Lip service

Its really interesting to see what government says and what it really does. Believe it or not, the two arent always the same. Lets forget, for the moment, things at the federal level. Instead lets concentrate on the local scene.
We all know that global warming is a growing, hot (no pun intended) issue. Some people are awakening to the fact that polar ice is melting at startling rates and sea levels are rising. Iconic wild animals are dying. Storms are increasing in intensity. Droughts are becoming far more common throughout the world. Former tropical diseases such as West Nile Virus (now found in all 48 contiguous states), Dengue fever, malaria, Ebola virus, cholera and many others are spreading well beyond the tropics and into the US. Carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere are higher than theyve ever been in 600,000 years, according to ice samples drilled in Greenland and the Antarctic.
With no leadership on these monumental changes coming from Washington, D.C., local leaders have taken the forefront. Or have they? Here in Snohomish County, our local county government appears to be pushing to permit a motocross park on 80 acres of presently forested land on the Mountain Loop Highway above Granite Falls, a designated National Scenic Byway.
Trees sequester (i.e., hold in) carbon dioxide. Motocross vehicles and ATVs produce carbon dioxide. When you cut down the trees and replace them with motocross vehicles, the difference calculates to over 1,000,000 pounds of additional carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year. But were told that our county is leading the way on global warming issues.
Hows that for county leadership?
Bruce Barnbaum
Granite Falls

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