Commentary:Protect Children from Lead Poisoning

Published March 8, 2015 in the Cherry Hill Courier-Post

http://www.courierpostonline.com/story/opinion/columnists/2015/03/08/commentary-protect-children-lead-poisoning/24510977/

On the hardwood floor of a Camden apartment, a toddler crawls in circles, playing with her favorite stuffed bunny. Sunlight streams through the picture window framed by peeling white paint. The midafternoon light illuminates the tiny flakes of dust swirling like snow from a snow globe, before settling on the floor around her.

She makes the bunny hop from the sofa to the chair, gathering the nearly invisible dust on its paws. Giggling, she chews on the toy, delighted at the sweet taste. With this innocent act, her life is changed forever.

She has become one of the 5,000 children poisoned by lead each year in New Jersey.

Lead poisoning, which causes irreversible brain damage and disproportionately affects our state’s most vulnerable children, is easily prevented. By supporting state Senate Bill S1279, we can restore the nearly depleted fund to remove this hidden threat.

Though lead was outlawed as a paint additive in 1978, it lingers in older homes, posing a special danger in poorly maintained low-income housing. Young children often ingest the poison while crawling on floors contaminated by paint dust, and then putting fingers and toys into their mouths. Often, they are drawn to the sweet taste of the metal.

Tragically, the children most easily exposed are also those who suffer the worst effects. Lead is devastating to a child’s developing brain, causing learning disabilities, significantly lowered IQ and behavioral problems. The Environmental Protection Agency warns that particles only the size of two grains of sugar per day, ingested over a month, can cause impairment.

This devastation, in turn, ripples throughout our society. By impairing the brain mechanisms that govern impulse control and recognition of consequences, the toxin increases the likelihood of aggressive, criminal and even violent behavior. Studies by Harvard researcher Jessica Wolpaw Reyes, economist Rick Nevin and others have closely linked childhood lead exposure with crime rates.

Lead constitutes a special hazard for our state, due to the aged housing stock in New Jersey’s cities. Further, in the wake of Superstorm Sandy, lead safety is imperative as damaged homes are restored. Yet New Jersey’s lead standards lag shamefully behind those of other states.

Though there are no safe levels, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention set the threshold of concern at 5 micrograms per deciliter of blood. New Jersey has not only failed to formally adopt this guideline, but has consistently mismanaged the fund meant to remedy our lead problem.

New Jersey’s Lead Hazard Control Assistance Fund provides lead abatement, home testing, and lead safety education. However, an Asbury Park Press investigation revealed that since 2004, over $50 million has been diverted from the fund to pay routine state salaries and bills. In a further demonstration of negligence, state officials have failed to enact a 2008 law to ensure lead-safe conditions in one- and two-family rentals.

While the harm from lead is irreversible, New Jersey’s pattern of neglect is not.

With S1279, we can ensure a lead-safe future for our state’s children. The bill, scheduled for a March 9 hearing, will pump $10 million into the nearly empty lead hazard control fund. These funds will be used to abate lead-contaminated buildings, provide emergency relocation and early intervention for children with elevated blood lead levels, offer training in lead-safe building maintenance, and distribute free dust-wipe kits for families and X-ray fluorescence analyzers for health departments. It will also promote statewide education and transparency regarding this insidious toxin.

By voicing support for S1279, we can let our state senators know that the futures of low-income children matter. Through the simple, cost-effective measures provided by this bill, New Jersey can save thousands of innocent children from the scourge of lead poisoning.

Valerie Saturen is a freelance journalist whose writing has appeared in In These Times, Yes! Magazine, the Jewish Week, Next Step Magazine and other publications. She lives in North Haledon.

Eliminating My Own Great Garbage Patch

Published September 29, 2010 in the Tacoma Weekly.

http://www.tacomaweekly.com/article/4933/

As I brought the plastic bottle of iced tea to my lips, I paused before taking a sip and stared at the horrific image on my television screen. Mired in oil, a pelican was struggling to free itself of the deadly slick from the Deepwater Horizon spill. I almost did not have the stomach to polish off the big plastic bag of tortilla chips I was scarfing. Tossing the refuse of my snack into a plastic trash bag, I grabbed the plastic remote and turned off the heart-wrenching newscast.

But the images continued to haunt me. As much as I railed at British Petroleum for its recklessness and shook my fist at the government’s aversion to stronger environmental regulation, I knew deep down that I had played my own part in the disaster. Like most Americans, I enjoy a comfortable lifestyle driven by an unquenchable thirst for oil. Maybe I could not go stuff Tony Hayward into the well and save all those poor otters and sea turtles. But I could, at least, change my own consumption habits. Walking and using public transportation was a first step, but since I already lead an almost car-free lifestyle, I decided to take things a step further. As long as oil kept spewing into the Gulf, I resolved to abstain from using disposable plastic.

The environmental impact of plastic extends far beyond the petroleum used to make the material. In a landfill, plastic bags can take an estimated 500 years to break down. Fewer than 2 percent of plastic bags end up getting recycled. Instead, they litter our streets and pollute our oceans. Isolated beaches in Hawaii, despite their remoteness, have been thoroughly covered by plastic debris. According to studies, 100,000 marine animals, an unknown number of sea turtles, and 2 million birds die every year with bellies full of trash. Nowhere is the crisis more flagrant than in current-driven garbage patches where the plastic to sea life ratio is six to one. The largest of these patches is the Pacific Gyre, or Great Garbage Patch, which is roughly the size of Texas and contains 3.5 million tons of waste. Much of this garbage has broken down into tiny pieces that bond to toxic endocrine disruptors such as polychlorinated biphenyls and dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane. The pieces are consumed by small fish and jellyfish, carrying their toxicity up the food chain as the contaminated creatures are eaten by bigger fish. They, in turn, pass our poisons right back to us on the dinner table.

