The greater the ignorance the greater the dogmatism.
- Sir William Osler
Just a rhetorical situation: A business approaches you, offering to pick up your trash on a daily basis, and they want to pay you for it! What would your answer be? I personally would tell them to come a.s.a.p. Not so the CAVE (Citizens Against Virtually Everything) people of Greenfield, Massachusetts (a.k.a. the Greenfielder)!
As I wrote in a previous post, A Species Of Its Own: The Greenfielder, the Greenfielder is a Soviet-Communist-Amish people with their specific emotional responses that collide with common American sense, which also explains why they don’t want to be paid for their trash.
The general situation is as follows: There are plans to build a $250,000,000 bio power plant which is specifically designed to suffocate all of the population in Greenfield, Massachusetts. Well, the official purpose is to burn wood and create electricity, but the CAVE people will tell you otherwise. In a recent development the bio plant people offered the town of Greenfield, which is continually struggling with all kinds of budgetary problems, to take the town’s treated wastewater and use it for cooling, and they offered to pay for it. A by-product of the cooling process would be warm water that could be used to heat businesses and other buildings in the neighborhood.
Selling wastewater to a business, whose sole purpose is to destroy the environment, did not sit well with the CAVE people. As a result there is a vote on the wastewater issue today. These days you see the signs on many properties saying, “Selling Wastewater? Vote NO on 1,2, 3″ (Question 1 addresses selling wastewater to anyone, questions 2 and 3 address specifically the bio plant’s offer). The “NO” campaign is organized by the CAVE people, a loud and disturbingly aggressive minority within the town of Greenfield. They may be a minority, but they do run the political life here (Again, politburo comes to mind). They need only 3,000 nay sayers to succeed.
Don’t get me wrong, I am not making a case pro or contra the bio plant; actually, I don’t care either way. I did cringe at the idea of burning wood to produce electricity, which I thought to be highly inefficient, and that should put me on the side of the nay sayers. I am, however, annoyed by the CAVE people’s aggressiveness and their continued problem with telling the truth.
To make things worse – and here we are getting closer to the life in Leonard Wibberly’s Duchy of Grand Fenwick - the vote is worthless since the bio plant people had withdrawn their offer months ago. Still, the vote is on, causing the town yet more expenses.
Now, let’s briefly address the environmental issue. Timothy Carroll, M.D., Ph.D., a Greenfield resident, wrote his opinion in the Greenfield Recorder (June 7, 2010) , titled Can Vt. be that wrong? A biomass plant could work here. In his article he points to one of the most environmentally sensitive states in the US, namely our neighbor to the North, Vermont. In contrast to the emotionally tainted opinion here in Greenfield, Vermont welcomes bio plants with enthusiasm. Well, they also run the Yankee Nuclear Power Plant (About 30 miles North of Greenfield), a facility that is continually plagued with all kinds of technical problems, but leaking nuclear waste into the environment seems to be acceptable in Vermont and nearby Greenfield, Massachusetts.
Nevertheless, Timothy Carroll makes a compelling case for the biomass plant by dismissing all environmental concerns and proving his case with experiences made in Burlington, Vermont. He does, however, miss the point by several miles. The point is not environmental concern. This is yet another lie. What it all boils down to is that the CAVE people of Greenfield are extremely allergic to drastic changes in their lifestyle, and the thought of a $250,000,000 power plant in their immediate neighborhood was just too much. In all consequence, they use any means possible to prevent the bio plant, including lies and deceit. That’s what they’re good at.
The truth is, the CAVE people of Greenfield, Massachusetts live in poorly insulated houses. They waste staggering amounts of heating oil to keep the interior at somewhat decent temperatures during the harsh New England winters. They set the thermostat to 80 degrees Fahrenheit in order to maintain 70 degrees interior temperature. They use wood stoves, fireplaces, and pellet burners in the winter and pump polluted air unfiltered into the environment. The combined pollution of thousands of households in the neighborhood outperforms that of the bio power plant (with its stringent environmental requirements) several times. The CAVE people of Greenfield are only concerned about the environment when it comes to prevent a bio power plant or a big box store (Devil, Thy name is Walmart). Otherwise, their track record shows they don’t give a damn.
Supplement June 9, 2010
Today’s headline is Greenfield voters say ‘no’ to effluent sale – Questions 1, 2 and 3 lose by 6 – 1 margin.
Source: The Recorder, Serving the people of Franklin County and the North Quabbin Region
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You are a very entertaining writer, no matter the deep misunderstanding you have of us so-called cave people. The true cave people, our ancestors, are to be thanked for getting us this far with fire. Future generations will likewise thank us for our willingness to respond on their behalf (if not our own) to accumulated evidence that the old ways cannot sustain future life. Fire is the old way. I feel I am the antithesis of a cave person in my quest to see our precious borrowed renewable energy nest egg put to an all out effort akin to the Manhattan Project; if we spend that money on incinerators (there is no better word for biomass plants) then we will not have it to spend bringing solar, wind and geothermal energy to the cost effectiveness we need ASAP. Imagine you were a dinosaur with a human consciousness and you knew as you were suddenly dying with your species that it was only your ancestors’ selfish unwillingness to change that caused your death. I should say it is you who is less willing to change than I.
