Sunday, June 04, 2006

The Greenest Month

My wife, Paula McConnell, this past May on "the farm", my family's piece of Eden for nearly 60 years in Otsego County, New York.
Photo by Anne Wiesen

Here in upstate New York, June is the greenest month of the year. And it seems prudent to call attention to all that green at this time of year on a green blog. Elsewhere, deforestation, desertification, smog, mega-dams, strip mining, suburban sprawl, wars, etc., make the world less green every day. But at least here at home things are looking brighter and greener. Over 100 years ago, New York had few forests left and was an industrial leader. All the industry of the time left its mark in the past century with great quantities of toxic waste polluting our lands, waterways, and air. It's a long road to recovery but conservation and environmental awareness have blossomed over time and now the state is mostly forested once again. Polluted lands and rivers are ever so slowly being cleaned up and there is an excellent chance that we will have our "greenest" governer in memory elected this fall if Eliot Spitzer can win over the hearts and minds of New Yorkers. Despite our outrageous tax burden (the worst in the nation), bureaucratic state government, suburban sprawl here and there, destructive federal government, and overwhelming global environmental problems, I have high hopes for the future here. May we once again be a model for the rest of the world.

~Kurt

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