John Cronin

The Water It Takes . . .

 

Image: IBM Smarter Planet

Bull Riding at the Dutchess County Fair

(Animal Friendly)

Taking Questions on PCBs - Pt. 1

From June 17 - 19  I was the guest blogger on The New York Times' "Taking Questions" feature of its City Room blog.  The topic was "General Electric's project to remove PCBs from the Hudson River."   The Times asked that I respond to 5 reader-submitted questions daily.   Part 1 of the selected questions and my answers follows,  just as it appeared on the The New York Times site:

It seems I’ve known about this PCB problem forever, but I don’t really know the details. I recall that you were quite involved at the beginning of this process, so I’m hoping you will be able to answer my questions: when did the PCB contamination start, how was it discovered, and what have been the steps leading up to this final cleanup?

— Posted by Morna Crites-Moore

The best primer on PCBs and the Hudson can be gleaned from visiting the dedicated PCB web pages of the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the General Electric Company. These are not necessarily dueling sites, though they may disagree on some points. You can put together a good regulatory time line as well as the current status of the cleanup from the information they present.

The PCB controversy has a long history. The issue first came to public attention in August 1975 in an article in The New York Times in which Richard Severo reported that the New York State environmental conservation commissioner, Ogden R. Reid, and the health commissioner, Dr. Robert P. Whalen, had issued a public warning to avoid eating striped bass from the Hudson River because of PCB contamination. Mr. Reid cited two General Electric plants in Fort Edward and Hudson Falls as a likely cause.

Yellowstone Trip Report: The Geyser Creek Group (maybe)

Or Sasha Doesn't Do the Hoodoos

Copyright 2009, Sasha Harris-Cronin

(Note: The following dispatch and photographs from the back country of Yellowstone National Park by my daughter Sasha confirm what I have known for some time: she always walks a different path, always knows where she is headed, but is not always satisfied that she has arrived.  For more images from Sasha's bushwhack, click HERE.  To see her extraordinary Yellowstone panorama, click HERE.   Enjoy. -- John)

First things first: I saw a bear's butt today.  It was headed swiftly away from the wildlife paparazzi. Smart bear.

I meant to hike to the Hoodoos today.  Really I did.

But, you see, there are many types of hikers.  There are those who speedhike 12 mile trails to see the fantastic view from the top.  On the other side, there are those who are compelled to bushwhack through marsh, scree, and, well, bushes to reach a smudge on the map or a rumor of something weird.

As my partner Nate can attest, I am a bushwhacker at heart.

Of course, bushwhacking has its disadvantages.  It is slow.  Trying to speedhike through 12 miles of rough terrain is a joke.  You almost certainly aren't going the most efficient way.  It also has the potential to be dangerous.  The terrain is unknown, as are the wildlife.  There are no services and it's difficult to follow your route back.  You may not reach where you intend to.  In fact, you may not even know if you get there or not. (More on that later.)

Play's the Thing

From INSIDEOUT, May-Jun '08. Copyright 2008, John Cronin

My brother Jim rescued his first chimpanzees from the infamous beach photographers of Spain who dressed the chimps in silly clothes  and posed them with seaside tourists.  The chimps originated from Sierra Leone, a former center of the slave trade, where they were captured as babies and their mothers killed by one of the smuggling rings that specialize in such things.  

Those that survived the trip to Spain spent the remainder of their brief lives as photographic props being drugged, beaten, and burnt with cigarettes – the usual punishment for acting up with tourists.  The four that Jim rescued would have eventually grown too large and violent for the photography business, and been drowned in the sea by age five.  There was a constant demand for replacements.