Progress Is Not The Word

An enormous burning pile of brush in a newly 'developed' area for our new hospital shocked me last evening into a very disturbing reality; the Upper Peninsula many resources are being reduced or in some cases completely destroyed.

It seems that everywhere I turn nowadays there are developments underway, including the controversial Kennecott mine proposal for a nickel mine slated to be smack dab in the middle one of the last uncontaminated watersheds in Marquette County.

The acres and acres of forestland now reduced to sandy hills and concrete is increasing every day in our area.

And I have to ask; what about the millions of living creatures that just lost their home to the hospital development where I saw burning brush last evening, including thousands of birds and animals that will now most likely starve or be pushed back into a more and more crowded habitat?

Do their lives mean nothing anymore? Are wildlife and forests now expendable just so that companies and housing developments can 'spread out' and 'grow'?

The irony is that there has been important scientific research in the global warming community that advocates reforesting large tracts of land to absorb damaging carbon and to naturally 'clean' the air.

But will the proposed mandates come in time to save the many endangered forests and species, including the last of the Upper Peninsula forestlands? Only time will tell.

In the meantime I am deeply saddened for the forest behind Jubilee that no longer exists and for all of the other Upper Peninsula natural resources that are currently being destroyed in the name of progress.

There must be some other way to build new hospitals and housing developments without eliminating the remaining forests! Maybe we could reuse land that has already been developed, or could build closer together.

Something has to happen, or we will one day wake up to a world without any remaining natural wildlife or forestland at all.