BILL HAMILTON
Crescent Beach
Publication Date: 08/02/09
We, as citizens of St. Johns County, and our elected officials would be wise to consider carefully the commencement address by author Paul Hawken to the graduating class of the University of Portland in May this year: "Hey, class of 2009: You are going to have to figure out what it means to be a human being on Earth at a time when every living system is declining and the rate of decline is accelerating. Kind of a mind-boggling situation."
This generation is witness to the greatest extinction phenomenon since the die-off of the dinosaurs. But what distinguishes this event from several others in times past is that what we are experiencing is the result of human behavior. The decisions we make about how we choose to live either create conditions that are conducive to life, or contribute to the unravellings of the biological infrastructure of the Earth upon which we all ultimately depend.
In light of these realizations, and as Hawken pointed out, "Not one peer-reviewed paper published in the last thirty years can refute that...," we should re-consider two recent decisions by our elected public servants.
The St. Augustine City Commission voted to approve a request for a dock at Fish Island, knowing, that if built, will destroy one of the most pristine stretches of the Matanzas River. As "greedy and over-bearing" as Mayor Joe Boles described this project to be, he, and Commissioners Errol
Jones, Don Crichlow, and Nancy Sikes-Kline voted to give the developer the go-ahead rather than continue the uncertain legal course required to prevent the dock's construction. Commissioner Leanna Freeman alone stood in defense of the health of the river; and a group of citizens is continuing a legal remedy on their own.
2. The Anastasia Mosquito Control District of St. Johns County approved the aerial spraying of the pesticide Dibrom. An organophosphate, also known as Naled, this mosquito control "bad actor" insecticide is toxic to a wide range of birds, fish, insects and many aquatic organisms at extremely low dosages. Shrimp are killed by exposure levels of 10 parts per-billion, as are oysters. Spray can drift one half mile or more and can persist in the air for days. The New York Department of Health reported short-term control of mosquitoes using Dibrom but after 11 years of spraying experienced a 15-fold increase in mosquito populations.
Lester Brown, Earth Policy Institute, in his book -- Plan B. 3.0, Mobilizing to Save Civilization -- writes, "In our modern high-tech civilization, it is easy to forget that the economy, indeed our existence, is wholly dependent on the Earth's natural systems and resources."
We should all feel a sense of urgency in the need to protect what is left of God's creation. At stake is the future well-being of human society and life on Earth as we know it.
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Bill Hamilton is a local business owner, a long-time resident of Crescent Beach, and a community activist. He has a bachelor's degree in agriculture in plant science from the University of Florida, His family has one of the few remaining oyster leases in St. Johns County.
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