See What A Mess You're Living In

A commenter, Karen, (thanks!!) brought to my attention this website from Earth Day Network. It has a map with major cities of the US on it, and you click on whatever city to learn it's environmental scores. If you scrol down, it breaks down its averages into smaller numbers, based on things like public health, sprawl, air quality, etc. All in all, it's pretty interesting, and probably gives a great start to understanding the issues surrounding your hometown. I'm not exactly sure about the methodology or the exact science, but use it as a guideline and maybe you can start getting involved in efforts to fix the worst problems.

My original hometown of Philadelphia got a pretty bad rating.. including a 4.1 (1-5 with 5 being the worst) in air quality. We're a rather obese and asthmatic city. Whoops a daisy!


San Francisco has started an aggressive recycling program which is trying to reduce waste going to landfills to zero in the coming years (they already recycle 60% of their waste). They're also starting a local food system to encourage efficiency and community in food production. They got pretty decent scores..better than Philadelphia, anyway. Portland got even better scores, probably due to its incredible land planning.

No cities' without its projects. It's a really hard problem to tackle - how to not only reduce and cut pollution/emissions from cities, but clean former pollution as well.

Anyway, food for thought. Check out your city!

The General Gist, Boo Dominion

To save you having to read the previous essay, I thought I'd summarize.
The goings on in Virginia have never been so Grey's Anatomy-scandaloucious. Dominion, our resident omnipresent electric company, is the largest contributor to political campaigns in Virginia (ai ai ai!) put together a "Re-Regulation" scheme which it put on the floor on the last day of meetings, giving the bill no time to be debated or have real public comment!

Here's the text summary of the Bill from the House. Basically, Dominion will be guaranteed profits, guaranteed no losses and guaranteed to be a monopoly.... Hmm, see antitrust laws.... No competition, which I believe is socialism, is a bad idea...especially when set up with a for-profit, socially-irresponsible company. (Dominion is the 20th largest polluter in the SP500, and if it were a country, it'd be the 34th biggest polluter..from Washington Post)

Dominion asserts there are 2 problems - Virginia's energy demand is growing and it needs to build more coal plants to meet it, and that without regulation, it can't be assured of enough profits to keep truckin'. Well, Dominion has provided no proof of "Virginia's growing energy demand". Even if there is unmeetable growth in energy demand, we can meet it with current energy production and cheap conservation measures.

Sadly, the bill allows Dominion to build coal and nuclear plants a'plenty, with no talk of environmental regulation or abetting costs of pollution (health care, environmental clean up, smog, etc.). And, no talk of investing or encouraging renewable energy, for which the market is projected to double by 2013.... A whole host of organizations have come out against the plan; Washington Post, CCAN, environmental groups, etc. Needless to say, me no likey the plan. The photo shows hazy skies from... air pollution.

(***Aside*** coal plant pollution already is destroying Virginia’s Shenandoah Park, which has nearly 2 million visitors a year. It frequently experiences harmful ozone concentrations, decreased air visibility, and acid rain, all from air pollution from coal plants (NPS). In the 30s and 40s, you could see Washington Monument on a clear day from a mountain in Shenandoah. Now, you're lucky to see 10 miles. Ok, aside done. ****)