Re-Gain

November 2, 2010 election results reinforce that Americans are concerned most with our economy. However how we stimulate new goods and services is multi-trillion dollar question. I propose as we become more efficient we improve our economy. The best definition of what green is efficiency minus subsidy. The challenge is that in the U.S we have subsidized many things that increase waste and prevents us from profiting from pollution prevention. Just look how we have addressed our national security challenge. Presently, conflicts over water, and other essential resources. Does our U.S. military act as peacekeepers? A majority of experts predict that if our government does not prepare for climate change we will have hell to pay for. Several years ago a number of retired generals and security experts presented national-security study*. Using the military's risk-assessment practices, 11 retired generals and admirals issued a report* saying that climate change creates massive instab

Shenandoah County will benefit from good rural planning. Promoting rural prosperity will happen when we keep new housing near our towns; invest in land conservation; and strengthen our zoning ordinances. New innovations can be explored once we see these as beginning economic development tools for our county. How we allow our land to be developed can be a win/win situation if we exercise wise best management practices. Otherwise irresponsible development will be passed on to us tax payers. One great example is who is going to be taking care of all the abandoned junk yards in our county? Who is going to clean these up? Citizen’s freedom to do things must be balanced by their responsibility to take care of those things they have. The more we keep growth near our towns with joint comprehensive plans the cheaper it will be for us to provide public services and improved land use patterns. Already we our towns have invested in hundreds of millions in water and waste water and expansion

Government waste is a common used phrase. However, even the many organization’s that are the watchdogs of this costly act have been unable to get to the root of the problem. We love create spend more instead of fully using what we have. Consume seems to be an economic mantra however, it all results in less if we do not show some thrift. The government wastes money, resources and other precious things because there is an incentive to do so. We, Americans or better yet our Congress, has no reason to save since everyone wants more and more. Look at any area of government support- health care, defense, education, environmental protection, transportation, housing, foreign affairs, intelligence you see billions of dollars lost. The question is how we can create new commerce and prosperity without jeopardizing future generation's quality of life? Now what incentives does our government give to be frugal or more conservative? You can search for performance based saving measur

For over thirty years I have been active preventing oil spills. These come from do-it-yourself motorist. Our country’s worst environmental accident proves that we do not value prevention. Lessening human error and having back-up plans is critical to our very future. Years ago there was a Pogo cartoon with a picture of an oil tanker in a backyard, and the caption read, “We have met the enemy and it is us.” At George Washington University in 1977 one of my environmental science text books alerted me to oil polluting my local watershed of Little Falls in Bethesda, Maryland that runs into one of the drinking water reservoirs for the nation’s capital. Since then I have promoted the recovery of do-it-yourself automotive fluids from every possible angle. I began this effort in Montgomery County, Maryland and started DC’s used oil recycling efforts. I even helped build the region’s largest used oil recycling facility and recently worked on updating Virginia’s used oil collection program th

The recent Gulf oil spill is a rude awakening to humans regarding the price and risk of energy exploration. With now an estimated 23 to 47 million barrels of oil draining into the gulf region we are seeing tremendous alarm why we need to reexamine our American energy policies. The tragic costs of this accident will be accounted for in years. This includes the lost of marine life, devastated wetlands and economic impacts to the Southeast. Oil extraction results in the destruction or alteration of wildlife habitats, erosion, sedimentation, pollutant loading of groundwater and surface water from product and/or waste leaks and spills, groundwater contamination from communication between production or waste injection zones and underground sources of drinking water, release of hydrocarbons and hydrogen sulfide to the atmosphere, and decreased soil productivity from land spreading and/or releases of reserve/mud pit contents. While oil and gas professionals have developed practices that hav

Did you know May is National Bike Month? People will celebrate it with various activities around the nation, including Bike-to-Work Week from May 17-21. Bike-to-Work Day will take place Friday, May 21. (That morning, get breakfast, tune-ups and prizes at the Bethesda pit stop) Living in Bethesda for over 40 years, I have become an avid cyclist. There is no better way to get around. It is quicker and cheaper, has no parking problems and I enjoy the exercise. Also there are lots of other psychological benefits: I get to slow down, get a feel of the community and lessen my environmental impact. As an expert in used oil recycling, I also believe in another type of “re-cycling”; this is why biking is my thing. Also I have documents showing the numerous water impacts cars have on the Little Falls and other area watersheds. According to WorldWatch Institute, a short, four-mile round-trip by bicycle keeps about 15 pounds of pollutants out of the air. Also the Nationwide Personal Transp

This is a guest column thanks to Jack Lundee - "Taking a more progressive green approach." Some of the more heavily discussed topics of early 2010 include obesity, green infrastructure, clean water, and more. In particular, the addition and/or substitution of green spaces have been quite controversial as of late. Senior resident of Urban Land Institute Ed T. McMahon states "Green space adds value to property." Not only would these areas of conservation drive economic trends upward, but they also improve the overall health of the surrounding community. For example, substituting things like golf courses with conservation areas would essentially increase surrounding property value while diminishing overpriced maintenance fees. The same holds true for airports and other large acre-eating developments. Some of these areas are already abandoned or unkempt. For instance, park and recreational areas that were once highly visited have become urban wastelands. In an articl

A knowing farmer, who, Midas like, can convert everything he touches into manure, as the first transmutation towards gold. For 45 years George Washington was the master of Mount Vernon, and he viewed his occupation as farmer very seriously. Beginning as a tobacco planter like his father and older brother before him, Washington devoted himself to producing bounteous crops of the weed for export to England. He realized early on, however, that this plant was ruinous to the fertility of his soil. Therefore, he soon stopped growing tobacco and took up the cultivation of wheat as his primary money maker, complemented by corn and a variety of lesser crops aimed at sustaining his family and slaves. The quest to improve his yields led Washington to explore a wide range of agricultural experiments, including composting as a means of restoring soil nutrients. In 1794 Washington sadly noted in his diary that, "Unless some practice prevails, my fields will be growing worse every year, until th

I have been curious why at times I feel anxious, unsettled, despairing, and depressed. In the course of my life I have observed much disconnection, distraction and denial of what we are doing to our planet. Glenn Albrecht has a name for psychological condition. In a 2004 essay, he coined a term to describe it: “solastalgia,” a combination of the Latin word solacium (comfort) and the Greek root –algia (pain), which he defined as “the pain experienced when there is recognition that the place where one resides and that one loves is under immediate assault . . . a form of homesickness one gets when one is still at ‘home...’ In September, the British trip-hop duo Zero 7 released an instrumental track titled “Solastalgia,” and in 2008 Jukeen, a Slovenian recording artist, used the word as an album title. “Solastalgia” has been used to describe the experiences of Canadian Inuit communities coping with the effects of rising temperatures; Ghanaian subsistence farmers faced with changes in rai

If your house started to catch fire, what would you do? Well our Earth is catching fire, and many humans are sleeping through the beginning flames. The world’s future is interdependent on our ability to foresee and forestall this global blaze. Never in human history have we been faced with such a menacing wildfire. Are we, the human species, going to become burn victims? Are we on the verge of bringing on the sixth great Earth extinction event? Reflecting on the fact that ninety-nine percent of the species that have ever lived on this planet are extinct, you may hear your smoke detector start to scream. Can you feel it getting hotter? Yes there is truth what Smokey the Bear used to say, “Only you can prevent forest fires.” Fires caused by humans are usually the result of carelessness and ignorance. A critical mass of people who are asleep act as small sparks igniting flames throughout our collective home. In order to survive, we must change our mind-set of “independence” into a new “D