Over the last few months, as the Bush Administration has sought to increase the size of loopholes designed to let big polluters release more mercury into America’s air and water, there has been a predictable response by avid Republicans: They’ve denied that pumping more mercury into the environment is any kind of problem at all. They’ll say that eating fish saturated with mercury is no big deal. They’ll even make the outrageous claim that no one has ever died from mercury poisoning.
What can you do when a Republican makes claims like this? Open their eyes with a little science.
For instance, you might mention the results of a study released yesterday by the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine’s Center for Children’s Health and the Environment. The study is entitled Public Health and Economic Consequences of Methylmercury Toxicity to the Developing Brain (methylmercury is the toxin produced when microorganisms metabolize the mercury released into the air by coal-burning power plants).
As a part of this study, researchers calculated that the American economy loses 8.7 billion dollars every year as a result of brain damage suffered by children as a result of mercury poisoning. Keep in mind that this economic impact is the result of the mercury poisoning of children alone. Adults suffer from mercury poisoning too.
Now, as Republicans listen to this kind of information, they typically resort to a fallback position. They’ll say that mercury pollution is mostly natural, and that the amount of mercury pumped out of America’s smokestacks doesn’t make a big impact on people’s health. They’ll blame volcanic eruptions for practically all the mercury pollution across America.
Don’t let this tactical retreat fool you. It’s bunk. 70 percent of mercury poisoning is from anthropogenic sources (that means human-produced pollution). This information came from a study released three years ago, but the Republican Party tends to take a long while to deal with new scientific information in their rhetoric. It also turns out that almost half of the anthropogenic sources of mercury in the United States are the big polluting power plants that the Bush Administration wants to help keep on polluting. Bush’s dishonestly titled “Clear Skies Initiative” would increase the amount of mercury pollution allowed to a level 500 percent higher than what is allowed under the older Clean Air Initiative. The upshot is this: Human activity is to blame for the mercury poisoning of children, and there is something that we can do about it.
At this point, you can expect a Republican to resort to name calling. You’ll be called a “bleeding-heart liberal” – a term that means nothing other than that you care about people and value freedom (Republicans think that’s an insult). You’ll also be called a whiner. You’ll be called an environmentalist wacko.
Once again, the best response to this sort of petulant Republican reaction to the facts is to counter with more information. That Republican probably has no idea that approximately 600,000 American babies suffer brain damage as a result of mercury poisoning – every year. The mercury enters the babies’ bodies through the umbilical cord while they are still in the womb. That’s Prenatal Mental Abortion – and why in the world would a Republican favor that?
I read the article about the Republicans being the “fussy elites.” Im all for freedom of speech, but I think you should backup your claims with some proof. for example, some real quotes that prove the baseless claims you make.
Well, you could take a look at the article that Irregular Times has written about the Republican elitist victory items that show a distinctive upperclass snob appeal
Surely you must be joking, Back Man!!!!
Republicans aren’t “elites!”
Even Bush “joked” that he would be president of the elite, for the elite and by the elite.
Elite meaning MONEY. Obviously, not talent. And if you don’t believe me, look at the “elite”
bozos Bush has appointed to offices and the various catastrophes that have resulted–Katrina,
9-11, etc.
For fussy, who knows. You got me there.
Yes, mercury poisoning has severely damaged everyone in my family over three generations, killed at least two. I do know what I’m talking about – visit my web site to find out more…
http://www.mercuryxxpoisoned.com thank you
I didn’t read the article you are talking about, but population data is so very hard to truly correlate. How in the world was ANYONE able to put a dollar value on the effects of Brain damage (by ANYTHING, let alone mercury)? There are SO MANY confounding variables in population data… How do you know the brain damage was from Mercury poisoning, and not one of a thousand OTHER environmental toxins (or damage to the gene pool…for a NON-Toxin related approach)?
Always take population data with a huge grain of salt! A statistician can make it look ANY way they want. The fetal mercury brain damage you mention. Did they do a controlled study where they gave the mother’s mercury (without somehow violating ethics and morality)? How was it determined that 600,000 babies (in America alone mind you) suffer from brain damage secondary to MERCURY as the SOLE cause!? Come on! How do you substantiate that number? You don’t…. At best, it’s an extrapolation…by a statistician…(a human, with an agenda most of the time)…