Filed under: Justice + Outreach, Local Events + Action | Tags: Assimilation, First Nations people, Haskell-Baker Wetlands, Mike Caron, Neoliberal, South Lawrence Trafficway
Despite my many visits; I had never really seen the Haskell-Baker wetlands until I had saw them through the eyes of Mike Caron, a passionate scholar and activist of wetland habitats who has a way with words.
As a fellow environmentalist I mirrored Mike’s respect for the wetlands and was eager for the tour by a man who knew so much about its dynamics and history. But before our trek even got started, a sad and disturbing sight confronted us.
Not 20 feet from the edge of the Haskell Indian’s Memorial Grounds, noisy earthmovers were mindlessly digging up the land and hauling the dirt away. The Memorial Grounds are recognized historical site and a memorial for the many dead First Nations children that attended the Haskell Boarding School – an assimilation institution intent on, as Mike put it, “killing the savage and saving the man”.
What these titans of construction were doing is unknown, and how they had permission to do so is even more confusing. According to Mike, a historical site should have no construction done around it. This fact, however, did not stop the erection of sewage lift stations, which pipe sewage near the symbolic headstones (the actual graves are mythed to be under the basketball courts) and the wetlands for processing.
Sadly, this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the many cultural and environmental injustices that have befallen Haskell land.
The Haskell-Baker wetlands are a historically and culturally significant area for many different First Nations people. It is significant because of the way people of many Nations were forced together for their reeducation. The land is imbued with the traces of these people and the many trials they faced here together.
From a Eurocentric perspective, the land was seen as unproductive and a dumping ground for vagabonds and waste. However, from an ecological perspective; wetlands serve as an important, and continually rarified, ecosystem. The wetlands ecosystem exists in a delicate balance of environmental factors and life cycles which make it home to hundreds of environment specific plant and animal species. For the First Nations people the land is sacred and life-giving. These contrasting views represent the struggle of these people while modernity encroaches onto their lands and into their world.
This struggle continues today. Presently, there is a critical issue that has been raging for the past 20 years: the proposed South Lawrence Trafficway (SLT). This highly contested highway, intended to relieve traffic congestion in the city of Lawrence, threatens to rob the wetlands of its cultural significance and ecological diversity. The wetlands has long been a place where people have come to take comfort in its wild refuge, to study, to pray, to come together in solidarity with their families and their community. The construction of the SLT would result in the loss of one more valuable wild area, just to be replaced by more development and sprawl. One more loss for our increasingly diluted culture, and one more win for our market-driven globalized world.
What we are seeing here on the local scale in Lawrence is a severe clash of values, and assumptions made by our Western views and values. It seems difficult for immigrated peoples to realize the integral nature of an environment and its peoples. Instead, non-natives view their relationship to their habitat with neoliberal economically tinted glasses; that is as individuals’ divorced from the land that they view as a commodity and nature being something to control rather than to respect and nourish. These views of our neoliberal globalized society further perpetuate environmental injustices on land that is, in the view of many, priceless.
-Juliana Tran
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A Rainy Day at The Wetlands By Juliana Tran
Top Photo by Wally Emerson
Filed under: Local Events + Action, Society + Media | Tags: Community, eco, ecological, ecology, environment, environmentally, friendly, green, healthy, hope, just, justice, Kansas, Lawrence, LSN, network, social, sustainability, sustainable, world
The Lawrence Sustainability Network, LSN, was born in 2006 of skepticism and hope. LSN’s founders did not believe that politicians could be counted on to halt our society’s steady march toward the precipice of environmental destruction, economic collapse, and social instability. Instead, they believed that individuals would have to decide for themselves to leave the herd and find another path, to find other disaffected souls, and learn to live lightly and sustainably on planet Earth. Herein lies hope, hope for other species, our families, our communities, and hope for the future.
