I am sitting in Fish Creek Wisconsin today after a couple of days in Menomonee Michigan. As we were approaching Menomonee by boat we saw thousands and thousands of dead fish. It was a sight that I had not seen on the Great Lakes for about 40 years. This was a common sight back in the 70s but not something that I had seen in this volume for quite some time. The beach next to the Marina was just covered with dead fish and the smell was worse than low tide in Ft. Myers Beach. The last time I had seen this many dead fish was during the Red Tide off of Captiva Island, Florida 3 years ago. I also saw two ducks dying and a couple of dead geese. A person in our group called the DNR hoping that someone would come down and try and rescue the birds but we don’t know if anything happened. In Florida we would call CROW and they would come and try to rescue the birds or at least put them down mercifully. We have come a long was when it comes to the environment but not far enough.
On the flip side we saw beautiful sights like a flock of White Pelicans dancing in the sky like a synchronized ballet. We got to witness that more than once on our Green Bay cruise so far. You know that the things that nature has created need to be preserved for future generations. What we do know now will have lasting affects to our environment for future generations. I remember when DDT was destroying our environment in the 60s and 70s. Illegal shooting and DDT almost wiped out the symbol of this great country the American Bald Eagle. When I was younger I never saw a Bald Eagle because they were so few to be seen. They banned DDT and strictly enforce the protection of the Eagle and now it is very common to see in pretty much every State of the Union. Will these success stories continue?
This week they had to close seven beaches in Madison Wisconsin because high e-coli levels and algae blooms. Here again that was very common in the late 1900s because of all the pollution that was being dumped into the Great Lakes but they have really cleaned up their act so to speak. Still not perfect but still better. Well here comes global warming, raising the temperature of the water and farm runoff making it easier for the algae blooms to appear. From acid rain to the dumping of both industrial and human waste into our waters to climate change our lakes and rivers have taken a beating. We have seen in Florida was happens when you combine the green algae blooms with the red tide. We had nothing short of an ecological disaster. Millions of fish died. Manatee, Dolphins, Sea Turtles all were at risk. Even people with respiratory problems had to wear masks.
The EPA was created to monitor and regulate the environment by Richard Nixon in I think it was 1970. That is over 50 years. One on the most important things that had to be monitored was what power plants were emitting into the air. Now we have a Supreme Court that in reality says that what has been happening for the last 50 years is wrong and that past courts did not rule properly. This is not the first time Chief Justice Robert’s court has said that past court was wrong. They did the same thing with guns in 2008 and look at the mess we have now. In the case of guns it only affects Americans but when it comes to the EPA it not only affects this country but it affects the world. We need an agency like the EPA that has some teeth in it. We need an organization that will employ the scientists that can come up with the proper action. I do not see a scientist on the entire Supreme Court. Congress does not employ scientists, and as long as they are taking money from the polluters you can never expect them to do the right thing. All they will do is line their own pockets. Nixon did the right thing with the creation of the EPA and the Supreme Court has done the wrong thing from tying the EPAs hands.
Great piece today,David. I hope that we voters can help turn at least some of this around. Pretty easy to despair. Hold on to the beauty.
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