Great Lakes Echo (http://greatlakesecho.org/author/t-henry/page/3/)
As scary as it is to think of an impaired bus driver shuttling your kids, wouldn’t you also want to know if someone might have been stoned while operating a nuclear power plant?
The federal government apparently doesn’t want you to know.
One way to keep an arm’s length from the vapid Earth Day sales pitches, TV ads and junk mail circulating this month is to remember that the Great Lakes not only had a role in the creation of that event – but a role in the entire modern environmental era.
Commentary: Canada levies major fines on carp importers. But the glacial pace of U.S. action on carp control is like convincing federal authorities to build stronger levees before Hurricane Katrina hit. And if hearings instead of action really are required, how about holding one in the region with most at stake?
President Obama’s effort to jumpstart long-overdue cleanup projects could be in trouble. Insiders wonder if the new Congress will set the budgetary needle closer to zero. But it will take more than money for the lakes to reach their potential.
The technique renewed controversy over the adequacy of government attempts to keep the voracious invaders out of the Great Lakes.
The Great Lakes region saw it’s share of diverse environmental challenges in 2010. But they are bound by an attack on a common target – a regional identity that defines a sense of home and that may be the greatest of environmental threats.
Chalk it up to Robert Redford, cancer clusters, love of writing, questioning authority.
And then there is an eclectic fascination with environmental crimes, Richard Nixon, great beauty, a living laboratory and resiliency.
And of course there are the passionate crusaders.
And heaven’s baseball team.