Briefly, it was a time for

celebration. Drilling in the

Arctic Wildlife National Refuge (ANWR) went again to the brink and in the end, failed.  The 1.5 million acre refuge is perhaps safe for

another year.

 

      ANWR is like the “piece de resistance” for environmentalists.  It symbolizes a do-or-die, last stand from which there is no retreat.  And ANWR, until the recent “energy crisis”, was an easy sell to the public: caribou grazing before majestic snow-covered mountains, grisly   bears fishing in clear streams – these are images the public can easily comprehend.  Calendar images despoiled by oil rigs engendered calls to Congressmen.

 

Issues Little Noticed 

     But, while you and I  were celebrating, countless initiatives “below the wire”, as it were, received little notice.  There are no pictures here, and notices of them will be found in small articles in the back pages of newspapers, if at all.  But there is a quiet assault on the environment which will have enormous and long-term impact  the health and future of the planet. 

      Here are some of them:

-  re-writing of the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act, and weakening of the provisions therein

- an international audit law (hello: sounds like our state’s “Audit Privilege”) to allow corporations to keep certain environmental problems secret from the public 

- opening all coastal waters to exploration and possible drilling for oil

- eliminating critical environmental  review and giving timber companies the right to slash and burn as they please.

- opening vast lands in the American west, 6 million acres, to mineral claims and to developers this initiative has been dubbed “the Privatization of the American West”.

      And on and on.  The above initiatives assault on the environment.

      Statewide, we are dealing with the same initiatives as last year: CAFO and Audit Privilege. 

      Citywide, an issue which no one is discussing is sprawl in Jefferson City and the leveling of the hills on which this very city is built.  And  L-42, the dormant super levee,  awaits only Congressional funding. 

     I  love birds.  I  love watching them.  I love feeding them.  But I have a hard time understanding why those who love them as I do would not be concerned and work actively to secure  their habitat, their flyways, their winter homes, their breeding grounds and to insure that all of these are safeguarded by law.  

     River Bluffs is unique.  We are the only long term environmental group in this city.  Through National Audubon Society, we have recognition and credibility.  We can make a difference. 

 

ADDENDUM: I have taped this quote from Bill  Moyers to my bathroom mirror  where I see it every morning:

“I myself don’t know how to be in this world without expecting a confident future and getting up every morning to do what I can to bring it about”. 

- Barbara Yates

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