Letters to the Editor: The environment, think about noise pollution and healthcare for all
EDITOR'S NOTE: The views and opinions expressed are those of the writer and not of Ottawa News Network.
Speak out on the war against the environment
How numb and defeatist have we become? Why are we letting our environment be so degraded?
The J.H. Campbell coal plant in Port Sheldon Township is among the electric grid’s most polluting power plants. The general public, Consumers Energy, the MISO grid, and the Michigan Public Service Commission all want to see the Campbell plant retired.
For years, this closure was planned by experts. Now, we electric rate payers will pay the price for this environmentally unsound decision to keep the plant open past its useful economic life.
Ottawa County must not feed the fringe and unqualified elements who want to damage our environment. SPEAK OUT.72-year-old
Why would we let Enbridge, a Canadian company responsible for the two largest inland oil spills in U.S. history, continue to operate a dilapidated 72-year-old twin pipeline traversing under our beloved Straits of Mackinac and across countless Michigan rivers and wetlands when the risk of a major oil spill is so great? This pipeline brings dirty Canadian oil to Canadian markets in Sarnia, Ontario.
Why is Michigan bearing the burden of all this risk to our beautiful shorelines and drinking water? SPEAK OUT.
Why are we allowing the EPA to stop collecting emissions data from polluters? SPEAK OUT.
Why would we let 55 million acres of wetlands be excluded from the Clean Water Act? SPEAK OUT.
Why would we allow billions of dollars in funding for clean energy projects, which bring clean energy jobs, to be defunded? SPEAK OUT.
Wake up, Michigan. SPEAK OUT.
Laura Judge
Holland
The INFERNAL combustion engine
It's quiet, peaceful, relaxing, and even tranquil in my neighborhood. A gentle breeze blows softly through the wind chimes.
Suddenly, a gas-powered leaf-blower from 300 feet away shatters the neighborhood silence by pumping out 85 decibels of mind and nerve altering noise, in order to remove less than one pound of grass clippings from a driveway.
It could have been any season, in the city or the suburbs. Besides the leaf-blower, it could have been a commercial lawn mowing service, a weed-wacker, a chainsaw, a power-washer, a snowblower, a power generator, a hedge-trimmer, a branch chipper, or a stump grinder. They all produce disturbing and dangerous levels of sound, ranging from 85 to 100 decibels of unwelcome noise.
Most of these devices are powered by inefficient and unhealthy two-stroke internal combustion engines, or as I like to call them, INFERNAL combustion engines, a technology first used in America in 1798 by John Stevens. Sadly, while there has been some improvement in these small engines over the past 200 years, their ability to produce low levels of sound is not one of them. Compare their levels of sound with those coming from cars in the past 50 years.
It is more than an inconvenience or an annoyance. There is a growing body of research that indicates that the sound from these engines is unhealthy to both humans and the environment. For example, the pollution from one hour of leaf blowing is equal to 1100 miles driven by a car. This pollution increases the risks of cancer, lung disease, heart disease, and dementia. The extreme noise that often carries for hundreds of feet or more disrupts communities and contributes to hearing loss and hypertension.
Leaf-blower manufacturers now recommend that all users wear eye, ear, and breathing protection. Some commercial lawn-and-garden services now require that their employees use these protective devices. With good reason.
Communities across the country are beginning to take action by updating their noise ordinances. In Washington, D.C., for example, after a three-year phase-in, no gas-powered leaf-blowers may be sold in the District after January 2022. Quieter battery-powered lawn-and-garden tools are available in stores. It should tell us something when leaf-blower manufacturers have hired a person to travel our country opposing such ordinances.
I'm super sensitive to loud noises because, as a teenager and young adult, music was good when it was loud, preferably through headphones. That was true whether it was Elvis or Beethoven and yes, I loved both of them. Decades later, my Doctor of Audiology confirmed the damage and instructed me to protect what hearing I had left by aggressively avoiding loud noises. One of many changes she recommended was to use a push rather than a power lawn mower. Recently, I've purchased a battery-powered electric lawn mower which generates half the decibels of a gas-powered machine.
We don't have much choice when we hire a commercial service to work on our property. We do have a choice when we buy do-it-yourself equipment for our own use. Consider the number of decibels of sound produced. Consider using a broom for the half-pound of grass clippings on your driveway. Consider the time of day when using your equipment. Consider the sounds of silence. I'm pretty sure you don't want me to set up my concert-ready amplifiers and speakers on my front lawn every Thursday at 8 a.m. to play the "Finale-Presto" of Beethoven's Third Symphony or Presley's "Hound Dog" at 118 decibels.
Dan Joldersma
Park Township
Medicare for all
It is time for the United States to join every other industrialized country and establish a single-payer health system. I recommend Medicare for all. It works remarkably well for us seniors.
American auto makers love to make cars in Canada, because they do not have to cover health care costs. A single-payer system would reduce costs for American industry and small businesses. Churches would find a single-payer system a godsend because healthcare costs cripple the ministries of churches, especially to the poor.
The ACA was a stopgap measure. Better than nothing, but not nearly adequate to solve our healthcare crisis. Money in the ACA goes into the coffers of healthcare insurance industries, who profit because of sickness. I think no one should profit from the illnesses of Americans.
How to pay for it? Raise taxes, especially on the rich and businesses, which would save immense amounts of money with Medicare for all. Revise the tax code to make it effective and fairer. We are the richest country in the world with a health system that does not work for millions. If we shared the religious concept of "the common good," this idea would motivate our political leaders to do what is best for all Americans and not what is best for insurance companies, drug companies, etc.
If the Democrats do not make Medicare for all their main message from here until 2026 and onto 2028, they will pay a price for their political malpractice.
Henry Idema
Grand Haven
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