Air Date: Week of February 2, 1996

A smattering of recent observations from the Living on Earth audience.

Transcript

CURWOOD: And now, it's time to hear from you, our listeners. First up this week, a west coast listener e-mailed us about our visit to Jane Brox's family farm in Dracut, Massachusetts. "I live in the flatlands of Oakland, California, a place known for its urban problems," Richard Walker writes. "After listening to the segment about the woman who was holding on to her family farm, I found myself thinking how lucky she is. Here is a person who has been able to maintain her connection with the land, and avoid the often soul-diminishing life of urbanization. This was never a choice for me. The farm of my grandparents in Iowa was sold decades ago when my father chose to leave the land. "

We received a complaint about our coverage of the race to replace Oregon Senator Bob Packwood. We reported that Republican Gordon Smith's food factory paid what was then the largest water pollution fine in Oregon's history for a spill that killed all aquatic life along a 20-mile stretch of creek. Tom Hargraves, who listens to KPBX in Spokane, Washington, says we left out some other important details.

HARGRAVES: Among other things, when you state that his company had been accused of x-number of environmental violations, there was no measure of how many other companies were cited for similar kinds of environmental violations or indeed, except for one, how serious those environmental violations are. I don't know, based on your report.

CURWOOD: Bob Carty's story about the clean-up of Sudbury, Ontario, touched a Canadian who now lives in Connecticut. He says after his first trip to Sudbury he told his wife the sun never shines in Sudbury due to the mining problems there. He continues, "Your program was very inspiring, and it was great to see that the city has come back."