‘Net-zero’ school pays off - Bowling Green Daily News: Local News There’s no big smokestack. You also don’t see a bunch of workers scurrying around in hard hats. Rest assured though, Warren County Public Schools has a power plant. The district received a check for $37,227.31 this year. An online service is needed to view this article in its entirety. Login Or, use your linked account: Need an account? The check is tangible evidence that net-zero pays for itself and then some. “It has exceeded expectations. In talking this past week with officials from the nation’s capital to the Pacific Northwest, they agree Richardsville Elementary is still the only major school building in the United States that is not only net-zero, but that also actually earns money from its electricity generation. “That’s net-positive,” said Paul Hutton of Hutton Architecture Studio, a member of Cuningham Group Architecture Inc. in Denver. Hutton has worked with “green schools” since 1982. “That opens up some eyes,” Stanfield said. For example, the old T.C.
What Would a Down-to-Earth Economy Look Like? (Photo: Thomas Hawk)With proper care and respect, Earth can provide a high quality of life for all people in perpetuity. Yet we devastate productive lands and waters for a quick profit, a few temporary jobs, or a one-time resource fix. Our current expansion of tar sands oil extraction, deep-sea oil drilling, hydraulic fracturing natural gas extraction, and mountaintop-removal coal mining are but examples of this insanity. These highly profitable choices deepen our economic dependence on rapidly diminishing, nonrenewable fossil-energy reserves, disrupt the generative capacity of Earth’s living systems, and accelerate climate disruption. A global economy dependent on this nonsense is already failing and its ultimate collapse is only a matter of time. Our Original Instructions Some indigenous people speak of the “original instructions.” “Our instructions, and I’m talking about for all human beings, are to get along … with [nature’s] laws, and support them and work with them.
1 million trees raised in 5 districts In a silent afforestation campaign, a private company has successfully raised more than a million trees on private lands in five districts in the State and recorded a survival rate of 90 per cent. Giving details to The Hindu about the successful planting of saplings and raising them to trees, A. Joseph Rexon, Director, TIST Tree Planting India programme, said it was started in Kancheepuram district with six farmers in 2003. The company approached local panchayat heads to identify farmers owning unproductive lands, where agriculture was not possible. Thanks to the carbon revenues, the company paid farmers at the rate of Rs 2 per tree till they keep the trees alive. Explaining the carbon credit system, Mr Rexon said the credit was arrived at by conducting a field and data verification by a team of auditors from Environmental Services Inc. – a USA-based company. Mr.