Letters

The wind beneath my wings

Welcome to this week’s Reno News & Review.

Being the editor of this newspaper is like having a Facebook account with 90,000 friends. Occasionally, I’ll use this column to throw out a question to see what the great washed have to say on the topic. (Although I hardly ever throw out an impenetrable comment pretending it’s for everyone when really it’s just for one person.) (Unless you count the jokes I write that I’m the only person who thinks are funny.) (Like that one.)

So, anyway, I have a question. I had some wind damage done to a solar panel on my roof. I called the insurance company to make a claim. They didn’t send anyone out to look, just requiring an estimate from a contractor that included his diagnosis of what caused the damage.

The insurance company began to harass me, making multiple snotty calls demanding the estimate, even after I told them that I was having a couple of people look at it, and that I was considering several options, including repair as opposed to replacement. They bugged me to the point I was actually considering withdrawing the claim just to stop the phone calls. I guess this is what passes as customer service, as opposed to just coming out and looking at the damage.

Anyway, I sent them the first estimate I received, which was for a replacement panel that would look different than the other three that were on my house. They sent me a check for the amount over my deductible. After looking at all the options, I decided to repair it myself, working with individual contractors for the different parts. My question is, what’s my responsibility?

Am I required to do the worse solution because I deposited the check? Do I send back the money that’s over what I actually pay? I am deeply distrustful of insurance companies, and I don’t want to get my ass in a sling, but I was totally upfront with them, and now I don’t want to be further inconvenienced.

What do you think? —D. Brian Burghart brianb@newsreview.com

We’re fracked

Re “All fracked up” (Green, April 11):

If the allegations about hydraulic fracturing are true, we can expect major financial impacts to our state. • Seismic activity: direct impact to mining • Chemical exposure, explosions, leaks: Worker compensation claims will skyrocket • Public health impacts: Extreme burden to our already stressed healthcare system • Contaminated water, air and soil • Loss of water as resource: Out of control wildfires, cost of hauling water to replace lost resource • Fracking is exempt from the Superfund Act: Cost of clean up will fall on the state of Nevada

If SB390 is approved in its current form, there will be no recourse for our state to offset the huge financial impacts that could occur. It is my belief SB390 needs to be revised to protect our state in the event the allegations about hydraulic fracturing are true. It is also my opinion that the best course of action for this to occur is to implement a moratorium in order to study this issue in depth prior to allowing the industry to conduct business in our state. The financial implications to the state of Nevada could be catastrophic if hydraulic fracturing is shown to be as dangerous as many scientific studies are claiming. Petition: http://org. credoaction.com/petitions/nevada-spublic-health-is-at-risk-we-want-amoratorium-on-hydraulic-fracturing . Dawn Harris Reno

Food for the future

Re “Everything you wanted to know about GMOs” (Feature story, May 2):

Our planet now holds about 7 billion human beings. Despite enormous progress—for the first time in history, a slim majority of those inhabitants can now be considered middle class—about 2 billion of those live on the brink of starvation. This growth will reach 8 billion by the middle of our century, when it is hoped continued economic progress will result in a leveling off of population growth, as economic security brings smaller families.

