Noise – why we make it
To the editor,
Noise: “a sound that causes discomfort to the listener” (Websters). An unwanted sound, a pollutant (i.e. noise pollution).
Approximately 30 years ago, federal funding through the EPA to study noise pollution and its effects on humans and society was cut. However, existing studies by the World Health Organization show noise pollution from trains, planes, vehicles, etc., have been associated with increased blood pressure and heart attacks, among other maladies. Other studies associate noise pollution with aggression. Children unfortunately are the most susceptible to noise pollution.
So outside of noise pollution caused by public transportation like airports, subways and trains, what about individual transportation? What about loud motorcycles or amplified music systems/exhausts in cars?
The EPA does have an online vehicle noise reporting site at: www.epa.nsw.gov.au/noise/noisyexhaust.htm
But beyond this and some rarely enforced local noise ordinances (e.g. Durango’s municipal code on noise), I often wonder why individuals like to make loud transportation choices. One online article I found associated the production of loud sounds with self-esteem issues. That people get self esteem, status, or fulfillment, via noise by exerting it as a form of power over others. A sort of “Hey, look at me! Here I am, and you can’t do a thing about it.” Noise can be a bullying tool and can be a “signature” of masculine power.
This all makes sense to me when it comes to personal choice in making noise outside of necessity like construction, etc. Babies cry and make noise to get attention.4 Perhaps this is a bit over-arching and simplistic, yet I have no problem with this descriptor for those who like to make a lot of noise as their personal choice of transportation in public, at the expense of the public. In the end, noise disturbs the peace and the peaceful, while quiet never disturbs noise or the noisemaker. Here comes summer in downtown Durango! Don’t forget your earplugs.
– Tim Thomas, Durango
Ground the airport’s grandiosity
To the Editor,
I was gratified to read JoAnn Sloan’s letter last week, to see the opinion of “an insider,” who had actually worked at the airport and could provide useful, concrete information. Her point about the need for improved ground transportation and smart improvements over and above a new terminal is well taken.
For 45 years, I have been among those who love the “un-commonness” and small airport feel. It is always exciting to look out at the La Platas when walking through the airport and arriving home. Let’s not spend millions on grandiosity. Let’s stay extraordinary.
– Caye Geer, Durango
Growing a sustainable future
To the editor,
At our current rate of consumption, 20 to 30 football fields worth of forests are slashed down every minute. To grow a single kilogram of cotton, about enough for a T-shirt and a pair of jeans, requires more than 20,000 liters of water, and cotton itself is responsible for 24 percent of the global chemical insecticide use. Currently, petroleum-based diesels contribute to roughly a quarter of the greenhouse gas emissions from transportation. Advances in technology, such as genetic engineering in cotton and strides in engine efficiency have certainly reduced these impacts, but a single crop could significantly slash the impact of these industries and many more, but only if it is legalized. Industrial hemp will be critical to our future sustainability, and with various states changing their legislature about hemp, I believe that now is the time to legalize industrial hemp on the federal level.
Generally, the legalization of industrial hemp has been held back by its association with cannabis. Opponents to industrial hemp state that the minimal amounts of THC (the psychoactive compound in marijuana) found in industrial hemp could be extracted and used to get high, and that farmers could hide marijuana plants in hemp fields. However, the amount of THC in hemp is so minimal that it is not economically viable to attempt to extract it, and hemp and marijuana require vastly different growing conditions and take different amounts of time to mature, which negates farmers’ abilities to simultaneously grow industrial hemp and cannabis.
Compared to cotton, industrial hemp yields 300 percent more raw fiber per unit of land, and cloth made from hemp is 400 percent warmer, 400 percent more absorbent and 300 percent stronger. Additionally, hemp requires no herbicides or insecticides and can be grown in virtually every climate. In fact, the majority of the United States, excluding high alpine areas and swamps, is suited for hemp production.
Hemp can also easily be processed into paper of any grade without harmful dyes. On a per-acre basis, hemp produces four times more raw pulp compared to trees, and paper made from hemp can be recycled up to 10 times compared to the three to four times for wood paper.
In addition to its potential for replacing cotton and paper in our economy, hemp also has tremendous potential for fuel. In a University of Connecticut study, hemp oil was converted to biodiesel with a 97 percent efficiency, and emissions were 47 percent of those from petroleum diesel.
A single acre of hemp can produce 1,000 gallons of methanol in one growing season, and the CO2 emitted by burning that methanol is offset by the carbon absorbed during the hemp growing cycle, which creates a sustainable, closed carbon system.
With over 25,000 known uses, industrial hemp can help us grow a more sustainable, modern future. The future of our planet, and therefore ourselves, depends on our ability to put aside stigmas and commit to technology, plants and ideas that genuinely shift our impact on the environment and resources. Industrial hemp has the potential to dramatically slash our environmental impact, even within just one growing season, which is why I believe we need to legalize it now.
– Derek Pansze
Derek is a junior at Animas High School who wrote the preceding letter as part of a humanities project.
Fog
The living and lifeless
are partially concealed beneath vapors
that translate into pointillist impressions
before the eye.
In the mist, realities
precipitate
before
the proximities
that immerse, sooth and becalm.
– Burt Baldwin, Ignacio