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The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 19, 2007

A View From Above

Regarding 'Gore '08? Nobel Adds Speculation' (front page, Oct. 13):

What is the highest award you can receive on planet Earth? The answer would be the Nobel Peace Prize. It deservers much more merit than the lower corner of your front page two days after the event. Your first paragraph begins, 'Al Gore's year journey from loser to laureate began in bitterness, settled for a time into self-imposed exile and led him to rediscover his voice on climate change.' Your writers obviously do not understand.

Global warming is more important than seven drill instructors being acquitted or President Bush's visit to the Bay area.

As a worldwide airline pilot, I have witnessed a brown haze at 37,000 feet everywhere on the planet. It matters not if I'm flying over Indonesia, the Middle East, Europe, Greenland, Canada or Las Vegas - the picture is the same. An ugly brown haze exists in the upper atmosphere everywhere around our once pristine planet. The result of burning fossil fuels in our airplanes, cars and power plants is now perfectly clear.

TODD THIELBAR

Land O' Lakes

Prize Standards Lowered
Alfred Nobel must have flipped several times in his grave when the Norwegian Committee of Five decided Al Gore deserved Nobel's Peace Prize for his lectures on 'global warming.'

Since Nobel's will states that the prize should go to 'the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between the nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies, and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses,' it's quite a stretch to equate those criteria to what Gore has put forth in his little movie.

Based on Nobel's will, Vladimir Putin or Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has better credentials for the Peace Prize than Al Gore.

DAN GILLER

St. Petersburg

Warming Can be Stopped

As a 15-year-old, the climatic and economic problems of our world do not cross my mind often, though one unresolved issue hangs about my thoughts.

Polar ice caps are melting, average global temperatures and sea levels are rising, species are becoming extinct that otherwise wouldn't have, the ozone layer is disintegrating and greenhouse gases due to human activity is the main cause. With all this information, we drive our gas-guzzling trucks and SUVs that emit high levels of CO2, the main component of global warming, into the atmosphere.

America pays the soaring price of gas instead of demanding something cheaper and better for the environment. If every person decides for themselves they want their grandkids and even their grandkid's kids to simply see a polar bear or be able to safely walk outside, protected from the sun by the ozone layer, then global warming can be stopped.

KAYLA GUIDRY

Tampa

A Statewide Resource

Regarding 'Don't Allow Managers, Utilities To Drown Local Source Water Law' (Our Opinion, Oct. 14):

I must differ with you somewhat on your editorial. What we have now in our state is 67 little fiefdoms (counties) that are unequal in both population and water resources. Some of the least-populated counties have ample water, while some of the more populated ones have a shortage. The population in some areas grew large for many reasons, few having to do with the availability of water, an easily portable commodity. Underground aquifers and above-ground streams don't respect county lines, so why are we hung up on that?

They don't grow citrus in Jacksonville or Pensacola, yet they are not short of orange juice. Water from the numerous springs up there that flows into the sea could easily be tapped into and the water piped south, or wherever it is needed. The reduced flow into the sea may alter the marine life somewhat, but not appreciably, or so I would think.

JACK PEEL

Tampa

Don't Share Our Water

I find myself in total agreement with you on 'local sources first' policy. It is only fair that we're entitled to waste our water first before anyone else can waste it. We should indeed hoard our water from the surrounding counties. Why should my gerbil go without a bath or a bowl of water because of their managerial sloth? They are the unwashed hoard looming on the horizon. You convinced me of that in your editorial.

Thank you for putting the issue in its proper perspective. We should protect what we have and refuse to share, even something as elemental as water.

JAMES J. MARTIN

Tampa

Up And Running - Finally

Regarding 'Desal Plant Is Meeting Production Targets' (Metro, Oct. 16):

It is amazing that it has only been nine years and millions of dollars later to get the desalination plant up and running by overcoming the clogging of the filters and membranes. The engineers finally figured out that the bay water's high concentration of sediments and microscopic animals were clogging up the filtering system and this would have to be overcome.

The amazing thing is that this was all pointed out to Tampa Bay Water and their engineers by local residents who reside along Tampa Bay and Save Our Bays, Air and Canals. Tampa Bay Water and their experts claimed this was not so and would not happen, yet it did.

Let's all hope that this plant will continue to operate. But there are still other areas of unanswered questions like what effects will the discharge from the plant have on the bay's water. It is still too early to answer that question.

DOMINICK GEBBIA

Apollo Beach

Watering Scofflaws

I guess it is time for me to remind all who read this newspaper that we are still under water restrictions. From my observations while driving to Sebring and back, I see a lot of lawns being irrigated on days when they shouldn't be.

I find it interesting that some people will water in the early hours of the morning so no one will see that they are in violation. Hillsborough County has finally had it with violators and has started citing them and has set up a special magistrate to deal with the scofflaws.

I believe it is time to do the same thing in Highlands County.

ED CUNNINGHAM

Lake Placid

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