Despite its deadliness, plastic is omnipresent. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, more than 380 billion plastic bags, sacks and wraps are consumed each year in the United States. Immediately, it became clear that breaking the habit completely would be virtually impossible. I would have to stop brushing my teeth, do away with my asthma pills and inhalers, and somehow find a store that sold quill pens. Still, it is surprisingly easy to keep plastic to a bare minimum by remembering the “three Rs”: reduce, reuse, and recycle.

Reducing starts with the choices we make at the grocery store. Opt for the glass jar of peanut butter, the paper milk carton, the cardboard box of detergent, or the aluminum can. Recycling aluminum is cheaper than producing new aluminum, and it is completely and endlessly recyclable. For a tasty snack, try Sun Chips, which are now packaged in plant-based compostable bags that biodegrade in 14 weeks. One hundred percent biodegradable trash and pet waste bags are also available from companies like Bio Bags, which manufactures them from a corn-based material. Many co-ops and farmers markets sell bulk foods and detergents you can stash in a reusable container. Finally, ditch the unhealthy processed foods and head for the fresh fruits and veggies. Buy your bread from the fresh bakery section or bake your own (look for a cheap bread maker at your local thrift store).

Reusable options abound, from bringing a cloth or canvas bag on shopping trips to toting a stainless steel drink holder. Many grocery stores offer a small discount per reusable bag, and Starbucks similarly rewards customers who bring reusable coffee cups. Cloth bags and Tupperware containers are great for lunches and leftovers, and cloth napkins and kitchen towels eliminate the need for the plastic-wrapped paper kind.

If plastic containers are an absolute must, buying the largest size possible and keeping the container for future storage are two ways to reduce waste. For those old plastic bags you have been stashing under the sink, look for specially marked recycle bins at participating retailers.

Now that the gusher has been sealed, it is tempting to go back to my old ways, pushing aside the images of muck-covered wildlife. But I do not think I will ever return to my former pattern of careless consumption. Like a fish in the Pacific, I am ensnared in my own garbage patch, but – little by little – I am learning to break free.

Green-Collar Jobs: Growing Jobs in the Environmental Field

Published in the March 2010 issue of Next Step Magazine.
http://www.nextstepmagazine.com/nextstep/articlePage1.aspx?artId=3556&categoryId=62

America is going green, and going green is going to take a lot of work. With the spotlight on the environment, new job opportunities are opening up.

These “green-collar” jobs provide good wages, and the training is affordable—usually requiring an associate degree at most. And with the help of $500 million in federal stimulus funds, many new training programs are appearing in order to meet the growing demand.

A study by the American Solar Energy Society showed that American green-collar jobs totaled more than 9 million in 2007, and as many as 37 million can be created by 2030. These jobs include building energy-efficient homes and businesses, restoring habitats, installing solar panels and wind turbines, and producing biofuels.

Find a job in: energy efficiency
Some of the fastest growing green-collar jobs involve designing and building modern, environmentally friendly buildings, and weatherizing homes and businesses to make them more energy efficient.

In order to help families and businesses save energy, workers insulate attics and walls, put caulking around windows, and install energy-saving appliances like solar water heaters.

Energy efficiency has created new careers in green architecture and energy auditing, while putting a new spin on traditional careers like heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) technicians, carpenters, electricians and plumbers.

Find a job in: renewable energy
Because of concerns about global warming and high oil prices, renewable energy—power generated from natural sources like the sun, wind and geothermal heat—is making up a growing part of our energy use. Solar power is another fast-growing field.

Career opportunities in solar energy include solar system installers and managers, solar engineers and engine assemblers. Meanwhile, wind has the potential to provide 20 percent of the nation’s energy needs, according to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

This means more engine assemblers, machinists and mechanical engineers are needed to build wind turbines. And then there’s geothermal energy, which is created by drilling wells into underground reservoirs to tap steam and very hot water. This requires welders, mechanics, plumbers, architects, geologists and hydrologists.

Find a job in: alternative fuels
The same concerns driving renewable energy have helped the growing popularity of alternative fuels, including biodiesel, ethanol and fuel cells.

In 2007, there were 1.8 million alternative fuel vehicles sold in the United States, according to the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers. These jobs are likely to grow even more as a result of legislation that requires the U.S. to sell 36 billion gallons of renewable fuels by 2022.

Some jobs in alternative fuels are ethanol plant and systems operators, ethanol plant technicians, electrical maintenance mechanics and biodiesel lab technicians.

Find a job in: habitat restoration
Habitat restoration is the process of cleaning up polluted habitats in order to re-establish healthy, self-sustaining ecosystems.

Along with many nonprofit organizations nationwide, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service implements numerous conservation projects. Someone with a career in habitat restoration might restore salmon spawning beds, remove toxic algae and invasive species, plant native trees and other vegetation, or teach kids about protecting the environment.

Get your green education at a community college

“Community colleges have a large role to play in vocational skills training, especially in this day and age, with green-collar jobs,” says Linda Kurokawa, director of Community Services and Business Development at San Diego’s MiraCosta College (miracosta.cc.ca.us).

MiraCosta offers training for future solar and wind installers. These one-week accelerated courses give students hands-on preparation for longer, more involved apprenticeship programs offered by unions in San Diego.

Florida’s Palm Beach Community College (pbcc.edu) is offering a new degree program in alternative energy.

At Central Carolina Community College (cccc.edu), students can study green building, biofuels, sustainable agriculture, ecotourism or organic culinary arts.

