Yep, so often it sounds like: “the government is terrible, elect me to government so that I can make it even worse” or “the government doesn’t create jobs, but go ahead elect me so that I can have a government job and prove how bad it is.”
4 Likes
The people in the city of Flint don’t vote for the people who are screwing them over. Unfortunately, their districts are gerrymandered such that their votes never matter.
5 Likes
Indeed, sorry if I sounded like I was blaming the people of Flint for their predicament - even if they had in large numbers voted for the governor, he probably didn’t actually run on a “poison your children” campaign. I just find the general trend bizarre. You presumably wouldn’t hire someone who said “Plumbing can’t be fixed” as your plumber, after all.
4 Likes
Apparently people in Flint can dial 2-1-1 to get free water filters, and they only need to use filtered water for what they consume or use to brush their teeth. Bathing, dishes, laundry are fine. (Free!) Water filters can effectively address the issue.
The CDC says much of the same.
So they really need no water imported, but like all those people Jimmy Carter saves they need a filter and knowledge of what to do and what to not do. The situation still sucks, but it sounds as though sending water is a huge waste of resources especially when one considers the manpower required.
2 Likes
Ye Gods. I found a situation where I agree with Michael Moore. Somebody play a record of “The World Turned Upside Down”.
If this were the Army and Snyder was in uniform, he’d be court-martialed on charges of criminal negligence and willful dereliction of duty. The civilian equivalent needs to happen here. No matter what he intentions were, his actions were tantamount to slow-burn genocide. He MUST be held accountable for the fact that he was willing to cause and perpetuate a situation which has seriously harmed the health and lives of many, many thousands of people. He made the cold-blooded decision that the lives of the people of Flint were not worth the cost of providing them with clean water. He deserves to be removed from office, stripped of all titles and privileges, tried and convicted for assault (at the very least), and to spend the rest of his life in prison.
7 Likes
Where are Sinclair Lewis and Teddy Roosevelt when we need them? Situations like this come about because we elect people who have lived their entire lives with wealth and privilege. They know nothing about life outside their circle or the lives of regular people, and they don’t care. There should be Constitutional amendments that anyone who wants to run for elective office should be required to spend at least one year living on minimum wage before they can register as candidates.
9 Likes
Although it’s not quite the smoking and, frankly, expected gun:
"While the City of Flint states that corrective actions are not necessary, [the department] is in the process of providing a water cooler on each occupied floor, positioned near the water fountain, so you can choose which water to drink," the department's facilities team wrote on January 7, 2015.
…which would be ~8 months prior to everyone else.
4 Likes
Yeah, this hit Detroit news yesterday. Pretty ‘effin’ damning. You left out the second half of the email which goes on to explain that the bottled water would be provided until Flint tap water meets federal drinking water standards again.
4 Likes
And I already granted cooking and bathing. So, no, two gallons per day is not going to be enough for months to years. On the other hand, 50 is in turn more than is truly necessary. Cooking isn’t (or need not be) a big consumer of potable water. Washing dishes, not at all. That pretty much leaves bathing, and Americans have astonishingly lavish ideas of what “bathing” requires. Lots of people around the world (and even here in the USA) get by on modest amounts of wash water and still do quite nicely.
Paul Stamets has said that heavy metals can often be remediated using various kinds of fungi. There’s a picture at the link below showing a water pollution remediation scenario using inoculated spawn held in burlap booms, staked perpendicular to streamflow, across the streambed that conveys the polluted water:
(slideshow and some very brief text here)
Mycoremediation may be an option. I don’t know if efficiencies are temperature dependent. My assumption is that most fungi would sequester heavy metals (such as lead) a lot faster in warmer weather.
".... Decomposing mushrooms can help regenerate landscape vitality by breaking down toxic and persistent chemicals, cleaning polluted water, and even breaking down plastic. ..."
source:
http://radicalmycology.com/about/what-is-radical-mycology/
1 Like
This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.
