| Soaring oil and gas prices and the devastation of | | | | lifelong sentence of some measure of disability. |
| Hurricanes Katrina and Rita have finally brought an | | | | Airborne pollutants are also responsible for an |
| issue into sharp focus for the public: When it | | | | exponential increase in asthma, particularly in |
| comes to energy, we're in trouble! We import far | | | | children. Increasing the use of coal without |
| more crude oil than we produce in the United | | | | implementing immediate pollution controls would |
| States; fully 70 percent of our oil comes from | | | | only intensify the pollution and its |
| five countries in the Middle East, arguably the | | | | consequences.Environmental experts familiar with |
| most volatile and politically unstable region in the | | | | coal burning plants estimate that it would cost a |
| world.We need to develop sustainable, renewable, | | | | million dollars per smokestack to decrease the |
| safe sources of energy to provide power for our | | | | pollutants emitted to acceptable levels. The utility |
| homes and businesses. One real danger is, | | | | plants themselves have resisted this expenditure, |
| however, that as the memory of Katrina fades | | | | and have lobbied successfully to stop |
| and the prices drop at the gas pump, the public | | | | governmental enforcement of environmental |
| will also lose focus, and fail to continue the | | | | regulations; the fledgling Bush administration quickly |
| pressure needed for politicians to generate | | | | stopped lawsuits, begun by the EPA during the |
| change. What we need is a standard bearer - a | | | | Clinton administration, which would have forced |
| big, vocal, powerful, charismatic standard | | | | these plants to implement pollution controls.So, |
| bearer.So, Donald... When are you going to build | | | | Donald, where do you come in? With your |
| the world's first off-the-grid skyscraper?Just think | | | | visibility, your cult status, and your corporate |
| of it - wind turbines on the roof, sheets of solar | | | | clout, you could easily raise the money to fix |
| panels covering the south side of the building, and, | | | | every smokestack in the country. NFL and NBA |
| to heat and cool the building, biodiesel, | | | | players, CEOs, Hollywood actors, producers, and |
| manufactured on site from discarded vegetable oil | | | | directors, multimillionaires with old money and new |
| collected from the best restaurants in Manhattan. | | | | - and don't forget Oprah - all have the means to |
| In the interior, piped-in sunlight brightens the living | | | | donate a million dollars, or more, to adopt a |
| area while saving on electricity; a gray-water | | | | smokestack. We could virtually eliminate the |
| system recycles water throughout the building | | | | pollution problem from these coal burning plants in |
| and can be reused for showers, baths, and lush | | | | short order - much more quickly than will be |
| gardens on every floor. Bamboo flooring and | | | | accomplished by lawsuits and governmental |
| other renewable materials create a rich ambiance | | | | interference. We could offer to fix these |
| while promoting the concept of green living.While | | | | smokestacks in exchange for one promise - that |
| you're at it...How does an "Adopt a Smokestack" | | | | the utility plants do not sell their pollution credits to |
| campaign sound?In talking about decreasing our | | | | anyone else.All of the technology needed for both |
| dependence on foreign oil, one alternative being | | | | of these projects is available today, and would put |
| discussed is relying more on domestically mined | | | | this country on the path to sustainability and |
| coal. At this moment, coal burning is already | | | | energy independence in short order. And Donald, |
| responsible for generating more electricity in the | | | | you could pull it off, in grand style.I can see into |
| U.S. than any other method. Unfortunately, much | | | | the future: a Newsweek cover with a picture of a |
| of this coal is being burned by obsolete, highly | | | | towering Donald Trump, and the title, "Donald |
| polluting utility plants. In the Midwest alone, over a | | | | Trump Saves the World." Has a nice ring to |
| hundred aging coal burning plants spew out | | | | it.Aldene Fredenburg is a freelance writer living in |
| pollutants responsible for acid rain which has killed | | | | southwestern New Hampshire and frequently |
| hundreds of lakes, streams, and rivers in the | | | | contributes to Tips and Topics. She has published |
| Northeast. Large amounts of mercury from these | | | | numerous articles in local and regional publications |
| plants are deposited in the water and end up in | | | | on a wide range of topics, including business, |
| both freshwater and ocean fish, turning one of | | | | education, the arts, and local events. Her feature |
| the healthiest sources of protein into one of the | | | | articles include an interview with independent |
| most dangerous - mercury in fish threatens the | | | | documentary filmmaker Ken Burns and a feature |
| unborn children of women who ingest it, | | | | on prisoners at the New Hampshire State Prison |
| threatening neurological damage which results in a | | | | in Concord. |