It is not surprising that we must first act individually in the decision to live differently. American society glorifies individualism and competition, teaching each of us that we will sink or swim on our own merits. So it is no small irony that our first steps away from destruction are personal initiatives to develop a collective response. We in LSN believe community building is key to our success. Together we can imagine what a more sustainable world might look like. We can pool our ideas and our resources, and we can share the daunting task of figuring out how to make the transition from where we are to where we want to be. The introduction to LSN’s vision statement, taken from our website, sets out in broad strokes what we would like to accomplish:
Ecological sustainability means living in a way that is mindful of consequences for the future. We envision a community built around livelihood strategies that protect the commons of clean air, soil and water; deliver efficient, affordable, clean and renewable energy; prioritize local food systems; and promote biological diversity so that future generations of people and other species can also satisfy their basic needs. In this community ‘development’ will mean improving the quality of life for all people in the Lawrence area, fostering social justice in the distribution of available resources and opportunities, and fortifying our local economy toward the goal of self-sufficiency. Social relationships are equally important to ecological sustainability; the social world we will advance will be built on mutual aid, trust, equity, and participatory democracy.
A just and healthy world is LSN’s hope for the future. It will take many hands and minds and hearts, coming together in community, to bring it about.
~ Jane Gibson
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Filed under: Energy + Climate, Local Events + Action | Tags: Bonneville environmental foundation, Bowersock, Energy + Climate, environment, green tags, hydroelectric, Kansas, Kansas River, Lauren Keith, Lawrence, renewable energy, Sarah Hill-Nelson, zephyr energy
Bowersock Power’s hydroelectric plant on the Kansas River provides an alternative for customers looking for carbon-free energy.
Photo by Lauren Keith
Tucked away in a non-imposing brick building near Sixth and New Hampshire, the quiet beast hums away, fed by the waters of the Kansas River. Inside the facility that passers-by may think is abandoned, lies Kansas’ only hydroelectric plant.
The hydroelectric plant, which is owned by the Bowersock Mills & Power Co., produces 2.5 megawatts of energy, or enough electricity to power about 2,000 homes and businesses, Nicholas Herndon, a worker at the plant, said.
The thought of a dam in the middle of the Great Plains is somewhat strange because many think a drastic change in elevation is needed to take the energy from the water.
“What we don’t have in height, we make up for in quantity,” explains co-owner Sarah Hill-Nelson.
Although this is one of the oldest hydroelectric plants west of the Mississippi River, the changing flux of Lawrence residents doesn’t know that the plant even exists or that they have the option to buy environmentally friendly energy.
To have green energy in your home, you can buy “green tags.”
Mark Maxwell, a worker at the dam, said Bowersock sells its power to Westar, and then Westar sends out the electricity on the grid that connects homes and businesses.
“You can’t really buy what we produce because you’re just buying energy off the grid,” Maxwell said. “Most of the energy is going to be produced by Westar, but for the tags you buy, Westar doesn’t produce that amount of energy, which lessens the amount of coal burned, the pollution and the environmental impact.”
The green tags cost about $20 per month. Tags can be purchased at greentagsusa.org.
Although some people think that buying green tags is a scam because green energy is supplied to the same electrical grid as non-renewable energy, it’s easy to see that green energy is being generated in Lawrence. We can see the hydroelectric plant in action.
“The more environmentally friendly energy we have, the better,” Maxwell said.
You’re dam right.
—Lauren Keith
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Filed under: Energy + Climate | Tags: coal, coal in the United States, dam, energy, environment, hydroelectric, Lauren Keith, low impact, renewable
Coal-fired power plants used to be the symbol of growth and progress, but people have now woken up to the true cost of coal.
Photo by Bruno D Rodrigues, flickr.com
Damn, America has found itself in quite the energy crisis.
The price of oil is burning a hole in our pockets and in the atmosphere. We are wary of General Electric’s standing as one of the top wind turbine manufacturers because of the company’s lax air and water pollution policies. The environmental crappiness of coal power has finally been exposed. What now?
