Envirohoma?
I am a citizen of Oklahoma. I was born here, and with the exception of about 5 years scattered throughout the 32-year span of my life, I have always lived here in our community. I think there are a lot of wonderful things about our state. I have resided briefly in California, Texas, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Washington, and I have found that Oklahoma is the only state in which I can relax. I can see far out onto the horizon; I don’t have to worry about overcrowded cities, or sky-high living expenses. We also have truly good and friendly people here. My state has beautiful sunsets, amazing expanses of prairie grasses, a wide variety of wildlife, and many wonderful state and municipal parks to enjoy. Keeping all this in mind, I want to tell you about two things that really bother me.
A few days before the elections, my husband went to our local Democratic Party headquarters to get some information. When he asked where the various candidates stood on environmental issues, he was told that none of them had any stance, because environmental issues are not important (politically) for this state. That is the first problem on my mind.
The other day, I was reading the latest edition of Sierra magazine. It is a publication put out by the very well known Sierra Club, which was founded in 1892 “to explore, enjoy, and protect the wild places of the earth.” Many of you are probably familiar with this organization. In an article on “Candid Congressmen,” Senator James Inhofe (R-Okla.) was quoted as saying, “We’re not going to worry” about protecting children from pesticide residues in their food. “Now that Tom DeLay is gone, it’s up to Oklahoma to stand tall for DDT,” DDT? Does anyone remember that DDT is the chemical responsible for the near-extinction of our national symbol, the Bald Eagle, and that it was banned in the 1970’s for this reason?
What do these two things say about Oklahoma and Oklahomans? It seems to me that Oklahomans take the beauty of this state for granted. If our elected officials and those running for public office are either taking a stance against the health of our land (and children), or taking no stance at all because it’s “not important” for this state, then it’s because we, as citizens, have not shown that we care. Do we really want to have to allocate a budget for bottled water or buy expensive filtration systems for under our kitchen sinks because our water supplies are polluted? Many of us already do. In my home town, we have ozone alerts and air quality reports, and I’m sure the same is true for other cities in our state. For these reasons alone, it’s obvious that environmental issues are important. Oklahoma’s geographical diversity provides homes for innumerable animal and plant species. Do we want to douse them with poisons and toxic pesticides like DDT? Or do we want our state government to find less harmful and more productive methods for dealing with pest problems? Do we want our children exposed to heavy metal toxins and pollutants in our drinking water? Well, they already are being exposed to them.
There are many ways to help reduce environmental pollutants in Oklahoma. It really begins at home by recycling, reusing things instead of throwing them away, and reducing the amount of things we buy (i.e. things we don’t need). We can replace our incandescent light bulbs with energy-saving fluorescents (those nifty spiral bulbs, which last much longer and reduce your electric bill). We can buy smaller, more efficient vehicles and only use big trucks when we really do need use them for what they were designed for (hauling, towing, off-roading, etc.); we can even buy hybrid vehicles. To reduce the pollutants in our ground water, we can buy meats from animals raised on small, local farms, or phosphate-free, dye-free household cleaners, which are now widely available and safer for our families and pets. But all this effort feels futile (even though it’s really not), when we hear our elected officials tell us that environmental issues are not important, or that they want to bring back the use of DDT. Let’s let our state government know that we do care. We live in this beautiful state. We breathe the air, drink the water, enjoy state and municipal parks and fish in area lakes. Why would we not want to protect all of these things that are so much a part of our daily lives? I refuse to believe that other Oklahomans don’t feel the same as my family and I do. It’s time to put environmental issues on Oklahoma’s political agenda.
A few days before the elections, my husband went to our local Democratic Party headquarters to get some information. When he asked where the various candidates stood on environmental issues, he was told that none of them had any stance, because environmental issues are not important (politically) for this state. That is the first problem on my mind.
The other day, I was reading the latest edition of Sierra magazine. It is a publication put out by the very well known Sierra Club, which was founded in 1892 “to explore, enjoy, and protect the wild places of the earth.” Many of you are probably familiar with this organization. In an article on “Candid Congressmen,” Senator James Inhofe (R-Okla.) was quoted as saying, “We’re not going to worry” about protecting children from pesticide residues in their food. “Now that Tom DeLay is gone, it’s up to Oklahoma to stand tall for DDT,” DDT? Does anyone remember that DDT is the chemical responsible for the near-extinction of our national symbol, the Bald Eagle, and that it was banned in the 1970’s for this reason?
What do these two things say about Oklahoma and Oklahomans? It seems to me that Oklahomans take the beauty of this state for granted. If our elected officials and those running for public office are either taking a stance against the health of our land (and children), or taking no stance at all because it’s “not important” for this state, then it’s because we, as citizens, have not shown that we care. Do we really want to have to allocate a budget for bottled water or buy expensive filtration systems for under our kitchen sinks because our water supplies are polluted? Many of us already do. In my home town, we have ozone alerts and air quality reports, and I’m sure the same is true for other cities in our state. For these reasons alone, it’s obvious that environmental issues are important. Oklahoma’s geographical diversity provides homes for innumerable animal and plant species. Do we want to douse them with poisons and toxic pesticides like DDT? Or do we want our state government to find less harmful and more productive methods for dealing with pest problems? Do we want our children exposed to heavy metal toxins and pollutants in our drinking water? Well, they already are being exposed to them.
There are many ways to help reduce environmental pollutants in Oklahoma. It really begins at home by recycling, reusing things instead of throwing them away, and reducing the amount of things we buy (i.e. things we don’t need). We can replace our incandescent light bulbs with energy-saving fluorescents (those nifty spiral bulbs, which last much longer and reduce your electric bill). We can buy smaller, more efficient vehicles and only use big trucks when we really do need use them for what they were designed for (hauling, towing, off-roading, etc.); we can even buy hybrid vehicles. To reduce the pollutants in our ground water, we can buy meats from animals raised on small, local farms, or phosphate-free, dye-free household cleaners, which are now widely available and safer for our families and pets. But all this effort feels futile (even though it’s really not), when we hear our elected officials tell us that environmental issues are not important, or that they want to bring back the use of DDT. Let’s let our state government know that we do care. We live in this beautiful state. We breathe the air, drink the water, enjoy state and municipal parks and fish in area lakes. Why would we not want to protect all of these things that are so much a part of our daily lives? I refuse to believe that other Oklahomans don’t feel the same as my family and I do. It’s time to put environmental issues on Oklahoma’s political agenda.
posted by Melissa Beck | 9:38 PM
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