Getting Into Nature

Look into your crystal ball for 2009 and consider what will be the biggest challenges for local & national nature lovers and environmentalists. What do you see on the horizon? What do you predict will happen on the environmental front in 2009? Please comment.

• More “Hurricane Ike” storms will cause flash floods in over-developed areas.

• Passage of Prop C will spur wind powered renewable energy in Missouri.

• The TVA Coal Plant Spill will prove worse than the Exxon-Valdez Disaster

• Efforts to start new nuke plants in Missouri and elsewhere will stumble.

• Scientists will discover that global warming effects are now irreversible.

• Obama will revive EPA and end an “anti-science” era (Got proof? Give examples).

• Environmental backlash will deepen in response to an eco-friendly administration.

Fall 2008 has finally brought some good news for local & national nature lovers and environmentalists. So which of the following events has you the happiest?

• Withdrawal of the planned Wal-Mart for Creve Coeur Lake flood plain.

• Passage of Prop C to promote renewable energy in Missouri.

• Election of pro-environment candidates to the Mo. Legislature.

• End of the reign of Anti-Environment Bush Administration in U.S.

PLEASE COMMENT BELOW

Nature lovers, conservationists and environmentalists have a lot to celebrate as we get to the close of the year: Passage of a renewable energy bill in 2008 for Missouri; Defeat of anti-environment administrations from the White House to the Statehouses; and locally, the withdrawal of the planned Wal-Mart for Creve Coeur Lake flood plain.

I would add encouraging news that the Hidden Valley Ski Resort will not be closed after all, because of new negotiations taking place between Wildwood and the resort management.

Some environmentalists are unalterably opposed to ski resorts. I am not opposed to all such recreation areas for two reasons: First, the ski hill gets kids outdoors and away from their XBox Video Games, and this may be the beginning of their love for the outdoors even when it’s a little cold outside; Second, Hidden Valley, if it were closed, would likely become a residential development of McMansions with polluting septic tank systems. Enough of those, please!

Despite our successes, the battles for local nature lovers, conservationists and environmentalists never really end. A new battle shaping up involves the relocation of the President Casino to a site up the Mississippi River near the Chain of Rocks Bridge.

State voters should vote YES on Proposition C on Nov. 4. Known as the Missouri Clean Energy Initiative, the measure would require electricity providers in the state to move away from fossil fuels to renewable resources for power generation.

Proposition C would require at least 2 percent of electricity to be generated by investor-owned utilities from sources such as wind, solar, biomass and hydro-power by 2011. That mandate would increase to at least 15 percent by 2021.

Energy initiative supporters contend the Nov. 4 ballot measure will help break foreign oil dependency by the United States and slow the current economic crisis. There are virtually no opponents – no organized opposition – to this proposal. Ten years ago, that would have been unthinkable. The Rush Limbaugh crowd would have been crying out about unrealistic mandates by government. They would have denounced advocates as tree- huggers and environmental whackos.

Pity the fact that this Initiative should have been taken up 30 years ago nationwide. That was at the time of the first energy crisis and the first oil squeeze by the Middle East oil cartel.

Imagine where we would be with no fossil fuel dependency now. No war. No economic crisis. Far less air pollution. Far less climate change and erratic, destructive weather. And the polar bears might not be struggling for a piece of ice to stand upon!

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