Posted on 12/29/2014 8:40:02 AM PST by MichCapCon
Many people view the relationship between humans and nature as a zero-sum game: Our progress comes at the direct expense of the environment. Actually, that’s not the case.
Recently, we’ve been able to dramatically improve our standard of living while simultaneously leaving behind a cleaner environment. In fact, Michigan’s environment is arguably cleaner than it has been in more than 100 years.
Consider how clean our drinking water has become. In the early 20th century, waterborne infectious diseases such as cholera, dysentery and typhoid were leading causes of death, and typhoid epidemics annually sickened thousands in American cities. With technological leaps in filtration – now to the level of filtering microbes and chemical compounds, disinfection and water analysis – these waterborne illnesses have been practically eradicated in Michigan and the United States.
Thomas Doran The water in our rivers, lakes and streams is also less contaminated than it used to be. Treated wastewater and storm water contain significantly lower levels of contaminants, as technology and control systems have advanced. Some wastewater treatment plants in Michigan discharge water of higher quality than their receiving streams. For example, the PARCC Side Clean Water Plant in Plainfield, Michigan discharges four million gallons of water per day into the Grand River that is of better quality than the river’s water. Other Michigan treatment plants can also produce effluents better than river water much of the time.
Wildlife habitats are improving, too. In a 2010 Detroit News article, Jim Lynch chronicled the repopulation of wildlife around Detroit, writing, “After decades of struggling to overcome the Detroit River’s polluted past, a variety of fish and bird species have re-established themselves ... [t]he budding osprey population is joined by increasing numbers of walleye, lake sturgeon and whitefish as well as bird species like the bald eagle and peregrine falcon.”
A similar phenomenon is occurring in Michigan streams, rivers and lakes. The Grand River has become a fishing mecca, with bounties of salmon, steelhead, brown trout, bass, catfish and walleye. According to a recent report, the combined sewer overflow pollutant loads in the Rouge River, which flows into the Detroit River, have been reduced by 90 to 100 percent during most events. Further, for the first time in decades, the fish consumption advisory for some species in Wayne County’s Newburgh Lake has been lifted.
In addition to this evidence, there is abundant evidence in plain sight that the environment has been steadily improving. Some can remember the days when oil sheens covered Michigan rivers and lakes, when coal-fired home furnaces produced black palls in our cities, and when industrial and municipal wastes were dumped on empty sites or in unsecured pits. These environmental scars have been virtually eradicated in Michigan.
One of the reasons many find it easy to believe a narrative that the environment is consistently getting worse is, somewhat ironically, due to human technological advances. Analytic devices that used to detect contaminants measured in parts per million are now able to find these materials in parts per billion, or even parts per trillion. This causes many to believe that conditions are worsening, judging that 1,000 parts per billion of a contaminant is worse than 10 parts per million, when 1,000 parts per billion is actually 10 times less than 10 parts per million.
Additionally, there were once only a handful of environmental advocacy organizations. But now there are hundreds whose fundraising is enhanced by being provocative rather than presenting a balanced assessment. Moreover, there is a radical element in this movement that is anti-consumer and in favor a society regulated by an “enlightened” few. For this element, evidence of environmental progress and technological advancements seem to be of secondary importance.
Finally, against the evidence of history, many believe that if we can’t instantly solve a problem today, then it will still be a problem next year and next decade. Dire predictions are often based on this misconception. But the fact is that technology keeps improving at an accelerating pace, making humans better able to meet the environmental challenges of tomorrow and beyond.
There are still environmental challenges of great concern: invasive species, occasional outbreaks of toxic algae and pathogenic microorganisms in water supplies, old and failing infrastructure, and micro-constituents from hormones and other drugs we put down the drain. These concerns should be addressed, but let’s not let them overshadow the improvements we’ve made. With more conscientious operating practices and improving technology, we don’t have to choose between economic development and the environment.
In a 2013 article entitled “Science Is About Evidence, Not Consensus,” Matt Ridley, who formerly authored the Mind & Matter column for the Wall Street Journal, wrote, “[I]t is the evidence that persuades me whether a theory is right or wrong, and no, I could not care less what the ‘consensus’ says.” There may at times appear to be a consensus that Michigan’s environment in under assault and deteriorating, but the evidence suggests otherwise. Michigan’s natural resources can be improved, protected, and remain a key component of this state’s economic future.
BFLR
There are some parts of action on the environment that have been good, and some that have been just political, just seeking to make political points or exercise political control “on behalf of the environment”.
Then we can close the EPA and we’ll be even better off.
Not in my neck of the woods. I used to be able to clearly see the nearby hills. In recent years, there’s been a pollution haze.
The typical warmunists/radical left wing ecowacko response. “Nuh uh!”
You live in China?
The biggest polluters on earth are China and India, both which are inexplicably exempt from most of the economic restraints that the international scientific community wants to impose on the U.S. In 100 years they may (but probably won’t) improve their production facilities and processes to benefit the environment. In the meantime, they are laughing their a**es off and collecting untold wealth from activities denied businesses in this country.
Only if there is a big investor class. If government takes wealth away from the investor class to give half to the consumer class and consume half itself, technology advances will cease. Investors create wealth by doing something more efficiently than others, meaning using less energy and making less pollution.
Pittsburgh is definitely cleaner but Biscayne Bay is not. At least not as clean as it was 100 years ago.
I used to hear people complain about all the “smoke” rising from the stacks at the sawmill I worked at. They never seemed to notice that they didn’t see it during the heat of the summer days.
What they were seeing was steam from water baked out of the sawdust and woodchips we burned to heat the kiln building. It was burned and re-burned to get the most energy available out of the material as possible. It produced very little particulate matter and was filtered before leaving the stacks. What little ash was produced was sold to a company that made concrete.
The EPA has actually been very successful at doing their job. They got the job done for the most part. The rivers, lakes and streams are not nearly as polluted as they were in the 1960’s. The river in Cleveland will not catch on fire anymore. The problem is now they have this agency with not a lot to do anymore. There are no more huge environmental disasters looming. So, they need to go out and make(find)some to justify the existence of their agency and budget. So, lets go bother some rancher in MT or WY that put a pond in on his property.
I read in an article this weekend that there are more Black Bears in NH than there were when the Pilgrims landed. NH is more wooded now than it has been in the last 300 years. The whitetail deer population is at record numbers. Turkeys are like lice around here. The only animal population that is down is the moose. Coyotes now hunt in packs like wolves.
Uh...I think you make my point!
“Then we can close the EPA and we’ll be even better off.”
The individual states can handle the job as well or better than the EPA.
A lot of the bigger sawmills out west all have cogeneration plants now. It think the one Seneca put in at Eugene, or a few years back was about $7million. At the time there were some type of both state and federal tax incentives.
The only bad story I have ever heard about cogeneration was when either PGE or Enron went out of business they owed a Big Valley lumber in Burney, CA $1 million for electricity they had produced. It put them into chapter 7. They were eventually bought out of receivership by a timber company and are now known as Shasta Green Lumber.
I think there are many government agencies that could be eliminated or drastically cut. EPA, Education, Agriculture, FDA, etc.
And yet those numbers aren't big, but incredibly tiny.
LOL! There were some folks who used to complain about all the “smoke” coming out of a power plant just east of Orlando. Yup. Big freakin’ cooling towers spewing that evil dihydrogen monoxide into the atmosphere. Really looked impressive on the few colder days that would occur occasionally in the winter.
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