West End News: January 7
Congratulations to local photographer Paul Sundberg, who was featured in the Duluth News Tribune and the Saint Paul Pioneer Press last week. Paul lives in Grand Marais, but is a frequent visitor to the West End when he’s out and about with his camera. Paul has been a professional nature photographer for many years, but has really concentrated on his passion since retiring as the long-time manager at Gooseberry Falls State Park.
Paul’s website, <paulsundbergphotography.com> has a popular “Photo of the Week” that was viewed more than 3 million times last year. He also teaches nature photography at North House Folk School and to 4th graders at William Kelley Elementary School in Silver Bay.
Paul is often joined in his photography outings by David Brislance of Lutsen, another talented wildlife photographer and teacher. Tom Spence, of Tofte, yet another prolific local nature photographer, is also frequently seen on the back roads in the West End. I’m sure Dave and Tom will get their own turns at being featured by the statewide press, as all three men are talented and dedicated to their craft.
It’s a pleasure to have them – and many other home-grown photographers – documenting the beautiful West End.
The West End that attracts wildlife photographers is changing fast due to the accumulating effects of climate change. It was encouraging to hear that most of the world’s leaders acknowledged the need for action at the recent United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris. Of course, meaningful action on climate change should have started 25 years ago when the science became clear that human activity was changing the world’s climate in ways that had the potential to be very damaging to society.
As if it isn’t bad enough that action is coming too late to prevent really serious consequences, it’s even more disturbing that the majority of the current crop of presidential candidates are still denying that climate change is real and are condemning efforts to address the problem.
In my opinion, we should all be outraged by this display of reckless and willful indifference to our children and grandchildren’s future. Not only should the outrage be directed at the candidates, but also at the root of the problem, which is the uncontrolled and non-transparent flow of special interest money into campaign coffers. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, the fossil fuel industry directly and indirectly spent half a billion dollars on candidates in the last election cycle. It is widely estimated that more than double that will be spent in the upcoming election, focused narrowly on preventing meaningful action on climate change in the United States.
Bad as that is, it isn’t just climate change policy that is being blatantly bought off. In virtually every critical issue facing the country today, special interest money is being is being fire-hosed into nearly every federal and state election, creating a situation where very small number of our most wealthy citizens has a virtual lock on public policy. I’d like to blame all this on one party, but the reality is that both major parties are complicit, because that’s the way the game is now played, like it or not.
As the presidential primary season hits its stride next week in Iowa, the openly transactional nature of elections and politics will be obvious. Most people agree that the founders of our democracy were very concerned that national political power should never be concentrated in the hands of just a few people. It’s safe to say that if they were around today, they would be worried.
Fortunately, they gave us the principal of one person, one vote, so I urge you to find out where every candidate stands on meaningful campaign finance reform before you cast your ballot this year. The future of our children and grandchildren may depend on it.
For WTIP, this is Bill Hansen with the West End News.
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