Environmentalists as Chicken Little

By Frank J. Regan

Remember when the Zebra Mussel problem in our area was just a twinkling in the eyes of the environmental Chicken Littles'? Well, now as you know, the Zebra Mussel problem is everywhere around us and has changed the water climate of all our surrounding Finger Lakes and Great Lakes. Zebra Mussels, though there was back in the 1980’s a concerted effort to halt the progress (infestation is a better word), is now a part of the ecology of all our local lakes.

I say all this because a new threat to our lakes is underway by Viral Hemorrhagic Septicemia (VHS). You can find all about this disease by checking this link by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. But, that won’t tell you the whole story.

The story is that after questioning several fishermen, I find that no one knows what I am talking about when I mention this disease. That’s interesting because, like the Zebra Mussel problem, this invasive disease is not going away in the near future: It’s going to dramatically change our lakes, fishermen’s activities, and maybe a lot of other environmental, economic, and recreational issues. There are a lot of other issues surrounding this issue, the most prominent, I suppose, is the lack of international coordinated effort to stop invasive species affecting our Great Lakes.

We are as a people, going to have to address how we can (or should) compensate those who have to pay the highest burden when an environmental disaster strikes—in this case, the bait industry is reeling from the laws being passed to curtail the spread of VHS.

Anyway, I wanted to point out that there has been a increasing number of news stories about this disease and efforts to stop the spread of this fish disease (which does not pass to humans) and it should be on everyone’s radar as an invasive species problem to be solved with the myriad of other invasive species problems and as a specific issue that will affect all the lakes around our community.

We environmentalist are often labeled as alarmists or Chicken Littles, who scream out disaster at every ‘potential’ environmental threat. Well, that’s probably an apt description of the environmentalist’s role—we ascribe to the Precautionary Principle “When an activity raises threats of harm to the environment or human health, precautionary measures should be taken even if some cause and effect relationships are not fully established scientifically.” because given the complexity of all environmental problems, it’s difficult to assess and predict the outcomes of small actions on a large complicated system like our environment.

This all matters because we are living in Extraordinary Times, where a plethora of environment problems are cropping up. And, it’s especially important that environmentalists sound the alarm at any potential environmental problem because with most environmental problems we cannot wait until we are absolutely sure of the evidence of catastrophe before we act. For example, we should have acted a long time ago on the probably effects of Global Warming. Now, all we can do is head off the worst scenarios if we act now. Had the public been capable of listening to the reasonable arguments of those out in front of the environmental repercussions of an Industrial Revolution run rampant, like John Muir, we might not be continually inching up against a myriad of environmental tipping points. Anyway, don’t take my word for the potential of the VHS problem, check out this list of news links from all over and decide for yourself if VHS reaches the level of public concern: VHS News Links

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