Anti-Greenius News

We try to be positive and forward looking here at The Greeniuses, but as Mike's post yesterday on our own personal anti-green habits indicates we all have a long way to go to make the world sustainable.

This week I thought I would share a few stories that are counter to the Green Revolution.

Rule Eases a Mandate Under a Law on Wildlife: Well there goes the polar bear. The good news is that we can get more of the 'fuel from hell,' to borrow Mike's term, from Alaska. Not.

EPA Plays Chicken with Regulations: Turns out that awful smell coming from chicken plants is not just offensive, but is bad for the planet. According to this Treehugger story, certain emissions are 8 times worse from chicken plants in poultry heavy states than from oil refinaries and steel mills combined, something the EPA basically ignores.

And the winner is...Air Conditioned Beach in Dubai: I'm not screwing with you. A hotel in Dubai has an outdoor beach that is air conditioned. This would be bad anywhere, but is made worse by the fact that Dubai is in the middle of a freaking desert. The only place more expensive to a/c would be the tenth circle of hell.

Now that you have once again lost your faith in humanity, let me end on a positive note. My homestate of Florida approved a deal to buy 300 square miles of Everglades land owned by U.S. Sugar for conservation purposes.

Your thoughts?

Local Green

Last week I looked a few articles covering global trends in Green Politics, this week I’m going micro and discussing a couple of stories about local Green.

Florida is going Green from the Ground Up. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection has launched an initiative that “provides the lodging industry with free technical assistance, encouraging hotels and motels to adopt cost-saving “green” practices that reduce waste, conserve natural resources and improve the bottom line.” My home state of Florida is a hotspot for tourists so this imitative could be a huge step towards Green if the lodging industry participates in this initiative.

Gwinnett County, Georgia is getting serious about recycling by imposing a $500 fine for those who don’t separate recyclables from trash. It is good to see my last state of residence taking such a strong step towards Green. I for one support punitive measures, if and only if the government has made things relatively easy for citizens to be Green. In this case it is warranted because you can't get much easier than curb-side recycling.

As for my current locale, after living in Gainesville, Fl and Athens, Ga, where curb-side recycling is the norm, it’s sad to live in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, where not only is curb-side recycling not available but you can’t even recycle glass anywhere in the county. And Hattiesburg is a freaking college town! Imagine the rest of Mississippi. Not to be too hard on my new home, but we have a long way to go.

What’s going on in your local areas? What needs to happen?

(Side note: It's snowing, I mean full on snowing, here in Mississippi today. Crazy.)