-line publication NewWest and the Associated Press report that the hacks at Bush’s EPA have put out the gag order on their employees. The question is not what the EPA has done to prompt a governmental or independent investigation but what they HAVEN’T DONE that doesn’t require closer scrutiny if not prosecution.

From falsifying documents, to contempt of Congress to breaking their own rules protecting the environment, this department, like Justice, Defense, Education, Energy, etc. has followed the Bush/Cheney formula to the letter: do everything you can to help law breakers including breaking the law yourself, screw your own department’s guidelines and the American people, then do everything you can to cover your trail. And whatever you do, don’t let it get back to W and The Dick.

Ever wonder how an organization can be so inept, corrupt and arrogant? The Bush Administration has rewritten the book.

People haven’t even forgotten about the Exxon Valdez tanker disaster near Alaska almost 20 years ago. Now a collision has dumped unknown tons of oil into the flood-beleaguered Mississippi River and into hurricane and Bush-beleaguered New Orleans. Besides gasoline prices rising even more as a result, here’s even more reason to make the big push into renewable energy now not later. When you drill for and use more oil, guess what happens? MORE OIL SPILLS. Can the world really afford more of them?

As a member of The Nature Conservancy, I’m really proud of the research our organization does to show not only how important maintaining our wild places is but how much damage and death is caused by encroachment of humans on our environment. This new study proves the harmful effects of air pollution on Nature, just in time to head off the attempt by the Bush Regime to allow the building of more coal-burning power plants next to wilderness areas and national parks. Of course, Bush’s people never read, listen to or follow even their own research results. This study will likely only be good in dsicouraging yet another disastrous policy mistake that will end up getting overturned by a federal court.

It’s curious when a new study produces evidence that all the bad things that will happen if we don’t change are happening already. That’s the case with the new study about Utah’s projected population growth, acclerated reliance on fossil-fuel burning vehicles and more roads. It says we need to spend more on mass transit and other pollution-mitigating infrastructure instead of the stuff we know will ultimately kill us or make life here intolerable. It all depends on the wording of the study, of course, and the stories in corporate media that follow.

It’s all related to the denial that most of the human race is engaging in right now over climate change, air and water pollution, oil and coal dependence, overpopulation, etc. The concept that we can go on forever doing exactly what we did 100 years ago is still deeply rooted in American culture, especially here in the western U.S. Ironically, resistance to change is actually more a characteristic of older, former imperial nations like England, France and Japan, not the United States. But in a dramatic reversal of attitudes, America now finds itself the stodgy, imperial old-timer and Europe and Japan the agents of change.

Funny how time, knowledge and experience help you stay alive- and how the lack of it helps you die young.