Business Interests V.S. the Environmentalists... what should be done?

United States
December 10, 2008 2:36am CST
It seems like now that there is an economic crisis, some people are thinking that those who care about the environment should just shut up and let them build, drill, etc. with impunity and yet there are those who will not keep silent because they believe that their role is to be good stewards of the land, to decrease pollution and to preserve the land for the next generations to come... I saw this video which illustrates some of the concerns... It is about Crystal City Missouri and is about a proposed ire ore smelting operation that the City government wanted to bring into the city for economic reasons and the opposition by the residents who were concerned about pollution in their city. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTA5HGuuddY What are your opinions regarding this issue? How do you balance the needs of the business community, the need for income for the cities and jobs for the people with the need to maintain the environment? Are there some industries that are just too dirty to be near cities? What can be done to clean them up or where should they be placed?
2 people like this
2 responses
Lakota12
@Lakota12 (42600)
• United States
10 Dec 08
thats sort of dumb when it would bring jobs to their town. Heck Look at Gary Hammmond Ill/ Ind. they have steal mills there and they atre dirty but the poeple need the work. Have a Steel mill out side of Sounthbend Ind. that is all coverd one big building . I didntsee any smoke stacks while it was being built! When there is a need for thses kind of factorys the people against it need to suck it up and let the people work!
1 person likes this
whiteheron
@whiteheron (4222)
• United States
11 Dec 08
I know that people need to work... And people also need clean air and an Earth that is respected.... It seems to me that there should be a way to balance these things so that neither side has to "suck it up." I like the idea of letting the people work and also like the idea of them having their clean air. Thanks for your post.
Lakota12
@Lakota12 (42600)
• United States
11 Dec 08
Some times it is impossible to have it both ways. Utah put out the clean air act years ago. but to me it got worse all the cities are in valleys sourrounded by mountains no way for the fumes to go any where but up adn when ya come down into a valley you see the haze ll over the valley
1 person likes this
whiteheron
@whiteheron (4222)
• United States
16 Jan 09
I wonder what it would have been like had they not had the law... perhaps worse... One does not know what the laws prevented from happening.
noreligion
@noreligion (105)
• United States
10 Dec 08
I believe there are some industries that are too dirty and detrimental to the planet that they shouldn't even exist. Coal power can be replaced with nuclear power for starters.I know many people think nuclear power is unsafe and hazardous to the enviroment, but I think it is a lot better with the safety technologies we've developed since it began.
1 person likes this
whiteheron
@whiteheron (4222)
• United States
11 Dec 08
I actually hope that they can come up with a better way to protect those plants, to store the hazardous wastes that come from them, and to prevent episodes like what occurred in the Soviet Union when there was that accident which killed so many people... I would really like to see something other than coal and something other than nuclear power too... I think, honestly, that we as human beings are creative enough to develop something else if we put our minds to it. Thanks for your post.