Another Green Monday
On Sunday some 50,000 smiling people crossed the finish line of the 34th annual Lilac Bloomsday Run. Around the same time on Sunday, some 70 miles east on Interstate 90, the names of 91 dead miners were read aloud during a memorial anniversary of the 1972 Sunshine Mine disaster. Further east, in West Virginia, 25 families are still coming to terms with a coal mining disaster that rocked their lives a few short weeks ago. To the south, an entire watershed region is effected by one of the worst oil in the history of the United States. And bringing it back closer to home, a community along the Columbia River deals with the daily realization that they're living in a toxic place without a view of a light at the end of the tunnel.
We have death trap coal mines, oil slick oceans and toxic communities and not a chance in hell that it's going to get any better without a serious paradigm shift. We love ourselves some cheap energy and as a nation haven't developed the necessary foresight to see that this cheap fix is costing us in the long run. That and we're handcuffed to an economic system that relies on our inability to make the tough decisions and sacrifices and stuck with politicians who are co-opted by the dirty money that comes at the cost of lost lives and damaged ecosystems.
In the coming weeks you're going to hear everyone and their mother say this phrase, "we need to curb our addiction to cheap energy and start investing in renewables." Well, DUH. But those same people are the same people that don't have the spine to do anything beyond say what sounds good. Those are the people that rally against the likes of Walget-Meyer yet find themselves with a hodgepodge shopping list of toothpaste, picture frames and apple juice and default to what's easy and cheap - big box store solution.
We can hope and speak all we want but the bottom line is the only ears worth fighting for are those of people who are and have been the last to get it. And that's why this fight we're in is so hard. As Paul Haeder said best in his most recent column in the Inlander, "The media, politicians and business community are the last to really understand."
After the jump are some stories you might have missed last week.
Light the way Seattle. Seattle plans to spend an estimated $23 million to upgrade 40,000 of its 84,000 street lights by replacing their high-pressure sodium lights with state-of-the-art LEDs. "It's part of our plan to invest in lights that will eventually save us money," said City Councilman Bruce Harrell, chairman of the council's Energy, Technology and Civil Rights Committee. "They will eventually pay for themselves." Read more HERE.
Centralia coal plant eying cutting carbon emissions in half. According to Reuters, TransAlta, Canada's largest publicly traded electricity generator, is plotting its strategy as Canadian and U.S. governments lay the groundwork for tighter regulations on greenhouse gas emissions. TransAlta runs 70 power stations, five of which are coal - one of course being the Centralia coal plant. According to this article, TransAlta signed a memorandum of understanding with Washington state earlier in the week to examine ways to cut carbon emissions from the Centralia coal-fired power plant in half by 2025. Read more HERE.
University of Idaho is at it again. Our favorite green university in the region had two big announcments last week. First is the news that five U. of Idaho faculty will receive grants totaling almost $20,000 from the Sustainable Idaho Strategic Initiative - grants that will fund the development of new online courses to expand the university’s distance education curriculum related to sustainability. Read more HERE. In addition, the school announced last week that it launched a new Professional Science Master’s program in Natural Resources and Environmental Science. “Sustainability science is a concept whose time has come. This professional training program is an investment in our future,” said Stephen Mulkey, director of the university's Environmental Science Program. Read more HERE.
Adding insult to injury. It’s not just the Hanford cleanup that is dirty anymore: Five more people have been accused of criminal fraud in connection with phony expenses submitted to Hanford contractors in the Tri-Cities. According to the S-R, in a “recent indictment filed in Spokane’s U.S. District Court, Gregory Detloff and Martin Perez have been charged with fabricating orders for materials or supplies paid for by Fluor Hanford and CH2M Hill Hanford, where Detloff formerly worked in the Tri-Cities.” Read more HERE.
"GOP 2010: You Don't Stop Driving." What some are saying about the oil spill…
Image courtesy of euronews.net.
