This is to inform the public that there is action that can be taken now to reduce plastic proliferation and pollution in Vermont.
I am calling out youth, elders, all environmentally minded folk: Support the legislation that has been introduced in the Vermont Senate and House banning single-use plastics and limiting plastic pollution in the state. Phone your representatives and your senators to make momentum for positive change.
The world is awash in plastic: Last week a dead whale washed up on a beach in the Philippines, its stomach full of 88 pounds of plastic bags. Evidence of microplastics in our food, soil and water. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Plastic beach wastelands in Hawaii, Singapore, Wales.
In Vermont, both chambers of the Legislature have originated legislation addressing plastic pollution, some bills stronger than others, all indicating a mindset that appears ready to begin to tackle the issue. Here is the opportunity for tangible change in Vermont. To Vermonters appalled by plastic pollution and dismayed by environmental bad news, there are now significant actions to be taken, supported and insisted upon.
We are an alternative state — the state without billboards, the first state to legalize same-sex marriage by an act of the Legislature. These are forward-thinking things that Vermont has done. There are forward-thinking things Vermont can yet do.
Other states, such as Maine, have passed plastic bag bans. Other states, such as Connecticut, have added plastic water bottles to their beverage container deposit programs. Vermont can ban single-use plastic bags, containers and straws. And Vermont can upgrade the current deposit bill to include plastic water bottles as well as cider and wine containers.
Write and phone your senators and representatives, as well as the members of the Senate and the House committees on natural resources. Insist on the strongest action possible to reduce single-use plastic in Vermont.
JUDITH AUGSBERG
Randolph
The New Hampshire House of Representatives has recently approved several new bills in support of sensible reforms regarding the sale and purchase of guns in our state (“N.H. House approves wait time to buy gun,” March 20). These include a seven-day waiting period and criminal background checks for commercial sales of firearms. It is expected that these bills will also pass in the Senate.
These bills represent steps that will lead to a decrease in gun violence and gun deaths. They also represent steps which are supported by a majority of citizens across the country. It is time to stand up to the National Rifle Association and other groups that actually represent only a minority of citizens, albeit a noisy minority.
The Second Amendment, as it appears in the Constitution and as it has been interpreted throughout our history, does not guarantee an unfettered right to the ownership and use of firearms. Even that conservative icon, Justice Antonin Scalia, recognized that regulation of firearms ownership is well within the constitutional framework.
A study by the Schmidt College of Medicine at Florida Atlantic University found that 2,462 school-aged children were killed by firearms in 2017. Contrast that number with the deaths of police officers — 144 — and active duty military — 1,000. From 1999-2017, there were 38,942 firearm deaths of children aged 5-18. Had there been this number of deaths of children caused by any other product, there would be outrage and calls for change.
These bills will make all of our state’s residents safer and more secure. Gov. Chris Sununu has in the past been opposed to any regulation of the sale and purchase of firearms. I have written to the governor and encourage all who support these pending bills to write to our governor to express that support. Perhaps we can make our voices heard.
SUSAN MATTSON
Grantham
In mid-March Mozambique and neighboring countries suffered — and still suffer — flooding that experts call the worst disaster ever in the Southern Hemisphere. Here in the U.S., the Mississippi basin is also experiencing record flooding. Harvesting (in Africa) and planting (in the U.S.) are being wiped out. Some say all this is just unpredictable weather; “climate deniers” will insist that climate change is not the culprit.
I’m reminded of the blue, cylindrical Morton table salt box in the kitchen of my childhood, with the familiar picture of the girl, her umbrella shielding her from the rain, salt flowing freely from the salt box under her arm. Starting back in 1911, the message “When It Rains It Pours” was coined to convince customers that added magnesium carbonate in the salt would keep it from clumping in damp weather. Over time, saying “when it rains it pours” came to mean only that a light rain had turned into a downpour.
But now, in 2019, climate change is giving the old saying a more menacing meaning. The highly respected Union of Concerned Scientists explains: “With rising global temperatures due to increased heat-trapping emissions, more water evaporates from the land and oceans. The warmer atmosphere can hold more water vapor. This means that when it rains, there is a higher potential for heavy rainfall, which is the main cause of inland flooding.”
Meteorologists remind us of Irene in Vermont in 2011, and assure us more torrential “pouring” is coming. What’s to be done? To slow the warming of the atmosphere, we must accelerate the switch away from coal, oil and natural gas as energy sources. And the electorate will have to persuade our legislators to work harder with their congressional colleagues to put a price on carbon and channel the resulting revenue to help citizens pay the resulting higher energy costs. The Citizens Climate Lobby presses legislators across the land to work harder on this; to join the local chapter, email ccluppervalley@gmail.com or call 802-432-8494.
BOB SCHULTZ
Lebanon