http://www.mountainx.com/ Local, significant, verifiable, fair and respectful en-us Mountain Xpress Sat, 21 Nov 2009 03:05:21 -0500 http://www.mountainx.com/features/2009/111809the_green_scene As one local energy-conservation expert observed, "green" has become the latest fashion and the coolest trend. Businesses and governments want to make sure their customers and constituents know they're being green, even when their efforts don't add up to much when you look more closely. Ditto for "sustainability," another concept that's been commercialized and turned into a status symbol, according to more than one of the local experts Xpress quizzed. Photo by Jonathan Welch "Sustainability isn't something to be had; it's a way we have to live," said Charlie Hopper, a longtime landscaper who partnered with a tech pal to… Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:00:35 -0500 http://www.mountainx.com/features/2009/111809the_green_scene http://www.mountainx.com/features/2009/111109the_green_scene It's beneficial to protect natural systems as our region develops. That's the simple thought behind Linking Lands and Communities, a project that takes a big-picture look at the regional landscape to better understand where our most valuable natural resources are, what condition they are in, and how we can be more proactive about maintaining them. It's all about protecting our region's "green infrastructure." The big picture: Balancing development and population growth with natural-resources protection means getting a good look at the data and visualizing it — part of what the Linking Lands and Communities project is about. Map courtesy LOSRC… Wed, 11 Nov 2009 00:00:35 -0500 http://www.mountainx.com/features/2009/111109the_green_scene http://www.mountainx.com/features/2009/110409the_green_scene What would it be like to have a "smart meter" that could tell you when it's cheapest to run the clothes dryer, automatically signal the utility company if your power goes out, help you save money, and reduce your carbon footprint? Soon 160,000 Progress Energy customers in the Carolinas and Florida will find out. The federal government has awarded the utility $200 million for "smart grid" projects, including system upgrades, electric-vehicle charging stations and these meters. Lisa Jackson, who heads the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, announced the grant during a visit to Raleigh on Oct. 29. The company is matching… Wed, 04 Nov 2009 00:00:20 -0500 http://www.mountainx.com/features/2009/110409the_green_scene http://www.mountainx.com/features/2009/102809the_green_scene Builders are always happy to construct million-dollar "green" mansions for the wealthy, and the government is already helping low-income families with weatherization projects, but what are middle-class homeowners and renters to do if they want to go green? Let the caulking begin? The middle-class needs some help with weatherization and energy-efficiency projects, such as the caulking undertaken here by a Warren Wilson College student participating in the INSULATE! program that assists low-income families. Photo courtesy WWC It's too early to say for certain, but there's a ray of promise in a document recently released by the White House Council on… Wed, 28 Oct 2009 00:00:35 -0400 http://www.mountainx.com/features/2009/102809the_green_scene http://www.mountainx.com/features/2009/102109the_green_scene Hamming it up for plastic Did you know that every second, 100 plastic bottles are thrown away in North Carolina? And that one in five plastic bottles doesn't get recycled? Those are just two reasons state legislators passed a bill that bans plastic bottles from landfills. The law took affect on Oct. 1, and during the following week a few North Buncombe High School students came up with their own way of spreading the word: They creatively adorned themselves with plastic bottles under the premise that when someone asked, "Why are you wearing those bottles on your head?" they'd get… Wed, 21 Oct 2009 00:00:35 -0400 http://www.mountainx.com/features/2009/102109the_green_scene http://www.mountainx.com/features/2009/101409the_green_scene UNC-Asheville senior Ellie Johnston wonders what her world will be like in the year 2050. That's the target date currently bandied about by world leaders for halving greenhouse-gas emissions. By that time, most of those world leaders will be, well, dead and gone. Johnston, on the other hand, will be a spry 63, she calculates. "Hopefully, I'll be alive and well, but these [emission targets] are about future generations — my adulthood and the children who come after me," she says. Visual aids: Local 350.org folks plan to stage a human design like this one to urge world leaders to… Wed, 14 Oct 2009 00:00:35 -0400 http://www.mountainx.com/features/2009/101409the_green_scene http://www.mountainx.com/features/2009/100709the_green_scene A fireside chat