Cell Phones the Size of Your Head

By Michael Kelly, Director on Online Communications

1982: The internet didn’t exist, MTV played music videos, Time’s “Man of the Year” was the personal computer, the emoticon :-) was invented, “cell” phones weren’t exactly portable and Betamax was still a thing. And the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued rules about how much toxic pollution power plants can dump into our water. A lot has changed since 1982* (scroll down for a list), but those power plants rules haven't! It's time for all of us to take action to demand that EPA update the rules on toxic discharges into our water!

Fast forward to 2013: The internet exists (I bet you’re reading this on the internet), Time’s “Man of the Year” is now “Person of the Year”, MTV doesn’t show music videos. And cell phones – they’re not the size of our heads. But the rules about how much toxic pollution power plants can spew into our water still haven't changed. For more than thirty years, power plants have been able to dump billions of pounds of toxic chemicals and heavy metals like mercury and arsenic directly into our water – that’s billions of pounds every single year.  That's also more than 50% of the toxic pollution in our nation's water. It includes arsenic, mercury, chromium, and other nasty chemicals. It's unacceptable. We're letting EPA know this needs to change – how about you? The thing is - the technology to clean up this mess exists and some power plants are even using it.  But, without a strong federal rule, most power plants will not take the steps necessary to protect our water. The good news is EPA is finally proposing new standards to control this toxic pollution. The bad news (and I'm sure you saw this coming) is that the coal and power plant industries want to see the weakest and least protective rules put in place. That’s why we all need to speak up. Thousands already have. You can make sure EPA and the President know that it’s time for power plants to stop polluting our water here. You can learn more here. We have to act now. Click here to join the thousands of Americans who are telling EPA that it’s time to stop power plants from dumping billions of pounds of toxic chemicals into our water. *Things that have been updated, rebooted, remade, sequeled, prequeled, unmade, changed etc since EPA's Power Plant Water Pollution limits were introduced in 1982. Add to the list in the comments.

• Batman
• Superman
• Mario Bros.
• The A-Team
• Prince (Prince - Symbol- Prince)
• Microsoft Word
• Windows
• AOL
• Star Wars
• Star Trek
• Doctor Who
• Van Halen (Roth-Hagar-Roth (again))
• My Little Pony
• Care Bears
• Transformers
• Dallas
• Music (Vinyl-Cassette-CD-MP3-Vinyl-Streaming Subscriptions)
• Home video (VHS-Lasedisc/DVD-DVD-Streaming)
• The Minivan (seriously)
• The Tonight Show (Carson - Leno- Conan - Leno)
• E.T.
• Tron
• Gas prices (91 cents per gallon in 1982)
• Stamps (20 cents per stamp in 1982)
• EPCOT (opened in 1982 and, seriously, not as lame as it used to be. But still a little lame.)
• New Kids on the Block
• Menudo
• Ma Bell. And, the home phone for the matter
• The Toyota Camry
• Gay Rights (1982: 51% of Americans do not accept homosexuality as normal; 2013 - Marriage Equality in 12 states (still a long way to go, but progress)
• Cameras (Polaroid - Film - Instant Camera - Digital - Cameras in Cell Phones - Instagram)