is Chicago going Green? (neighborhood, tenant, landlord)

[UnderTheLiveOaks]

Originally Posted by Irishtom29

Well as the article states "clean coal" is a moving target.

Personally I'm not bothered by mountain top removal; this is happening in some of the most God-forsaken areas in eastern Kentucky and the people who are against are not the people of eastern Kentucky....they need the work.

That's where we differ, Tom. I am bothered by mountaintop removal. Mountains don't grow back (at least not on any timeline we can appreciate), and such mining disturbs watersheds, pollutes water sources, etc.

Furthermore, even without mountaintop removal, coal mining/burning can be truly nasty to the surrounding environment. The TVA ash pond breach back in December is good evidence of this. TVA ash pond breach: Resident says area has 'changed forever' : State and Regional News : Knoxville News Sentinel

[Lookout Kid]

I once visited the Flight 93 crash site to do some scouting work for the memorial competition. What you never hear mentioned is that the plane crashed into the site of an abandoned strip mine. That is some of the scariest landscape I've ever seen anywhere, and there are all kinds of nasty "surprises" left on the site, from rusty chemical tanks to broken pipelines to bubbly lagoons of ?????? Driving on abandoned mining roads with a rental car can be harrowing, but I saw enough to realize that strip mining is pretty terrible for the environment--and that the impact is permanent.

[GraniteStater]

Originally Posted by Irishtom29

Personally I'm not bothered by mountain top removal; this is happening in some of the most God-forsaken areas in eastern Kentucky and the people who are against are not the people of eastern Kentucky....they need the work.

That would be incorrect. I have traveled through many areas of the Appalachians and many people are against Mountaintop Removal mining. This is a very eggregious form of mining the coal that clears out all trees and fills in the valleys with overfill. Flooding problems worsen with runoff from defoliated hillsides and mountains. The coal companies claim they revegetate, but it is a very tiny fraction.
The point being, we have 500 years worth of coal reserves, but that doesn't mean we should use all of it. Energy efficiency and a combination of many alternative energy sources are the future.

[Avengerfire]

There is uranium contamination in many peoples water in the southern Appalachian mountain region and in the other coal areas. The coal is not what the corporations are after-it is the uranium they are after. If you do not believe me look it up.


Here is just a taste:


http://www.uraniumproducersamerica.com/resources.html

http://www.ewg.org/tapwater/staterep...KY&contam=4000

http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o...action_KEY=501

[Irishtom29]

Originally Posted by GraniteStater

That would be incorrect. I have traveled through many areas of the Appalachians and many people are against Mountaintop Removal mining.

I just moved back after three years in Kentucky and it's my experience that most eastern Kentucky people aren't against it, they want the work.

I don't bother another guy's rice bowl, besides it's their neck of the woods not mine.

[Drover]

Originally Posted by RichMonk

City-wide recycling would be good...

Seen those blue containers up and down the alleys lately?

[via chicago]

Originally Posted by Carantini

we were kids once, we inherited bull.shi.t, thats life.

so therefore we make zero effort to make things better for the next generation?

either you're part of the solution or part of the problem.

[RichMonk]

Originally Posted by Drover

Seen those blue containers up and down the alleys lately?

Nope...not really...I'll try to keep an eye out for them however I doubt my landlord would be willing to order up (even if us tenants pay) for recycling service.

Coal is BAD. Sure you might be able to sequester the CO2 but that would put the cost of coal energy above that of most other sources. Plus coal ash deposits are a serious hazard. Spills lead to widespread water table, soil and air contamination and cause damages far more costly than oil spills in the ocean.

We live in a society completely subsidized by fossil-fuels or ancient sunlight. When humans only depended on current sunlight the Earth's caring capacity for humans was around 750 million. With the discovery of energy dense fossil fuels world population quickly rose into the billions. Nature is responding to this unnatural use of ancient energy. More people are getting sick, essential species are disappearing, ecosystems are destabilizing, large swaths of ocean are now dead zones, rain forests turning to deserts and most places are just starting to smell and look bad. We have to find away to reconnect our lives to the world's natural processes. Our waste has to be reusable, our cities have to adapt to mimic the forests and grasslands they replaced, and we have to further the efficiency of current sunlight. And that isn't just solar...current sunlight involves anything that is driven by the sun; wind, plants, ocean currents, rain fall..etc

A lot of that stuff is still a bit of a ways off (but not that far) however, we can make the use of fossil fuels more efficient and make many of our products out of non-petrol based plant material. There is a lot to be done and every person can just take part in their own little pixel of the big picture.

[tb4000]

If anyone knows of other org. in the area that are also LEED certs, let me know. My company is working with the Chicago Green Task Force and we're setting up random events.

[Irishtom29]

Originally Posted by RichMonk

With the discovery of energy dense fossil fuels world population quickly rose into the billions. Nature is responding to this unnatural use of ancient energy.

There is no unnatural use of energy, nor unnatural anything for that matter. What people do is as much a part of nature as that of any other species or organism.

Now maybe it's no longer useful or wise behavior but it's certainly natural. And the urge to change such behavior, that's natural too.