How noble of the State of Utah to consider taking the pollution and waste away from the world to safeguard and keep with us here in these treasured mountain valleys. We will agree to pollute ourselves, so that you, the world, may remain clean.
What sacrifice.
So send us your carcinogens; your toxic waste; your combustible by-products. Of course it will cost you. But don't worry. We'll use the prostituted money from whoring our land away to help improve our public schools, so you don't need to worry about us or our increased risk of cancer. Utah deserves a great big shout-out for volunteering to be the sacrificial polluted lamb of the world.
Nuclear waste from other foreign countries? Sure. Oil shale from our mountains? Why not. New coke-burning oil refineries? Bring it on. If only President Clinton wouldn't have put such an effort into protecting our land against our wishes. Shame on him! We wanted the chance to pollute southern Utah as well.
Early settlers of Utah spoke about the need to care for and protect the land; to exercise wise stewardship for future generations. Fortunately today, a time when the future of our planet is more perilous and polluted than ever before, we're not concerned about all that. After all, pollution will bring money, jobs, and people here which is a big deal during a down economy. Right?
And so we have Energy Solutions. They own our NBA arena, so they must be great. All they want to do is import nuclear waste from foreign countries into Salt Lake City, that's all. What's the big deal? We should just leave this up to our State Legislators who, I'm sure will do the right ($$) thing.
We also have Consolidated Energy Systems. All they want to do is burn coke, a petroleum product that pollutes more than most forms of coal and emits chemicals that are carcinogenic; all in a residentially-zoned neighborhood. Why should Davis County even care? It's not like anyone would even notice another oil refinery up there. We should just leave this up to our State Legislators who, I'm sure will do the right ($$) thing here also.
So again, thank you to Utah, the Savior of our dying planet, for the willingness to take all of the unpleasant pollution of the world into your borders. We couldn't clean this place up without you... 
Other-Worldly by tephdra
16 February 2009
Utah: the greatest snow, I mean pollution, on earth
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7 comments:
I am so thankful to not live in Utah. I understand your passion. The people of Washington State would never put up with such horrors.
We will not become a Zion people until we learn our true stewardship over this precious planet. It is such a blessing to know that Our Creator knows what we are talking about, even if so many Utahns don't get it at all.
Thanks for sharing. I don't live in Utah anymore, but I still care about what's going on there-especially since Utah is still a part of the EARTH. Hello, I'd like us to work on all of it. If we keep shipping it away from us, then noone will have to face it.
There's something about the acid content of sarcasm that tastes/smells/feels/sounds/looks somewhat toxic, too.
Language is a natural resource, an ecosystem in its own right. Are there better ways to rehabilitate a rhetorical wasteland than salting it with barbed words?
I hope so, gma.
don't you work for the church? this is the sort of stuff that will get you fired, FYI...
You are probably right Patricia. I wanted this blog to be an optimistic vantage point for the environment and this post doesn’t reflect that. This post is the result of a lot of built up frustration as a result of living here that I have not experienced in other places I have lived. I need to get back on track now...
Reuben,
Although I do work for the Church, I certainly don’t agree with everything that the Church does. I liken it to a US government worker who, while employed by the people, will never agree with all that the government does. Having said that, I ultimately decided to remove all the references to the Church in this post. I still think the Church could end all the pollution/waste nonsense going on in Utah if they wanted to, but I don’t want to unfairly single them out.
We all need to let things out every once in awhile. If individuals were only allowed to say nice things, even when something is clearly wrong, our scriptures would be pretty empty (to say nothing of many other important pieces of literature and other important writings, say Jonathan Swift of Benjamin Franklin).
I missed whatever content you had about the LDS Church, but it should be remembered that the First Presidency did speak out against allowing nuclear waste in Utah recently (but it would be nice to see more).
Language needs to be used for cathartic cleansing, and it should also reflect reality, not just whitewashing and making things seem positive when they are not. Dishonesty is the main way we pollute language.
And I'm glad I don't live in Utah, but I unfortunately do live in New Mexico's toxic dumping ground (perhaps too close to Utah).
I think it is a good goal to keep things positive, and I don't feel that this is negative enough to distract from that.
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