Letters to the Editor: Tanks farms, dairy farms, and our educators
Gratitude for our educations
I want to express my gratitude and appreciation to all the teachers and school personnel for their steadfast dedication, flexibility and the exhaustive, extra hours they spend in administering to the needs of our school children and young adults during this pandemic.
From having to switch to online teaching, and returning to the classroom, these changes have taken an emotional and academic toll on teachers and students alike.
They all need our support as we navigate the months ahead to some semblance of what we consider a return to normal. This pandemic has changed all of us: Some for the better, and some not.
It is my hope that we can again reach out to each other with kindness and respect.
Debra Randolph, Salem
Zoom fatigue and panic attacks: Salem-Keizer's online EDGE teachers face burnout
Tank farms need work
Tracy Loew’s article, Tuesday, Feb. 8, 1A “Does Oregon have an ‘unprecedented’ disaster ahead?” is well worth the read.
Portland stores 350 million gallons of petroleum fuel in aging tanks along the Willamette River. In the event of a magnitude 8-9 earthquake, experts predict disaster on the scale of the Fukushima nuclear reactor or Deep Horizon oil-spill events.
Beyond environmental impacts, fuel unavailability would cripple police, fire, and emergency medical services. Given our dependence on petroleum in the transportation sector, the loss of 90% of Oregon’s gas and diesel would bring the region’s economy to a standstill.
Sen. Michael Dembrow, D-Portland, has introduced legislation requiring tank farm owners to examine their vulnerabilities and develop plans to make them safer from earthquakes. As important as this legislation is, it focuses on just one area of vulnerability.
One need only imagine adjacent Forest Park’s thousands of forested acres in a tinder-dry September to see one potential source of catastrophic ignition. In the greater Portland metro area at least, the tank farms might literally be the gasoline that is poured on the fire. Portland’s aging and vulnerable tank farms are yet another reason to diversify our transportation sector’s energy infrastructure with electric vehicles.
Thomas M. Boyd, Eugene
Dairy carbon-negative?
Oregon is home to nearly 200 dairy farming families. Dairy farming is a sustainable industry that provides an opportunity to improve manure management and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
A partnership between dairy farms and the renewable natural gas industry allows for dairy farms to create a carbon-negative operation. Renewable Natural Gas (RNG) and anaerobic digesters create a positive cycle of waste to energy.
There are multiple digesters that create renewable natural gas, however, most in Oregon are being built around dairy farms. Capturing methane out of the atmosphere from cow manure and waste allows for a carbon-negative product.
Dairy farmers responsibly collect waste from cows, capturing the greenhouse gasses and creating biogas which is turned into RNG that is then used to heat our homes or power the trucks we see on I-5.
Decomposing waste accounts for 26% of U.S. methane emissions. RNG is methane that has been collected from decomposition and the methane molecules are carbon negative. This process is decarbonizing not only the gas we use in our homes for cooking and heating but also by creating transportation fuel.
Dairy farmers right here in Salem are promoting a positive waste management solution by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and utilizing natural resources to combat climate change making the future greener for all Oregonians.
D. Scott Peterson, Salem
Air quality violations: Two Oregon dairy manure digesters cited
Unplug from the smartphone
In today's world with our smartphones connected to the Internet and social media, we have lost the simple art of conversation.
As a sanitation ambassador for Bon Appetit's restaurant at Willamette University, I see it in the students among their friends at dinner: They're so attached to their smartphones and being on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok they're not connecting with each other.
We need to disconnect from our smartphones and devices to re-establish the connections with each other as we did before we had smartphones.
Let's turn off the smartphones and other devices during dinner. And let's truly reconnect with each other.
George L. Fitzgerald, Keizer
This article originally appeared on Salem Statesman Journal: Letters: Tanks farms, dairy farms, and our educators
