Working toward being Green
By Michael Hughes December 22, 2009
The First Push: Conservation
Starting in the 19th century, environmentalists in Boulder worked to identify, protect and extend protection to our greenspace that they felt needed to be protected for future generations. They worked alone in groups to establish the parks, refuges and preserves we treasure today. They rallied against a carnival like plan to put an amusement park at the top of Flagstaff Mountain with a Cog Railway to the top. Over time the vision has expanded from saving single sites and separating residential from industrial or what would now be commercial, to protecting entire ecosystems, wetlands and animal environments.
The Second Push: Environmental Action
The citizens of Boulder for the most part have always seen the action and activism component of pushing ahead on environmental fronts. Their and the general populations’ work has produced regulatory authorities such as the EPA.
The Third Push: Restore. Recycle. Reuse
We are starting to realize that we need to repair and mitigate the environment. From plastic bottles that have ended up in a swirling vortex in the ocean to the garbage barges taken out to sea and dumped off of New Jersey. This needs to stop and we need to rethink the solutions to clean water and neighborhoods because eventually it will catch up to us. We need sustainable systems and communities for the future. We need zero waste. Is anyone going to talk about the elephant in the room? You know Global Warming. Did you know in 2008 46 ski areas, that have never closed in the past, never opened because they lacked the snow and cold enough temperatures to do so? Did you know that the glaciers in Greenland are on there way out. Glaciologist Jason Box said “We’re in the midst of a climate castatrophe and glaciers are the epicenter of that problem.” Dr. Box from Ohio State University, thinks the way to combat melting glaciers is to cover them with blankets that will reflect the sun’s rays.” As the glaciers melt the oceans will rise as is being seen in some islands out in the pacific.
Boulder has been able to reduce it’s landfill refuse to 50% in 2009. That is an accolade worth noting. The better it gets, the better it gets. We need to ask ourselves what can we do today to lower our carbon foot print even further?
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