Another Green Monday
Well that was fun, wasn't it? We're talking about Earth Day (both of them) and Spokane's Earth Week (as announced by Spokane Mayor Mary Verner in her proclamation). In the years that we've been doing DTE, we've never seen the base this invigorated and raring to go. But where are we going?
It's time to harness this energy and to start handing out and/or accepting marching orders. We MUST make the next 350 days (fitting number huh) all about action. Because something like this year's Earth Day can only happen once. It almost feels like we've caught lightning in a bottle. If we fail to make good of it, we fail our collective mission. Remember what Mayor Verner said in her speech at the Saturday Earth Day event, "we must walk for what we walk on." So time to get walking.
Next year's celebration needs to be about celebrating success. OR celebrating failure as long as by failure it means somebody or some group decided something was worthy enough to try. But it can't just be about celebrating good company and gathering together. Each group that was represented on Main Street two Saturday's ago needs to take it upon themselves to dedicate the next year to leveraging their skills, their connections and their resources to putting Spokane and the Inland Northwest on track to reducing carbon emissions, to valuing local and healthy food, to protecting the Spokane River, its watershed and other water sources, to preserving soil diversity in our region, and to assuring sustainability in our entire ecosystem and built environment. And everyone else, all of us, needs to hold these groups accountable, encourage and engage their missions and take it upon ourselves to do what we can do to facilitate these processes.
But that's not it Spokane. It's time we say NO to coal and time we tell our leaders we will not believe their BS about clean coal. Let's remember that it's reduce and reuse first, then recycle. Do not stand for the lies and hypocrisy fed to you by your elected officials, by business leaders and by so-called experts. Use science, in its traditional forms to guide us - if the scientific method does not apply, then policy cannot be informed. Question everything. Lean more, read more, talk to people more. Learn about all the environmental groups in Spokane - lean what they're doing and how they're doing it and how you can help them. Organize deep-thinking conversations with your friends and co-workers. Write everything down, then act on it. Hold cleanups in recreational areas you enjoy. Stop driving, ride your bike, take the bus, WALK. Rip up your driveway and plant fruit trees. Get rid of your lawn and plant vegetables. Eat locally and eat healthy. Don't accept things because they're easy - challenge everything.
This is it Spokane - this is your mission. 350 days. Ready. Set. Go
Washington prisons experimenting with going green to solve budge problems. Doing away with gasoline engine lawn mowers cut gas consumption at the Monroe Correctional Complex by about 100 gallons a month. While a composting program at Monroe saved $43,000 on waste bills and redirected 1million pounds of food and trash away from landfills. These along with gardening programs, recycling programs and others are a growing list of examples of state prisons trimming their budgets with environmentally sound practices. Read more HERE.
YOUR Seattle Mariners take strides in energy efficiency, waste reduction and water savings. For the second season in a row the Seattle Mariners have a quality product to run out on to the field (thank you Jack Zduriencik). And also for the second year in a row, the Mariners as a business are working to green up their operations. They have invested $3 million in energy-efficient lighting, mechanical systems, 300 low-flow urinals and an LED scoreboard for the out-of-town team that uses 11 percent of the energy of the old scoreboard. And they're working diligently on reducing waste which through the first six home games of the season totaled 60 tons of paper, cardboard and garbage — they recycled or composted 76 percent of that. Read more HERE.
Moscow and the Univesity of Idaho - locavore overload? Most communities or univesities would probably KILL for this problem. Too many students and too many consumers want local, fresh and healthy food. The problem being, Moscow's small plot fams cannot sustain the demand of the university. Jeannie Matheison who work at the university's Sustainability Center told Oregon Public Broadcasting that the university is looking into whether it can grow more vegetables at its own organic farm. It's also studying whether its dairy can afford to build a processing plant. Right now, the university has its own cows, but it has to send the milk two hours away, to Spokane, to be pasteurized. Read more HERE.
Hot air or no? Republic Lindsey Graham has said that he will stop participating in negotations on the bipartisan Senate climate change bill now because democrats what to prioritize immigration reform instead. Read more HERE.
Because we love lists. So forty years after Earth Day, Grist named forty people who are redefining green, a “circle of people working toward a cleaner, greener world has expanded way beyond treehugging hippies, red-paint-throwing protesters, posturing politicos, and card-carrying members of enviro groups.” They are all unexpected people altering the green landscape but do we have any nominations in Spokane? Read more HERE.