with naturalist John Muir Imagine spending an evening with John Muir — conservationist, naturalist, mountaineer, explorer, author, philosopher, storyteller and founder of the Sierra Club (those 19th-century folks stayed busy). As local author Thomas Crowe writes, "As if by some kind of time-warp or reincarnation intervention, John Muir will be returning to the mountains of Western North Carolina for the first time since his visit in 1867 as part of his now-famous thousand-mile walk." Stop mountaintop removal! The Madison County 4-H "Roots and Shoots" Club held a rainy march on Sept. 20, protesting the practice of mountaintop-removal… Wed, 07 Oct 2009 00:00:35 -0400 http://www.mountainx.com/features/2009/100709the_green_scene http://www.mountainx.com/features/2009/093009the_green_scene Leave it to an energetic teen to inform us there's a catch to those energy-saving, compact-fluorescent light bulbs many of us have switched to: CFLs contain about 5 milligrams of mercury, a potent neurotoxin, says Reynolds High junior Jovahnna "Jojo" Graves. "That's about equal to the tip of your ballpoint pen, and it's in vapor form, which makes it deadlier because it can go directly to your bloodstream." Got mercury? Compact fluorescent light bulbs contain about 5 milligrams of mercury vapor, meaning the increasingly common fixtures pose a health risk if not properly disposed of. Photo by Margaret Williams The… Wed, 30 Sep 2009 00:00:35 -0400 http://www.mountainx.com/features/2009/093009the_green_scene http://www.mountainx.com/features/2009/092309the_green_scene As the rain falls on Asheville, it's all too easy to forget how severe drought conditions were in '07 and '08. The French Broad River hit its lowest recorded level since 1895. More and more private drinking wells ran dry, and one of three wells that supplied Marshall in Madison County hit empty. In August 2008 the town was within six weeks of being completely out. Yet the city of Asheville — owner of a 21,000-acre watershed with a huge reservoir — was able to keep its public-water system flowing, although voluntary restrictions urged us to use less water for… Wed, 23 Sep 2009 00:00:35 -0400 http://www.mountainx.com/features/2009/092309the_green_scene http://www.mountainx.com/features/2009/091609the_green_scene Coal Country documentary premiers in Asheville Last June, 14 activists were arrested in West Virginia for hanging a protest banner from a 22-story-high dragline used in mountaintop-removal coal mining. Among the "Dragline 14" was local filmmaker Kurt Mann, who was documenting the event for Greenpeace and the Rainforest Action Network. Owner of the Asheville-based American Green, Mann recently announced a weeklong fundraising drive that will help support ongoing nonviolent, civil-disobedience efforts coordinated by the nonprofit organization Climate Ground Zero, which aims to "expose the truth" about modern coal mining. The drive includes the premier of two documentaries. Coal Country, which… Wed, 16 Sep 2009 00:00:35 -0400 http://www.mountainx.com/features/2009/091609the_green_scene http://www.mountainx.com/features/2009/090909the_green_scene Despite lying less than a half-mile from a contamination source that's been under investigation since the 1990s, the Bradley family's drinking well had never been tested when David Bradley noticed some folks drilling across the street from his South Asheville home on a mid-August day this year. On the move? Historical and more recent data appear to demonstrate the spread of TCE contamination from the CTS site, where investigators found 830,000 ppb of the toxin in the soil underneath the building in 1999. Image created by Mayhem Media Bradley crossed Chapel Hill Church Road to chat, recalls his daughter-in-law,  Jenny… Wed, 09 Sep 2009 00:00:35 -0400 http://www.mountainx.com/features/2009/090909the_green_scene http://www.mountainx.com/features/2009/090209the_green_scene Energy efficiency isn't as sexy as shiny solar panels or sleek wind turbines. But it's often the quickest, cheapest way to start reducing your carbon footprint. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, most homeowners can reduce energy costs 20 percent simply by insulating and fixing leaky ductwork. Such tasks are part of "sealing the envelope" — reducing the ways that air (and energy) escape from a building. Home-energy heroes: These BuildSmart Alliance members represent just one of the local groups that can help homeowners figure out ways to save energy and make their houses greener all around. Photo by… Wed, 02 Sep 2009 00:00:35 -0400 http://www.mountainx.com/features/2009/090209the_green_scene http://www.mountainx.com/features/2009/082609the_green_scene Once upon a time, Asheville had a premier electric-trolley system. Between 1889 and 1934, several private companies operated lines that ran about 40 cars and totaled 18 miles of track. The service linked the main train depot, downtown and surrounding areas. Imagine this: A composite rendering suggests what a modern tram coming up Biltmore Avenue might look like. Image courtesy Joachim Bruder Why not build a new system that transforms the city into a modern model for public transportation? ask planning expert David Johnson and architect Joachim Bruder. Just months after the first American system was installed in Richmond, Va.