Neon said:
The problem with the environmental religion, as with most religions, is that
there is no moderation. Extremism is the norm.
You might want to flip the coin, the polluters where just as extreme
with their "Profits above all else" Mantra.
I remember going over Missionary Ridge into Chattanooga and seeing the orange
haze and smelling the foundry smoke. The smell of money.
I'm kinda, but not completely glad the orange haze is gone. Along with the
haze went the foundry jobs where a guy with barely a high school education
could work his ass off but make enough money to raise a family with the mother
staying at home to BE the mother. He made $8 to $12 an hour IN THE 70s. Back
when a decent three bedroom house could be had for $20,000 and a car for
$2500.
And now they are all keeling over with POD and Cancer as a result, and
we all pay for it. The same companies
are now overseas, quite happy to pay slave wages pollute without
restriction or worry about pesky labor laws.
Now a guy who barely graduated from high school or who has a GED can make the
same hourly wage flipping burgers in the "tourism and hospitality industry"
but the dollars are tiny in comparison.
Problem is, government is like cancer, a growing thing with the suicide gene
disabled. The pollution problem was solved in Chattanooga by the late 70s by
running many heavy industries out of town and forcing emission controls on the
rest. The air became clear and downtown employees could step out on their
lunch break and see sparkling blue skies. And then go back inside the
kitchens to their minimum wage jobs.
Then maybe they should have stayed in school and got an education.
Just as a cancer devours its host, so the EPA and local air quality people
devoured the city. They couldn't just say "job well done" and go away. No,
they kept looking for smaller and smaller, ever more inconsequential
"emitters" to regulate. When the air got clean enough that the EPA's mission
was in jeopardy, why, they simply ratcheted down the standards to define more
ordinary things as "pollution".
A couple of years ago, after one of these ratcheting-downs, the EPA declared
that Chattanooga was a "non-attainment" area because it failed to meet these
new air quality standards something like 11 days out of the summer the
previous year. The result? A massive and un-necessary auto emissions testing
system that costs citizens a fortune in both money and time and hassle.
The EPA patted itself on the back and declared the program a success. However,
if one looks at the data, one realizes that "attainment" in the last year or
two is simply normal statistical variations due to weather and other factors.
One interesting tidbit is that the ex-mayor who was in office when emissions
testing train wreck came about seems to own the land that most of the dyno
testing facilities are located on. Hmmmm.
I don't know that the government was the problem, Globalizeation was
what made the companies leave
most cities in NA, not pollution control