Alabama's Going Green: "Let's Get Dirty"

Huntsville, Alabama, has chosen “Let’s Get Dirty” by the Huntsville country music band Heartland as its theme for Operation Green Team.  America's annual spring clean up campaign has expanded in the past years to a “green up” campaign in cities all over the United States. We may have to get a little dirty in order to clean up the environment, and, like walking that lonesome valley, we have to do it by ourselves and not depend on government agencies to do it for us.

Among hundreds of musicians who are doing their part for going green is Rufus Wainwright, talented son of musician extraordinaire and North Carolina native Loudon Wainwright (and Kate McGarrigle). Rufus Wainwright will present a concert tonight at the Angel Orensanz Foundation Performance Center in NYC to raise awareness for what he calls BlackoutSabbath on June 21st. Tonight Wainwright will perform the entirely acoustic concert lit only by candlelight to call attention to global warming, energy conservation, and the fate of the earth. Furthermore, he is asking everyone to turn off power for twelve hours on the summer solstice, Saturday, June 21, and to spend that time doing something positive to increase eco-awareness. Wainwright believes that no government agency can remedy the situation, nor can all the money in the world. "It has got to be a grassroots movement, " Wainwright declares.

We can pass laws to protect the environment, we can build biofuel plants to recycle grease into biodiesel, but without a personal commitment from each of us as individual consumers, we are just “whistling Dixie.” Let us not come to consciousness too late as Shakespeare’s King Lear did and be forced to cry out in shame and misery: “Oh, I have ta’en too little care of this!” (King Lear, Act III, Sc iv).

Still, government agencies must also do their job and enforce the laws already on the books as well as initiating new reforms as needed. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., the President of Black Warrior Riverkeeper (and the godfather of BWK founder David Whiteside), has some harsh words for ADEM. The following transcript of Kennedy’s comments is from the video made by Black Warrior Riverkeeper: “ The number one problem in the state of Alabama is the failure of government, the failure particularly of the Alabama Department of Environmental Management which has a reputation among the environmental community and civil activists across the country, good government activists across the country, as among the worst environmental agencies in the United States of America. ADEM is the paradigm, the model of the captive-agency phenomenon where agencies actually begin (or) become captured by the interests that they're supposed to regulate--in this case, the biggest polluters in the state, which are dictating ADEM's policies. And rather than protecting the public, which this agency is supposed to do, protecting the rest of us from pollution, they're protecting the rights of the polluters to pollute. And that's something that we have to change if we are going to regain a clean environment in the great State of Alabama."

Here is another event for you Alabamians to post on your calendar. The Green Water Resource Center for Alabama invites you to "Saving Our Water: Facing Tomorrow’s Challenges While Meeting the Water Needs of Today" on Tuesday, March 25, from 8:30 am until 3 pm at Birmingham Botanical Gardens. Go to Green Alabama to register.

Recycling is just one more way we can do our part to help save the earth. I live fifteen miles from Athens, but the city has an excellent recycling program and accepts nearly every type of recyclable material. Many of us on Elk River just load up our recyclables and take them in to Athens once a month. We are truly grateful to have this option available.

Before I conclude, I would like to say a kind word about Dell Inc. Recently my computer monitor died. I contacted recycling and environmental agencies in the state, but none of them recycled computer monitors and no one wanted to purchase a monitor that did not work. I wrote Dell and the company sent me a postage paid label. All I had to do was box up my monitor (thank goodness, I keep all my old boxes and bubble wrap) and ship the monitor back to Dell to be recycled. You can learn more about what Dell is doing to preserve the environment at Dell Earth.

Earth Day 2008, coming up on April 22, gives each of us an opportunity to renew our commitment to living green. Check out the web site for a list of events around the world and to see what you can do to protect your “little postage stamp of native soil.” (William Faulkner).

I just received this notice from the World Wildlife Federation. Earth Hour will be held on March 29 from 8 to 9 pm This is a global movement to shut off the lights for one hour to make a bold statement about climate change. Even whole cities are planning to participate in order to deliver a powerful message to the world about the need for action on climate change.

Keep watching this site for more about Alabama’s Growing Green (becoming a locavore, supporting sustainable and organic farming, and patronizing “green” restaurants in the south). I welcome your comments and suggestions.

Tomorrow, March 20, marks the spring equinox. The actual time is 12:48 am CDT, but we won’t begin the festivities on Elk River until late afternoon. We'll eat, drum, dance, and inscribe prayer ribbons with messages for the earth and for peace and tie them on a tree. Join with us as we celebrate the new beginning!

----Penne J. Laubenthal

related tags

Read More...

Comments

Please login or you can to leave a comment.

If you aren't registered, Register Now to start leaving comments.