Fight is on for cleaner air and water

Letter Published in Florida Today 1-09-08

It is time for democratic pressure to come to bear on

lawmakers and industry leaders to quit playing games

with our physical environment.

The free market alone

is not bringing us cleaner water or improved air

quality- that much should be obvious by now. The

market forces should play out within a moral framework

of laws and regulations that mandate environmental

purity standards.

Without this framework, it is like

having a playground full of self-interested kids, with

no adult supervisors around to stop the bigger and

meaner kids, from bullying and monopolizing the whole

play area.

Red Tides are a menace to humans and to the ecosystem.

Ethanol production is only making the problem worse by

dumping more fertilizers into the waterways leading to

the ocean. The soot from the diesel-powered ships is a

major source of local and global pollution- this is

some of the dirtiest fuel on the planet. Why aren’t

there international, national and state laws mandating

that everyone upgrades so competition remains but the

environment gets better? And Dragonfly (or equivalent)

onboard sewage treatment systems should be mandatory

for the gambling and cruise ships.

A combination of

nuclear (see “Environmentalists for Nuclear”

ecolo.org), solar, and wind (along with "Green" development schemes and Conservation strategies), could move us quickly out

of the fossil fuel era.

Yours Sincerely, Candidate Tim Shipe (Abridged letter published 1-9-08 Florida Today Newspaper

Back 01.11.2008.