Los Angeles Community College District’s (laccd.edu) green building program is a “living laboratory” for students, who are helping to revamp campuses with solar panels and power-generating windmills.

The Triple Bottom Line: Green-Collar Jobs

Published in What's Working, the Winter 2010 issue of WIN Magazine. (An earlier version of this article appeared in Learn as You Go, the Fall 2009 issue of YES! Magazine.)
http://www.warresisters.org/node/940

Over the past few decades, the decline of industry has meant lower wages and uncertain employment for a growing number of U.S. workers. Yet communities across the country are being revived by a growing job market in clean energy and energy efficiency. These green-collar jobs offer simultaneous solutions to several of the nation’s most pressing issues: economic wellbeing, environmental sustainability, and peace.

According to a 2009 report by the American Solar Energy Society, American green-collar jobs totaled more than 9 million in 2007, and 37 million can be created by 2030, if policymakers support renewable energy and energy efficiency initiatives at the state and federal level. “We must build a 21st-century workforce in America to compete in the new clean energy economy. This means training a new generation of workers to fill a wide range of skilled jobs in the rapidly growing green sector,” says Phil Angelides, Chairman of the Apollo Alliance, a coalition formed in 2001 to push for a clean energy revolution.

Climate change legislation such as the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act, introduced in the Senate by John Kerry (DMA) and Barbara Boxer (D-CA), promises to expand the clean energy industry by capping carbon emissions and boosting job training programs. Every dollar spent on clean energy creates nearly four times as many jobs as a dollar invested in oil and gas, Kerry pointed out in an op-ed promoting the bill.

Pathways out of Poverty

Because green-collar job training is affordable—usually requiring an associate’s degree at most—and because these jobs typically offer good living wages, they represent a way out of poverty and into the middle class. For example, an experienced journeyman trained to retrofit houses stands to make up to $50 an hour. “If a job improves the environment but doesn’t provide a family-supporting wage or a career ladder to move low-income workers into higher-skilled occupations, it is not a green-collar job,” says Apollo Alliance spokesman Sam Haswell.

The creation of green-collar jobs is having a positive impact on communities plagued by violence and economic despair. “By increasing green jobs training opportunities for young people in low-income areas,” says Haswell, “we can create pathways out of poverty and help end the cycle of violence that afflicts many of America’s poorest communities.”

In Santa Fe, where the high school graduation rate languishes below 50 percent, a group called ¡Youthworks! collaborated with city officials and local businesses to create the Green Collar Jobs Apprenticeship Program in 2008. The program offers youth valuable training, academic skill building, and job counseling, while helping to change their image in the community.

“There’s a lot of racism and discrimination and bad perceptions of young people in Santa Fe,” says Tobe Bott-Lyons, educational coordinator at ¡Youthworks!. “And now you see these tattooed kids that people are generally used to being scared of restoring the river and building a house, and they’re retrofitting homes and installing solar panels.”

Lauren Herrera’s life turned upside-down when her six-yearold son died last year. She started getting into trouble, which culminated in drug-related felony charges that caused her to lose her job as a dental assistant. Scarce jobs and a criminal record made it hard to find work, until ¡Youthworks! gave her an opportunity to turn her life around and play a positive role in her community. Now she weatherizes homes for low-income families with the newly launched Energy RX crew. “They’re ecstatic when they find out it’s free,” she says. “It’s very rewarding.”

Fostering Peace

Since green-collar jobs offer alternatives to youth whose limited career options may have once pushed them toward military service, some peace organizations view them as a counterweight to the “poverty draft.” The American Friends Service Committee notes on its website that the Pentagon devoted $4 billion to recruitment among low-income and minority youth in 2003. The organization has highlighted green jobs in the career guides it makes available to youth who are considering military service.

As the green economy develops, it is likely to help ease conflicts over resources and climate change-driven social upheaval. “Transitioning to homegrown renewable fuels will reduce our dependence on unstable, war-torn regimes to meet our own growing demand for oil, which will in turn increase U.S. energy security and also help curb climate change,” asserts Haswell.

Few understand this equation more personally than the veterans who have seen first-hand the harmful effects of oil dependency. They are raising their voices through organizations such as Operation Free, a veterans group fighting for climate change legislation and green jobs. Main State Rep. and Operation Free Campaign Coordinator Alex Cornell du Houx says he began thinking about the need for clean energy while deployed with the Marines in Fallujah in 2006. He and other veterans recently toured 22 states telling their stories and highlighting the importance of green energy as a national security issue. In December, Operation Free members joined representatives of 170 countries at the international climate conference in Copenhagen.

Veterans have another reason to take the initiative in developing the green economy: They have suffered disproportionately during the current recession. The jobless rate for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans aged 20–24 reached 15 percent in February, compared with a 13.8 percent jobless rate for non-veterans in the same age group. After finding that their military training has fewer applications in the civilian job search than they had expected, many veterans end up reenlisting. As a result, they often experience the strain of additional combat tours.

Veterans Green Jobs, a part of the Operation Free coalition, trains veterans in home weatherization and helps place them in energy-efficiency jobs in Colorado. One of its programs, called Home Energy Audit Training (HEAT), offers veterans a monthly stipend while they conduct training in the field. “Not only does it get veterans employed,” says Cornell du Houx, “but it gives them skills and training for a job that can’t be exported.”

Participating in the green economy provides veterans with more than a job, however. “All veterans come home with some form of PTSD,” says Cornell du Houx. As they cope with the psychological scars of war and struggle to readapt to civilian life, these jobs also provide a source of healing and a new sense of mission.

