HowardIs the Harlem River Really Getting Clean?
Fish From the Harlem River, NYC
This is a dispatch from the Bronx. I just was at the Harlem River Ecological center today. Apparently, the Harlem River, between the Bronx and Harlem (Upper Manhattan) NYC is becoming cleaner. It is becoming so clean that shipworms are not dying from the pollution, and are eating up the wooden poles in the water. There are even oysters (not recommended for human consumption) that are sucking on poles and other metal and wooden debris in the river.
It was a nice exhibit, but it left me wondering, is this really so good? Has the water treatment facilities been improved, yes, to some extent. Can more be done? Yes, the building of catchment basins to hold overflow water during rain storms, so that overflow raw sewage is not dumped into New York harbor.
Still, I felt uneasy. Is it not because of the lack of industry and manufacturing, that there is a cleaner Harlem River, Hudson River, and so on? Are we merely exporting our environmental problems to China, Mexico, and so on?
Meanwhile, the financial press continues to be schizophrenic beyond belief. In the same issue of the Investor's Business Daily (Friday, Dec. 29, 2006), we are told, that Miami Real estate , such as Condos, has collapsed 34%, while REITs (Real Estate Investment Trusts), admittedly dealing with commercial buildings are making an average of 34% plus returns. This cannot be right. The BS will have to stop soon. Maybe the filth from the Harlem river was diverted to Wall St. instead.
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Techbreak
Good for New York, but the net effect is the same, isn't it?
Real Crash
This is compounded by the use of low, or lower technology and lower infrastructure. The people, due to lower living standards are inclined to actually be stupider! For real! If you are fighting for your family to have food and shelter at a minimum level, what do you care about environmental problems? The use of Third World labor forces as a substitute for workers in the U.S., U.K., Aus., etc is an all-around disaster. Plus technological innovation is stifled by a lack of educational infrastructure.
Every positive improvement of the last 30 years of "the environment", etc. could have been solved by a philosophy of good civil engineering (water treatment plants, etc). All "environmentalism" and "globalization" have given the people of the world is a damn nagging headache.