Comments Hudson has made

The true face of Dingell

In the 1990s, the Clinton-era EPA was investigating a large coal-burning cement plant owned by Holnam (now Holcim) in Dundee, Michigan.

EPA found that the plant had been exceeding its permitted levels of sulfur dioxide emissions by 700% -- for over 17 years.

So what did Dingell do? He wrote letters to EPA demanding that the agency go easy on Holnam.

SO2 is a major greenhouse gas. No one who truly cares about his constituents' (or planet's) health would behave that way. But Holnam was a big supporter of Dingell.

In the end, the plant was fined over $500,000. That may sound like a lot, but if you amortize it over two decades, and consider how much extra profit this highly-profitable plant made over that period, it was like you or me getting a parking ticket.

Animals are my friends. And I don't eat my friends. -- George Bernard Shaw

Cardinal sin of book reviewing

As someone who in the 90s reviewed books a lot of print and web publications (before ditching it all for activism), I have to say this:

Book reviewers have an obligation to read the whole book. Period.

Even when the book stinks from page 1, you've got to finish it -- or don't review it.

It's not only the only ethical way to review books; it is also the only way to avoid making glaring mistakes like the one made here (mistaking Monbiot's position on certain issues by only reading a few indexed passages).

I expect more from Grist!

Animals are my friends. And I don't eat my friends. -- George Bernard Shaw

Think locally, act locally

Someone above wrote that "The American public that has lost touch with the natural world- they no longer care."

That's part of the job of the environmental movement -- to make sure people continue to care.

Considering that most Americans (if polled neutrally) do express strong concern about the loss of open space, and the need for clean air and water, it is all the more shocking that the public has drifted away from environmental causes. It's even more of an indictment if a movement loses such natural (no pun intended) constituents.

Elsewhere, I've posted that these values remain alive and well at the grassroots level. Foundations and national groups for too long have taken a dismissive posture toward local and regional causes, focusing the bulk of funding on lobbying and lawsuits in Washington, D.C.

It may be a cliche when the presidents of national organizations say it, but as a grassroots activist who does indeed talk with my neighbors, regardless of their existing ideology -- who goes to fire houses and churches as well as fundraisers to seek support -- the grassroots is where this movement must rebuild itself.

The organization I work for has grown from 40 to 4,000 members by taking the time to sit around kitchen tables and stand outside post offices making connections in our communities.

And we are not only working to prevent environmental threats in our region, but also to spread awareness of how the consumer and other lifestyle choices we make every day contribute to the problems we take on. It's about both holding polluters accountable, and taking personal responsibility.

Environmentalism is only dead to the extent we allow it to become so. Look to your local community to raise awareness, rather than just mailing in a check in response to another glossy mailer with pandas on it.

Animals are my friends. And I don't eat my friends. -- George Bernard Shaw