Letters: Human effects on ecosystems; are we asking the right questions?

Pollution is stem of many ecological problems

There are a lot of different types of pollution. It affects the jungle in many ways. It affects not only the ecosystem, but also the animals that live there. Humans can help mitigate the effects that we have caused, but only if we want to, and it’s not looking like we want to.

Climate change is, of course, a factor as well. Deforestation is a big one. Some other types of pollution are microplastics, which are tiny pieces of plastic cities dump, and palm oil. These types of pollution affect the jungle's ecosystems and animals greatly. Deforestation is the main driver for this. It affects biodiversity by habitat loss.

Microplastics go into organisms which hurts them, but then when they get eaten, the microplastics go into the predator’s systems. Oil palm may be an invasive species that affects the ecosystem. CO2 is, of course, also affecting the ecosystems. Surprisingly, it can sometimes be good. It makes the air warmer, which increases the amount of time plants can photosynthesize.

Some humans are trying to help out, but sadly, not many are. Humans will most likely adapt to these changes, but the question is, will the Earth survive?

Nathan Freedman, Bloomington

Learn from the past and ask and answer questions now

A open letter to the people of Monroe County:

Wake up community. Things are happening that we need to respond to if we are going to avoid the things of the past.

Boris Ladwig’s article on the short comings of IU Health Bloomington Hospital illustrates how planning for large facilities that serve the city and the county can be flawed from the start.  

Who made the decisions when IU Health was planning the hospital? What kind of input did we have? What were they thinking when deciding to make fewer beds, even though we have a increasing population, and even more increasing elderly population, or when deciding to make less space for the injured and sick to go when needed.

What were they thinking?

For years now, we have discussed the construction of the new convention center and debated the construction of new justice facilities here in Bloomington, to no end thus far. What we haven’t done is ask the questions to the community of "Why are we doing it?” “How is this going to improve the town?”

We are now at the point we have hired consulates that we haven’t paid attention to and land and trying to determine the site. Most importantly we haven’t created the vision or what this could mean for us. What do we need from the convention center? Big rooms, little rooms? Who’s going to use it and for what?

For the jail, is it reformed or is it the same go in and go out, or like the judges say the “frequent flier system.” We need to paint a vision for this before we start hiring people and spending money on things when we don’t have a plan on where we are going with this.

Those questions must be actively discussed in the community, so we don't make another mistake. Through public meetings, the people, elected officials, business people, educators and advocacy organizations have to ask “What do we need?” and “Why do we need it?”

These projects will require people working together, including both the city council and the county commissioners, who seem to be living in different worlds. Let’s develop our visions for these facilities before we build them.

"The difficult is what takes a little time; the impossible is what takes a little longer." — Fridtjof Nansen, Nobel Peace Prize, 1922

Charlotte Zietlow, Bloomington