Coal ain't cool (part II)

Following my previous post about the project of coal plants in Texas I have browsed the Net and found some good stuff on the website of Daryl Hannah. You loved her in Blade Runner (well at least I do) ! You found her great in Kill Bill (well again I do) ! You will love her as an activist fighting for a better environment.

On her site she is denouncing mountain removal. Don't know what it is ? Well take a mountain, find some coal veins in it, then blow it up in order to get the coal. That's a radical way to deal with coal mining. You will find some good stuffs like video on the website. And if you like our mountains you may take action.

Then back to the post about Texas, I am now sure that you love coal : it devastates our landscape, sometimes radically, it throws heavy smoke in the atmosphere, it drops the rate of chronic diseases like asthma around plants using coal ... It seems to be the perfect fuel for the 21st century.

Washington, can you hear us ?

One of the issue I was eager to know about in Bush's State Union speech was the healthcare system. Waow. What an impressing and ambitious project our President has in mind. While there are 47 millions of people unable to afford decent care in our biggest-worldwide-economy his plan will offer access for 3 to 5 millions. How brave it is !

But don't worry if you belong to the remaining losers, Mr President will take money that should fund hospital and nurses to give you some bucks. You may then have a chance to access to the healthcare system, but due to some shortage of money the system will not be able to provide good cares.

I have read an article in USA Today. I have seen that American Enterprise Institute is very happy about the wonderful tax-heaven offered to people who will buy their own health insurance. Their happiness is for me a real indication that the sole purpose of this proposal is to give the possibility for employers to stop paying for healthcare benefits to their employees. Thank you very much Mr President ... You can keep talking about bipartisanship we definitely know who you are.

Coal ain't cool

Some states like California have understood the need to fight against air pollution and gases contributing to the climate warming. Some have not. In Texas there is a project to build 7 coal plants. Public Citizen is lobbying against it. In the questions raised by the project is the impact on health of the deterioration of the air quality. In the current situation there are 34.000 new asthmatics in Texas every year, mostly due to bad air quality. For sure the project will help the figure leaning.

You think it is insane to support such a project. Then fight with Public Citizen.

Mind if I prefer sunbathing …!

Don’t worry I am not writing from some lovely sunny places like Barbados and I am not crazy enough to take any risk to expose a bare skin to the chilly sun in Central Park. I have just read a post by Kathleen MacNaughton on About Asthma. She is releasing some details of a study from the American College of Chest Physicians linking asthma symptoms from people visiting Florida to the presence of red tides at the time of crisis. These red tides are the results of an alga which is producing brevetoxin, a highly potent airborne toxin. So it may sounds better to live in New-York. But more seriously, even if it is “natural” pollution, the high concentration of this alga in the Gulf of Mexico is unfortunately the results of human activities. You may read more about this study here.

Smoking lungs

I have always been aware of environmental issues and their impact on human health. It is for sure linked to my asthma. But with my recent severe bronchitis and the threat of an underlying one, a chronic illness affecting my lungs I feel really concerned by pollution in urban areas.I have read an interesting post in The Man in The Radiator. You can access to it there. Alex writes about a documentary he saw on Discovery about the respiratory problems of workers who have cleaned up Ground Zero. Should have a look at it to see that the link between our health and the air we are breathing is not fictional at all. And of course being a New-Yorker I can't help thinking about the quality of air in Big Apple and my situation. I don't want my lungs to smoke like a stack ...