- #1
Kenneth Mann
- 424
- 3
A rather curious development was reported in the Friday (Sept. 29) Washington Post --- that "nature is apparently polluting itself". Within most rivers and streams within the Maryland, Virginia area --- it has been found through water testing(for bacteria) --- that most of the pollution is coming from animals in the wild, like deer, geese and raccoons; not from people, their pets and domestic farm animals. Much of this stems from the fact that we have large and growing populations of these creatures.
This would seem to hint that, just maybe, there was a flaw in our original clean-water assumptions. The question to be answered then is --- "how clean should the environment be"? What if wildlife pollution exceeds the set standards?
1) Do we kill the animals to meet the standards? (Sounds like a political nightmare)
2) Do we try to clean up behind them? (Sounds like a bank-breaker.)
3) Do we bring back the natural predators. (Imagine a Congressman looking out his window at a bear walking down Massachusetts Avenue.)
We needn't worry though. Those who do our thinking for us have apparently come up with an answer --- "Just ignore the wildlife and deal with leaking sewer pipes" (and other human sources).
KM
This would seem to hint that, just maybe, there was a flaw in our original clean-water assumptions. The question to be answered then is --- "how clean should the environment be"? What if wildlife pollution exceeds the set standards?
1) Do we kill the animals to meet the standards? (Sounds like a political nightmare)
2) Do we try to clean up behind them? (Sounds like a bank-breaker.)
3) Do we bring back the natural predators. (Imagine a Congressman looking out his window at a bear walking down Massachusetts Avenue.)
We needn't worry though. Those who do our thinking for us have apparently come up with an answer --- "Just ignore the wildlife and deal with leaking sewer pipes" (and other human sources).
KM