This content was originally published by the Longmont Observer and is licensed under a Creative Commons license.
After spending a grief stricken night I am about to vent and you are the lucky recipient. Last night I attended our council meeting in support of the climate change resolution and I stayed for the nitty gritty business of the city. It occurred to me in the middle of the night that we old folk don’t get.
The council okayed a new housing development the will be built in the same way with the same building materials the same plans the same yards the same paving over the same use of water the same heating and ac the same blind ignorance to quality of life , the forced use of cars to go ANYWHERE, that have pushed us to the brink of extinction.
The proposed water and ice complex is but another reflection of the environmental blinders we can’t seem to shake. Was an environmental impact study done on the chlorine used, the carbon dioxide from the increased traffic? Are any innovative plane for a parking lot, what of the light pollution from parking lot lights. The common arguments center around money. News flash money cannot buy clean, air songbirds money cannot replace icebergs.
Things we as community could do are not touched on, when I suggest them even my greenest cohorts look askance. We could ban the use and sale of toxic herbicides in city limits, that includes Lowe’s and Home Depot, (law suits be damned) ban all plastic bags, have preferential parking space for ev and hybred cars, convert the city fleet, school bus to ev and all landscaping tools public and private to batteries . But the cost you say! Money cannot buy a new planet. Amazon, UPS, Grub Hub, all delivery service ....electric, or solar or something I cannot imagine but then who imagined Alexa 10 years ago. We must recognize the box we are in order to think outside of it. Tick tick we only have ....what is 11 years to undo centuries of planet abuse.
Genesis 26:28 is translated two ways one we were given dominion, the other we were charged with husbandry. We have operated with domination over nature, I sincerely hope we can develop the souls to embrace husbandry.
Lora Lee Hinton
Longmont. 80501
