Letters to the Editor
THANKS FOR THE ARTICLE
I just wanted to thank you for including the story on Preterm and their greening efforts. What I love about the Preterm story is that while they’re doing the “usual” green things, like building renovations, they are also addressing the social equity side of sustainability, which sometimes gets lost in the shuffle among all our wind turbines and solar panels.
Thanks Stephanie (for this and everything else that you do)!
HURTING YOUR REPUTATION
I don’t know much about Eco-Watch, but seeing the first letter to the editor is about “chemtrails” does nothing to help your credibility. What’s next? An article about vaccinations causing autism? Or perhaps an examination of the president’s birth certificate? It’s sad to see such conspiracy theorists getting a platform in a newsletter that is supposedly dedicated to ecology.
CHEMTRAIL MISINFORMATION
There are a few nitwits who believe stupid things without knowing the facts. We have seen jet contrails. Some people believe airplanes are sprinkling us with some kind of chemicals. Where’s the proof?
The internet is loaded with misinformation and lies. Some websites are posing as government sites. A case in point, NASA and Planet “X.”
Recycling plastic, paper and glass are not cost effective. We need people and trucks to transport and sort every piece. Also, the products need to be refined, which pollutes and costs more than using fresh products. Who do you think pays for the second rate end product?
SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT
As a bee keeper and long time environmentalist I was dismayed to see that you, and the Sierra Club, are echoing the major media in spreading the false warnings of gloom and doom about honeybees and food crops.
Please allow me to set the record straight. First the collapse of the honeybee population is a serious situation. However, the only food crop that will suffer from the reduction of honeybees is the honey crop.
Most, if not all, of the trees, shrubs and food crops in the U.S. are pollinated by the more than 50 species of native bees (honeybees are not native to North America, they were brought over from Europe by the early settlers). This has been proven by this year’s harvest.
Even though the collapse of the honey bee population occurred more than a year ago the food prices did not soar nor were there shortages of food in the grocery stores. In fact, some food prices are lower this year than in previous years.
Last spring researchers monitored the watermelon crops in Alabama and Georgia. They found that more than 80 percent of the crop was pollinated by native bees. It stands to reason that these bees would pollinate the remaining plants if there were no honeybees. Unfortunately, the major media outlets seem more interested in sensationalism and fear mongering than checking facts.
Enjoy reading EcoWatch. Keep up the good work.
SOLAR OVENS
I just saw the new EcoWatch and like it very much. Years ago I started suggesting that the Great Lakes Science Center start having an exhibit about solar cooking. They had nothing and the manager of the gift shop, when I asked her if they carried any solar ovens, even small ones, she said “What’s that?”
I talked with the person responsible for exhibits at the science center and suggested they purchase a large solar oven. The science center could cook hotdogs or hamburgers for people on the solar oven and show that it really works. As far as I know you cannot buy these anywhere in Northeast Ohio. I’ve suggested to organic restaurants that they use solar ovens and advertise that food is sometimes cooked in them. I’ve never eaten anything cooked on a solar oven in my life. So I wondered if you have ever done any articles about these?
Last summer was so sunny I bet a person’s gas cooking bill could have been reduced considerably. Just as people have barbecues, you could have a solar oven instead with no charcoal or lighter fluidneeded.
Thanks again for this last issue. I could very much identify with many of the articles in it.