… Wed, 26 Aug 2009 00:00:35 -0400 http://www.mountainx.com/features/2009/082609the_green_scene http://www.mountainx.com/features/2009/081209the_green_scene A December 2008 coal-ash spill in Tennessee appears to have spurred North Carolina legislators to increase oversight of 12 dams that hold back the toxic material — two of them in Buncombe County. Gov. Bev Perdue signed Senate Bill 1004 into law July 31. The legislation requires Department of Environment and Natural Resources staff to inspect the dams at least every two years instead of every five, as private contractors have previously done. Those dam power plants: New state regulations will give coal-ash dams a closer look while encouraging utilities to replace older coal-fired plants with natural gas units. Photo… Wed, 12 Aug 2009 00:00:35 -0400 http://www.mountainx.com/features/2009/081209the_green_scene http://www.mountainx.com/features/2009/080509the_green_scene You've probably never heard of the Appalachian elktoe mussel, but some local folks have — and they're trying to help the little mollusk survive. On the North Toe River just downstream from Spruce Pine, crews have removed the remnants of an old dam, hoping to re-establish the fish populations the endangered species depends on. The elktoe mussel, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service biologist Anita Goetz explains, spends part of its life attached to the gills and fins of a host fish (the mottled sculpin, for example). But obstructions such as dams and poorly designed bridges and culverts impede fish movement… Wed, 05 Aug 2009 00:00:35 -0400 http://www.mountainx.com/features/2009/080509the_green_scene http://www.mountainx.com/features/2009/072909the_green_scene Move over, kudzu: Oriental bittersweet and a grab bag of other non-native, invasive plants may actually pose more of a threat to our Southern forests. Like kudzu, Oriental bittersweet can rapidly overwhelm native plants by covering and choking them. But unlike kudzu, which tends to be limited to sunny, open areas along roadways, Oriental bittersweet can pop up deep in the woods: About 3,600 acres of public lands in the Southeast, including the Pisgah National Forest, have been blanketed by the invader. The root of the problem: Volunteers yanked this 40-foot-long Oriental bittersweet root near the Appalachian Trail in Hot… Wed, 29 Jul 2009 00:00:35 -0400 http://www.mountainx.com/features/2009/072909the_green_scene http://www.mountainx.com/features/2009/072209the_green_scene The push for green jobs is well under way in Buncombe County and nationwide, and A-B Tech students are right in the thick of it. As part of the school's array of sustainability programs and initiatives, students in construction-industry programs, in particular, have been busy with both on-campus and community projects. Roof 'n' tumble: Blending hands-on learning and community service, A-B Tech carpentry students built a roof for Vance Elementary's cob oven. Photo courtesy A-B Tech The local activity reflects broader trends. The recession has hit the construction industry hard. North Carolina Gov. Bev Perdue is pumping federal stimulus funds… Wed, 22 Jul 2009 00:00:35 -0400 http://www.mountainx.com/features/2009/072209the_green_scene http://www.mountainx.com/features/2009/071509the_green_scene Time is not on Dot Rice's side. On a gray day in June, she stood in the shadow of the Federal Building and voiced her disappointment that Gov. Bev Perdue hadn't made time to meet with her during an Asheville visit. "My family's still in danger," said Rice. For decades, they've lived near the contaminated CTS site off Mills Gap Road. A plea for action: Dot Rice and other residents affected by the contamination at the former CTS plant say a complete cleanup is past due. Photo by Margaret Williams And for years, they unknowingly drank well and spring water… Wed, 15 Jul 2009 00:00:35 -0400 http://www.mountainx.com/features/2009/071509the_green_scene http://www.mountainx.com/features/2009/070809the_green_scene If you're hunting for cancer-fighting substances, there's no need to journey to the Amazon in search of some rare plant dangling in the upper reaches of the jungle canopy. The Bent Creek Institute here in Asheville and its partners at Wake Forest University have discovered a dozen plant species that are "cytotoxic to breast and/or prostate cancer cells in culture," the BCI Bulletin reported last fall. In collaboration with Western Carolina University chemistry professor Jack