Well, this one has taken permanent residence in a swamp outside of Lucerne, which I occasionally visit. I had seen him a number of times before and had made friends with him. His name is Joe Swamp. He looks fierce and has a rather distorted sense of humour. Fortunately, though, his character is friendly. He likes to discuss ecological issues, calling himself an "aware swamp inhabitant". Last time I saw him he had just discovered the internet...

Before I could inquire about the new principles of electronics he seems to have discovered, he went on to rant about what he'd seen in hyperspace. "Do you know," he asked, "that the Swedes have gone and set up a bunch of environmental goals for the whole country? They've even translated them to English and put them at http://www.environ.se:8084/documents/objectiv/objectiv.htm. Noble-sounding things like 'clean air' and 'high-quality groundwater,' and mostly they want to reach these by the year 2020.

"Swedes of all people should know they can't make a long-term commitment to anything. Look at their record on commercial nuclear reactors. In 1980 the people voted to get rid of all commercial reactors by 2010. Here we are in 2000, and they barely managed to close one little reactor last year. They diddled away the first nineteen years with low electricity prices, little investment in alternative energy sources, and no action. Even today the government subsidizes the 11 reactors that are still operating."

"But Joe," I argued, "Just because it looks like they'll miss on one goal, is that any reason not to try again? Edison's first light bulb filament didn't work, either."

"Nor the next couple thousand, either," Joe added. "But the whole process of setting long-term political goals is so much poppycock, as long as economic subsidies to environmentally destructive activities continue, and there is little or no tax on harmful activity. When powerful special interests can score big gains at the expense of the environment, who's going to look out for the rest of us, who are harmed a little every time this happens?

"Take reuse of phosphorus, for example. Chemical phosphorus fertilizer puts 1800 tons of cadmium on the world's agricultural fields each year. Unless fertilizer manufacturers are prohibited from poisoning food production or charged for the damage caused, manufacturers of urine separations systems aren't playing on a level playing field. Like I told you last time, I'm skeptical about the medicines and pathogens in urine, but at least those things are organic and break down. Cadmium is for keeps.

"Since I groused about Sweden, I can at least mention that Sweden has a cadmium charge on fertilizer, and the cadmium levels have dropped to about half of what they formerly were. I don't know if the charge is at the right level or not, or what effects it has outside of Sweden, but it's a lot more sensible to do this sort of thing than to try to set up unrealistic, long-term political goals."

Before I could say a thing, he jumped into one of those swamp pools and disappeared.

© 2000, International Ecological Engineering Society, Wolhusen, Switzerland