Poll: We Can Do More To Help Environment

The Gallup News Service released the results of an interesting poll last month about environmental priorities for government and citizens. People definitely think the government should do more to help the environment. They also think their neighbors should do more, but offer only a few suggestions as to what. Only about 50% identified actions that they or their neighbors could take. Suggested actions include: "developing alternative fuel sources (19%), addressing global warming (16%), imposing stricter standards on fuel emissions (10%), and setting tougher fuel standards for autos (6%)."

About a third of Americans think the government should strengthen environmental protection laws and their enforcement (not specific to global warming), including by setting higher standards on clean water, holding industrial organizations accountable for pollution, and passing stronger laws for protection of natural resources.

Democrats and Republicans are about equally likely to suggest that the government should initiate more research to find alternative energy sources (20% and 21%, respectively). However, Democrats are about twice as likely as Republicans (23% vs. 11%) to say the government should acknowledge and address global warming, specifically.”

When it comes to telling their neighbors what to do, people suggest that their fellow citizens can be better stewards of the environment by conserving more, recycling more, and polluting less (in that order). But of these, cutting down on energy consumption is by far the largest category of responses. This includes using more energy-efficient products (18%), buying smaller or more fuel-efficient cars (13%), and driving less (10%).

When it comes to recycling they place low emphasis on reducing their consumption patterns, preferring instead to recycle more of what they increasingly consume.

We Can Recycle Better

Jackson County adopted a solid waste management plan nearly ten years ago. The Health Department manages a county-wide recycling program that has achieved a 23% recycling rate. This is a significant improvement since that days of everything going into open dumps. However, the average national recycling rate for municipal discards has reached 30%.

Is 25% a reasonable goal or can we do better? The answer is clearly yes. Eighteen communities, ranging from large to small, have achieved recycling rates of 50% or better – some exceeding 60% rate! Falls Church, VA has achieved a whopping 65% rate.

A few communities have even endorsed zero waste goals. The first U.S. city to adopt a zero waste management plan is Del Norte, California. Seattle is not only one of the growing number of Cool Cities, but it has set a goal of zero waste as a guiding principle. San Francisco plans to achieve a 75% rate by the year 2010 and a long-term goal of zero waste.

Rural counties in southern Illinois have special problems in achieving high recycling rates, but to not establish any goal is inexcusable. Making no further efforts to improve on recycling rates already above 25% is also not acceptable.

Ouroboros

Back in my college days I edited an environmental column in the Augsburg College student newspaper entitled Ouroboros (pronounced as or-oh-bor-us). The name in Greek is οὐροβóρος and translates to "tail-devourer". The concept of this self-consuming creature is found in numerous secular and religious traditions and is a part of Aztec, Chinese and Viking cultures. Plato described it as the first living thing in the universe - a self-eating, circular and immortal being.

Becoming aquainted with the metaphorical implications of the creature undoubtedly shaped my world views during those impressionable college years that included the first Earth Day. Whenever I think about how the planet should work I think about this cyclical, self-renewing symbol for sustainable nature and rebirth.

Ouroboros is woven into North American culture in interesting ways. Examples include having X-Files' Dana Scully getting the tattoo of the Ouroboros put on her back, dialogue about ouroboros in Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith references it, and the image is part of the Phi Alpha Theta honor society emblem.

Treat Mother Nature badly, and she bites back.