Cleaner energy is a moral obligation
By Randy Patrick

July 8, 2009

Dr. Matthew Sleeth of Wilmore, Ky., a former chief of medical staff of a large hospital, will never forget one of his young patients, 8-year-old Etta Green.

It was a hot, humid and hazy day in the nation’s capital, and TV meteorologists were warning people with illnesses not to be outside. But Etta and her brother went to a neighborhood playground and were running through a sprinkler to cool off when Etta had an asthma attack.

At the hospital, Sleeth took Etta by her little hand and told her “I’m not going to let anything bad happen to you, sweetheart,” as she looked into his eyes and squeezed his hand.

The doctors forced air into Etta’s lungs and did everything they knew to do, but “despite the best efforts of an entire pediatric emergency department, I broke my promise to Etta. She died of air pollution on that summer day,” Sleeth wrote.

In his book, “Serve God, Save the Planet: A Christian Call to Action,” Sleeth, who gave up his lucrative medical career to travel the country talking about the biblical imperative to be good stewards of God’s creation, makes the case that reducing carbon emissions isn’t only an environmental or economic issue, or an issue of energy independence — it’s a moral issue.

Asthma, which wasn’t that common when he was a child, has become epidemic, he says, because of all the pollutants in the air.

He cites a Harvard School of Health study which found that the impact of one particular power plant in Massachusetts caused 3,000 asthma attacks, 1,200 emergency room visits and 110 deaths a year. Multiply that by the number of coal-fired power plants in the nation, and you get some idea of what fossil fuels are doing to our atmosphere.

It is believed that 64,000 Americans die each year due to soot in the air.

But it isn’t just the air that’s affected. Burning oil, coal and other carbon fuels is in large measure responsible for global warming, which in turn is responsible for record numbers of hurricanes, floods, droughts and extreme heat waves that are endangering lives and destroying our means of sustenance.

And mountaintop removal, one method of coal mining is turning our Appalachian Mountains into wastelands, destroying waterways, beautiful landscapes, people’s livelihoods and possibly lives.

Sleeth notes that an SUV can put 14,000 pounds of greenhouse gases into the air in one year, while a hybrid car puts 3,000 pounds into the air.

How many of us really need an off-road vehicle anyway?

I met Matt Sleeth in Wilmore last month, and he gave me a copy of his book. I’ve been reading it at the same time that I’ve been reading news stories and editorials about the American Clean Energy and Security Act, which passed the U.S. House of Representatives and is now before the Senate.

U.S. Rep. Ben Chandler, D-Ky., has taken some heat for voting to support the legislation, and that’s understandable. It is laden with pork and compromises too much, but that’s to be expected with any bill of great magnitude until the day there is real reform of Congress and the legislative process.

Any legislation, however, that moves us toward alternative energy and a cleaner future is a step in the right direction. In the long run, it may save the planet. In the short term, it may save many others like Etta.

Randy Patrick is the managing editor of The Winchester Sun.