We are extremely fortunate to live in the beauty of the Puget Sound region. We have the mountains, the Sound, and the most beautiful urban, suburban and rural areas in the country. Because we are so blessed with this beauty we feel more responsible than most to maintain it's pristine nature.

It is our duty and obligation to preserve and protect our environment by implementing responsible and holistic environmental policies. It is also incumbent upon us as individuals to do everything we can to reduce our polluting footprint upon this area. Government policy alone cannot solve the issue, but responsible citizens working hand in glove with the government and private enterprise CAN clean up the Puget Sound region. These policies cannot value one area of the environment over the other, and we humans should also be part of the equation when addressing the environment.

Too often politicians and so called "environmental" groups use the environment as cover for personal political gain or blatant obstructionism. If we are to address the tough environmental issues of our day, we need to address pollution with a holistic approach rather than in politically expedient "sounds bites." For example, we must realize that our environment here in the Puget Sound region is connected to the rest of the world. Pollution in our oceans is carried by currents to and from our shores, and pollution in our air is carried by the jet stream to and from us as well. These solutions must address the problems in a global way that includes both developed and underdeveloped countries (the Kyoto Protocol only addresses developed nations and our air pollution is largely coming from China, an underdeveloped nation).

One example would be vehicle emissions. So much political effort has been put into global warming and carbon emissions that the actual toxins in these emissions (typically not traditional greenhouse gases) are not being addressed. The cardio-pulmonary damage done to our citizens by industrial and vehicle emissions costs millions of lives per year around the globe. My São Paulo Clean Air Project, the largest such project in the world, is saving 850 lives in the first year alone, and no amount of carbon credits can offset even one life.

There is a perfect balance between man and nature, but we have to seek it with an open mind, think outside of the box, and create solutions that address the entire problem, not just one aspect of it. As a member of the Creek Indian tribe, I respect the wisdom of our Native American fore-fathers, and Chief Seattle of the Suquamish and Duwamish tribes said it best in his speech of 1854, " "This we know: All things are connected. Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons of the earth. Man did not weave the web of life; he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself."

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