Job Training

Throughout the country, community college programs in alternative energy have been flooded with recently unemployed workers and those simply seeking valuable new skills. In Michigan, which suffers the nation’s highest unemployment rate (12 percent), the transition to a green economy promises to revive communities that have been devastated by job losses in the auto industry. Michigan’s Green Jobs Initiative is one of the programs made possible by the $500 million in federal stimulus funds allocated for green workforce development. The funding allows workers to receive up to $10,000 to enroll in the new training programs.

The alternative energy degree program at Lansing Community College, one of the first of its kind, has seen enrollment grow from 42 students in 2005 to 252 in 2008. Starting in the fall, the college will be offering new certificates in solar, geothermal, wind turbines, and energy efficiency. The college has also partnered with the National Alternative Fuels Training Consortium (NAFTC) to develop an alternative energy curriculum for other colleges and universities nationwide.

At the same time, there’s a return to the apprenticeship model of learning by doing and a growing acknowledgement that valuable education happens outside the classroom.

In Bellingham, Wash., which National Public Radio’s Marketplace recently declared “the epicenter of a new economic model,” the Opportunity Council’s Building Performance Center is teaming up with Bellingham Technical College to provide green workforce development. “We feel like this training has to take place on the job and in the field,” says the center’s director John Davies. “The training has to include hands-on learning along with the learning that takes place in the classroom.”

The center is one of 26 agencies participating in a state-run project that sends trainers to teach home audits and energy retrofits in communities across Washington, including those that are not served by established training programs. Led by experienced peer technicians, these sessions are customized to meet the specific needs of Washington agencies that provide low-income weatherization services.

Sound Alliance, in Pierce County, Wash., matches women, people of color, youth, and members of other traditionally disadvantaged groups with openings in green-collar apprenticeship programs. Like other Industrial Areas Foundation organizations, the alliance empowers people to create change and become grassroots leaders. One leader, Steve Gelb, emphasizes the need to train workers in deep retrofitting, which involves not only simple weatherization, but replacing furnaces and water heaters. “We do that for two reasons; it saves more energy, and it also creates higher-skilled jobs.”

The need for green workforce development has produced unprecedented collaboration among labor and environmental organizations, government agencies, schools, and businesses. Steve Gelb says that this collaboration has turned the historical divide between labor and environmental concerns on its head. “We call it the ‘triple bottom line,’” he says. “We’re reducing carbon, creating jobs, and saving money for people in the homes we’re retrofitting.”

Trade Your Job

Published in Fall 2009 issue of YES! Magazine: http://www.yesmagazine.com/issues/learn-as-you-go/trade-your-job

The old apprenticeship model of learning by doing gets new life as people who’ve been left out of the job market train to meet the growing demand for green-collar workers.

Youth participants in the ¡Youthworks! Green Collar Jobs Apprenticeship Program in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Photo courtesy of ¡YouthWorks!

In the last 30 years, wages have dropped for people without college degrees. But in Pierce County, Washington, high school students who aren’t headed for college are learning to retrofit houses; they stand to make up to $50 an hour once they’re experienced journeymen. In Lansing, Michigan, unemployed auto workers can get up to $10,000 to train for new careers in renewable energy. These people, and others nationwide, are part of a rapidly expanding market for green-collar workers.

Since green-collar job training is affordable—usually requiring an associate’s degree at most—and since these jobs typically offer good living wages, they represent a pathway out of poverty and into the middle class.

“If a job improves the environment but doesn’t provide a family-supporting wage or a career ladder to move low-income workers into higher-skilled occupations, it is not a green-collar job,” says Sam Haswell of the Apollo Alliance, a coalition formed in 2001 to push for a clean-energy revolution.

Photo courtesy of ¡YouthWorks!

According to a 2009 report by the American Solar Energy Society, there were 9 million green-collar jobs in the United States in 2007, and 37 million could be created by 2030 if policymakers support renewable energy and energy efficiency initiatives at the state and federal level.

“We must build a 21st century workforce in America to compete in the new clean energy economy,” says Apollo Alliance Chair Phil Angelides. “This means training a new generation of workers to fill a wide range of skilled jobs in the rapidly growing green sector.”

The need for green workforce development has produced unprecedented collaboration among labor and environmental organizations, government agencies, schools, and businesses. There’s a return to the apprenticeship model of learning by doing and a growing acknowledgement that valuable education happens outside the classroom.

In Bellingham, Washington, which NPR’s Marketplace recently declared “the epicenter of a new economic model,” the Opportunity Council’s Building Performance Center is teaming up with Bellingham Technical College to provide green workforce development. “We feel like this training has to take place on the job and in the field,” says the Center’s director, John Davies. “The training has to include hands-on learning along with the learning that takes place in the classroom.”

The Center is one of 26 agencies participating in a state-run project that sends trainers to teach home audits and energy retrofits in communities across Washington, including those not served by established training programs. Led by experienced peer technicians, these sessions are customized to meet the specific needs of Washington agencies that provide low-income weatherization services.

Photo courtesy of ¡YouthWorks!

Sound Alliance, in Pierce County, Washington, matches women, people of color, youth, and members of other traditionally disadvantaged groups with openings in green-collar apprenticeship programs. Like other Industrial Areas Foundation organizations, the Sound Alliance empowers people to create change and become grassroots leaders. One leader, Steve Gelb, emphasizes the need to train workers in deep retrofitting, which involves not only simple weatherization, but replacing furnaces and water heaters. Doing so saves more energy and also creates higher-skilled jobs, Gelb says.

