Estuary Lament

Hedrick Smith, one of the best reporters on the planet, is on Frontline right now talking about the invisible pollution that is killing the Chesapeake. Why is this happening? It's not so much a technical problem as it is an economic/political problem.

No real government could allow the collapse of such an important and productive part of American life. Therefore, we do not yet have a real government. We are ungoverned. We are at the mercy of the great Process. Perhaps we have done as well as we have simply on the basis of good luck. The Constitution is referred to as the "Miracle in Philadelphia". Maybe we should generalize that assessment to cover everything that has happened to make this a great country.

I heard HS being interviewed on NPR earlier this week. His efforts remind me of Al Gore's Inconvenient Truth. They will be successfully submerged under the tide of commercial "necessity".

One of the big culprits in this thing is chicken farming in Delaware. Purdue and the other members of the chicken cabal have managed to rig the system so that nobody is accountable for the mountains of manure. IMO, if there were a carbon tax, this industry would have to restructure itself and maybe the manure would become a product rather than a waste.

Update: Here's a Washington Post review of "Poisoned Water".