On fracking
Thank you for the article on Maya K. van Rossum (Re: “Passing a Green Amendment,” Boulderganic, Jan. 25, 2018), which reminded people to actively resist fracking plans, fast developing here. Thank you also for Joel Dyer’s editorial “For establishment Dems, it’s Party before people and the planet,” (Re: Dyertimes, Feb. 25, 2018) illustrating problems with our own elected officials when we attempt to thwart dangerous, toxic industrial projects in our communities.
Ms. van Rossum accurately and clearly identified the serious problems in current federal, state and local laws, which offer no real protection against the explosive and poisonous fracking industry for people, the environment or the climate. Her advice for Coloradans to establish constitutional environmental amendments and codify them in their state constitution is timely. Though we’ve attempted to do so twice in the recent past, and both times the process was corrupted, once by a dishonest “environmental” Democratic politician, it’s still important for Colorado to try again.
But people in Boulder County cannot just wait for a statewide initiative to succeed. With the Extraction fracking company already building new wells in Erie near schools and parks; with the 8 North fracking company already submitting plans in Lafayette for wells targeting a school, city park, open space, our recreation center, hundreds of homes, our dog park, the graveyard, a “conservation area” and reservoir and much more, extending from Baseline to Arapahoe; and with Crestone applying for 180 new fracking wells between Lafayette and Longmont on lands that have numerous farms, ponds, a major creek, a large reservoir, at least eight open space areas and a hospital.
So far, our elected politicians, whose duty it is to represent the people, are ignoring or opposing the Boulder County Climate Bill of Rights and the Lafayette Climate Bill of Rights, both made law, and have abandoned the Longmont fracking ban.
Boulder County and the City of Lafayette have written regulations, which they claim will offer protections against the dangers of fracking in our communities. The proposed regulations read at a Lafayette City Council meeting recently are essentially the same as the regulations Boulder County wrote. The language of these regulations anticipates fire, explosion, toxic leaks, flares (the burning off of gas in the open air), orally toxic substances, the need to closely monitor toxic gases in our air, and identifies countless other unthinkable horrors which we do not want a couple hundred feet from our homes, farms, schools, hospitals, nor in the midst of our reservoirs, creeks, ponds or open space.
Do these “safety” regulations inspire anyone to feel safe in the face of fracking?
Sandra Fox/Lafayette
Save the oceans
I am writing regarding “The Last of the Beauty” (Re: Boulderganic, Feb. 15, 2018). It was a great article and I applaud Shawn Heinrichs for his creative and powerful work. I too love the ocean and feel deep grief for its demise; therefore we must acknowledge the leading causes of ocean destruction: overfishing and bykill. Ninety to 100 million tons of fish are pulled from our oceans each year to appease human appetites. This equates to 2.7 trillion individual animal lives. Bykill is the plethora of unintended marine life that is caught in all forms of industrial fishing. When boats throw their nets and lines into the ocean, they catch dolphins, sharks, turtles, sea birds and other fish. For each pound of fish caught for human consumption, an additional five pounds of sea life is caught, killed and discarded.
Heinrich loves sharks and the article discusses the shark fin trade. While this is a despicable practice, no conversation about the shark’s annihilation is complete without talking about fishing. While it is true that 73 million sharks are killed every year for shark fins, 40 to 50 million sharks are killed every year as bykill! Labels such as “sustainable” don’t really mean anything and just like the word “humane,” the only thing the label does is help the consumer feel better.
By eating fish one is supporting an industry that is destroying our oceans and bringing marine life to the brink of extinction.
Heinrichs mentions that if and when there are no more fish in the ocean, then two million people will lose their protein source. At some point humans are going to have to face the fact that if we want to give the ocean (or the planet for that matter) even just a small chance of survival, we need to let the oceans heal and stop eating fish, as well as all animals, as there is no sustainable way to fish and raise animals for food. Among other environmental nightmares, animal agriculture is leading the way for ocean destruction by causing ocean dead zones, water pollution and ocean acidification.
If things continue as business as usual, the United Nations states that by 2050 we will have fishless oceans. I for one do not want to see that. The time is now. Heinrich states, “This is the last generation to save the ocean, we’ve already passed all the other warning points.”
Erica Sodos/Westminster
Marches and vigils are
not enough
Thank you, Dennis Duckett, for saying it like it is in your guest column published March 8, 2018 (Re: “Marches and vigils are not going to bring about the change we need,” Opinion). Though I, too, appreciate the effort and intention behind the marches and vigils, the situation in this country is a good example of Einstein’s statement, “We cannot solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.”
