Pittsburgh knocks a homer

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Pitttsburgh Knocks a Homer

Pittsburgh has always been at the forefront of the world's great changes. We were one of the first cities to industrialize. Some of the first oil and nuclear power developments occurred in this area. I grew up hearing the statement (correct or not) that "Pittsburgh is the most polluted city in the world." Many of the labor struggles that got safer workplaces, more decent pay, and limits on corporate abuse of both citizens and environment happened here.

We were the first city to clean up our pollution - resulting in a renaissance, and a technical/expertise base which places us in a position to profit from helping the world transition to the new clean technology economy now.

We have a pivotal role in providing for the rest of the world the ability to recover from the environmental devastation and concomitant economic collapse which now threatens the survival of all life on this planet.. We in Pittsburgh were "ahead" of many in other places in having had to learn to adapt to severe economic decline. And we are now leading with green solutions which recognize environmental common sense innovations as money makers.

That this city was chosen to host a summit of the wealthiest nations should have been no surprise. I need only look out my window at the green forested mountainside across the river to see what we've accomplished. It's visible now because the last steel mill in the city proper has shut down. There was too much smoke while the Hazelwood Coke Works was running to get but a hazy gray glimpse of that mountainside every now and then. The governor, the mayor, and the head of the city council were on board to build another mill after that one was torn down, but most Hazelwood residents were against it, so it didn't get built. Citizens also - along with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection - prevented the development of a mountaintop-removal lumbering/mining/race track/resort complex that would have pretty much destroyed that beautiful mountainside ecosystem called Hays Woods. It is the most forested section of the city proper.

We have now a city that is on average poor, but beautiful and technologically advanced. We are already providing an example to the world of how to survive great change. We can head towards stabilizing ourselves economically and environmentally by helping provide the world with the means to regenerate the Earth's ecosystem.

We must almost entirely transition from fossil fuels, move to primarily locally grown food, avoid false climate solutions such as nuclear power, regenerate the world's failing biological diversity, and apply the most advanced appropriate technologies to help with this huge change.

And it isn't going to be easy. Just as residents of Hazelwood had to fight to slow down the pollution that was shortening our lives and those of our children, an epic struggle is taking place in the world between those who see that the entire Earth ecosystem (including all humans) is in jeopardy and those who don't . This month Pittsburgh takes center stage with the International Coal Conference, the G20 Summit, and the Peoples Summit. We're near the end of the game and a good future is not promised. We have to act in service to life for a better future.
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For a critique of building new nuclear power plants, go to
http://blog.cleanenergy.org
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How do we appreciate and enjoy the present while working for a better future?

Stopping to smell the roses, and reminiscing about the past, aren't wasteful expenses of precious time. By recognizing what we have now - and where it came from - we can create a future which, by holding precious the best of the past, includes its essence and ensures that the future will be even better.

That time only moves forward, never back, should make us eager to create an even better future. We take the wonderful things we've had, expand on them in our imaginations, and confidently act on our hopes to bring forth something good that can't yet be seen or felt in its exact details.

When we first were starting this neighborhood newspaper, John Tokarski came up with the name "Hazelwood Homepage". Most of the original group working on the paper weren't immediately impressed, but I liked it right away. It's a double entendre - combining the welcoming word "home" with the hip reference to an internet webpage. Like the front door of a library, the homepage beckons to so much more inside. Now, years later, we are at the same crossroads - calling Hazelwood our home and yet recognizing the Earth calls us to a much bigger one.
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