As I teeter on the precipice of the mystical convergence currently attempting to sabotage my life, I find myself careening slowly down the slippery slope of sanity. Okay, so the convergence isn't 'mystical' so much as the whole "when it rains, it pours" phenomenon that we all seem to encounter at one point or another in our lives. At the moment, I can fully appreciate why the Mayas believed the world was going to end in 2012, and I may well be doing my part to accomplish this feat.
Luckily for all of us, I don't seem to be the only one attempting to bring about the end of the world as we know it. I'm not usually a political person, but I do have strongly held beliefs about what is right and decent, many of which are currently at odds with the proposed budgets being bandied about in Washington. Granted we all have our notions and our druthers about what works and what doesn't, but the Congress seems to be taking a fairly large swath of cut and run politics to try to tidy up our mounting national debt.
Don't get me wrong: yeah, I think balancing the budget is a great idea. But doing it by cutting EPA funding to monitor greenhouse gas emissions seems a tad short-sighted. I don't follow the news in great detail, but I have seen an OBSCENE amount of publications and reports lately about how climate change is going to affect the world, and I think it would be incredibly foolish of us not to act now to try to get things under control. As jingoist as America tends to be and as much as we might like to occasionally pretend that while no man is an island, a country very well can be - it's not true. As one who has long contemplated the indelible mark she is leaving on the world, I can attest to the fact that there are always ripples in the pond, always consequences of the wingbeats. I also don't hold to a doom and gloom viewpoint, that no matter what we do we'll always make things worse. But whatever happened to the philosophy that one should leave a place in as good of a condition - if not better - than how they found it? And why would this be a bad policy to keep in mind as we make decisions that will ultimately affect the future of not only our progeny but mayhaps also our planet?
Among other things being cut to try to tidy up the bottom line: arts funding for things like the Public Broadcasting Company, money for organizations like Planned Parenthood, ... and a few more things from the EPA. If you'd like to read more about the amendments to this proposed budget, the New York Times has been doing a great job keeping we, the American public, up to date.
The goal of these budget cutbacks is to regain $60 billion, a not insubstantial sum. But according to the 2010 Census, American currently has on the order of 300 million citizens, which means that $200 more tax revenue from each citizen each year would offset all the cuts currently being made. It seems logical to me that a two-pronged approach - cutting back on some things and increasing revenue - would make the most fiduciary sense in the long term. I would rather pay an extra 5% tax than lose the EPA, and I don't think I'm alone.
Of course, thinking about the EPA reminds me of my currently delegated responsibility in my research lab: submitting waste solvent for disposal. We do this on a weekly schedule so it's really not a hassle, but the amount of planning and effort that goes into this weekly event is staggering. I don't often think so far outside of my post, but waste management is actually a very intriguing notion. Imagine if you will working in a job where each week, you come pick up some mystery chemicals of which you have been tasked to dispose. Some of these chemicals are best treated by reacting with another solution to neutralize them, some are buried, and some are burned. ...and there it is.
Given the sheer number of explosive compounds in your average chemistry lab - ones that are prone to go boom without the addition of a spark - the idea of setting fire to said mystery chemicals is terrifying! Therefore it is imperative that we identify the contents of our waste to the best of our abilities so as not to lead to unexpected havoc further down the line. We sometimes refer to this as "not crossing the streams"... which they also advise not to do in Ghostbusters, unless you happen to be up against an all-too-large marshmallow man bent on the destruction of your town. Hey, and in Ghostbusters, that ghoulie was only released because of non-compliance with an EPA-like agency! Everything comes full circle.
Speaking of not crossing the streams, as I sit here in lab with a mixture of two clear liquids, I am finding myself fascinated with the fluid dynamics of miscible solvents. It's truly beautiful, combining water with acetonitrile (Wiki linked here) and watching the wisps dance about the container walls, spinning and twirling this way and that, slowly becoming one despite initial resistance.
...in the end, I find it highly worth it to invest in the quality of our world, don't you?
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