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Twin Town High (vol. 8) |
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Letters to the Editor...Think globally - act locally
Wednesday 31 August @ 04:52:58 |
 Hurricanes are only the beginning for us if we do not change
As I write these words, a category-5 hurricane is pounding and flooding one of our oldest and most vulnerable cities. Hundreds of thousands of residents are fleeing for their lives. An M.I.T. study just released this month tells us that hurricanes will indeed be more frequent and more intense, thanks to the warming of our planet. All hydro-meteorological
disasters will be more frequent and more intense. Every year will be worse.
How can we ignore a crisis that will have such a devastating impact on our entire
earth and our future? How can we go on with business as usual?
 Our
housing, crime and budget problems are insignificant when compared to what we
are all about to face in the near future. We can’t reverse global climate
change in our life times, but we can, to some small degree, slow its inevitable
progress. It will take an effort greater than our mobilization in World War II.
It will take immediate serious conservation policy and immediate design and development
of renewable energy technology everywhere.
Minneapolis must be a leader. Our federal government is doing nothing. In fact,
they did the worst thing they could do by dumping your money and my money on the
deadly nuclear and fossil fuel industries. Our state government and governor are
doing nothing.
Some cities are taking action and Minneapolis, with its educated and enlightened
citizens, must show the world what can be done. Conservation can bring great wealth
and cleaner air to our city and state. Conservation can reduce the deadly mercury
emissions. Conservation can prevent the flow of billions of dollars out of our
city and state that we spend on fossil and nuclear fuel. Renewable energy can
bring great wealth and health as well. The sun and wind are free.
 Electing
politicians who will be serving special interest groups and carrying on with business
as usual will be suicide. Electing politicians who only want to build more housing
when we are not using what we have efficiently, and electing politicians who only
want to create more jobs regardless of what kind of jobs they might be, is a path
to apocalypse. We need radical measures.
It is time to stop being the most wasteful pigs on the planet. Its time to show
the world how we can put up beautiful solar arrays on our ugly freeways and parking
lots and ramps and generate thousands of kilowatts of electricity from the free,
clean, inexhaustible energy of the sun for our city.
It’s time to use the free funds that are available from the state and federal
government because if we don’t use them they will not be refunded. It’s
a no brainer ... a great investment. We can’t afford not to do it.
 Our
city desperately needs a leader with vision and insight and not a follower. We
must act now. The tactics of R. Buckminster Fuller, the tactics of maximizing
efficiency will not only reduce the pollution and greenhouse gasses we produce,
they will reduce our taxes as well.
The lives we save could be our own. God help us and guide us from this path of
waste, death and destruction and guide us onto the path of prudence, life, love
and everlasting enlightenment.
Don Johnson
Minneapolis
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