Letters to the Editor

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Current week celebrates the wonders of nature

Dear Editor:

Children in classrooms around the country will be celebrating wildlife and wild places during National Wildlife Week, April 19-25.

An annual event since 1938, National Wildlife Week encourages kids everywhere to explore and experience nature - starting in their own community.

Sponsored by the National Wildlife Federation, National Wildlife Week gives children the opportunity to learn about wildlife, near and far, and why it's important to protect wildlife habitat including wetlands, streams, lakes, forests and even the park down the street.

The theme for 2004 Wildlife Week is "What's Your Habitat?" By opening their eyes to the natural world around them, kids can discover what they can do to make a difference.

Visit www.nwf.org/national wildlifeweek for fun activities and to learn more about nature in your neighborhood.

The Trimbelle Rod & Gun Club, affiliated with the Wisconsin and National Wildlife Federations, asks you to join with us in protecting and preserving our natural world. After all, it's our habitat too.

Ralph F. Schommer

President, Trimbelle Rod & Gun Club

Bush toxic for environment

Dear Editor:

The Spring 2004 issue of "The Defender," a publication of Clean Wisconsin, an environmental advocacy organization, contains an article that describes what may be the most serious case of the Bush administration caving into polluters' demands.

Clean Wisconsin exposes corporate polluters, makes sure existing environmental laws are enforced and educates citizens and businesses in an effort to protect Wisconsin's clean water and air and advocate for clean energy.

In December 2000, the Environmental Protection Agency decided to regulate toxic power plant pollution from every power plant in the country. The administration was under a court-ordered deadline to propose a federal mercury standard for U.S. power plants by December 2003 based on the largest possible mercury reduction that is achievable from technology.

The EPA decided on a standard that would achieve 90 percent reduction in power plant mercury pollution by 2008. But before the new standard was released, the Bush administration proposed only a 30 percent cut in emissions from coal-fired plants by 2009. This reduction level is far less than the 90 percent cut in mercury emissions required from other sources, such as municipal waste incinerators.

Mercury is a potent neurotoxin that interferes with the development and function of the central nervous system. Elevated mercury levels in pregnant women can cause permanent brain damage to the fetus, infants and young children.

According to data from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's 1999-2000 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, EPA estimates that one in six women of childbearing age have mercury levels in their blood that pose a risk to their unborn child. That means that 630,000 children are born each year at risk for lower intelligence and learning problems because of mercury exposure in the womb.

But rather than protecting your health and that of your child, the Bush administration has chosen to protect polluters. This is another example of actions taken by the most anti-environmental president in modern history.

The actions of the Bush administration are particularly bad news for Wisconsin. Mercury is such a serious problem that every lake and river in Wisconsin is on a health advisory due to widespread mercury contamination of fish.

Sporting and environmental groups, health professionals, lake associations and tribes in Wisconsin have worked for a 90 percent reduction in mercury emissions from the state's coal-burning power plants. Given the track record of the Bush administration, it is even more important that Wisconsin step in with strong state regulation.

Public health and the health of the state's tourism industry are at stake.

Ray Anderson

River Falls

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