To the editor: Restrict all animal waste
Ohio needs courage and sincerity to develop a new approach to deal with the algae problem.
Tue, 21 Jan 2020 05:00:00 GMT
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In remarks reported by the Columbus Dispatch Jan. 3, on livestock permitting and the impact on algae blooms in Western Lake Erie, Ohio Department of Agriculture Director Dorothy Pelanda indicated correctly that her hands are tied because current laws only regulate livestock operations that are above a specific number of animal units. Considering that Ohio has struggled unsuccessfully to control the algae problem for more than a decade, Ms. Pelanda’s statement made the case for the need to change Ohio’s laws to deal effectively with animal waste that is generated from all livestock operations regardless of size.
One simple approach is to restrict the application of animal waste on farms with phosphorus concentration in soil that exceeds a specific level. This restriction should be applied to all animal waste, even if its source is a small farm.
Ohio needs courage and sincerity to develop a new approach to deal with the algae problem, otherwise we will have the same discussion 10 years from now.
GEORGE ELMARAGHY,
Former chief, division of surface water, Ohio EPA
Columbus
Enact carbon law
No, you’re not imagining that the weather has gotten weirder. By all indexes — heat, hurricane, and drought — weather extremes have numerically worsened in an accelerating path. It’s not just that the news is covering it more; it’s a demonstrable fact. The number of extreme precipitation events last year is five times higher than the 1980s, when I was in middle school. Can our infrastructure and sewer lines handle it? Not at the rate of this change. A national response to extreme weather is needed, and the single most effective and fair thing we could do is to correct the market error that artificially makes carbon cheaper than renewables.
The correction is at hand in Congress, called the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act of 2019. There are 75 co-sponsors, including Michigan’s Brenda Lawrence, Daniel Kildee, and Andy Levin. But they are the only Michiganders. The rest are not leading us out of this mess. Please call your representative to ask them to co-sponsor this bill. Our future of sewage backups, flooding, power outages, and exorbitant tax dollars for infrastructure repairs is at stake.
MARY GARTON
Ann Arbor
False info is drug
We are being subjected to disinformation used as propaganda. Deliberately false information is being used to provoke a desired response and to achieve a desired result. This, combined with that portion of the population who are misinformed or underinformed, makes this a particularly potent weapon for conservatives and their supporters as well as various state actors.
Religion was said to be “the opiate of the masses.” That may have been true. But now we are being subjected to and dosed with a new and improved drug.
Social media is the current delivery mechanism for this drug. It comes in many formulations and variations, but the desired result is the same: the confusion and exhaustion of those being targeted. Confusion about what to believe, whom to believe. Exhaustion from trying incessantly to verify or refute what we are being told. Eventual acceptance that nothing will change, that we are powerless against this assault on our senses and our sensibilities, and that we should simply surrender our dignity and outrage in exchange for the comfortable numbness of acceptance.
Rage against those who are pushing this drug. Inoculate yourself and everyone around you with outrage against those who think so little of you. Treat the symptoms with expanding knowledge and steadfast resoluteness.
Do all you can to resist this drug, this propaganda, this attempt to destabilize, disorient people and countries into irrelevance. Never give up. Never surrender.
MITCHELL GORSHA
Sylvania