Sunshine and Light

What's at Stake

Interesting. A man named Rod Dreher who writes for the Dallas Morning News is in a debate with Ramesh Ponnuru et al of National Review over whether there should be stricter environmental controls of some cement plants south of Dallas. I like Rod, he's a bit of a bomb thrower, but a lot closer to my views than some of the more extreme types at NRO. I respect Ramesh a LOT, this is a very educated, intelligent (no they aren't the same thing) man.

But anyway, Ramesh is aggravated because Dreher was talking about how this wasn't an abstraction for him, because he has a child with asthma. He's noting at his kids soccer games how many children are running to the sidelines with inhalers. To which another NROnik notes that there's an increase in children with asthma in NYC as well where there's almost no manufacturing. Yet another chimes in with the note that pollution triggers asthma attacks those who already have it, but doesn't cause asthma.

My question to the Corner crowd would be - how sure are you? Is it possible that those kids would be relatively asyptomatic without the pollution from those plants? At best, the debris from the plants isn't helping. And what it comes down to is, are you SURE enough of the stats that you would play dice with your own children's health? Because essentially that's what they're telling Dreher he should do. And quite honestly, having ridden on smoggy days in Houston, and felt my healthy lungs burning from the pollution, I can understand while he would feel the urge to take action locally.

That's not to say that Ramesh doesn't have a fair stake in this question, or that people who are one step removed from the process shouldn't have input. I just think while it would be unfair to discount Ramesh's opinion for not having a child with asthma, it's also unfair to poopoo input from someone who has the most to lose.

posted by MyHusbandRules @ 6:38 PM