Letters to the Editor
We welcome your opinions and letters — with name and address. We will edit when necessary. Include your name, address and phone number for verification. Mail them to Bay Weekly, P.O. Box 358, Deale, MD 20751 • E-mail them to [email protected]. or submit your letters on line, click here
‘We Have Met the Enemy and He Is Us’
Dear Bay Weekly:
In Bill Burton’s Earth Day column [Vol. XIII, No. 16: April 21], he summed up the Bay’s main problem with three words: “too many people.”
The late Walt Kelly, creator of the comic strip Pogo, summed it up best with his 1970 Earth Day poster when he wrote, “We have met the enemy and he is us.”
I have lived in Calvert County going on 11 years. I have seen fields replaced with strip malls and houses; roads are now where woods used to be; and the traffic continues to worsen. All of this leads to more lawns being fertilized, more smog in the air and more runoff from more parking lots, all contributing to the decline of our Bay.
Why? Because of ever-expanding human population. Each one of us in the Bay’s watershed contributes to its decline in some way or other. No matter how much is spent on restoration, I don’t see the Chesapeake making any progress unless the population along the Eastern Seaboard is significantly reduced. And we know that’s not going to happen.
—A. Delaney, Prince Frederick
How to Keep up with Eco-Legislation
Dear Bay Weekly:
I sympathize with T. McArdle, the writer frustrated to find out about important legislation after the fact [Letters to the Editor: Vol. XIII, No. 16: April 21]. So I wanted to let your readers know about several ways to stay informed about environmental legislation.
The Maryland Conservation Council (www.marylandconservationcouncil.net/), a consortium of environmental organizations, promotes legislation to protect our natural heritage. For $30 you receive a weekly update, Conservation Reports, in the mail during the legislative session about important environmental bills.
A related venture is The Maryland ECO System. You will receive an e-mail when your voice needs to be heard on important environmental actions. An automatic e-mail will be generated and sent to your legislative representative, even if you don’t know who it is. There are also directions for sending written letters by mail or fax. Log on at: http://mdecosystem.e-actionmax.com/default.asp
Quoted from their web site: “The Maryland ECO System (Environmental Citizens On-line) is a collaborative effort among environmental organizations throughout Maryland working to educate and mobilize their memberships utilizing a state-of-the-art electronic action alert system. This new system will provide citizens with a powerful means for getting their collaborative message out to elected officials, administrative decision makers, and industry leaders. Note: You do not have to be a member of one of our partner organizations to join the Maryland ECO System.”
So the information is out there.
I hope all your readers subscribe to these services and donate time and money to the environmental organizations that make these services possible.
As always, your paper does a fabulous job.
—Karyn Molines, North Beach
