.Opinion: December 11, 2019

Read the latest letters to the editor here.

Radical Eating

Thank you for publishing Jordy Hyman’s article “Unreal Meats” (GT, 10/30). I appreciate you providing information about the toll animal agriculture takes on our environment. Given the incredible success of these products, including Beyond Meat’s IPO being the largest in history, it is important for our community to be informed about alternatives to the rainforest destruction, mass extinctions, and greenhouse gases associated with raising beef. I hope your readers will take note of the statistics Hyman included, such as an 89% reduction in greenhouse gases compared to beef.

Somehow, the main point I made when Hyman interviewed me was lost. We are in the midst of the greatest threat to life on Earth that humanity has ever faced. The IPCC has said we must reduce greenhouse gas emissions drastically by 2030, or risk entering complete climate chaos, a point beyond which no human intervention will stabilize the climate. Many scientists think this prediction is overly optimistic.

We must make wide-ranging changes in human activities or we are not going to make it. Once we hit runaway global warming, it is possible that the cascading feedback loops will render the earth too hot for all life.

Meat alternatives exists within this context. We need to reduce greenhouse gases in as many ways as possible, and that includes radically reducing emissions from animal agriculture, one of the main sources of emissions. According to Drawdown, “if cattle were their own nation, they would be the world’s third largest emitter of greenhouse gases.” Each time someone eats a burger made from “unreal meats” instead of meat, they are decreasing their greenhouse gas contribution. Of course, Hyman’s suggestion to “eat your vegetables” works as well!

Beth Love | Founder, Eat for the Earth

Call It Sewage

The Board of Directors and personnel of the Soquel Creek Water District are engaged in a project to combat the intrusion of salt water into the Purisima Aquifer, currently our almost exclusive source of drinking water. There are a number of questionable aspects related to this project, in which they have already invested a substantial amount of money.

I am referring to the Clean Water Soquel project, which will produce treated water to inject into the aquifer to halt the intrusion of ocean water. The source of this water is highly questionable, as it is to come from the treatment of sewage—a word they seldom use when discussing the project in which they will be producing water that is anything but clean.

It has long been known that it is impossible for sewage treatment to remove all the contaminants people flush down their toilets, particularly prescribed and other drugs. A recent study at the University of Southern California found that sewage treatment plants produce an antibiotic DNA fluid that could negate the effectiveness of certain drugs, unquestionably a dangerous situation. Surely we have learned a lesson from the problem in Flint, Michigan.

It is difficult for me to understand the motivation of these folks. To begin with, we do not own the aquifer. And we are not the only ones who depend on it for their water supply. How can they think they have the right to contaminate it?

When the district notified us of their intent to raise rates, they referred several times to the need to develop a supplemental water supply. They mentioned Pure Water Soquel project, but nowhere the word “sewage.” They required 50%+1 of us to object, in writing, to stop the project (which is unnecessary, as there is plenty of water available without it).

I believe that requirement to be upside-down. To be fair, they should be required to get 50%+1 of everyone using the aquifer to approve of their shenanigans, making it more like Government of the People, By the People, and For the People.

Thomas Stumbaugh
Aptos

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The Seymour Marine Discovery Center will host its annual Art and Craft Festival on Sunday, Dec. 15. Local artists and craftspeople will be offering ocean-inspired and other nature-conscious creations that make great gifts, and the proceeds support marine education. There will also be live music, apple cider and children’s activities. You can’t get to the ocean every day, so grab a piece made by a local artist from the annual art and craft festival at the Seymour Center. Noon-5:30pm. Seymour Marine Discovery Center, 100 McAllister Way, Santa Cruz. 459-3800, seymourcenter.ucsc.edu. $7 adults/$5 seniors, students, children/free for children under 2.