Summers, the institute is also preparing its first patent application for a naturally occurring anti-oxidant, superoxide dismutase, that appears to help fight cancer, infectious diseases… Wed, 08 Jul 2009 00:00:35 -0400 http://www.mountainx.com/features/2009/070809the_green_scene http://www.mountainx.com/features/2009/070109the_green_scene Craig Childs loves to clean things. When the 32-year-old met Xpress at a local café recently, he looked up at the ceiling and, noting the dirty ductwork, said, "It needs cleaning again!" Restaurants and home kitchens can present the toughest cleaning challenges, says the owner of the Asheville-based Pristine Clean. And sometimes you walk into a home and realize there’s a bit of a dust problem: "You look up, and you can shave the ceiling fan," jokes Childs, adding, "But I like to go into a place and make it smell and look great." A few essentials: The alchemy of… Wed, 01 Jul 2009 00:00:35 -0400 http://www.mountainx.com/features/2009/070109the_green_scene http://www.mountainx.com/features/2009/062409the_green_scene The Marshall Senior Center serves nearly 300 meals a day and offers a variety of activities for Madison County's elderly population, but the facility needed an energy face-lift. Enter the green team, led by the Global Institute for Sustainability Technologies, a new A-B Tech program that tackles special projects and holds workshops on such topics as "green-collar" jobs and solar-electric systems. Green and peaceful: Quiet reflection comes easy at Warren Wilson’s EcoDorm, one of the most enviro-friendly in the country. Photo courtesy Warren Wilson College The senior-center greening was GIST's first project. With a portion of the $354,000 federal appropriation… Wed, 24 Jun 2009 00:00:35 -0400 http://www.mountainx.com/features/2009/062409the_green_scene http://www.mountainx.com/features/2009/061709the_green_scene At Warren Wilson College, sustainability is more than just a buzzword: It’s the guiding principle behind the annual Mountain Green Sustainability Conference, slated for Wednesday, June 24. "It’s an attempt by the college to be a catalyst for change in the region," says Phillip Gibson, director of research and community outreach at the school’s Environmental Leadership Center. The race to be green: Racecar driver Leilani Münter (aka the Carbon Free Girl) is the keynote speaker for Warren Wilson College’s June 24 Mountain Green Sustainability Conference. Photo courtesy Leilani Münter Launched in 2006, Mountain Green is a year-round initiative sponsored by… Wed, 17 Jun 2009 00:00:35 -0400 http://www.mountainx.com/features/2009/061709the_green_scene http://www.mountainx.com/features/2009/061009the_green_scene I was 9 years old when I first saw a cougar up close. The University of South Alabama kept him in a large pen shaded by tall Southern pines beside the science building. I often stopped by to watch him pace his cage, because I lived on campus when my father worked there in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s. Biologist Don Linzey taught at the school then, and he also remembers the big cat. After determining that a wild release wasn’t possible, he helped find it a better home in Florida. These days, he’s still looking out for these… Wed, 10 Jun 2009 00:00:20 -0400 http://www.mountainx.com/features/2009/061009the_green_scene http://www.mountainx.com/features/2009/060309the_green_scene Never underestimate the weather. Sure, the French Broad River crested a tad above flood stage on May 27 at Blantyre, near Brevard. Yes, May has brought us more than 8 inches of rain (that’s nearly a record, twice what’s been typical since 1971, and definitely greater than 2008’s paltry 0.81 inches, according to the National Climatic Data Center). What’s it all mean? From heavy rains (red) to light precipitation (blue), a late-May soaking of the Southeast helped lift drought conditions in North Carolina for the first time in several years, but summer could be another story. Graphic courtesy North Carolina… Wed, 03 Jun 2009 00:00:35 -0400 http://www.mountainx.com/features/2009/060309the_green_scene http://www.mountainx.com/features/2009/052709the_green_scene The Chucky madtom is so rare, a mere 15 of the little catfish have been found in the last 70 years. And an attempt to breed two Chuckies caught in 2004 yielded no results, says U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service biologist Mark Cantrell. Photo courtesy U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service "It looked like they were trying, because we caught them together, but they did not spawn," the Asheville-based Cantrell reports. The Chucky madtom is found only in Little Chucky Creek, a Greene County, Tenn., tributary of the Nolichucky River. A 1940 report claimed the diminutive fish had also been found… Wed, 27 May 2009 00:00:35 -0400 http://www.mountainx.com/features/2009/052709the_green_scene