The sad story of my Chesapeake Bay
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Posted on January 29, 2007
Filed Under Deep ecology, Ecological hope, Consumer culture, Environmental disasters, Earth spirituality, Inspiration and reflection
Fostering Ecological Hope
Today from Margaret Swedish:
I have written before about the need to change how we think about development, to change a mentality that says we should be able to live wherever we want, and nature be damned. We want our pretty views, our second homes, our get-aways. Nature? Living in balance? Limits on growth? Are you crazy? Telling developers they can’t build their development because the Earth will be harmed? Tee hee. What a joke on me!
We should live in balance with the natural ecosystems of the Earth? What?
I live in Maryland and have for 24 years. We are gifted here with one of the most beautiful bodies of water in our country, the magnificent Chesapeake Bay. The bay, the rivers and tributaries that run into it, are a gorgeous, lush, eco-wonder — and our bay is very, very sick, a result of horrible development schemes, growing demands for homes with bay views and boat access, seeping human waste and lawn chemicals, and from agiculture which washes tons and tons of toxic chemical runoff into our beautiful bay.
This has to stop.
And here’s where you can read about the problem, the lead article in this morning’s Washington Post. The photo below shows far better than I could ever write exactly the nature of the problem:
“We thought it was going to be Bethlehem Steel. We thought we were going to be able to point to big polluters,” said Jack Greer, an official at the Sea Grant program at the University of Maryland.
Instead, they found that some of the bay’s worst pollutants came from such things as manure, lawn fertilizer and human waste. Its troubles began on every street, in every sewer, at the back end of every cow.
“I remember politicians just going pale,” Greer said.
Why did they go pale? Because this problem is not only insidious, but spreads across their constituency base. This is about mortgage-holders, boat-lovers and fisherpeople, summer vacationers, developers with fat wallets for political campaigns, the tourist industry, and more.
Put nature in the balance of decision-making, or the mandate to restore the pristine beauty of the bay, and who do you think is going to win this battle?
There is no way to clean up the bay without angering a whole lot of folks. There is no way to clean up the bay without questioning the economics behind this mal-development model of economic growth. There is no way to clean up the bay without igniting a storm of opposition from very powerful economic and political interests.
Blame should be spread across the watershed, environmentalists say, since all governments failed to act as boldly as the 2010 goals demanded and did little to contain sprawl. But the EPA’s Chesapeake Bay Program, which oversees the cleanup, has come in for special blame. Last year, the U.S. Government Accountability Office found that the bay program was not doing enough to coordinate environmental efforts or provide updates.
What? Bush’s EPA to blame for not doing enough to save the bay?!
Isn’t this getting to be a tragic, tragic story…
For a poignant rendering of this sad reality, read this article from National Geographic. It is a good example of how personal this story is for many lovers of the bay. For a good article on the rich ecosystem of the bay and why this matters, go here. These are the articles that often make me grief the most — the ones that describe what once was, the richness that is lost, perhaps forever.
Okay, if you want more info on the efforts to save the bay, check out the website for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. If you live around here, get active.
Frankly, friends, I’m tired of nature being damned. I see the future. I see what’s coming because of the attitude towards nature built deeply and ubiquitously across our whole economic way of life. This has to stop. It has to stop.
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