EDITORIAL - Picky environmentalism

One naughty guy once asked: What is the difference between coal ash generated by coal-fired power plants and engine fumes generated by motor vehicles? If you answered there is no money to be made from the latter, you are as naughty as he is.

Actually, there a big difference between coal ash and engine fumes. While both can be toxic, engine fumes are more lethal than coal ash. Yet the disposal of coal ash can be con-trolled and regulated, making its reentry into the environment a whole lot safer and toler-able.

Engine fumes generated by motor vehicles, on the other hand, reenter the environment in a manner that is more indiscriminate and unrestrained. And such reentry is direct and perpetual. What measures are in place to mitigate the impact of reentry are, at best, only for show.

Look, engine fumes can kill a captured stray dog in minutes, just like how one local dog pound used to dispose of such dogs. But you can bury the same dog in a mountain of coal ash and the poor animal will likely emerge from its ordeal in one day, just as happy as it used to be.

The wonder of wonders is that no so-called environmentalists are raising hell about engine fumes polluting not just a small portion of some town but, considering the ubiqui-tous presence of motor vehicles, literally everywhere.

Of course a few noises are made every now and then about engine fumes. But these are merely token manifestations of angst that lack seriousness. Perhaps the prevailing senti-ment is that nothing productive can proceed from going after rickety old jeepneys and buses.

But look how the picture can change dramatically when the target is a giant, such as a coal-fired power generating plant. Against such a behemoth, the cries of protest can par-ticularly be shrill and loud.

Why is that? The answer could lie in the core nature of those who do the protesting. To the true environmentalists, no cause for concern is too small or insignificant to espouse or take the cudgels for.

But when things start getting picky, and causes start to be seemingly defined by immen-sity than by validity or urgency, you begin to suspect the issues are getting rather skewed somewhere.