I ask WHY? Why isn’t our governing body looking out for us?
My heart aches today. I attended a meeting last night about the Edwards Coal Plant.
Some of the things I learned about Edwards
- Emits over 104.5 lbs of mercury each year
- Toxic coal ash now sits on the 89 acre site
- Been operating for over 50 years
- Has not done pollution control updates mandated
- Was granted permission to keep polluting til 2020
- Sold recently to Dyergy? WHY wasn’t it shut down?
We garden and I feel great when we harvest our home grow healthy food…
…but we live right next door to a power plant that is spewing poisons in the air.
Is our food safe? Is it absorbing these toxins?
Some brave people have taken action to see to the phase out of Edwards Coal Plant. Find out more about this movement and get involved. Believe me the corrupt IL government is not looking out for your best interest.
Pay attention… it is your community and your life. It seems people take action when it affects them directly. Don’t wait until you have asthma or cancer to help the fight to get “beyond coal.”
Things to do this Week
- View “Chasing Ice” documentary, National Geographic channel, April 19th, 7pm
- Go to Forest Park Nature Center, Green Fest Sat, April 20th
- Sign a petition to close Edwards
- Check out Elaine Hopkins blog about Edwards being sued and her take on the Hunter Lovins lecture.
- On Sunday, April 21st, you can view “Do the Math” video tells about CO2 in our air. Go to 350.org/math to stream a YouTube version of the movie on your computer.
I have just highlighted a few facts about the action and plan for phasing out Edwards Coal Plant.
For all facts and other action items see the Central Illinois Community Alliance Facebook page.
iB
Have you seen the movie "Lincoln?" It is amazing the division of mind set our country had 150 years ago, but the President did what he knew in his heart had to be done. Are we experiencing something just as epic right now?
In refection of the movie, I posed the question: “Is America now facing a similar dilemma as Lincoln did? Bam, it hit me! Of course, climate change is our great divide. On the surface it may not seem that way, but we had one party wanting to bring jobs to America in part by opening up a huge flood of energy related jobs. Which I want jobs of course, but we need clean energy and addressing climate change head on will do that. I am emotional as I write this to you... as I now know in my heart as Lincoln did that this is the time to make history. We need to take a stand, go through the processes of changing our culture to not only make America stronger, but the world. We need our President to say it, believe it, and make climate crisis our number one priority.
Now is the time to take action on the climate crisis. The science is convincing enough. And, as we've seen with record droughts, heat waves, temperature records shattered and the devastation from extreme weather events like Hurricane Sandy, (maybe having my name associated with the devastation forced me to look more closely) the dangers of climate disruption are all too real for millions of Americans.
What is in your heart? I just sent this blog post to President Obama and ask him to help lead the fight against climate change by making a declaration that America will lead on reducing emissions. I ask him to fight to clean up dirty power plants, build on energy efficiency innovations, say no to dirty fuels like tar sands and scale up clean energy. I believe these declarations will set a new wave of innovation to create jobs.
If you would like to write the President, here is an quick link to take action.
http://content.sierraclub.org/climatecomeshome/
iB
I was overcome with emotion today after reading the history of a local farm. Some farmers are a part of a long tradition, past down through the generations as in Grandpa & Grandma Farm, owned by Tony and Ginger Malek, Sparland, IL. Some grow up on a farm, leave, but come back later in life to start their own farm as Anne Patterson, Living Earth Farm, Farmington, IL.
