The most politically immediate and relevant sustainability issue for Frederick right now has to do with getting rid of stuff we don't want anymore.
The three ways we get rid of garbage are by burying it in landfills, recycling it or burning it in an incinerator (or a "waste-to-energy facility" which means an incinerator that produces electricity). If you have been paying attention you'll know that the Frederick County Commissioners are planning to build an incinerator energy plant at the cost of something like $325 million. One Commissioner, Kai Hagen, is opposed to the plan and has made his case a few times, I don't think to any success. The "Waste Study Group" has created a website and a public campaign centered around the website www.no-incenerator.org.
Temperamentally, I'm with Hagen and the WSG, but I have to admit I don't know the facts.
Given our planetary climate challenge largely brought on by intensively burning stuff, it sure seems silly to burn stuff up into the air. While it sounds really great to turn trash into electricity, it just seems to good to be true -- like a perpetual motion machine. But, as I said, I don't know the facts.
Over the next few weeks I'll do some research and ask around, and when I can speak more definitively, I'll make the case as I see it. I generally prefer to let others do this kind of hard thinking, but who can I trust? I'm not saying I can't trust anyone -- I just don't know who. Most anyone who is writing about anything like this has a position to defend. I don't have a position to defend -- other than the position that I want the Earth to continue to be habitable for humans long after I'm gone.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment