Great Government Goes Green

Around the country it seems to me as if the government, both on the national and state levels is trying to become green. It is great that the government is getting involved so we can try to save the planet from ourselves. Here are some regional and national examples of the government involvement that is beginning to go into effect.

The Salt Lake Tribune reported that during a city council meeting in Salt Lake, green initiatives were the topic of discussion. Talks ranged from becoming a more biker friendly city to recycling initiatives and almost everything in-between.

The Telluride Daily Planet reported on the 4-3 vote by the Colorado Senate Business, Labor, and Technology committee to back the ban on plastic bags in grocery stores and other large stores by 2012. Thank goodness, plastic bags have bothered me for years; it seems like such a waste to just throw these bags away. Mandating the use of canvas bags will greatly reduce the use of plastics.

Then on to the help the national government is giving the cause. With our recently passed economic stimulus package green programs are going to be looking good. Commondreams.org reports that almost $60 billion dollars, of the $787 billion stimulus package, is going to green projects and research.

Now that the national and local governments both on our side we need to take these dollars and policies that are coming our way and work on the future of green. Maybe someday the term green will not have the connotation of being eco-friendly because that is how everybody will be.

Royce Johnson

Drilling to the Center of the Earth

There are some interesting debates about drilling for fossil fuels this week in the news. The Arizona Daily Sun published an L.A. Times article on drilling near national parks. Is drilling outside the park boundary legal? Some say that the 1916 Organic Act, which mandates clean air, water and other resources in national parks, would be broken even if the drilling were to be done outside of the boundaries of the park. You would be able to see the roads and see and hear the noisy construction equipment used to search for fossil fuels. Some of the heads of different national parks have spoken out against the Bush administration and say that he caused a problem that we will be fighting for years to come.

It seems energy companies always manage to find the bright side of global warming. Truthout reports that the melting ice caps are uncovering about 25 percent of the Earths oil and gas reserves. It seems also that there is somewhat of a dispute over what country will have the rights to these resources. The maritime law is a little unclear about how far from the coast line of a country gets to claim it's territory.

And while drilling rigs move into these newly uncovered lands, temperatures in Australia have been skyrocketing. Alternet reports that just last week a power station blew up in Melbourne due to absurdly high temperatures in the region, presumably linked to global warming. This caused the train to stop, stop lights blew and half a million homes were without power. There have several deaths that have resulted from these temperatures. The heat wave actually has been impacting professional athletes in the Australian Open tennis tournament. Some have even been taken to the hospital.

Ah, drilling. The answer to every problem.

-Royce Johnson