Look no further than one of our favorite swear words: dam.
Dams are no stranger to the American landscape, but for the most part, we just leave it to the beaver.
Hydroelectric plants account for about 20 percent of the world’s electricity supply, giving more than 1 billion people power. All of the world’s hydroelectric dams put out a combined 715,000 megawatts, which is the same as saving 3.6 billion barrels of oil, according to the Renewable Energy Policy Network (PDF).
More than 2,000 hydropower plants are currently operating in the United States, making hydroelectricity our country’s most used renewable energy resource.
To learn how electricity is produced from running water, take a step back to elementary school. It’s that dam simple.
Flowing water has potential energy, which is stored until it can be converted into kinetic energy, or the energy of motion. Water coming into the plant drives a circular turbine and a generator, which change the water’s potential energy into a useable form. The amount of energy taken from the water varies. It depends on how much water is coming through the turbines and the height difference between the incoming water and the height that it leaves the plant. For a more in-depth look, see How Stuff Works.
Not all dams are environmentally friendly, but some meet certain standards that minimize their effects on wildlife. These dams are certified low-impact by a voluntary program. Some states require hydroelectric projects to be low-impact certified to qualify as renewable energy. More than 20 hydropower dams have this certification, including the only facility in Kansas.
With low-impact hydropower, one city in Kansas has made some dam changes.
—Lauren Keith
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Filed under: Local Events + Action, Waste + Recycling | Tags: "reduce, 3 r's, crap, debris, diaper, filth, garbage, junk, landfill, Lawrence, litter, poo, poop, recycle, reuse, rubbish, waste
Has the poo crusade of Brad Pooterish had an impact in America? Let’s take a look at waste reduction and recycling in Lawrence, KS to find out.
Use less CRAP, people! Reuse your crap! Recycle your crap!
~ Sarah H
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Filed under: Local Events + Action, Waste + Recycling | Tags: "reduce, 3 r's, debris, diaper, diapers, filth, garbage, junk, landfill, Lawrence, litter, poop, recycle, reuse, rubbish, trash, waste
This is the account of a poo expert’s crusade to save landfill space for dirty diapers. Brad Pooterish, founder and CEO of Daddies Using Diapers (DUDs) shares a dirty little secret behind America’s looming landfill crisis.
All statistics in this video are true and based on real reports from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Diapers really do make up only 1.4% of the waste stream, while paper products and yard waste make up 47%. NO, paper and yard waste do NOT decompose in landfills. Landfills are designed to be a “dry tomb” environment; waste becomes mummified due to the lack of moisture and air flow.
What’s in your landfill?
REDUCE – REUSE – RECYCLE
For more info, visit http://www.epa.gov/msw/facts.htm
~ Sarah H
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Filed under: Waste + Recycling | Tags: Britney Spears, college town, landfill, May, recycling, trash
Ah, May in a college town. You might think of graduation, flowers blooming, the start of summer vacations.
How about the not so beautiful sight of Dumpsters overflowing with couches, jeans and junk food wrappers?
The City of Lawrence figures that during the ginormous trash month of May, Lawrencians toss out a staggering 7,243 tons of trash, or 14.5 million pounds for you math-challenged out there. That’s enough to fill more than 600 of the average trash trucks that rumble down your street or alley.
Those trucks haul the food packaging, discarded Britney Spears CDs, soiled mattresses and abandoned Royals t-shirts to Hamm Waste Services in Jefferson County, north of Lawrence. They also abscond with a lot of the good stuff people toss, like still-useable cameras, televisions and cell phones.
All told, in 2007, the citizens and businesses of Lawrence added 72,703 tons of trash – roughly the weight of 10 Eiffel Towers – to the Hamm facility.
But there would be more trash headed to the landfill if the City of Lawrence didn’t offer incentives to recycle materials, especially yard waste and paper products. In fact, the city boasts the highest recycling rate in Kansas, at 34 percent.
