Earth Day, wake up, save the environment

The latest disaster caused by oil spills is the death of thousands of crabs, shrimp, sea gulls, and small fish that lived in the tide pools at Ventura beach.

A tanker overturned, spilling 5,000 gallons of fuel that spread across the highway and dripped down into the tide pools. Oil is not easy to clean up.

On March 24, 1989, the oil tanker Exxon Valdez spilled 11 million gallons of oil into Prince William Sound off the Alaskan coast. Ten years later in February 1999, the Alaska Wilderness League reported that only 3-4 percent of the spill has been cleaned up.

John Fisher, son of the founders of the Gap, Old Navy and Banana Republic, owns a company in Mendocino County that has purchased 235,000 acres of redwood forest in northern California. His company engages in clear-cutting, spraying herbicides and logging of the magnificent old-growth redwood trees.

Right here in our backyard, the Ventura River is No. 3 on the list of the 12 most endangered rivers because an obsolete dam has caused a buildup of silt that is interfering with the spawning of fish.

Global warming, also called the greenhouse effect, is still tearing holes in the ozone layer, which shields us from cancer-causing ultraviolet rays.

Yet, the issue is pushed aside because manufacturing companies replaced the aerosol cans, which emit ozone-layer-destroying gas, with nonaerosol pump bottles. This is putting a plastic bandage strip on a gaping wound.

Money is the barrier to cleaning up the oil spills, tearing down the dam, and saving trees that protect us from the sun's heat and absorb the carbon monoxide in the air.

Cash that should be spent to protect the environment goes into political campaign funds, and lands are traded off for political favors. Court litigation protects companies such as Exxon Mobile by delaying settlements.

The politicians all promise to clean up the polluted air, but the talk goes up in smoke after elections are over.

We hope this Earth Day will make an impression on the uninterested folks who lie in the sun absorbing the rays, never thinking about skin cancer.

We want you to think about where you are shopping. While driving, watch that tanker carrying gasoline. Is the driver putting you and the environment in danger?

If we don't stop letting money hurt the environment rather than help it, earth will be a page in another planet's history book. So will we.