When youth and people from disadvantaged communities step into such high-demand, high-salary jobs, it not only gives them an avenue toward a brighter future; it also helps to change community perceptions of them. In Santa Fe, New Mexico, for instance, the group ¡Youthworks! joined with city officials and local businesses to create the Green Collar Jobs Apprenticeship Program in 2008. The program provides valuable training, academic skill building, and job counseling to youth in a city where the dropout rate hovers around 50 percent.

“There’s a lot of racism and discrimination and bad perceptions of young people in Santa Fe,” says Tobe Bott-Lyons, educational coordinator at ¡Youthworks! “Now you see these tattooed kids that people are generally used to being scared of restoring the river and building a house, and they’re retrofitting homes and installing solar panels.”

Lauren Herrera’s life turned upside down when her 6-year-old son passed away last year. She started getting into trouble, which culminated in drug-related felony charges that caused her to lose her job as a dental assistant. Scarce jobs and a criminal record made it hard to find work, until ¡Youthworks! gave her an opportunity to play a positive role in her community. Now she weatherizes homes for low-income families with the newly launched Energy RX crew. “They’re ecstatic when they find out the weatherization is free,” she says. “It’s very rewarding.”

Young people aren’t the only ones looking for green-collar jobs. Throughout the country, community college programs in alternative energy have been flooded with recently unemployed workers and those simply seeking valuable new skills. In Michigan, which suffers the nation’s highest unemployment rate, the transition to a green economy promises to revive communities that have been devastated by job losses in the auto industry. Michigan’s Green Jobs Initiative is one of the programs made possible by the $500 million in federal stimulus funds allocated for green workforce development. The money helps workers enroll in new community college programs in green sector fields like alternative energy.

The alternative energy degree program at Lansing Community College, one of the first of its kind, has grown from 42 students in 2005 to 252 in 2008. Starting this fall, the college will offer new certificates in solar, geothermal, wind turbines, and energy efficiency. The college also has partnered with the National Alternative Fuels Training Consortium to develop an alternative energy curriculum for colleges and universities nationwide.

Gelb says that green workforce development has turned on its head the historical divide between labor and environmental concerns. “We call it the ‘triple bottom line,’” he says. “We’re reducing carbon, creating jobs, and saving money for people in the homes we’re retrofitting.”

Evangelicals' Faith Leads Them to Issues of Environment, Social Justice

Published in YES! Magazine (Fall 2008: Purple America issue): http://www.yesmagazine.org/article.asp?ID=2845

A passion for environmental action and social justice is spreading in what some may consider unexpected places. Had you walked into Northland, A Church Distributed—an evangelical megachurch in Florida—one Saturday morning last August, you would have found parishioners in Kevlar suits sifting through the congregation’s trash. Their mission: to fulfill what they consider the biblical imperative to be good stewards of the Earth. Led by senior pastor Joel C. Hunter, an advocate of the pro-environment, evangelical Creation Care movement, the churchgoers sorted about 30 bins of trash in order to assess the congregation’s environmental impact.

After the church showed the film “The Great Warming,” featuring National Association of Evangelicals spokesman Richard Cizik, they wanted to take action. When they were finished assessing the congregation’s waste, they created a 140-page audit of the church’s solid waste, energy management, landscaping, and water use, which formed the basis of Northland’s strategy for lowering its carbon footprint. Creation Care at Northland didn’t end there. After services another weekend, the church held a Creation Care event with 30 environmentally-friendly vendors and organizations. Then, in February, evangelical leaders hosted an interfaith summit at Northland, training religious leaders to promote sustainability within their own congregations.

Rev. Hunter is one of a growing number of evangelicals creating an alternative to an evangelical political platform long dominated by hot-button issues such as gay marriage and abortion. While maintaining a socially conservative platform, Hunter and others are expanding their agendas to address concerns such as global warming, poverty, education, and peacemaking. His recent book, A New Kind of Conservative, sounds a call for social justice and compassion for the disadvantaged. According to Hunter, younger generations are avoiding the negative tone and single-issue focus of the Christian Right. “As a movement progresses and matures,” he says, “it begins to define itself by what it’s for instead of what it’s against. It starts to think of pro-life in terms of life outside the womb as well as inside the womb.” He likens this shift to the changes a person goes through while growing up. “When you’re in middle school, you define yourself as who you hate and what you hate. But when you grow up, you start to say, ‘Now, what do I like? What do I want to build? What do I want my life to mean?’”

Black and Hispanic evangelicals have played a major role in shifting the agenda. A 2004 poll by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research, Inc. for Religion & Ethics Newsweekly and U.S. News & World Report showed that while white evangelicals considered socially conservative moral values their first priority (37%), 41% of black and 34% of Hispanic respondents placed a different moral issue—the economy—first.

Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, leader of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference (NHCLC), believes Hispanic evangelicals serve as a natural bridge between the “righteousness platform” of white evangelicals and the “justice platform” of the black church. While the approximately 15 million Hispanic evangelicals in America often oppose abortion and gay marriage, many also hold progressive, populist views on issues such as poverty, health care, education, and racial equality.

Immigration is one contentious issue Rodriguez hopes to see depolarized. The NHCLC envisions a “middle path” between upholding the rule of law and exercising compassion toward the approximately 12 million undocumented immigrants already living in the U.S. In response to HR 4437, the 2005 bill designed to rein in illegal immigration, NHCLC drafted a proposal calling for comprehensive immigration reform that would include penalties and the payment of back taxes while “bringing immigrants out of the shadows” and providing a path to citizenship.

