| REGISTER TO WIN | |
 |
A torrent of water cascaded from a kitchen sink onto the floor. Bremby, Kansas secretary of health and environment, asked KU Multicultural Scholars students for solutions.
Some said the water had to be turned off. Others said the sink had to be unplugged.
Bremby used the overflowing sink as a metaphor for the crises Americans and the planet face. I told him later that his analogy made sense, but the history of this country has been to ignore the problem.
He’s certainly seeing that in the fight lawmakers are waging to resurrect a coal-burning power plant expansion in western Kansas. Bremby had declined to grant a permit for the project, citing the 11 million tons in estimated yearly carbon emissions Sunflower Electric Power Corp.’s expansion would produce. Company officials and lawmakers said he went too far.
But Bremby did the right thing, stopping the metaphorical sink from overflowing. Gov. Kathleen Sebelius was right to support him with a veto, blocking a bill to allow the power plant expansion. To save the planet and end global warming, we don’t need more coal-power-generating capacity. We need more conservation.
It’s sad that this nation will only do the right thing when it has no choice but to confront and react to emergencies. Data Bremby showed suggest we’re facing environmental and personal crises now.
The planet is sick. Global warming brought on by man-made greenhouse gases keeps increasing the Earth’s temperature. Bremby said the last seven years have included the five warmest since record-keeping began more than 100 years ago.
Health care costs also keep rising as the baby boomers age. Bremby said 35 million Americans were 65 and older in 2005. By 2030, there will be 71 million.
People are living longer but not necessarily better. Blame poor diet, little exercise, tobacco use and environmental damage for the problem.
Bremby pointed out how the rates of overweight and obese Americans keep going up. But rather than deal with the problem, Americans largely ignore the problem despite increases in heart disease, strokes, hypertension and diabetes.
“It’s about ourselves. It’s about our lives.”
In his presentation, Bremby showed slides of sidewalks that end abruptly, giving people no place to walk, and of people taking an escalator instead of a nearby set of stairs. “By not having that physical activity, we are paying for it as a nation,” Bremby said.
Bremby showed President John F. Kennedy’s announcement that the United States wanted to put a man on the moon before the 1960s was over. The technology didn’t exist in the early 1960s to make Kennedy’s dream possible, but the United States developed what was needed. Bremby said global warming and the health care crisis present similar challenges.
“This may well be your generation’s moon shot,” he said. “We could be at the very beginning of a new economy.”
Let’s hope the emerging generation finds permanent fixes to the problems instead of ignoring the growing disasters.
Join the discussion
Share your observations and experiences about news. Lively, open debate is the goal, but please refrain from personal attacks or comments that are racist, vulgar or otherwise inappropriate. If you see an inappropriate comment, please click the "Report as violation" link to notify a KansasCity.com editor. Thanks for your feedback.