Energy Conservation Efforts

The City of Springfield is holding an “Ozarks New Energy Conference” today and tomorrow at the Gillioz. The registration fee is $75, and you can learn more about it at http://www.ozarksnewenergy.org.
Besides being politically oriented I have been environmentally aware all my life, but I’m not going to shell out $75 to attend this one. One of the highlights of my recent years has been my membership in the Missouri Master Naturalist program, and one of the connections that membership has led me to is the League of Conservation Voters.

LCV does a sensible job of tracking legislation related to the environment so it’s easy to keep up on what’s happening in that area just by virtue of that membership. One of the other benefits is that they track voting records of our representatives.
Below is their scorecard of the ecologically sound voting records of the representatives for my districts in Southwest Missouri. If you are fortunate enough to be represented by someone else, you can check on them by going to: (http://lcv.org/scorecard/)
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Vote Scorecard:
110th, 1st session Search Results Scores for Missouri Sorted by Last Name
Senate
Senator State 110th, 1st session Score
Christopher Bond (REP) MO 0%
Claire McCaskill (DEM) MO 73%

House
Representative District 110th, 1st session Score
Roy Blunt (REP) MO-7 0%

Doesn’t it just make you proud to live in Southwest Missouri? We ought to thank Claire and throw the other two out on their ears.

The notice in the paper declares that, “This weekend’s conference will focus more on the end of energy production with a twist of economic opportunities for the region.”

It burns my &^%** to know that my representatives care more about the income of their corporate boosters than the health of our state, nation and planet. The specter of global warming forces us to recognize that ideas like trading carbon credits threaten our very ability to survive, but “leaders” like Bond and Blunt continue to argue that we can’t afford to risk curbing economic growth in order to do anything about it.

You don’t have to go far to find evidence of our cultural willingness to pollute rather than spending anything to curb the problem, and you can bet your bottom dollar that Roy Blunt and Kit Bond wouldn’t take one dollar out of their cohorts’ coffers to do anything green unless it returns at least $10 to $100 to those same coffers.

There is a price attached to pollution, friends, whether our politicians recognize it or not, and resistance to sensible green measures only delays having to pay that price while it increases exponentially.

Ethanol – which I’ll bet Roy & Kit will tout today – is a huge boondoggle that ultimately adds to the problem instead of helping solve it. Our new coal fired electric plant is another great. It’s “scrubbers” amount to chimneys tall enough to push the pollution high enough into the airstream to remove it from our area – never mind that someone else will have to deal with it.

Another system being touted these days is injecting carbon dioxide deep into the earth. Sounds to me like just as valid a solution as hauling our garbage far enough out to sea that we don’t have to look at it any more. All such measures will rebound and have to be dealt with some day at much greater cost than if we were to deal with them appropriately today.

Each of us, though, can do some little things that can help. Here are some ideas:

Quit using store supplied non-degradable plastic bags. Get some tote bags and use them when you shop. Home Depot sells a wonderful nylon bag that holds about ½ bushel but folds up to nearly nothing. Has great interlocking handles, too. The price -- $1.99!! What a value, and what a boon to the environment.

Quit burning gasoline in long lines waiting for your burger. If everyone in the country turned off the engine whenever it would otherwise idle for 30 seconds, we would save a few hundred thousand gallons of fuel a day. (Automatic shutoff is one way that hybrids save on fuel.)

Don’t idle your car more than 30 seconds to warm it up and certainly don’t leave it running in the parking lot while you shop so that you won’t have to touch a cold steering wheel when you leave. I can’t believe how often I see that.

Recycle. If your trashman doesn’t facilitate that, dump him! The Moore family here in Springfield probably provides the cheapest service in town, but they enable recycling. Mrs. Moore spends her days sorting so her customers won’t have to. We do, though, and it isn’t a hassle. The only problem with the Moores is that they don’t bill often enough for their services, so I suppose some folks take advantage of them. You wouldn’t, though, so why don’t you give them a call and find out what great folks they are. Their number is 831-6119.

Going to reseed your yard? Use buffalo grass. It’s really expensive seed, but it doesn’t need much water and doesn’t have to be mowed. It won’t look like your neighbor’s fescue sod, but it will be a native grass yard. Speaking of native, use native plants in your landscaping. The Missouri Department of Conservation (895-6880) has some free info on how and what. Check with the MO Dep’t. of Agriculture, too (www.mda.gov).

Consider putting in a rain garden that will utilize the run-off from your roof. Examples are at Library Center on S. Campbell and along Meadowmere Street south of Grand in mid-town. The James River Basin Partnership can help you there.

James River has a great program for testing your yard and giving you all the info you need to keep it healthy, too. You can reach them at 836-4847 or visit www.jamesriverbasin.com.

Get a rainbarrel and use the roof run-off to water your plantings. Great for washing hair, too!

And while you’re at it, send a copy of the table above to Roy and Kit and tell them how disgusting their behavior is.


Be the change you wish to see in the world. -- M. K. Gandhi

Individually we have little voice. Collectively we cannot be ignored.
But in silence we surrender our power. Yours in Peace -- BR

The reason for going was to keep the crude flowing and raise a false flag abroad. – from a poem by Jack Evans titled 3500 Souls - http://www.myspace.com/paralegal_eagle