What makes reducing waste in Lawrence such a challenge, however, is the transient nature of a college town. In Lawrence, 50 percent of all housing is rental. Students shed residence hall life or graduate from the University of Kansas and Haskell Indian Nations University. And every time they move out or move in, they leave belongings at the curb or bulging out of Dumpsters.
On top of all that movement, advertising available city and local recycling services can fall on deaf ears. The information has to be repeated year-round, every year.
KU, which has a thriving recycling program started in the mid 1990s, tackles part of the waste staff and students generate. The university offers a surplus property program, headed by Celeste Hoins of the KU Environmental Stewardship Program, that collects unwanted furniture on campus to offer it to area nonprofits. KU also has a Center for Sustainability, a kind of clearinghouse of resources to help the university reach for a more sustainable future.
The state university can’t offer services down the hill in the high-density “student ghetto,” where the city’s garbage trucks have to patrol daily during peak move-out times. There’s no way to coordinate moving belongings abandoned at the curb to people looking for new stuff.
So, what’s the solution, you ask? It’s time to pitch in. Got a truck or a van? Advertise your services for a day to get some of that furniture to area donation centers. (Try trading pickup service for after move-in beer.) Or, if you’re willing to think big, consider forming a group that could collect such property and find a way to give it to charity or sell it to those who want it, just as the KU surplus property program manages to do on campus. And if you’re one of the people moving, plan ahead, and consider shopping for “new” belongings at the curb or at area used furniture dealers, instead of buying new. -Jen Humphrey
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Filed under: Waste + Recycling | Tags: Hamm, landfills, methane gas, mummy, trash
The 600,000 people of northeast Kansas generate this amount of trash, about 2-3 feet deep, daily at the area’s sanitary landfill. photo credit: Jen Humphrey
Egyptian pyramids have their mummies, and landfills have their petrified banana peels.
Yes, the banana peel your aunt Edna threw out more than three decades ago is almost perfectly preserved, still partly yellow, a mummified testament to the garbage she took to the curb that sunny day in June 1972.
It’s a common misconception that food scraps, condoms, soup cans and celebrity gossip magazines rot in commingled gooey bliss in the landfill. At least, it was my misconception until I became a junk junkie, rifling through the glorious world of garbage.
Engineer Charlie Sedlock at Hamm Waste Services north of Lawrence set me straight. Trash doesn’t decompose. It stays suspended in time in a landfill, largely locked away from air, sunlight, moisture and even the microbes that might go to work on that banana peel.
Under the visible trash at Hamm’s rock quarry and landfill is an entire sewer system that drains away all moisture, leaving the garbage veritably toasty and dry. And above the trash, Hamm employees top the waste with soil and later with prairie grass. Charlie tracks every such tomb and the gases each emits at the 600-plus-acre operation – one of about 1,850 landfills left in the United States.
Those landfills hold the roughly 251 million tons of trash Americans generate annually – or about 4.6 pounds of trash per person, per day.
As in most modern landfills, the chief item you’d find at Hamm is paper – beer cartons, corrugated cardboard, office paper, junk mail and newspapers. On average, the federal government estimates that paper accounts for more than 40 percent of a landfill’s contents.
On one hand, it might not be a bad thing that all the leftovers of our lives, from cat litter to packaging, can be preserved in a landfill. Think of what could happen in a couple hundred years, long after Peak Oil, when we are scraping for scarce manufacturing materials (or that quintessential ugly college couch). Plus, that trash could help us develop energy from landfill methane.
However, when Charlie tells me he can find a banana peel from the year I was born (let alone some toy pharoh with gold peeling paint), it encourages me to keep potential petrifying material out of the landfill entirely.
For more information on getting rid of your goods, check out the city’s recycling and composting, and for big items, there’s freecycling or Larryville.
– Jen Humphrey
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