Who’s Watching Out for Us?

EPA or Congress?

Sadly, It May be No one!

They should actually give you a greater sense of vulnerability...

The status of corporations in this country place us all at risk and make future generations vulnerable as well.  Everyone hears the cry about pollution and global warming but most people make the decision to let their leaders fight it out.  We can no longer take it for granted that our elected officials will look out for our best interest or even assume they are interested in what our best interest might be. 

A few weeks ago I saw a news cast where Oscar-nominated documentary film maker Josh Fox was arrested and literally thrown out of a Republican led congressional subcommittee hearing simply because the people in charge of the meeting didn’t want to have the session filmed and documented.  It made me more than anxious to find out what it was they were hoping to hide.  That spurred me on to see what it was they objected to.  I implore you to see Fox’s movie Gasland – Can you Light your Water on Fire? ©2010), by Docudramafilms, learn more at docudrama.com.  The film is available from Netflix for rental.  Gasland publicized concerns among critics of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, and of the technology’s possible effect on water supplies. The oil and gas industry and its supporters argue that the film misrepresents the risk from fracking, which they say is minute.  This raised my alarm hackles when I realized through the film, that less than 70 miles away in Garfield County, CO, under the corporate banner of Halliburton, among others, this unsupervised and rampant practice is being heavily utilized.  The health and environmental problems that have ensued have had life changing effects on the citizens who live near and around the drilling sites.  The chemicals, both poisonous and hazardous long term to the environment and wildlife, are showing unbelievable damage to victims and the water supply.  Citizens in a Democracy or not expedient!  Politicians are!!!!

This is not my first rodeo round on chemical waste being allowed to permeate the environment in the name of helping industry be more efficient.  In all the years that I lived in West Covina, CA, and worked adjacent to the City of Industry, I never got over the fact that we periodically received letters informing us that carcinogens were being released in the air due to manufacturing processes being used by nearby businesses.   We were also warned periodically not to drink the water at our school site.  I always assumed that this was allowed only because some astute civic agency, or a political or environmental group was working enthusiastically to curtail the practice.  Wrong!  I’ve been in Colorado almost eleven years and according to my former neighbors, it still continues today!  Shameful!   Go to Fracking pro publica at http://www.propublica.org/series/fracking to catch a snazzy and educational music video as well as to read more about the current problems.  We all need to be more cognizant of industry practices and the long-term effects it will have on our lives and the environment we leave our children.  Indeed, lots of jobs are created, but what damage do these chemicals do to the workers themselves?  Our local and congressional representatives are too busy courting these corporations for campaign donations and future job security as lobbyist to care what we need and want!  Stand up, speak out and demand to know!