Now we are really into summer. It’s not just pleasantly warm. It’s hot. And the enormous increase in truck traffic to the more than3,000 warehouses here in New Jersey doesn’t help, either. A recent study shows that there are 827 warehouses in the port oriented counties of Union, Hudson, and Essex.
Towns like Piscataway and South Plainfield, hungry for tax revenues, have enormous warehouses and trucks on residential streets. Those 18-wheelers drive down narrow streets and make turns forcing cars to try to back so they don’t become road-kill.
And it’s not just these areas the need to be concerned. Warren County with its access to Route 80 and Somerset with 78 also need to be concerned, especially because the warehouse developers look to open land. The destruction of the countryside only adds to increasing heat, but developers don’t care. Who needs nature, anyway?
Prayer for the Day
Let all the earth bless God, Creator and Sustainer of life.
Let all that grows from the earth, forest and plain, give praise.
Let the rivers and springs and all who dwell therein, sing to God.
Let the sound of the dolphins and the leviathan resonate with song.
Let the bellow of frogs and toads join in their praise.
Let all peoples of the earth praise God by sustaining the creation.
In the name of the One who gives us life in God,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
The developer doesn’t care one iota about the natural constraints of the land. In other words, just blast away and put a building there whether you’ve got to cut 53 feet of earth and rock.
Tom Brodsky, Citizens for Sustainable Development
In New Jersey, like the rest of the country, warehouse locations are shrouded in secrecy. While the Energy Information Agency maintains a database of information about polluting facilities like oil refineries, nothing similar exists for warehouse locations, making it difficult for communities and policymakers alike to learn the location of these facilities and which companies own and operate them.
Environmental Defense Fund Report on warehouse impact in New Jersey
I lift up my eyes to the hills – from where will my help come?
My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth
The Lord will not let your foot be moved; the Lord who keeps you will not slumber.
Psalm 121: 1-3