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This Website is Dedicated to Alvin Alexander Cheyne January 10, 1921 - June 17, 2005 |
Earth
Day in the Basin
Residents
reflect on 37th anniversary of environmental event
By
STEVE KADEL
H&N
Staff Writer
Today
is the 37th anniversary of Earth Day, which began when Wisconsin Sen.
Gaylord Nelson called for an environmental teach-in to show support for
a green agenda.
Nelson
was angry after seeing an oil spill off the
More
than 20 million people participated in the original Earth Day in 1970.
Legislation passed not long afterward included the Clean Air Act, Clean
Water Act and Endangered Species Act.
Earth
Day is now estimated to be celebrated by more than 500 million people
among 175 nations. The Herald and News interviewed four
Leslie
Lowe
Leslie
Lowe is a founding member of Klamath Sustainable Communities, which
organized in 1994. Today Lowe, a counselor and mediator, is involved in
a variety of environmental projects, including protection of the
 |
| Klamath Sustainable Communities co-founder Leslie Lowe believes it is important to preserve open spaces for future generations. H&N photos by Todd E. Swenson and Andrew Mariman |
She
believes Earth Day, like any holiday, is intended to keep people from
taking things for granted — in this case water, air and food.
“We
in
However,
the issue of unequal distribution of wealth is experienced locally. The
wealthy are becoming wealthier, Lowe said, and the poor are becoming
poorer.
Lowe
believes community, ecology and economy are three critical issues.
“If
you don’t have those three in balance, you have problems,” she said.
Earth
Day is a chance for people to remind themselves of the natural world’s
healing and nurturing powers, Lowe said, referring to “the church of
the earth.”
If
children have a chance to watch birds and frogs, to play amid nature,
they will “have a chance to learn about themselves in relation to the
earth,” Lowe said.
“With
all the development happening in this city, we need those open spaces.
We all need to get away from electric stimulus and make peace with the
earth.”
Tom
Chester
The
director of
“The
consumer economy has gone global and our natural bounty is being used
up,” he said. “I’m pessimistic in that sense. We’re a creative
species, but the extent and complexity of the problems will tax our
ability to solve them.”
 |
| Tom
Chester, director of the |
A
new sense of living frugally is needed, he said, adding the earth
can’t be healed by government policies.
“I
put hope in the individual human spirit,”
The
concept of our world as a warehouse to be plundered is powered by
television, he said.
“Politicians
are forced by the medium to capture complex problems in bumper sticker
statements,”
He
was an engineering student at the
“Now
we’re less innocent,” he said. “Now it’s out of a sense of
necessity.”
Christine
Karas
The Bureau of Reclamation’s deputy area manager deals with the earth every day.
“Almost
everything we do is about the environment,” she said.
That
includes monitoring water allocation for irrigation, water for fish,
tribal trusts and agricultural land.
“Our
role is to comply with environmental laws,” Karas said.
 |
| U.S. Department of Interior Bureau of Reclamation deputy area manager Christine Karas thinks that Earth Day has lost some of its momentum. |
Her
choice of careers is not surprising, given that her father took the
family on fishing vacations and instilled a love of the outdoors.
“From
the time I was a kid, I was going to live in the West and ride my
horses,” said Karas, who grew up in a
She
had a horse as a child, and enjoyed riding and bird watching. Her grade
school science projects were water-related, a hint at her later
profession.
As
former environmental chief for the Bureau of Reclamation’s upper
Karas
believes Earth Day has lost some of its original momentum, a worrisome
trend.
“Animals
adapt to their environment,” she said. “Man adapts his environment
to himself. Global warming brings us back to reality. The source of all
wealth is natural resources, and as natural resources decline so will
mankind.”
Harold
Hartman
The
Malin farmer is a longtime proponent of alternative energy. He said the
Arab oil embargo of the early 1970s created an opportunity for
development of non-oil-based energy, but momentum was lost after oil
availability increased a few years later and prices dropped to less than
$10 per barrel.
“We
failed because we didn’t pursue alternative energy sources at that
time,” Hartman said.
 |
| Harold Hartman advocates for the use of alternative fuels and the generation of power through solar and wind powered alternative methods. |
He
believes solar and wind power offer economic opportunities for rural
communities that choose to invest in them.
Hartman,
who farms potatoes and alfalfa, considers foresters and agriculturists
the true environmentalists.
“They
are the most creative people,” he added. “They deal in
practicalities. If they’re out in the field and something breaks, they
have to fix it.
“Sure,
there are some people who’ve done bad practices. But not on purpose.
What is the benefit to a farmer to abuse the land?”
Hartman
views global warming as an opportunity rather than a crisis. If the ice
caps melt, he said, the additional water could be used for agriculture
to feed the world’s growing population.
Technology
exists to desalinate sea water, and it could be pumped to sites such as
deserts via a pipeline, Hartman said.
“With
the productive ability of desert soils, we could do it and it would pay
for itself,” he said.
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