I am not educated in the ways of the economy in general. I have observed that investors will hold funds till an more friendly administration is in office. Are the tariffs working? Some say yes, some say no. So long as companies are run for the purpose of making the most profit, the burden will always fall on the end user, you and me, the consumer. Whether it is a US consumer or a consumer in another country, we pay the tariffs. Do the tariff revenues go into the general coffers of governments or into politicians pockets? Only 'they', whoever the heck 'they' know are.
Environmental regulations are being trimmed back to pre-1970 years for some industries. Fossil fuel companies seem to be especially favored in this area. However, chemical companies are doing pretty well, too. Sorta wish some of the folks rolling back the standards had eaten fish from Spring River in Verona, Missouri, (or Kansas as that is up for debate now). That was the beautiful spring fed creek between our home and Aunt Punkin's home. A chemical byproduct named dioxin seemed to have made it into the water from a chemical company located on the banks of the stream.
That same contaminate was discovered in Times Beach, MO. Parks in the small town where lived contained some of the same sludge. Millions and millions of dollars later there was an incinerator built that was moved to different areas where there was contaminated soils. The soil was dug up and exposed to UV light to decontaminate. The contamination was done out of ignorance.
As noted in the past on this blog I worked for a company that dumped chemicals into the city water system. Also, just dumped on the ground behind the plant. One of the guys was recently mentioning this on social media. Basically he said we did not realize it would harm anything. Hubby's cousin worked as an engineer in the local water system. He could tell by the systems that monitored the water when an accidental dump was made by someone or some company. Those systems were put in place once the government had set up standards. I have heard both he and folks in charge at our plant of the chemical handling of over zealous EPA standards.
Ignorance can explain past transgressions. I mean in the 1940's the farmer on the adjacent farm to ours accidentally spilled a large quantity of gasoline near his spring fed well. Within days the water was contaminated never to be drinkable again. That lesson for that farmer did not transfer to the folks in a different state. So the lesson did go unlearned. 1,1,1-trichloroethane was poured onto the ground by ACD emplyees. As well as acids.The spillage lesson has been learned. Unfortunately it is too late for the karst system in the area. The photo to the right is the site where all the chemicals were dumped. Click here for the story of the chemical migration.
Yes, my 401 K from the polluting company is still growing. As more standards are rolled back to 'encourage business' I ask myself what further price will the planet pay???
Peace and love, Janice
Hari OM
ReplyDeleteWonderful post, Janice - ignorance has caused much error on many levels. But I think at that high corporate level, ignorance can sometimes be too easily claimed. Anyone working with chemicals (at the research end) knows full well the effects of their product. The workers may be kept in the dark... but companies are finding all sorts of loopholes here also for getting round emissions targets. The genie is well and truly out the bottle and unless every single person on the planet makes up their mind to stop buying anything to do with petro-chemicals or plastics or such, it's going to be a very very very slow improvement. If any. It's like the litter in the street. No need for me to pick it up cuz someone else will do it... Those of us aware must keep voicing and writing such as you have here! YAM xx
You are about the only person that reads this blog anymore. Mara does, also. And Wren.
Delete...doesn't mean you shouldn't be writing it. Every word counts!!! Yxx
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