Opinion: States must work together to preserve Tahoe
Publisher’s note: This editorial is from the Aug. 1, 2011, Fresno Bee.
The upcoming annual Lake Tahoe Summit, to be hosted this year by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., on Aug. 16, promises to be a doozy. The challenges to the lake’s legendary clarity and to cooperation between California and Nevada are greater than ever.
— Water quality. Lake Tahoe remains one of the clearest large lakes in the world. But its famed clarity has been declining since the post-World War II building boom. Homes, casinos and golf courses brought sedimentation, pollution and algae growth. University of California at Davis scientists measured the lake’s clarity at 102 feet in 1968, reaching a low of 64 feet in 1997. In 2009, it was 68 feet. Aggressive measures to attack pollution and sedimentation remain necessary.
— Governance. In a major threat to two-state cooperation, Nevada has threatened to withdraw from the compact governing Lake Tahoe by 2015 — unless California and the U.S. Congress adopt amendments to change the voting system. The two states have equal representation, with seven members each on the governing board.
To approve changes to the regional plan, a majority of members (four) from each state must vote “aye,” a fair process. Nevada wants to change that — to nine of 14 votes without regard to state. It also wants to change the voting requirements for particular projects. Two-thirds of the lake is in California. Nevada funds one-third and California two-thirds of the cost for the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency. Why would California agree to Nevada’s proposed changes?
The Green Thing…….
In the line at the store, the cashier told an older woman that she
should bring her own grocery bags because plastic bags weren’t good
for the environment.
The woman apologized to him and explained, “We didn’t have the green
thing back in my day.”
The clerk responded, “That’s our problem today. Your generation did
not care enough to save our environment.”
He was right — our generation didn’t have the green thing in its
day.
Back then, we returned milk bottles, soda bottles and beer bottles
to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and
sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and
over. So they really were recycled.
But we didn’t have the green thing back in our day.
We walked up stairs, because we didn’t have an escalator in every
store and office building. We walked to the grocery store and didn’t
climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go two
blocks.
But she was right. We didn’t have the green thing in our day.
Back then, we washed the baby’s diapers because we didn’t have the
throw-away kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy
gobbling machine burning up 220 volts — wind and solar power really
did dry the clothes. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their
brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing. But that old
lady is right; we didn’t have the green thing back in our day.
Back then, we had one TV, or radio, in the house — not a TV in
every room. And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief
(remember them?), not a screen the size of the state of Montana.
In the kitchen, we blended and stirred by hand because we didn’t
have electric machines to do everything for us.
When we packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, we used a
wadded up old newspaper to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic
bubble wrap.
Back then, we didn’t fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to cut
the lawn. We used a push mower that ran on human power. We exercised
by working so we didn’t need to go to a health club to run on
treadmills that operate on electricity.
But she’s right; we didn’t have the green thing back then.
We drank from a fountain when we were thirsty instead of using a cup
or a plastic bottle every time we had a drink of water.
We refilled writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and
we replaced the razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the
whole razor just because the blade got dull.
But we didn’t have the green thing back then.
Back then, people took the streetcar or a bus and kids rode their
bikes to school or walked instead of turning their moms into a
24-hour taxi service.
We had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of
sockets to power a dozen appliances. And we didn’t need a
computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 2,000
miles out in space in order to find the nearest pizza joint.
But isn’t it sad the current generation laments how wasteful we old
folks were just because we didn’t have the green thing back then?
Please forward this on to another selfish old person who needs a
lesson in conservation from a smartalec young person.
Nice comment!! I like that… Today we do have the green thing goin on and thats spending massive amounts of money on crud made in china we don’t need. Oh, but at least the willow flycatcher is safe.. Green thing my rear… Today’s generation is so misguided…