Rodriguez’s concern for social justice stems from his upbringing in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, where he witnessed economic upheaval and the decline of industry. As the region transformed, he saw rising levels of violence and racial inequality that persisted as the city grew increasingly diverse. In neighboring Allentown, where the high-school graduation rate was only 60.7% in 2005, evangelical pastors are making efforts to become a “firewall” against gang violence and high dropout rates. In collaboration with Allentown mayor Ed Pawlowski, the NHCLC-affiliated Third Day Worship Center launched an initiative to address these problems, creating an after-school mentoring program for at-risk youth. The effort, coinciding with the creation of Allentown’s Office of Faith-Based Initiatives, was part of Generation Fuerza (Generation Strength), an NHCLC campaign to reduce teen pregnancy, dropout rates, and gang involvement. Generation Fuerza advocates will begin meeting with Congress in October to promote this agenda.

The social justice approach extends beyond the domestic sphere. Evangelicals for Darfur, a member of the Save Darfur Coalition, includes advocates across the political spectrum, from Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention to Jim Wallis, editor of the progressive Sojourners magazine. In 2006, the group ran full-page ads in 10 major newspapers entitled “Without You, Mr. President, Darfur Doesn’t Have a Prayer,” urging support for international peacekeeping forces and multilateral economic sanctions. In addition to pushing for action, the group solicits donations for relief efforts and promotes education about the genocide.

Other evangelical groups are advocating peace between Israelis and Palestinians. They urge a two-state solution to the conflict, offering an alternative to the approach of more visible leaders such as John Hagee, founder of Christians United for Israel (CUFI) and senior pastor of the Cornerstone megachurch in San Antonio, Texas. Hagee is an influential proponent of Christian Zionism, which takes literally the biblical Book of Revelation and views an apocalyptic war in the Middle East as a necessary precursor to the Second Coming of Christ. As Christian Zionists, Hagee and his organization believe that Israel has a divinely sanctioned right to the West Bank and Gaza, and are actively involved in lobbying Washington to oppose “land for peace” and the creation of a Palestinian state.

Evangelicals for Middle East Understanding was founded in part to counter what the organization calls “a rising tide of Western interpretation of the nation of Israel as the fulfillment of biblical prophecy.” Its Executive Director, Leonard Rodgers, believes the key to understanding lies in forming personal ties between American evangelicals and Middle Eastern Christians and Muslims, which the group accomplishes through its Living Stones delegations to the region. The organization is especially committed to forging ties with Middle Eastern Christians, a community Rodgers says few Americans are aware of. “When you introduce them and they build a relationship, they begin to understand the Middle East through the eyes of a Middle Easterner,” he says.

Last November, about 100 leaders signed an open letter by Evangelicals for Social Action, a group devoted to social and economic justice. “In the context of our ongoing support for the security of Israel, we believe that unless the situation between Israel and Palestine improves quickly, the consequences will be devastating,” the letter reads, commending Israeli and Palestinian leadership for supporting a two-state solution. The letter reaffirmed the call for peace contained in a July 2007 open letter to President Bush signed by 39 prominent evangelical leaders.

A key factor in the changing face of evangelicalism is the appearance of a young generation that is more expansive in its social outlook. While they are likely to share the socially conservative approach of their parents, younger evangelicals are being shaped by the dynamic world of globalization, technology, and online social networking.

Ben Lowe, 24, studied environmental biology at Wheaton College and is active in several Creation Care groups on Facebook. Last year, he brought together student leaders from 15 campuses for the January 2007 Wheaton Creation Care Summit and participated in Power Shift 2007, joining tens of thousands of other young adults in Washington, D.C. to confront global warming. He now works for A Rocha, a Christian organization devoted to conservation. Although his peers sometimes express suspicion toward environmentalism, they often change their minds once introduced to the issue in a biblical context. “Once we show from the Bible that being good stewards of the environment is our privilege and responsibility,” says Lowe, “then my peers are usually very enthusiastic and supportive.”

Rowan University graduate Dan Lebo, 22, now attends Palmer Theological Seminary. He received a scholarship to work with Evangelicals for Social Action and helped distribute its call for Middle East peace. “The American political landscape can be a very frustrating place for younger evangelicals,” says Lebo, because the issues they care about fall across the spectrum. “It would be very hard to pigeonhole young evangelicals into any political sphere. However, at the same time we are becoming very politically engaged. We realize how important politics can be to the welfare of our society and our world and are understanding that being apathetic about politics doesn’t help anything or anyone.”

Beyond the 'Big Ditch': CAP holds Water Leadership Forum

Published in July 2008 issue of Tucson Green Magazine.

On May 14, the Central Arizona Project (CAP) held a Water Leadership Forum at the Four Points Sheraton Hotel, inviting the public to learn about the history and future of Arizona's most valuable resource. In the face of eight years of drought, climate change, and a potential water shortage, the forum explored ways to meet the water needs of Arizona's exploding population.

During the early 1900s, the seven states of the Colorado River Basin--Arizona, California, Nevada, New Mexico, Wyoming, Colorado, and Utah--competed for access to Colorado River water. Out of this debate came the Colorado River Compact of 1922, which divided the states into the upper and lower basins, each allotted 7.5 million acre-feet per year. (One acre-foot equals 325,851 gallons, the amount used annually by an average family).

Legal and political disputes, particularly between Arizona and California, caused Arizona to be the last state to approve the Compact, which it did in 1944. In 1968, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Colorado River Basin Project Act authorizing construction of CAP, and three years later, the Central Arizona Water Conservation District (CAWCD) was established to manage CAP and reimburse the federal government for construction costs.

