In a message dated 4/29/01 7:12:44 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
<< The question stands. How is our government trying to destroy the
biosphere, �
or on a smaller level, what are the city governments
anti-environmental�policies?
>>
It's too nice a day to go into a long rant. But since you asked...
here is a short list of recent anti-environmental policies supported by
Minneapolis City government (way too nice a day to get into state or federal
government!):
- Loss of green space
- Increase of pavement
- Tearing down and rebuilding rather than restoring housing and commercial
space
- The garbage incinerator
- The Highway 55 reroute
- The metal shredding plant
- Mitigation rather than resolution of airport noise issues
- A big expensive LRT system that is of dubious environmental and social value
Some suggestions for improving the City's environmental quality:
- A locally-governed air quality monitoring system and EQB
- Conversion to hybrid-engine buses
- A municipally-owned electric utility to allow us to puchase and develop
"green" energy
- Expanding the recycling program to include industrial waste (computers,
building materials, etc.)
- A tax or ban on excessive and/or nonreusable packaging
- Use of vegetable-based de-icers on the roads
- A ban on phosporous in commercial fertilizers
- Aggressive transportation policies and urban design to get people OUT of
their cars
- A moratorium on airport expansion, and decentralization of air traffic to
adjacent cities
- Preservation of housing and historic buildings
- And entering the realm of the utopian, wouldn't it be nice if the
Mississippi River could actually be a living river again, instead of an
industrial transportation route?
I would also like to add that a lot of the good environmental work that is
happening in Minneapolis is being initiated by citizen activist groups, who
deserve high praise; there seems to be little environmental consciousness,
other than as an afterthought, in the "vision" at City Hall.
-- Holle Brian
Bancroft
(612) 822-6593
_______________________________________________
Minneapolis Issues Forum - Minnesota E-Democracy
Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more:
http://e-democracy.org/mpls
