Another Green Monday
This week begins in sweet uplift with a national holiday as we recognize a powerful individual who dreamt of progress, followed by an event that realizes the dream. Nobody should spend Tuesday night alone, so after work come join us at the Community Building for an Inauguration Ball, 8pm. Here are some noteworthy stories from over the weekend:
Know your rights. There will come a time when water will be every bit a valuable commodity of the priciest minerals on the market. Thus there will come a time when water rights and water fights are every bit as common as those that occurred in the great gold rushes of our times. Last week, the Idaho Department of Water Resources began an intensive cataloging and confirming process of all surface and ground water rights. To DTE, it feels like a slippery slope to think of individual water rights as just like other rights – there are those that abuse them. Regardless, we will monitor the progress of this and don’t expect it to be the last we hear of this issue. Read more from the Coeur d'Alene Press HERE.
University of Idaho – making smarter consumers. Though that isn’t the tag line of the university, students in the colleges of Art and Architecture and Natural Resources are doing just that. According to a U of I press release; “[they] have created an ecoFACTS product label that will inform consumers of the water and energy used in the production of ordinary items,” like clothes and household products. “In addition to empowering consumers to make environmentally conscious decisions, the full adoption of such a labeling system would have the long-range effect of influencing manufacturers to develop environmentally sustainable practices,” this from the press release. In these times of economic uncertainty, it’s important to be smarter consumers, smarter manufactures, and smarter citizens – and conserving resources is the kind of step that is needed to benefit both the environment and the economy. The students are ambitious that a governmental agency or investors will pick up on the proposal. Read more from the University of Idaho HERE.
Spokane River and Columbia Basin cited in pollution study. And not positively. A new EPA report hopefully reiterated what most citizens are aware of: Toxins that damage people, fish, and wildlife still remain in our waterways throughout the Northwest. The most jarring statistic was about trout in the Spokane River. The study said PBDE levels (or polybrominated diphenyl ether, a fire retardant found in laptop computers, clothing and furniture) rose from almost nothing in 1996 to more than 400 parts per billion in 2005. “The science has been there for a number of years,” said Lauren Goldberg, staff attorney for Columbia Riverkeeper in Hood River said in the S-R, in regards to cleanup efforts. “That said, what this report shows is that we need action now, and it demonstrates quite frankly the failures in the past.” MORE.
Spokane’s master bike plan. Mark your calendar: A public hearing on Spokane’s master bike plan will take place at 5 p.m. on January 28th in City Council Chambers at City Hall. This is a can’t miss opportunity for an emerging number in Spokane, which will focus on the separation of bicycles and vehicles---designated bike lanes marked around the city, and funding to build and expand routes. A few proposals include a route between the Ben Burr Trail at Liberty Park and the Centennial Trail in the downtown area; finishing a bike trail between west Spokane and Fish Lake near Cheney on an old rail bed (cool!); a switchback trail through Pioneer Park along Ben Garnett Way to assist riders up the South Hill; Belt Street north of Northwest Boulevard. Much more HERE and we’ll see you at the meeting.
One final parting shot from Arianna Huffington on George W. Bush thinking about the last eight years of a miserable environmental record: He claimed that America's "air, water, and lands are measurably cleaner." Who is doing the measuring, the same eco-unfriendly companies to which he handed his environmental policies? It's dangerous spin. It's easy to feel a pang of pity for a guy heading out the door. But the more sympathy he evokes, the more susceptible we are to the lies he is telling. Before we know it, his revisionism becomes accepted as the truth. Bye George!