When we look at the problem of feeding these billions, it’s clear that modern agricultural practices, including GMO foods, holds the most hope for averting mass starvations. Organic agriculture cannot be counted on due to its inability to raise yields per acre. Organic if nothing else is traditional, and study after study has confirmed that traditional agriculture has yields per acre of up to 30 percent less than modern agriculture does. So, if you promote organic food production, while working to inhibit modern practices, you are saying that you don’t care about the survival of about 2-4 billion humans over the next few decades. That may seem to be a strong statement, but I think it fits. The organic movement in the US and Europe is essentially an upper middle class Caucasian movement, and organic food, despite its trendiness, lingers at less than 5 percent of US food production. In other words, a niche market. Statements by leaders in the organic food industry that they want to label GMO in order to grow that market are therefore all the more self serving and frankly illustrate how the green movement is more about preserving a peculiar view of nature than preserving human lives. Not only has organic agricultural practices proven to be unable to keep up with human population growth, in fact if organic production were implemented on a large scale to even attempt to feed these hungry mouths, it would require putting many millions of acres of marginal farm land that is now wilderness to the plow. It would mean putting to the plow acreage roughly the size of South America! It is remarkable how modern agriculture has increased yields while banking land. If there is anything that is green, it would be forests and plains that man does not need to cultivate, but which nature can reclaim. Perhaps we see a real clash of visions here. It would seem that many Greens envision a future quite Jeffersonian, where small farmers dominate the planet. Decentralization is good, but although I am largely Jeffersonian in my beliefs, I would speculate that the alternative to their vision is one where there is a good deal more pristine uninhabited wilderness, but the rest is dominated by large agricultural enterprises, and then smaller rings of small farms, suburbs and highly populated cities. Farming is dawn to dusk, dirty and dangerous work. The truth is, throughout history, most people, when given the choice, prefer to live in cities and close to cities. Modern agriculture, including GMO’s, are best suited to this vision of urban and suburban living, with large, yes, dare I say, factory farms and suburbs, but the Green tradeoff being much more uninhabited wilderness where nature can thrive alongside the futuristic cities we will build. Brendan Trainor Reno

GMO News & Review

Re “Everything you wanted to know about GMOs” (Feature story, May 2):

“Everything” we wanted to know? Be careful with the claims of largesse. I think you might have missed a few points. Like that approximately 27 countries ban GMOs and more than 60 require labeling. Why doesn’t the US? Greed, maybe. And when more of the money-hungry folks wake up to the fact that these countries aren’t going to want to buy our GMO-laden products, then they’ll have a reason that seems to make sense to them, yes they will (at least on the labeling and transparency issues). And while you quoted Kiki Corbin bringing up the point about companies like Monsanto controlling their seeds, you missed the mark on what that really means to the world in that these companies are on their way to controlling all of the agricultural seed of these major world crops. If this isn’t slowed and controlled, they could do it. That is huge!

Another point that was missed was that part of the problem with the Roundup Ready corn and soybeans (and other GM “improvements”) isn’t just with what we might be consuming, but also with what we are literally spreading to the wind. Plants from a GM crop field can’t help spreading some of the pollen from that field to the next. Monsanto and friends seem to think that the seed a neighboring farmer might save from corn that was cross-pollinated by the GM corn is now their property. Insert lawsuit here. Bye-bye family farm. So who are the remaining farmers going to be basically forced to turn to for their seed? And what about what happens when some other plant figures out a way to grab some of these new stylish genes for themselves? Scientist say this isn’t supposed to happen, but none of them really know for sure what nature can do.

And though I’m no scientist, and I agree that all of this is ultimately caused by over population, I think you let Shintani overstate that the population is growing exponentially. Yes, we’ve more than doubled the world population since 1960, and while you can plug in small numbers to make Shintani’s statement mathematically correct, most people are going to think that this means we more than double our population each year, rather than in 50 or so years. It just seems unusual for a scientist to make an emotionally charged, inaccurate statement like that without an agenda. But yeah, population growth needs to reverse, or we’re all screwed.

I also disagree with Shintani further, for myself, in that I don’t automatically distrust scientists. I do, however, distrust the people backing the scientists who are developing this stuff. Just because we can, doesn’t mean we should. While I applaud you for bringing what information you did to the community’s attention, (especially the information on what Kiki Corbin and others are trying to start in Nevada), I wish the article was more comprehensive–maybe should have been a series of stories covering a couple of these issues in each, well, issue.

Joel Lippert Reno

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ThiS ModeRn WoRld by tom tomorrow

Watch for bikes Why are you protesting today?

May is National Bike to Work and School Month. It’s a tradition that has grown during the years we’ve been observing it in Reno, and as so many roads and streets in Reno have been adapted to bicycles, it’s apt to become an even greater year-round observance.

