Seattle Times editorial writer Lance Dickie began a piece on the problems of Puget Sound with these two assertions:
Puget Sound is ailing and in decline. The problem is, almost no one believes it.
The first is a statement about pollution in the Sound. I expected Dickie to follow it with data showing that pollution is worse now than it was ten or twenty years ago. He did not.
The second is a statement about public opinion. I expected Dickie to follow it by citing polls. He did not.
Is either statement true? I don't know. I did a brief search last night, looking for data on pollution in the Puget Sound and got mixed results. If what I found is representative — and I don't know that it is — the Sound is improving in some ways, but getting worse in others. The second statement, that no one believes that the Sound is getting worse, strikes me as extremely dubious. I have seen a lot of poll data on environmental issues, and the public generally has a far more negative view of pollution trends than they should.
Though both statements strike me as dubious, I am willing to be persuaded — but I would like to see some evidence first. If Dickie has evidence for either assertion, he should share it with his readers, rather than expecting us to accept what he writes on faith.
Cross posted at Jim Miller on Politics.
Posted by Jim Miller at April 09, 2007
06:59 AM | Email This
Why tell the truth when so many of your readers in Seattle just want to hear what you have say with ZERO proof.
Lib's that's all you need to know.
Posted by: Army Medic/Vet on April 9, 2007 08:02 AMThere are some areas of concern, but nothing to the point where all the divers are talking about what a catastrophe it is.
Until someone comes up with lots of hard data that is untainted by agendas and cherry picking, I'll continue to believe that generally the sound is doing OK.
Posted by: H Moul on April 9, 2007 08:28 AMI'm a Rescue/Diver and I've been all over this area.
For myself I see no problem. Granted diving in some of our areas can be hard to give you a full account because seeing more than 10 ft in front of you is rough. (tide flows keep everything churned up)
They feel bad about Puget Sound, and feel they should do something, if some one stands up and says, "the data show," they feel that person doesn't care, they feel that person must be evil and feel they must be discredited and destroyed. Because data gets in the way of how they feel about an issue and takes away the cause for them feeling good because they feel bad about the sound.
Posted by: JCM on April 9, 2007 09:40 AM> I think we need to drain the Puget Sound and Lake Washington. Just draining Lake Washington alone will help our housing and traffic problems.
Draining Puget Sound on behalf of an automotive problem which will not exist in ten years is a perfect demonstration of the lunacy which is abundant in the anti-environmental conservatives.
For the sake of dead machines humans have eradicated the living Earth.
Nature is going to repay that favor upon humankind soon. Nature's wrath is especially tragic in the sense that in this case the punishment will fit the crime.
The price of destroying Nature is extinction.
Too bad for humankind.
Posted by: David Mathews on April 9, 2007 10:04 AMHYPOCRITE! You are using a "DREAD" machine made with BIG OIL to post on a "DREAD MACHINE" created by the evil military industrial complex.
Posted by: pbj on April 9, 2007 10:17 AMhttp://www.pugetsoundpartnership.org/our_work/charge_2/ResearchSynopsisfinal.pdf
Posted by: Paul on April 9, 2007 10:45 AMhttp://www.pugetsoundpartnership.org/our_work/charge_2/ResearchSynopsisfinal.pdf
Posted by: Paul on April 9, 2007 10:46 AMhttp://www.pugetsoundpartnership.org/our_work/charge_2/ResearchSynopsisfinal.pdf
Posted by: Paul on April 9, 2007 10:47 AMI think we need to drain the Puget Sound and Lake Washington. Just draining Lake Washington alone will help our housing and traffic problems.
_____________________________________________
In the great words. ( Stupid as as Stupid does.)
LOL
Posted by: Army Medic/Vet on April 9, 2007 11:28 AMThat's a whole new category of idiot you have there.
Posted by: H Moul on April 9, 2007 04:37 PMDM is right, it is so beyond hopeless........
Posted by: Hank on April 9, 2007 06:02 PMOh. Sorry. "Al Gore's Internet" gave it new life (humor intended).
DM apparently, like many TRUE BELIEVERS, missed the unwritten irony/sarc tag implicit in the initial post.
Posted by: FT on April 10, 2007 04:25 AMAlso, move out of Seattle. It costs a fortune to ship food in and trash out of that town. (Even for the sprouts and tofu you eat.) You think those big trucks that stop at the Whole Foods run on wheatgrass? Nope. Fossil fuels and rubber tires made of oil.!
Go live in the country somewhere close to your food source. (I hear Costa Rica has a shortage of moonbats. Try there.)
I bet Dave wouldn't consider this. Like all liberals, it's his job to tell US how to live. He doesn't have to give anything up.
Posted by: johnny on April 10, 2007 10:53 PM