Motocross at odds with environment

It’s really interesting to see what government says, and what it really does. Believe it or not, the two aren’t always the same. Let’s forget, for the moment, things at the federal level. Instead let’s concentrate on the local scene.

We all know that global warming is a growing, hot (no pun intended) issue. Some people are awakening to the fact that polar ice is melting at startling rates and sea levels are rising. Iconic wild animals are dying. Storms are increasing in intensity. Droughts are becoming far more common throughout the world. Former tropical diseases such as West Nile Virus (now found in all 48 contiguous states), Dengue fever, malaria, Ebola virus, cholera, and many others are spreading well beyond the tropics, and into the United States. Carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere are higher than they’ve ever been in 600,000 years, according to ice samples drilled in Greenland and the Antarctic.

With no leadership on these monumental changes coming from Washington D.C., local leaders have taken the forefront. Or have they? Here in Snohomish County, our local county government appears to be pushing to permit a motocross park on 80 acres of presently forested land on the Mountain Loop Highway above Granite Falls, a designated National Scenic Byway.

Trees sequester (i.e., hold in) carbon dioxide. Motocross vehicles and ATVs produce carbon dioxide. When you cut down the trees and replace them with motocross vehicles, the difference calculates to more than 1 million pounds of additional carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year. But we’re told that our county is leading the way on global warming issues.

How’s that for county leadership?

Bruce Barnbaum

Granite Falls