Our political, social, “health care,” educational, big agricultural and military systems, along with our consumer-based economy, keep The People just barely healthy and intelligent enough to work enough (too much) to buy stuff enough or kill people in other countries enough or chronically sick enough and governed enough to support the hoarding of money by just a few “people.”
When we create new (aka return to natural humane) thinking from war to warmth, from hoarding to helping, from survival to sustainable, we will have a future for our generation, and many to come.
Ronda Lawrence/Boulder
Conscious capitalism
Akin to what comedian John Oliver says about the words “President” and “Trump,” conscious and capitalism are two words that do not belong together. Yet, here we are, having them foisted upon us, having to make sense of the crap sandwiches thrust into our faces. It was much preferable in the old days, when businessmen were evil and nobody had enough time or power to pressure them to be good. Now some people do have enough time and power; ironically this time and power was usually bought via the evil deeds of their parents. Nonetheless, they want to feel good, and they are willing to pay for it. So, they fork over some of their ill-gotten cash to hippies and other people that their parents deemed “irresponsible.” Now, through a twist of fate, it is more responsible to be a hippie than a businessman.
Some people try to take the middle path, like Buddha. Unlike Buddha, they have never renounced earthly possessions. They want to be both hippies and consumers of endangered species. They think that capitalism and health can coexist. However, health is balance, and there is no balance when one is devouring or being devoured. Nonetheless, they were brought up in the United States where there is no evidence of the Laws of Thermodynamics. They have never seen the equal and opposite reaction to their actions. Those reactions lie half-way around the world in a sweatshop or decimated rainforest.
Only in America can two completely opposite ideas coexist so peacefully. Only in America can one hope to save the world on the one hand while destroying it on the other. Only in America can we have something called conscious capitalism rise out of its cradle, raised upon the milk of arrogance and disconnection. Here’s why conscious capitalism does not work: it’s selective. One cannot carve a tiny little ethical corner out of the devouring machine and ignore the rest. For those that hope the good will spread to the whole, they do not realize that the “good” comes from the excess. A rich man gives some of the money obtained from the misery he creates to charity, but that does not wipe away the totality of his actions. The truly ethical person will take a hard look in the mirror. This is hard to do through the rosy blindfold of “conscious capitalism.”
John Chavis/Colorado Springs
Don’t forget to price in the externalities
Your Feb. 1, 2018 article, “Xcel reveals lowest renewable energy bids to date” (Re: News), is a refreshing reminder that the falling prices of solar and wind production and storage are finally making renewable energy sources economically competitive with coal and natural gas. Of course, “economically competitive” here merely means that the marginal cost of an electric company such as Xcel producing their next kilowatt-hour from renewables is finally achieving parity with their doing so using non-renewables. However, that accounting is strictly in terms of costs and benefits to Xcel, whose primary obligation is to turn the biggest profit from energy production and sale that they possibly can. There is nothing wrong with this system per se, if the incentives are aligned correctly. But here, they are not.
With every kilowatt-hour of energy Xcel produces from renewables, they pay the cost of production and reap the price of sale. But with every kilowatt-hour that comes from non-renewables such as coal, the same is true, except there is an additional, externally imposed, cost. Energy produced from greenhouse-gas emitters adds particles to our atmosphere that warm the planet. In turn, the frequency of natural disasters climbs, societies find that water is in shorter and shorter supply, and militaries are forced to cope with the destabilization that ensues. These and other costs are passed onto citizens in forms ranging from air-conditioning bills to taxes. So from Xcel’s perspective, there is at present no clear winner in the energy-production world, but from the perspective of economically rational consumers, there is.
The solution to this imposing problem is actually a simple one. Slap a price on the extraction from the Earth of carbon-emitting resources. Not so large a price as to make energy producers squeal in agony as part of some sort of long-awaited retribution for the harm they have done our planet — no, just enough to account for the marginal costs to society of every ton of CO2 or CO2-equivalent emitted. If you are looking for the solution that is designed to shut down all coal plants overnight, this will not be it. But if you are — left, right or center — concerned with the damage being done to our society by the externalities of greenhouse gas emissions, and want a solution that works on a timetable faster than Xcel’s own, then call Senators Gardner and Benner, and Representative Polis, and urge them to get on board.
Daniel Palken/Boulder
Rethink open space taxes
Letter writer Rod Brueske writes, “Boulder County [Parks and Open Space] exists because of the generosity of the taxpayers of Boulder County.” (Re: Letters, Jan. 25) No. It doesn’t. Land preserved by the Nature Conservancy exists because of the generosity of its donors, who donate on a voluntary basis. Land preserved by Boulder County exists through brute force — the same type of brute force that’s useful for robbing convenience stores. Generosity has nothing to do with it.
