Amy’s science background frames her understanding of how human health is related to the environment in which we live, work and play. She also remembers a time when sightings of bald eagles and great blue herons, both indicative of a healthy ecosystem, were somewhat rare. After decades of environmental protections, we now have rookeries of herons and families of eagles all around us.
Amy will defend the health of our environment and our communities against big businesses who want to use our lakes, streams, air and rivers for their chemical dumping grounds. Fines are nice and all, but Amy feels that businesses who violate clean water protections should be liable through a tax system. When companies don’t pay up, and many times when they do, the fines are nowhere near the bill on the clean-up: Tax payers are then stuck with the bill. Rather than putting a one-and-done piddly fine on violators of environmental protections, those companies should be taxed at higher rates until they can operate with the public’s health in mind, and not their profits. As it stands now, polluters get the luxury to negotiate their fines with the Ohio EPA and the Attorney General’s office. A tax system would eliminate any possibility of a conflict of interest since Ohio’s polluters are often times large donors for political campaigns.
Amy’s research experience on toxic algae gives her a better understanding of the threat we face with our Great Lakes. She knows that we can talk and discuss and pass laws all day long on what we do here in Ohio for the health of our Great Lakes, but until we start an international dialogue with our Northern neighbors, we are only putting a bandage on the problem at best. Water systems and topography of the land all around the Great Lakes regions are complex and interconnected with human activity. We must do better to study, understand and develop best practices that we as well as our Great Lakes neighbors can implement for the sake of saving one of the largest freshwater reserves on the planet, our Great Lakes.
Amy believes that the health of the environment is critical to our health and the health of future generations. It is no longer enough to recycle and drive fuel efficient vehicles. We must demand legislative measures to ensure our children have a clean, safe place to live, work and play. Environmental issues are the biggest problems our children will have to solve and we can no longer turn a blind eye to what we already know…environmental protections work!….Just ask an eagle or a heron.
Amy believes that the health of the environment is critical to our health and the health of future generations. It is no longer enough to recycle and drive fuel efficient vehicles. We must demand legislative measures to ensure our children have a clean, safe place to live, work and play. Environmental issues are the biggest problems our children will have to solve and we can no longer turn a blind eye to what we already know…environmental protections work!