Both Mayoral Candidates Still Show Oblivion on the Most Severe Thread to Humanity

Both Mayoral Candidates Still Show Oblivion on the Most Severe Thread to Humanity

When asked about the oil trust funds in the Daily Telegram of Sunday, October 22, incumbent Jim Berryman stated that he thinks the funds should be used to enhance our natural resources, e.g. to promote kayaking on River Raisin as these moneys came from Earth. On the same question, Chuck Jacobson generically speaks of a great asset that should be shared with future generations.
A while ago, in a Facebook message, I suggested to both candidates, several City Commissioners and the City Administrator, Shane Horn, that the accumulated interest would most probably be sufficient to install solar panels on several city buildings and that this would be the appropriate way to pay back to Earth some of the damages caused by the oil and gas extraction in our area. This, unfortunately, must have been fallen on deaf ears with both candidates. Just as a reminder, the EPA charged our local oil developer Savoy for violation of the Clean Air Act, one of a few keystone environmental laws left in this country. In addition, Savoy was flaring all the gas from 10 wells for more than 2 years on Witt Farm, and injects thousands of gallons of drilling fluids into 2 injection wells in Lenawee county, endangering aquifers for centuries to come. In addition to paying back some of the environmental and health damages done, transitioning our fossil fuel based energy supply to clean renewable energy is the most effective and fastest way to slow down climate change. Do I have to remind our local politicians of the 10 hurricanes we had this season and the devastation that 3 of them caused – are they connecting the dots between California’s wild fires and climate change – about the increase and northwards movement of mosquito-borne diseases and climate change, about the refugee crises and wars in the Middle East and climate change – the list could be continued to fill this entire issue of the Daily Telegram – and would still not be conclusive…

Our local politicians have failed to oppose the two unnecessary gas pipelines that will soon pump gas from wells exploited by Fracking in West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Ohio through our County and the City of Adrian to deliver most of the gas to Canada. Our “leaders” obviously still do not get this. This is not a movie, this is not a story, this is REAL LIFE. We have a narrow window of time to cap the inevitable global temperature rise to 1.5-2°C – if we continue to diddle-doddle and pretend that sports scores and traffic circles are the most important news, and do not act NOW, then we are doomed to enter a world that will make bare survival very challenging and lead to the loss of Earth’s current beauty and sanctity – so much about kayaking on River Raising Mr. Berryman!

Investing the oil trust money into solar panels will also be financially prudent as solar electricity is already cheaper than fossil fuel based energy and the trend goes to further price losses. In addition, once the panels are paid off, we would actually be making money. In addition, the City of Adrian would follow the good old tradition of being a shining example of responsible citizenship and show the way to the private residents of Adrian and Lenawee County. We would also become a member of the growing number of cities and municipalities that move towards 100% Clean Renewable all over the world. That would be something really worth being proud of!