Schools LEED the Way to Eco Justice

Growing vegetables has been taken to a new level for students at Escalante Middle School who installed a photovoltaic system. This system is capable of powering electricity that the school would usually buy. This will allow students in Sharron Orrs class to learn more about the environment and sciences. The Durango Herald reported this story about the new photovoltaic system. Students will also engage and learn about plants, composting, and weather.

In Arizona The Arizona Republic reported on what their schools are doing to more energy efficient. Arizona schools will use stimulus funds to generate energy efficiency. $20 million dollars totals the amount to make schools more energy effective. $13 million will be used for grants that Arizona school districts can apply for. $5.5 million will be used to install solar panels in 25 districts. The other $1.5 million is set aside for administrative funding.
Pleasant Grove charter school in Utah is wanting Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification, reported by Deseret News. There are only 25 buildings in Utah that are certified and Pleasant Grove wants to join that list opening for the 2010-2011 school year.

Schools are a fundamental building block for knowledge and going green is a great aspect to learn at a younger age. Theses schools are setting the right example for other elementariness, middle schools, high schools, and colleges across the company to strive for eco-excellence.

Devon Dey

Energy in the West

While it may not be green or (entirely) renewable energy, nuclear power has been a potential contender for energy usage within the United States. In Montrose county, for example, there has been heated debate as to whether a new uranium mill should be built. Telluride News reports on the Rocky 4-esque clashing of two ideals (albeit less violent). The entire meeting had an economic undertone, as many decisions were based on the recession alone. It has been estimated the mine would create more than 85 new, much-needed jobs; while this may be a brief stimulus package, a more useful, long-lasting job-maker would be reprocessing (recycling) uranium. To explain it simply, a byproduct of reprocessed nuclear fuel is plutonium, which can also be used to fuel a nuclear power plant. Not only would this method keep the Colorado landscape unscratched, but also keep unnecessary uranium from being mined and put into production. Since this nonrenewable resource may be a little more renewable than given credit for, we should take advantage of this and direct our capabilities to recycling uranium rather than our wasteful, “throw-away” lifestyle.
Now on the other side of things: putting resources into the ground. The Denver Post reports on the newest form of the “green” movement: green burials. A one acre piece of the Fort Collins cemetery will be designated for burials without any type of vault or embalming. While my spiritual side is all for a part of the deceased becoming a piece of the flowers, the bloom; my ethical side can't seem to accept a ceremony as sacred as burying the dead labelled as part of the “green” movement. As great as the green movement is, there has to be a line drawn somewhere; I can imagine a grieving, vulnerable family going over such a trivial yet painful process of finding the resting place of their loved one and being offered a “green” alternative. Rest the deceased anyway you like: burying, cremating, setting sail on a burning viking ship; just don't attach a label to whichever way you do it.

Jamison Griffith

Tea Parties of the 21st Century and new Green Collar Jobs

According to the Vail Daily about 50 people from Summit and Eagle counties rallied against federal spending of tax dollars. As the crowd walked down Main Street, in Frisco, chanting that they had already been taxed enough and told the government to stop spending now. No one likes taxes but how else is our government supposed to get the money necessary to run itself. The people who were demonstrating seem to see the US as becoming socialist, or as one man put it fascist. We’ll see what happens to our nation, but for some reason it seems like we won’t become the next fascist nation.

According to the Arizona Daily Sun community colleges across the country are seeing an increase in their classes that train students to work in what has been termed green collar jobs. These types of jobs include solar panel construction and installation, wind turbine construction and installation. The move towards green jobs seems like it may be a way out of the problems with the economy. The more new jobs we can create the sooner the economy will right itself. This movement was started with President Barrack Obama’s drive to promote alternative energy systems. This movement will, hopefully, produce millions of jobs.

Ben Rogers