Radio Smart Talk for Tuesday, May 10:
Since Colonial Times, Pennsylvania's vast natural resources helped to build a nation. Whether it be iron ore that made cannons in the Revolution or steel that went into the construction of railroads as we moved westward, timber that made the state the country's number one lumber producer in the early 1900s or the mining of anthracite and bituminous coal for heating homes or providing electricity, Pennsylvania's natural resources were an essential ingredient to the nation's growth.
How those natural resources were harvested is not always a positive story though. Many times what was left behind were depleted landscapes and polluted streams and rivers. Often, it took decades to recover.
Today, as drillers use hydraulic fracturing of shale rock beneath the Marcellus formation to find natural gas in Pennsylvania, many are pointing out the lessons learned in the past as they caution against damage to the environment.
We'll look at what we have learned from past on Tuesday's Radio Smart Talk.
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(that old question: "Is it progress if a cannibal uses a fork?") ---of utilization of natural resources has resulted in thoughtless overharvest.
The Passenger Pigeons here in PA were a truly beautiful bird. Gone.
The buffalo were almost hunted to extinction.
The native forests of PA are memories except in a few small isolated areas.
Poor forestry and farming practices created erosion, Chesapeake Bay run-offs.
Mining has been toxic to our streams.
Industrial processes poisoned our air and land.
We have now the scientific expertise to advise us of longterm risk------something our ancestors lacked.
We need an Environmental Impact Study on shale fracking before we end up repeating the past, and regretting it.
Family supporting jobs engender human dignity - that has value too yes?
These corporations are the professionals and they are going against a little second class township in Susquehanna County with a man administration that meets in a supervisor's living room once a month.
These citizens must be protected at the state level.
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