From Lake Havasu to south of Tucson, CAP's canal system stretches 336 miles to distribute 1.5 million acre-feet of water per year to Maricopa, Pinal, and Pima Counties. CAP is "more than just a 'big ditch,'" said CAWCD General Manager Sid Wilson. It includes 14 pumping plants, a hydroelectric pump/generating plant at New Waddell Dam, 39 radial gate structures to control water flow, more than 40 turnouts to deliver water to treatment plants, and the Lake Pleasant reservoir. In order to lift water more than 2,900 vertical feet, the system requires significant energy--over 2.5 billion kilowatt-hours per year, which comes from the Navajo Generating Station, Hoover Dam and New Waddell Dam.

Coping with a potential shortage, which could begin as early as 2011, is a key concern for CAP. In a shortage, a priority system governs allocation. According to the Colorado River Basin Project Act, Arizona's allotted 2.8 million acre-feet is subordinate to other states in the basin. Within Arizona, there is another system of priorities. Municipal and Industrial (M&I)--including the City of Tucson--and Native American use will take precedence over non-Native American agriculture and excess water users such as the Arizona Water Bank and the Central Arizona Groundwater Replenishment District.

The availability of water for downstream users is determined by the water elevation (above sea level) in Lake Mead, which is currently around 1108 feet. 1075 feet is considered the first level of shortage, but has no impact on water delivery. At 1025 or lower, water bank replenishment and agriculture would begin to face reductions. A recent study by Tim Barnett and David Pierce at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego, forecasted a 50% chance that Lake Mead will go "dry" by 2021. CAP spokesman Bob Barrett called the study "flawed," not taking into account river augmentation efforts and shortage reduction plans.

In the event of a shortage, CAP is exploring a number of coping strategies, including replacing non-native salt cedars (tamarisks) with native cottonwoods, which absorb less water; desalinization and possible re-operation of the Yuma desalting plant, which has been dry for over a decade; imported surface water; groundwater development, and cloud seeding to increase Colorado snow packs. The Arizona Water Banking Authority was established in 1996 to develop long-term storage in underground recharge projects for times of shortage.

The forum also addressed conservation. The Lower Colorado River Multi-Species Conservation Program of 2005 balances existing and projected Colorado River water usage with conservation of threatened species and habitat restoration. The 50-year program conserves existing habitat, creates new habitats (8,132 acres), and protects six endangered and threatened species, including the Yuma clapper rail, the southwestern willow flycatcher, the desert tortoise, the bonytail, the humpback chub, and the razorback sucker. CAP has agreed to cover $52 million of the project's total $626 million costs over 50 years.

To learn more about CAP visit online at www.cap-az.com or call its Phoenix office at (623) 869-2333

Solar festival offers a taste of green energy

Published April 15 in Tucson Green Magazine

As summer approaches, Tucsonans may view the sun as an ominous harbinger of sweltering 100 degree days to come. For some, however, Tucson's omnipresent sun represents an opportunity for change and a path toward sustainable living.

On April 26, solar enthusiasts will gather at Catalina State Park for the 26th Annual Festival of the Sun and Solar Potluck, a family-friendly celebration of the power of solar energy with music, food, and demonstrations on innovative solar technology. According to organizers, the event is one of the longest running solar events in North America, second only to the annual meeting of the American Solar Energy Society.

The potluck is organized by Citizens for Solar, which was formed for the purpose of putting on the event. Ed Eaton, a solar pioneer and founding member of the group, began the tradition in 1981 with a small group of friends. Over the next few years, the event continued to grow, and organizers began holding the potluck at Catalina State Park. Last year, the event drew about 1,500 people.

One new feature this year is the Teahouse of the Rising Sun, a place where attendees can gather in the shade, enjoy a cup of tea, and listen to a lineup of guest speakers who will address this year's Paths to Sustainability theme. Eaton will be one of the speakers this year, discussing the long history of the solar industry. Mark Schwirtz of Trico Electric Cooperative, and Bill Henry of Tucson Electric Power will explain the utility rebate program for solar systems. Bruce Plenk, solar coordinator for the City of Tucson, will offer another perspective, discussing what the city is doing to go green.

A solar-powered stage, supplied by George Villec of GeoInnovation, will provide live music, including local artist Black Man Clay.

In addition to speakers, performances, and hands-on kids' activities, there will be ample opportunities to see cutting edge solar technology in action. "It's almost become a game of one-upmanship every year between the exhibitors," said Jerry M. Samaniego, the group's president. "Everybody likes to have new things every year."

Samaniego, whose father owns Expert Solar Systems, grew up with an appreciation for solar energy. He has helped his father run the local business for 18 years, and been involved with Citizens for Solar for about ten years, serving as president for the past two. "The solar potluck is really my favorite solar event of the year," he said. "Now I bring my two kids out there, and they have fun."

While a variety of solar technology will be on display, the main attraction will be at least 50 solar ovens and cookers of various types. Some are quite powerful. One year, someone made stir fry and popcorn, which requires about 450 degrees, using an enormous solar reflector parabolic cooker. Other participants have made turkey, pizza, and a plethora of vegetarian food. Demonstrators will hand out food samples of all kinds throughout the day, culminating in a potluck dinner at 5 p.m.

Toby Schneider, treasurer of Citizens for Solar, has been involved with the group along with his wife, Vivian Harte, for many years. Solar power is increasingly entering the mainstream, said Schneider, in part for economic reasons. "With increased energy prices, more people are thinking of solar as a long term investment," he said. According to Schneider, an inverter, which changes DC voltage from solar panels into standard household AC voltage, typically lasts about 10 years, and the panels usually last more than 20.

Because of the low cost (you can pick one up for as low as $250), solar ovens are an attractive option for those who are just beginning to go solar. "[They're] a great, inexpensive foot in the door, a way of experiencing solar power and playing with it," said Samaniego.

