Commentary
It’s the time of year for wishes.
Little kids wish for their favorite toy or game and I hope they find them under that tree – Santa, mom, dad and the economy willing, of course.
Big kids (most of us) wish for bigger toys — like a giant screen TV, diamonds or even a new car. That’s what the ads on TV tell us we should want, for what the ads are worth. And I hope you receive them if that’s your desire.
But again, it’s only as our nervous economy allows. Because we’re dependent on what happens in the Euro Zone, with credit default swaps and other financial gremlins that the boys from the best biz schools have conjured up.
I suspect us adults would comfortably settle for a hot cup of coffee, a nice glass of wine and knowing that those close to us are safe. I’m in that sentimental camp — though I do occasionally covet a new car.
But this is a hard news site focused on the facts and controversy of environmental and Great Lakes issues.
Let’s not get too comfy with the frivolity and joy of the season.
With that in mind, here’s my pie in the sky Great Lakes wish list for 2012.
- That the Great Lakes governors assemble and agree to engage in a race to the environmental top, thus putting the brakes on their self-imposed jobs versus the environment trip to nowhere. Do that and the jobs will follow.
- That the Healing Our Waters coalition finds the courage to publicly hold those governors and their state houses accountable when they degrade environmental protections in the name of job creation. There’s more to restoring the Great Lakes than constantly pleading for federal dollars.
- That the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will please narrow the focus of the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative.Every federal agency doesn’t need a slice of what is a very small pie for its pet project.
- For Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel to use his bully pulpit to argue for bringing the Chicago Area Waterways System into the 21st century. Right now it’s in the 19th.
- For business to become an honest partner in protecting the environment and stop using job creation as a wedge issue. The current administration in D.C. and this generation of Great Lakes enviro groups aren’t a bunch of unreasonable radicals — you can work with them but you have to make an honest effort.
- For all to read the Council of Canadians vision for the Great Lakes region, A People’s Plan to Protect the Great Lakes Forever. It’s truly visionary and provides a “new narrative” for protecting the lakes. It is of course imperfect but kudos to the Canadians for thinking really long term. Now we need a version with a dose of American pragmatism. The two could marry and what a plan we’d have.
- And lastly, that everyone in the region watch the presentation by environmental justice advocate Maureen Taylor during Great Lakes Week in Detroit. Because the water most of us take for granted doesn’t always flow from every tap in every locale.
There isn’t much new on my wish list that you haven’t read in this space earlier in the year. And I doubt that many of my wishes will come true.
Buy they are worth keeping alive because it doesn’t hurt to wish.
You never know.
I agree, $5 billion a year to fight invasive species. Is this a public cost or an industry? Are the experts trying to fix the problems or create a career? We all need to be on the same page, our obligation is what’s best for the lakes, not this group our that. Fix the lakes like you said the money will follow!
Gary, your wish list is unfortunately just that, something that many of us will never see come to fruition as long as the self-serving GOP continues to impose the radical agenda of ALEC. Corporate AmeriKa will give no quarter in their war on American values. They have shown that by their history of looting the wealth of America over the last 30 years.
Thanks Harold, and I know many share your sentiments.
I encourage others to share your Great Lakes wish list here.
Gary Wilson
That’s a really great list, Gary. I could easily comment on all of them, but the one that seemed particularly insightful to me was the one about the Great Lakes Initiative. The Initiative is heralded by many environmentalists as being this great program, but I see it as being spread so thin that it will be ineffective, even a waste of money in many respects. The Great Lakes Initiative needs to focus on the primary determinant of water quality–and that is quality of the land. Greater emphasis needs to be placed upon protecting the wetlands, forests and riparian corridors which provide natural filters for our water. We also need to address the agricultural practices which severely pollute the water which flows to our streams, rivers, and eventually the Great Lakes. If the Great Lakes Initiative could merely focus on these two aspects, it would easily provide a much greater benefit for water quality.