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Learning Without Limits Science Club Dear
Honorable House and Senate Members,
Science research team "Dead Weight" commends you for passing House File 785,
a "stepping stone" bill encouraging the use of alternatives to lead wheel
weights on state-owned vehicles. However, in my frustration from listening to
a minority of the Iowa House members on February 18, 2010, trying to imply
that putting Iowans back to work was much more important than discussing and
passing an environmentally friendly lead wheel weight bill and also implying
that somehow, supporting environmentally friendly causes should be put
on the “back burner” for now, because these earth friendly issues
would not be primary and instrumental in helping create much needed Iowa jobs I
formulated a hypothesis and then I researched
my hypothesis: "Sustainable
job creation and growth depends on sustainable environmental solutions.” Environmentally
friendly solutions are not contrary but supportive to innovative job creation
and growth if we are to create a sustainable world. This is no more evident then in In fact, according to a
1997 report by Michael Evans from 1.
Boosts total employment by 195,200 jobs; 2.
Increases net farm income by more than $4.5 billion; 3.
Adds more than $450 million to state and local tax receipts; 4.
Improves the balance of trade by more than $2 billion; and 5.
Results in net federal budget savings of more than $3.5 billion. http://www.leadzero.org/TomVilsack.ethanol.testimony.pdf
Iowa
House Representative Pat Murphy referring to In a 1992
nationwide review, Stephen Meyer of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
concluded that the states with the most developed environmental programs also
had the highest levels of economic growth and job creation. These findings were
confirmed in the "Gold and Green" report issued by the Institute for
Southern Studies in 1994.
Stephen Meyer
explains further in his report that "those who hope to improve their
state's business climate, economic competitiveness, and employment picture by
rolling back environmental statutes are misinformed and are in for great
disappointment. The evidence is compelling that this strategy will not produce
any meaningful economic gains, while imposing real environmental losses.
Instead efforts should shift to factors that have been shown to really affect
the bottom line: state tax and labor policies and transportation and
communication infrastructure. In this respect the large sums of money spent
lobbying and litigating to block or otherwise water down environmental
regulations under the belief of presumptive economic harm might be more
productively spent reengineering business accounting systems to accurately
track environment-related costs." http://www.billkron.com/Stephen.Meyer.economic.report .pdf If we want
environmental protection, we've got to sacrifice jobs and economic prosperity, right?
Not so, says the Gold and Green Report, a publication of the Institute for
Southern Studies in The study ranked
the environmental and economic health of all 50 states, using 20 indicators for
each category. Nine of the states in the top 12 on the
environmental scale also ranked in the top 12 on the economic scale.
(The states where you're most likely to find robust economies and welcoming
environments: Source: Bigger
Not Better by Eben Fodor (New Society Publishers,
1999) and Gold and Green Report, Institute for Southern Studies, P.O. Box 531,
Durham, NC 27702; (919) 419-8311; e-mail: . COPYRIGHT 1999
Sierra Magazine COPYRIGHT 2000
Gale Group "Lax environmental standards do not increase jobs and
profits," writes Roger Bezdek of Management
Information Services, Inc., "but just temporarily insulate inefficient,
wasteful, polluting firms from the need to innovate and invest in new
equipment." The Institute for Local Self Reliance estimates that recycling 150,000
tons of solid waste creates nine jobs, while incinerating it creates only two
and land filling only one. And while the petroleum and electric industries
generate about five jobs per $1 million invested, the weatherization of
buildings to enhance energy efficiency produces 50 jobs for the same amount of
money. Recreational fishers contributed $467 million to Over the course of time, a basic fact remains: human beings need
natural resources to survive and develop, but resource supplies are finite.
Jobs can either be created to accommodate immediate needs, or our economic base
can be transformed to last for generations. In the final analysis, it is clear
that jobs rely on what the Earth has to offer, and that the environment needs a
lot of work. "Too often, the government and industry jump in with disaster
relief, after people have lost their jobs," says Suzanne Ludicello of the Center for Marine Conservation. "We
need to start accepting that solutions to our problems may cost some money and
cause some pain in the short term, but will prevent a total shutdown of our
economy in the future." "For centuries, the world's economies
have depended on the ability to deplete one nonrenewable source after
another," writes Michael Renner of the Worldwatch
Institute. "But the day of reckoning has arrived, and major structural
adjustments are needed." http://www.billkron.com/Stephen.Meyer.economic.report
.pdf http://www.unep.org/civil_society/GCSF9/pdfs/karmen-senate.pdf http://www.billkron.com/TomVilsack.ethanol.testimony.pdf Thank you, Jathan Kron Science Research Team “Dead Weight” West Branch |
Science research team "Dead Weight" recognizes the
need to protect the public from exposure to lead hazards.
There are no federal regulatory controls governing use of lead
wheel weights. Environmental health hazards associated with lead
wheel weights are a preventable problem. People are exposed to
lead fragments and dust when lead wheel weights fall from motor
vehicles onto the nation's roadways and are then abraded and
pulverized by traffic. Lead wheel weights on and alongside roadways
can contribute to soil, surface and groundwater contamination and
pose hazards to downstream aquatic life.
Lead negatively affects every bodily system. While it is
injurious to people of all ages, lead is especially harmful to
fetuses,children, and adults of childbearing age. Effects of lead
on a child's cognitive, behavioral, and developmental abilities may
necessitate large expenditures of public funds for health care and
special education. Irreversible damage to children and subsequent
expenditures could be avoided if exposure to lead is reduced.
"Save the earth from pollution with a 'green' smart energy solution." COPYRIGHT SMARTENERGY4KIDS.ORG 2008-2009. All Rights Reserved. |
