Letters to the editor for Nov. 20

The Capitol Lake war needs to end

This is a plea for peace about what to do with Capitol Lake. The fight between either a lake (CLIPA) or an estuary (DERT) has gone on since the 1980s, with a third, hybrid choice (DELI) added in this century. It’s time for this war to end.

The Capitol Lake Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) has recommended total estuary restoration. For those who wanted instead either a lake or hybrid, it’s time to accept this estuary outcome because doing otherwise will only perpetuate the status quo.

Sure, the EIS was clearly slanted towards an estuary option, no question. The lake alternative was saddled with excessive dredge disposal costs while the hybrid included a saltwater basin until the very end when a freshwater lake was finally put back in after most people had already made their choice. Plus, the sheet-pile impoundment wall presented was completely absurd; piled boulders would be better, cheaper and faster to build.

That said, a poll was taken and the estuary beat both the lake and hybrid alternatives by a 2:1 margin. Plus, the Squaxin Tribe clearly stated they want nothing but a full estuary restoration. Even without the spin, those are unbeatable odds.

The main push for DELI was about getting the money, but the federal infrastructure bill recently passed should provide enough funds to negate this limitation, as long as the fighting stops. So please, CLIPA and DELI supporters, lay down your arms. Embrace the estuary, end the war and restore a native ecosystem.

Steve Shanewise, Olympia

Alternatives to a new airport

We need mass transit to divert air traffic and thus reduce the need for more airport space. The need for a new airport is based exclusively on the assumption of an increase in demand of 2%. This 2% gets used as a normative standard and becomes a fixed goal.

A new greenfield airport is a boondoggle. If you review the tables of flights arriving/departing our premier airport, Sea-Tac, you’ll find some of the same airport codes over and over again: Vancouver (YVR), Portland (PDX), Spokane (GEG), Boise (BOI), San Francisco (SFO), San Jose (SJC), Sacramento (SMF). These short-hop flights can be replaced with high speed trains.

The Commercial Aviation Coordinating Commission (CACC) must figure out how to rescale and sort air travel and cargo demand.

I’m calling on our officials to implement mass transit to divert air traffic to reduce the need for more airport space and to help our environment.

Madeline Bishop, Olympia

And the winner is Uncle Sam

It wasn’t the economy this time which determined the outcome of the midterm elections.

The Republican red wave, tsunami or hurricane didn’t happen, even though conservative media pounded that inevitability into the voters’ brains for months.

The real wave turned into red, white, and blue. The voters decided to keep the republic under Uncle Sam and reject the Uncle Scammers as the country moves towards a more perfect union.

David Cahill, Olympia

Meat without slaughter

In a landmark ruling destined to save billions of animal and human lives, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration ruled Wednesday that meat cultivated from animal cells is safe to eat. The ruling was granted to Upside Foods, funded by Bill Gates and Richard Branson, but also by meat industry giants Cargill and Tyson Foods.

In the past decade, the cultivated-meat industry has grown to more than 150 companies on six continents, backed by $2.6 billion in investments. They all grow meat from animal cells in clean manufacturing plants, rather than in cruel filthy factory farms.

An estimated 70 billion animals are macerated or suffocated at birth or raised in tiny cages each year to produce today’s animal meat and dairy offerings. Consumption of these products has been linked conclusively with elevated incidence of killer diseases.

Production of animal-based foods pollutes our waterways and groundwater supplies, destroys wildlife habitats, and accounts for 20 percent of greenhouse gas emissions.

The forthcoming massive switch from animal agriculture to plant-based and cultivated meat and dairy products offers a truly monumental change in kindness to animals, human health, environmental pollution, and global warming.

Andrew Petuchov, Olympia