Taxes are the price we pay for living in an uncivilized society. A truly civilized society operates on a strictly voluntary basis and never initiates force against peaceful people. In a civilized society, the sole purpose of government is the protection of individual rights.
Chuck Wright/Westminster
Stand up to the bully
The unsettling disarray of this White House administration, coupled with the proven lies spoken by the president and his representatives, makes me sincerely fear for this country. A special counsel was finally appointed to determine the extent of Trump collaboration with the Russians. America is heading toward a constitutional crisis, enabled by the acquiescence of people like Cory Gardner.
I have family history that is pertinent to this issue. My cousin,
William Mandel, was a leading Sovietologist during the 1940s and 1950s.
As an academic at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, and expert on the Soviet Union, he often traveled there to do research. Joseph
McCarthy interrogated my cousin William before the House Un-American Activities Committee, accusing him of being a communist spy. McCarthy’s aggressive witch-hunt violated the civil rights of thousands of United States citizens.
Most were afraid to stand up to that bully. Over 2,000 government employees lost their jobs as a result. Robbed of his career at Stanford, blacklisted as a journalist and writer, punished without evidence, William behaved as any true patriot would. He stood up to the bully, refusing to submit.
The irony today, the hypocrisy, is the substantial evidence of Trump’s collusion with Russia and his blatant lying to avoid justice. Trump is directly interfering with the FBI Russian investigation. This is truly un-American. Still, the majority of Republicans demonstrate their spineless cowardice by continuing to support this traitor through their silence.
I ask Senator Gardner to make a public statement demanding full disclosure of Trump’s dealings with Russia, including his tax returns. Uphold your oath, Cory: “Support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.” Senator
Gardner, stand up to the bully.
Wendy Rochman/Boulder
Fracking threats continue
Fellow citizens of Boulder County, our local community is under imminent threat. Two large private companies, Crestone and Extraction 8 North, want to come into Boulder County and risk the beautiful existence and health of the open space land that makes Boulder so desirable to live and play in. I personally oppose fracking because we have already discovered solutions to our energy problems that don’t require cracking open our land and pumping harmful chemicals into the ground. I also have zero trust for private companies who want to profit off of the natural resources. Some of this natural gas may go to Colorado, but some will be sold to outside interests for a profit for those private companies. And who pays for the externalities of the hydraulic fracturing? We do as a community. Boulder citizens have invested over $100 million taxpayer dollars into our open space fund. Why should we allow a private company to harm our environment and profit off these pristine resources, which belong to all of us? I call on all Boulder County Commissioners to obey the will of the people who elected them and stop any fracking on our open space lands and within the county indefinitely. If Portland can do it, why not Boulder?
Joshua Smith/Boulder
Sermon from the gun mount
Wayne LaPierre’s sermon from the gun mount of the Holy Church of the NRA and the Seconnd Amendment was simple and to the point. “The Gun is our Savior. The solution to gun violence is gun violence. Good people should own and carry guns.” What a sales pitch for the gun and ammunition industries! Let us say, Billy Graham he is not. Satan himself could not have said it better. So, sorry kids, the romance of the gun is hardened too deep in the American Dream. Killing bad guys is glory personified. Hollywood says so. So it goes.
Robert Porath/Boulder
Support our young people
What do DREAMers and high school students advocating for changes in gun laws have in common? They are both underrepresented groups, not yet able to vote, who are speaking out about the inaction of our elected officials. Our young people are tired of partisan politics and want to see solutions.
The League of Women Voters of Boulder County, a nonpartisan organization working for change in public policy through education and advocacy, applauds the efforts of our young people. We are encouraged that they are choosing to participate in democracy in an attempt to bring about positive changes in our nation.
We urge our elected officials to work together and find common ground on both of these issues.
The DREAMers have now been living in limbo for almost 6 months, which is unconscionable. Most Americans favor the DREAM act, and it has bipartisan support in Congress. Yet party politics are standing in the way of a solution for hundreds of thousands of young people in our country. Time is up: find a way to pass the DREAM Act now.
Students have been living in fear of gun violence at their schools all of their lives (Columbine HS, 1999). Some children face gun violence on the streets of their neighborhoods on a daily basis. We support the right of citizens to bear arms under the Second Amendment, and we believe common sense rules are needed to protect our public safety. Strong federal measures must limit private citizen access to semi-automatic assault weapons and close loopholes in background checks.
We will do our job of registering to vote those high school students who turn 18. When will our elected officials do their job of passing legislation to protect our younger generation from gun violence in their schools and neighborhoods?
Peggy Leech/President, League of Women Voters of Boulder County
