The OWAA Annual Conference was enjoyable to say the least. Many activities, presentations and of course meeting up with friends made this a well worthwhile event. Although there were many very good presentations, one that I feel compelled to comment on dealt with a speaker who was hell bent on outdoor communicators focusing on reducing our emissions. No facts, no figures, no support material whatsoever; just continuous comments about reducing our emissions or we will all “perish” (my perception).
Forget the fact that since the start of the Industrial Revolution, our emissions have been reduced by leaps and bounds. Remember, for those of you old enough, when residential homes all burned coal, pre-1960s? Winter snows turned black with soot. Forget the fact that industry has placed scrubbers on all emission stacks to prevent the previously significant emissions of spent fuel. Forget the fact that our new technology reduces emissions even further, upwards of 70-80 percent for coal discharges such as nitrogen oxide, sulfur dioxide and particulate matter.
As journalists, we cannot and should not forge blindly into repeating what someone tells us just because he or she has a passion without a shred of credible science. It’s easy to tell if someone is just speaking “science” or speaking as a scientist.
I hope those who attended the session on “global warming” will not put too much emphasis into what was said regarding emissions. Remember that emissions are global in nature, and with China building uncontrolled coal plants by the dozen each year, our efforts here in America to clean up the air have been commendable to say the least. If we did nothing else at this point in with our current technological advancements, we would have done enough.
If we force industry to continue to do more and more, almost to the unachievable extent of zero tolerance, we may as well pack them up and ship them overseas. We need to be realistic on issues relative to our emissions and their so-called effects on the overall global warming. America and Americans are being sold a bill of goods by politicians and extreme environmentalists at the expense of our financial future, and our pocketbooks.
Chuck Lichon,
MOWA member,
Linwood, Mich.
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Global-warming session was lacking