Cari Spring, the group's vice president and a faculty member at Pima Community College and Prescott College, believes there is more to solar living than just the technology. "There's a solar culture in the world," she said. "When you practice solar and renewable energy, you place the sun at the center of your existence--and that means you don't just buy a technology and live the same life you used to."

In 1996, Spring bought a piece of land in Catalina and began designing a completely solar-powered home. She soon found that everyday activities--from laundry to cooking--required her to be conscious of the sun. "The center of your life shifts," she said.

Marana parents want Rattlesnake Ridge recycling

Tucson Green Magazine, February 2008

"For me, it's a matter of necessity to change the world, and you've got to change it beginning with the children," said Adrian Marks, a Marana, Ariz. resident.

Marks, whose daughter is a third grader at Rattlesnake Ridge Elementary in Marana, was stunned when he learned that none of the 17 schools in the Marana Unified School District recycle. As chair of the newly formed PTO recycling committee at his daughter's school, he is working with other parents, teachers, and students to change that. So far, the group has been instrumental in getting a recycle bin and pick-up service at the school by a local company, Saguaro Environmental.

As the newest school in the Marana district, Rattlesnake Ridge hopes their pilot program will set a precedent for other schools, showing that recycling can work, and also soothe concerns of district administrators.

According to Marks, the school district said it would require a budget of more than $8,000 per year to implement a district-wide recycling program--a budget they say they don't have. Marks, however, believes schools can reduce that cost to zero with proper education about recycling.

"By filtering out recyclables, the school can replace one of their dumpsters with a second recycling bin at no additional cost." The success of the program would depend on the cooperation of teachers, students, and staff. Rattlesnake Ridge teachers have agreed to help create assemblies focused on educating students and staff about the importance of recycling. They also plan to work with the student council and Tucson Clean and Beautiful on environmental awareness programs for the students.

Marks estimates that 15-23 tons of trash from Rattlesnake Ridge ends up in the landfill each year. When that number is applied to the entire district, Marks said the school district's trash totals 391 tons per year. He said a successful recycling program at the school would reduce that waste by half.

"It's kind of endless what you can do. It's just a matter of organizing it and taking small steps."

Lone Riders No More

Published Dec. 15 in January 2008 issue of Tucson Green Magazine

Every Tuesday evening, bikes begin to appear around the flag pole near Old Main on the University of Arizona. With the bikes come Tucson residents of all stripes, mingling, chatting, and creating a festive atmosphere drawing the friendly curiosity of passersby. They've come for the weekly community bike ride, and they continue to stream in until 300 bikes crowd the campus.

Among the cycling enthusiasts is Sandra Pope, manager of a local hair salon, who says she heard about the event through a friend and has been involved since late summer.

"I got into bike riding because it's the best workout a person can have," Pope says. "It's a huge stress reliever, too."

The fitness aspect of cycling is only one part of this event's appeal. While many participants in the bike ride express an interest in fitness and a desire to live an environmentally-friendly lifestyle, they are also seizing upon another aspect of the hobby: community building. In a time when many people isolate themselves inside their cars during commutes or inside their homes watching television, this Tuesday event offers a breath of fresh air, a social atmosphere, and the opportunity to meet like-minded people.

Like Pope, Seth Lamantia has been involved for several weeks, after finding a flyer for the event wedged between the spokes of his bike. "It's a cool thing to do on a Tuesday night," he says. "And you get to meet a lot of friendly people."

The bicycles assembling at Old Main are as diverse as the people who ride them. There are beach cruisers, dirt bikes, road bikes, mountain bikes--even a unicycle. A carnival atmosphere pervades, augmented by the organizers' decision to declare a different theme each week. In accordance with this week's theme, "dresses and crazy helmets," the crowd is peppered with women and men playfully donning dresses and creatively decorated helmets. One person wears a horned Viking helmet; another proudly sports a colander on his head. Previous themes have included "shorts and tank tops" and "crazy mustaches."

Every week, the group of friendly bicyclers follows a new route, exploring different parts of the city. This week, the crowd circles the UofA campus, the adjoining Sam Hughes neighborhood, and then pedals through downtown Tucson, inspiring sociable honks and cheers from numerous motorists. Along the way, organizers help ensure the safety of the riders by warning those farther back about obstacles or slowdowns up ahead. Once the bikers reach downtown, they pause and some members play bicycle games. Especially popular is "Foot Down," which draws cheers and suspense from the onlookers as players test their balance by riding slowly inside an increasingly smaller circle while trying to avoid putting their foot on the ground to stop their bike.

The idea of holding a community bike ride formed spontaneously among a group of 22 friends who decided, in June 2007, to get together and ride around the city. Some are involved with BICAS, a local nonprofit that promotes cycling and do-it-yourself bicycle maintenance. Nick Jett, one of the founders, is a Tucson native and political science senior at the University. Jett, a vegan and environmental activist, has been an avid bike rider all his life. "This is an effort to create something inclusive," he notes, "with the broad goal of uniting the cycling community, promoting awareness, and encouraging bicycle safety."

What began as a small, informal gathering has since expanded rapidly, mostly through word of mouth. The group's camaraderie is contagious, as the members congregate on campus and pedal along the city streets. Newcomers on bikes spontaneously join in along the way. Wherever they pass, the riders generate curiosity, and onlookers shout questions to the group and on how they can get involved. The more perplexed bystanders ask the riders, "What's your cause?" and "What are you riding for?"

The group's buoyant reply: "For fun!"

The community bike ride meets every Tuesday at 8 P.M. in front of Old Main at the University of Arizona. For more information, contact Karl Goranowski, one of the main organizers, at gm@kamp.arizona.edu.