But with those vulnerable bicyclists on the roads, everyone is required to be more aware of what’s on the road and what’s in the crosswalks, because a bicycle—no matter the attitude of the rider—never wins against a car.

The first thing to be aware of is that bike riders have the same rights and responsibilities as people in automobiles, and they are subject to the same rules and regulations. There’s nothing more frustrating to people who ride intelligently and legally than to see some moron riding like the rules of the road don’t apply to him or her: ignoring traffic signs and signals, impeding traffic, acting like an ass.

The second thing to be aware of is that motorists must be on the lookout for people on bicycles before turning, merging into bicycle lanes, or opening doors next to moving traffic. Bicyclists by law are entitled to a three-feet space when automobiles pass them. There’s nothing more frustrating to people who ride intelligently and legally than to see some moron driving like the rules of the road don’t apply to him or her: driving in a threatening manner, not obeying right-ofway rules for people on bikes, acting like an ass.

The 3 Foot Passing Bill, SB248, which passed in 2011, “requires a driver of a motor vehicle to overtake and pass a bicycle or an electric bicycle proceeding in the same direction by: (1) moving the vehicle into the immediate left lane, if there is more than one lane traveling in the same direction and it is safe to move into the lane; or (2) passing to the left of the bicycle or electric bicycle at a distance of not less than 3 feet from the bicycle or electric bicycle,” according to the Nevada Bicycle Coalition, http://nevadabike. wordpress.com.

For those who are first-time bicycle commuters, there are four general safety rules that will generally keep you alive: 1) Always maintain control of your bicycle. This means avoiding road obstacles like gravel and generally keeping your hands on the handle bar. 2) Wear a helmet. Brain injuries are permanent. If you’re not lucky enough to die from head trauma, you may be a burden on your family for years to come. You’re not too cool for a helmet. 3) Let others see you. Wear bright colors, reflective fabrics, and use your hand signals to show which way you intend to go. 4) Always ride with traffic. Yes, forget what you might have learned in grade school, automobiles are less likely to run you down if you’re going the same direction.

For individuals or businesses that want to sign up for Bike to Work Week, May 11-17, go to http://bikenevada.org/2013-registration.

For people who want to find out where the Reno Bike Project will be serving pancakes on May 17, www.renobikeproject.com/2013/04/bike-to-work-daypancake-feed-may-17. Ω

Asked at Mayday protest in downtown Reno

Theresa Navarro

Activist I’m here personally because I have worked on the immigration issue for about 20 years. Actually, when I was 9, I protested for Cesar Chavez in Los Angeles and wore my black band and stood in front of the Safeway store and told people not to buy the lettuce. And I have been doing this for many years here in Reno. I’m here today because I work with these people daily, and I see the problems. I see the separations of the families and the deportations. Barbara Stone

Retiree I don’t like what the government, the state of Nevada, what anybody has done with the immigrants. Some of them have been here all their lives. They’re not doing anything wrong, and they do pay taxes no matter what the Republicans say. And most of them are fine people. You find in any race you go to you’re going to have problems, but look at the white, American male. How many of them abuse their wives and abuse their children?

Antonio Rangel

Student Well, I’m here today so we can march for the workers’ rights and immigration rights. I hope to accomplish that since we’re all here together. We can pull together as a community and make sure the government knows that we’re all here to work for our rights.

Joe Domitrovsh

Activist My wife is in the movement, so I’m here for that. Plus, I’m a veteran of the civil rights movements of the ’60s and because of curiosity. We’ve got to do something about the immigration situation, and I bet there were people in about 1500, the first peoples, the ones we call the Native Americans, who wished they would have had a stronger immigration policy to keep us out.

Jessica Ameris

Kindergarten teacher Well, the problem is there are a lot of people here that are illegal that want to be legal, and the process of becoming a legal citizen is so difficult. In our relationship, I’m a citizen, and it’s still difficult for us to work out our situation. We’re trying to make people recognize that families get split up a lot. There’s a chance that he may have to leave the country, if he got deported, and we couldn’t be together.