Climate change, industry, parks, air and water quality are issues that are debated in congress, compete for funding and enpassion many Minnesotans.
June 6, 1975 - Speaker: Byron Dorgan, NoDak Tax Commissioner. Explains national debt and where the money comes from. Is debt taxpayers owe to themselves. To reduce debt would have to tax average worker and give that money to someone else. We have both recession and inflation. Economic policy not good for people, we can have deficit spending when time is right, has become a way of life rather than economic stimulus tool. New York City almost going bankrupt in next six weeks, could that happen to federal govt? No, fed can print money. People's confidence in money shaken. N Dak has state budget surplus, not affected much by recession. New York gave in to special interests, not paying for services. Term limits would halt Congress longtermers' funding wasteful programs. Environmental concerns will cost money, there's a changing value and ethic, no longer consider pollution as progress, penalize polluters, pass cost on to consumers. People pay costs of pollution one way or another.
July 17, 1975 - Migrant workers face issues at local health clinics due to lack of funds. Flooding during the year may have resulted in higher instances of respiratory and intestinal diseases.
July 18, 1975 - First hand account, from farmers, of the flood and it's impact in Fargo, ND. The depth of the water in the houses and on the roads was much worst than anticipated. Farmers income is greatly impacted.
October 9, 1975 - Heyerdahl speaks as part of a fundraiser for Concordia College in Moorhead. He says the main trouble is what we?re doing to the world ocean, destroying the possibility of living on this planet. We have maintained the vision of the ocean that existed at the time of Columbus; the ocean is not bottomless, not endless. It is much smaller when you climb on a few logs like he did in Kon-Tiki and step off 4000 miles later. If you move the buildings from Manhattan and set them on the bottom of the North Sea all the big buildings will come high above the surface. We see the big rivers draining into the ocean and still it doesn?t raise an inch. We forget about evaporation, what evaporates is the clean water, what remains is all the pollution that modern man has started to send in the last two decades or so. There's not a river in the world with any clean drinkable water going into the ocean anymore. It?s all polluted by chemicals in ever greater concentration; just a matter of time before we kill the plankton which is not only the food for the fish but is the main producer of oxygen that we need.
October 10, 1975 - Minnesota and North Dakota differ on possible Red River pollution from the Garrison Diversion irrigation project. Minnesota has threatened a lawsuit and moratium of the project?s construction, in effect killing the project. North Dakota suggests the experiences of similar river projects around the country may provide adequate data to prevent a moratorium, but Minnesota is concerned these may not be applicable to this project. North Dakota Attorney General Allen Olson and Minnesota Pollution Control Agency director Peter Gove met to discuss concerns of each state about the project. The meeting ended without a real solution. The concern for Minnesota is that North Dakota may curtail electricty it supplies to Minnesota if Minnesota blocks this project. There?s a concern this issue might build an Iron Curtain between the states. Political considerations rather than legal may end up resolving the issue. When an upcoming Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) is issued in the next year MPCA will evaluate the situation and make a decision on whether to go forward with legal action.
October 13, 1975 - MPR’s Steve Monroe interviews Jerry Perkins, a farmer near Worthington about the corn yield this year. Perkins discusses various harvesting challenges, including weather and where do you cut down on the use of fuel at the expense of crop loss in the field?
October 16, 1975 - MPR’s Tom Steward reports on Minnesota Congressman Jim Oberstar's proposed bill prohibiting the removal of natural resources in BWCA, including logging. It also states no snowmobiling except in designated areas. A similar bill was submitted by Representative Doug Johnson.
October 30, 1975 - Environmental Impact Statement discussed, relating to the Reserve Mining Company's Taconite Discharge site at Lake Superior and its need to be relocated to another locale. Tom Steward and Dick Daly discuss issues brought up by the report.
October 30, 1975 - Reserve Mining Company's hopes to relocate its taconite discharge site gets boost from environmental impact statement. Hearings to continue to determine best alternative, including Embarrass or Mile Seven.
October 31, 1975 - Dr. Dean Abrahamson discusses safety issues brought up in Rasmussen report regarding nuclear power stations.