Ed,

Thanks man…In almost 30 years of doing environmental work, what I thought I could accomplish and what I’ve been able to accomplish are two different things. In reflection I wouldn’t change it but, as a young “activist”…That turned out to be an illusion. For example, when Congress passed the AHERA (Asbestos Hazard Emergency Relief Act) way back when, EVERY single school in the United States was inspected for asbestos. I mean every one of them! Without a long description, the law via promulgated regulations mandated certain things which created an environmental “industry” virtually overnight – and its MASSIVE unfunded mandate and congressional lobbyists. As a result of this, I saw first hand how many school systems were financially decimated…Which resulted in a temporary tax increase on every citizen in our country (they just don’t realize it)…

The media’s hype and hysteria turned the science (via pundits and “experts” on TV and quoted in the newspapers and magazines) into something that simply should not have occurred but did. Granted, it is VERY hazardous to humans but unless you work with it or disturb it (e.g. maintenance, construction, manufacturing, ship workers, etc) it isn’t any more hazardous than other “silicates” that we are exposed to in life. The body treats it the same as any other “foreign” solid object ingested into our bodies…The problem occurs when there is so much of it that our body’s natural “defenses” are overwhelmed. Am I minimizing the hazards? No, it is hazardous (with medically documented chronic illness to humans) but if you were to see a slide under NIOSH 582 standards under a microscope, you wouldn’t breathe without a respirator much less go outside (it’s even worse in a city). Polychlorinated Biphenyl’s (PCB), heavy metals (e.g. mercury, silver, lead, etc), Chlorofluorocarbons (CFC), acid rain, Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC), SOX, NOX, etc, etc, etc…Are ALL a part of our modern world and are either used in or the by-product of a “process” to make something for the benefit of our civilization. Hazardous? Most certainly but, they are calculated risks of life in the modern world.

We all take calculated risks every single day whether we are driving to and from work or school or eating raw vegetables on our dinner plate in our salad…Or when we go surfing and are “sampled” by a Great White Shark…Or when we see the rain storm coming but we decide to get in the last hole on the golf course…Sometimes it doesn’t turn out like we’d like and we wind up as a statistic every day. There is one absolute certainty about life and that is that we will all die from some cause or another…Back in the old days, we were regularly part of the food chain and were exposed to natural selection and the law of nature and today, that probably is not even a consideration of most people here in America (depending on where you choose to live, work or play)…Consider the following scenario’s…

You are stopped at a railroad crossing as a train goes by…Ever notice what’s in those tanker cars?

As you are driving down the interstate and pass a semi that’s pulling a tanker trailer, ever wonder what's in it?

When you drive by a manufacturing plant, ever notice those Above Ground Storage Tanks (AST)? Ever wonder what’s in them?

Those scenarios happen every day around the world...On a smaller scale, any idea about what might happen if that regulator on that LPG tank that you are transporting in your car for your home grill malfunctioned?

Or what about if your pilot light goes out on your gas stove, you come home from work and flick on the light switch?

I guarantee you, under the proper conditions, you’d most certainly be a statistic if something went horribly wrong but, life without them…Well, our forefathers wrote about it and even then, in their day, there were hazards to life and limb that they never even knew about. Or perhaps, we could go back to being hunter/gatherers and risk being part of the food chain again…The question is, which century do you want to live in? In short, there are people (e.g. fire marshals) and agencies (e.g. AIA or NFPA) that work behind the scenes on a daily basis to "mitigate" or "minimize" the risks but, cannot eliminate them entirely...And sometimes we hear about it on the news...

After all, we CAN build a building that is completely fireproof or can withstand the impact of 20 fully loaded 757's but, no one could afford to build it much less find suitable ground to support its weight without substantial (and very costly) geotechnical work and if built, would be a very unappealing place to work...But it would not burn and it would withstand the impact of a jet airliner!

“…that science is not science anymore”…Most certainly and in my opinion this change occurred once environmentalism, conservation, etc, became politicized. Once this occurred, then came the money (I know it’s worth billions of dollars domestically and add in the international component and it’s worth trillions), then came the organizations, then came the lobbyists and politicians and then came the “science”. Over time, the hard sciences were blended into the theoretical “social” sciences and this resulted in the “grey areas” that are subject to propaganda and interpretation (lawyers).

These days, we hear such concepts of environmental “justice”…Really? This concept allows from the lawyers (pro-bono) to interject themselves into the process and viola! It resembles nothing of what environmentalism or conservation once were as they have “morphed” into something that is unrecognizable as its about the politics of control now using animals and the environment as the propaganda banner to get a law passed, to solve a problem, to generate a government program, which needs tax dollars, etc, etc, etc…

In my opinion, H.R.669, S.373, the Brown Tree Snake, the Pythons in the ENP, etc, etc, etc, are nothing more than a government program with no end in sight. After all, if the problem is solved, there’s no reason for congress to appropriate any money to something that is no longer a problem…Which isn’t good for the foundations, organizations, lawyers, politicians, bureaucrats, media, etc, etc, etc…That would end that entire “economy” that nobody knows about and that would not be good for America…Ha! Ha!

“They” have had decades to perfect the formula for what they are doing…The AHERA stuff was one of their early tests of that formula…Legislatively, things got stated with the Migratory Bird Act (treaty between the US and the UK) following WWI, was one of the early pieces of legislation regarding the protection of wildlife…The NPS was created a few years earlier…From there (not in any particular chronological order), we have the NEPA (the National Environmental Policy Act), the Lacey Act, the Clean Air and Water Acts, RCRA (Resource Conservation Recovery Act), the Endangered Species Act, etc, etc, etc…Just a cursory read of AHERA, the attention that was played to it by the three networks (ABC, CBS, and NBC) and the newspapers and America was motivated to abate asbestos no matter what the cost…Does any of this sound familiar? Why reinvent the wheel? This formula, has worked for them for decades and it’s been “networked” among them, government/private financial “partnerships” were eventually created and you have what we have today.

Later,
Jim.

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CSRAJim

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