Hi Wilfried,
You hit the nail right on the head. I always suspected that this proposed “bio plant” was a Trojan Horse, a green-washed incinerator that was being touted as good for the environment and an eco-friendly way to produce carbon-neutral electricity. I thought that the timing was very suspicious in light of the planned closing of the Northampton regional landfill. This “renewable energy” facility would coast along on tree trimmings for a couple of years and when the Noho dump closed, Greenfield would be ready and waiting to take all that trash and burn it to make green energy. And make oodles of money, just like Noho has for years. Trash is big business, big $$$$$$. And Greenfield desperately needs the money. Apparently they do this in other countries, but not in Greenfield.
Now these CAVE people have ruined it for everyone. How could 85% of the voters be so easily confused about which side their bread is buttered? Will they never learn?
Dear Mr. Voss,
You sure the nail on the head. The anti biomass CAVE people lied thier tails off. Did you read the part about the $60 million that would be given to the developer the day he buist the plant? Our taxpayer dollars? Must be a lie. How about all that truck traffic. Goodness gracious, how can those CAVE people be so stupid and closedminded as to turn down such a great opportunity to be visted everyday by 70 fuming diesel trucks from places all around Greenfield who otherwise wouldn’t ever talked to any one who lives more than a mile away from they grew up? And gosh darn it, the town had to hold that election because the town charter says they have to–every June in fact. And so when the developer pulled out of his wastewater deal (did he really mean it ?), why couldn’t all those one or two stupid CAVE people use all their aggressive energy to figure out how to call off the election and save th town some money, To heck with all those darned town counselors who needed to be voted in. And you know what’s really,really annoying about the anti biomass CAVE people? Most of them want a Walmart.
oh did I say the CAVE people have a hard time getting rid of their typos?
Part of never leaving Greenfield to learn how to spell.
@Susan:
If you read my article carefully, you will find that I don’t take a case pro or contra Biomass (incinerators). I just watch and smile at the irrational behavior of the CAVE (= Citizens Against Virtually Everything) people. CAVE people also fight alternative energy such as wind turbines, and that is happening right now. Read the local newspapers. Ashfield, Mass. is a potential site for a wind turbine project which would bring in additional tax revenues of roughly $300,000 per year, and, already, residents object, citing concerns for landscape and wildlife. Imagine the uproar, if we were to replace the biomass plant with a wind turbine facility.
@Janet:
I won’t hold the typos against you. Happens to me all the time, but I have the opportunity to correct them…;-)
Let me address your comment regarding the CAVE people: If you are concerned about the environment please be active whenever the environment is threatened, for instance, the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant! Don’t just concentrate on a single issue and then lean back after a job well done. The environment is threatened all the time these days. You don’t know what environmental protection means, unless you have been in Germany, where they take that topic extremely seriously (Did I mention I am from Germany…?). My point, yet again, are the methods of the CAVE people, which includes NOT sticking to the facts. Today it’s the environment, tomorrow it’s an Indian burial ground, the day after… who knows. I am having a great time watching you…;-)
@Glen Ayers:
Thank you for your insights. Regarding the vote: The vote was not made by 85% of the voters, but by 85% of the people who went to vote, you know, the politburo people, the aggressive minority. The silent majority of voters in Greenfield stayed home. Yet again, I am not making a point pro or contra incinerator; I just shake my head at the ineffectiveness of the Greenfielder’s system.
Wilfried,
Who do you suppose the CAVE people are? Who concentrates on one issue? Who is leaning back? What facts are being miscontrued. Name one, please. I don’t know what elecction turn outs in Germany are, but the 35% turn out was very high for Greenfield. And the average vote against the three questions was 84%. While you sit back and are amused by the stupdity of the CAVE people, I wonder why someone as brilliant as you obviously think you are would move here in first place. If you like Greenfeild, maybe it’s because a whole bunch of stuff DIDN’T happen here. In the meantime, if you don’t want a 47 MW biomass power plant in your new town, please give a generous constribution to help cover the costs of materials that were needed to the group who spent hundreds of volunteer hours on the vote. . A check can be made out to “2010 Greenfeild Ballot Committee” and set to the same name, P.O. Box 653 Greenfield, MA 01302. YOur contgribution will be greatly appreciated.
@Janet:
First, thank you very much for calling me brilliant. I knew it! I just needed someone to tell me.
I don’t like your aggressive tone, though, and I chose not to answer. Just keep reading my posts.
Sorry. i was asking questions of your assertions on you article.
@Janet:
As I wrote, keep reading my posts.