America, Including Hudson, In Denial! What "Climate Smart Community"?

 

To those willing to accept it, it is now abundantly clear that the fate of our planet -- and all living things on it -- is looking grim.  Quite grim.  Flooding after unprecedented rainfall, forest fires all over (adding more carbon to the atmosphere in a doom loop), heat domes that kill and force Europeans to consider air conditioning, unpredictable and unusual weather (with lots of wind), invasive species spreading to once inhospitable regions, warming oceans, endless wars over oil.  It seems like we have passed the tipping point.  We (primarily the US and other industrial countries) have simply added too much carbon to the atmosphere for planet earth to function properly.  Mankind's disposable infrastructure -- built for our survival -- is completely untenable and in contradiction to the laws of nature.  Treating our planet like a toxic dumping ground seems to have finally caught up to us.

I feel as if Mother Nature recently got so fed up with being asked to handle our pollution - her tipping point, if you will -- that she had no choice but to lay down the law. "Okay, I've had it. Two can play at this game.  You want heat?  I'll show you heat!  You want rain?  I'll show you rain!  You ain't seen nothin' yet if you keep your carbon coming my way!  Keep driving your cars and trucks and flying your planes everywhere and soon enough you won't recognize the planet you have been given."  Break the laws of nature, pay the price. 

I grew up in a time -- the 1970's and 80's -- when the biggest environmental issues were, at least as I recall, acid rain and recycling.  They were certainly not existential issues; they really didn't get in the way of everyday life, and they could be ignored for the most part.  But today, I can't even imagine what it's like being a young person given all the calamities and never-ending horrible news indicating a planet in peril.  When I was a kid, I never had to stay inside because the air was too toxic from far away forest fires, that's for sure.  I have no idea how today's kids cope with what they are constantly confronted with.  The results can't be good for their outlook on life and their future or bringing more humans into the world.

Given all this, what I witnessed two weeks ago here in Hudson confirmed a few things that I've believed for several years but have never written about on HUDseen.  It is this: (a) The top brass at the police department and Rob Perry at DPW are in denial about climate change and its causes; (b) cutting back on the use of gasoline and diesel at HPD and DPW might be impossible to do; (c) it is an absolute joke that Hudson is a designated "climate smart community"; (d) there is no decent leadership at City Hall; and (e) we -- young, old -- are screwed!

On Thursday, July 9th, at about 5:15, I bicycled past the city-sponsored children's Bicycle Rodeo happening on 6th Street near Oakdale Park.  HPD was a big part of the event, which took place from 5:00 - 7:00, and they closed off the road to traffic with three large police vehicles (I guess they're all large now), one of them unmarked (above), all of which I passed on my way out of town via 6th and then Glenwood.  

6th & Clinton, with bike rodeo taking place
in the background

All 3 of those HPD vehicles were unoccupied and their engines were idling.

When I made my way down Glenwood and past the rodeo just over an hour later, the three HPD vehicles were still idling.  Unoccupied and engines running, keeping those lights flashing.

The planet is literally burning and flooding to death thanks to humans (particularly Americans) spewing too much carbon into the atmosphere while here in Hudson idling vehicles (SUV's) are needed for hours to close off a road for a family event?  Today's children have an inhospitable and possibly inhabitable planet to look forward to and our police department can't figure out a way to close off a road for two hours without using three carbon-spewing vehicles?  The city is facing financial trouble yet idling multiple vehicles to close off less than a mile of road to traffic is perfectly acceptable for hours?
Let's teach children how to bicycle safely and properly while, at the same time, we unnecessarily fill their lungs with toxins and set a horrible example for them! 

Let's teach children that bicycles are an environmentally sound form of transportation while three idling, unoccupied vehicles help keep them safe.  Thanks, adults!

HPD will tell you that they have to idle the engines in their vehicles while the emergency lights are on.  As if that were justification for using vehicles to close a street off for hours when barriers and vehicles that are not idling would do just fine. 

I saw Police Chief Mishanda Franklin participating in the rodeo with at least one of her children.  I'm pretty sure her city-issued SUV was the one idling that is in seen in the lead picture.  That enormous vehicle sat there for at least two hours with its flashers on (it has no emergency lights) burning gasoline and filling the earth's atmosphere with more carbon it can't and doesn't want to handle.  As if it didn't matter for any children on planet earth.

We can't continue down this road for much longer.  But you wouldn't know it.  What climate change?

There is more to worry about at HPD, though on a more local level.

Before I passed the bike rodeo, as I made my way on North 6th Street approaching Washington, I noticed a car well ahead of me pass through the intersection to head down the hill toward Oakdale.  About 20 feet past the intersection, already headed down, the car suddenly stopped.  Then it backed up, turned its rear into the 600 block of Washington and shot down the 500 block, the driver obviously impatient and annoyed.  When I arrived at the intersection, I realized the problem that driver had just faced.  Because HPD had not put a ROAD CLOSED sign at the intersection at the top of the steep hill, drivers at the intersection had no way of knowing that the road at the bottom of the hill was closed off.  They couldn't see the idling cop car blocking their way at the bottom until they completely passed through the intersection at the top.  With a little time to kill, I decided to see if any other drivers would get caught in the stupidity.  Sure enough, about thirty seconds later, a car approached the intersection on Washington and signaled to turn right.  The driver made the turn to head down the hill but, of course, had to stop, back up, and continue forward, this driver choosing to head south on 6th.  Neither of those two inconvenienced and uninformed drivers didn't back into me, any other cyclists, any other cars, any buildings, any pedestrians or any children.

Can you imagine how many drivers had to deal with this dangerous and unnecessary nonsense during the two-hour event because HPD didn't think that a simple ROAD CLOSED sign at the top of the hill would have been a good idea?  Hell, they probably would have opted for a fourth idling vehicle instead of a sign had they been made aware of the problem.