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Local News Articles

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Call for College Associations with Hemmi Farm
Hemmi Farm is exploring soil ecology and post-peak-oil sustainability on a 5 acre homestead 8 miles from Bellingham. We invite appropriate classes at local colleges and universities to devise a scientific scheme for the most productive use of a three acre field, including correct sizes and rotations of space for plants, animals, and composts. Please see http://hemmifarm.freehostia.com/∞ and http://hemmifarm.freehostia.com/college-assoc.html∞ for more info. Thank you! Lorraine and Peter Holcomb - 2332 E. Hemmi Rd. Bellingham WA 98226 - 360-966-0176
ljandpm@peoplepc.com

Proper Disposal of Fluorescent light bulbs
By:Kristi Pihl, Whatcom Independent
http://www.whatcomindy.com/news.php?subaction=showfull&id=1181236293&archive=&start_from=&ucat=2∞&

Our Waterfront Development is Out of Control and Going in the Wrong Direction
by Rick Black, Whatcom Independent, 5/31/07
"We are at a critical point. I know you’re busy. I know talk about the waterfront development has been going on forever. I know you want to trust that the port and city are doing the right thing, but they are not. The port and city are forcing the waterfront development down a prescribed path that will rip the heart out of Bellingham. They are controlling and ignoring public opinion and they are hoping you won’t notice or you’re too busy to do anything about it. I am not alone in this fight. John Blethen (WFG) and Dave Christensen (architect) produced a beautiful plan at their own expense. We need your support! The only way to change the direction the port and city are forcing upon us is by showing them that the majority of us are not happy. If you’d like to join the team please email your contact information to me at SaveBHam@hotmail.com"
http://www.whatcomindy.com/oped_story.php?subaction=showfull&id=1180649324&archive=&start_from=&ucat=22∞&

Departing Planning Director Shares Insights on County
Whatcom Independent, 5/31/07
Departing Planning Director Hal Hart: "the problem is carrying capacity. We’ve been using our rural capacity – for transportation, for example – and after a while the bank card is empty.”
Comment by DMacLeod: That's the crux of it, isnt it? Dr. William Rees, of University of British Columbia: "from an ecological perspective, adequate land and associated productive natural capital are fundamental to the prospects for continued civilized existence on Earth. However, at present, both the human population and average consumption are increasing while the total area of productive land and stocks of natural capital are fixed or in decline. These opposing trends demand a revival of carrying capacity analysis in sustainable development planning." (http://dieoff.org/page110.htm∞)
http://www.whatcomindy.com/news.php?subaction=showfull&id=1180648828&ucat=2&archive=&start_from∞=

Lake Whatcom Water Quality Declining
by John Stark, The Bellingham Herald, 5/07/07, posted here 5/15
The quality of Lake Whatcom water is worsening despite attempts to control pollution from runoff. That’s the conclusion embedded in the latest annual report, containing almost 500 pages of scientific data obtained by analysis of water from the lake and its tributaries.
http://www.bellinghamherald.com/104/story/72257.html∞

The Number One Priority: Lake Whatcom
by Myron Wlaznak, Whatcom Independent, posted here 5/15/07
http://www.whatcomindy.com/oped_story.php?subaction=showfull&id=1178815951&archive=&start_from=&ucat=22∞&

To Market, To Market: The Value of Local
by Mara Mitchell, Whatcom Independent, posted here 5/15/07
http://www.whatcomindy.com/oped_story.php?subaction=showfull&id=1178815870&archive=&start_from=&ucat=22∞&

Celebrate Alternative Transportation
Bike to Work/School Day
by Kendall Farley, May, whatcom watch
http://www.whatcomwatch.org/php/WW_open.php?id=821∞

USGS
Recent Mercury Drop in Whatcom County Lakes Sediments Follows Global Trend
http://wa.water.usgs.gov/news/2004/news.sir2004-5084.htm∞

Portland, Oregon
First U.S. City to Plan for Oil Decline
- Part 8
by John Rawlins, Whatcom watch
http://www.whatcomwatch.org/php/WW_open.php?id=820∞

Waterfront and Wildlife
by Terence Wahl, Whatcom watch
http://www.whatcomwatch.org/php/WW_open.php?id=817∞

Community Bike Ride from the Village Green
Wednesday, May 16 || 6-8 pm, Herald
Gather at the Fairhaven Village Green for a guided ride to and from Whatcom Falls Park to honor the memory of cyclists and pedestrians injured or killed on our roadways through motor vehicle crashes
More information at everybodybike.com.

Green space and parks vs. high-rises: All four alternatives include marina
Katie Mathis- Whatcom Indy
<http://www.whatcomindy.com/news.php?subaction=showfull&id=1178211219&archive=&start_from=&ucat=2∞&

State grant creates help for Whatcom’s homeless: $1.4 million for centralized service center
Kristi Pihl- Whatcom Indy
<http://www.whatcomindy.com/news.php?subaction=showfull&id=1178210641&archive=&start_from=&ucat=2&∞>

Is There Any Hope?
by Mara Mitchell, Whatcom Independent 4/19/07, posted here 5/07/07
In this era of rising tides and ailing ecosystems, what gives us hope? Not head-in-the-clouds, if I don’t pay attention it will all solve itself hope, but an enduring conviction that the greatest potential resides in the most difficult circumstances. Is there any evidence to support such a view?
WhatcomIndy.com∞

Sustainable connections promotes green networking
Matthew Thuney (Whatcom Indy)
http://whatcomindy.com/news.php?subaction=showfull&id=1177604003&archive=&start_from=&ucat=2∞&

Littering costs
Whatcom Indy, April 29th, 2007
un-secure load: $194. Property damage due to un-secure load: misdemeanor charge. If a person is injured due to un-secure load: gross misdemeanor and potentially $5,000 fine and up to one year in jail. Throwing lit cigarette from a vehicle: $1,025.

Step It Up 2007
StepItUp2007

Lummis Explore Gas Plant (LNG)
by John Stark, The Bellingham Herald, 03/04/07
For more than three years, Lummi Nation and a Colorado energy consulting firm have been involved in discussions with a variety of public agencies and private firms about possible construction of a liquefied natural gas terminal at Cherry Point.
http://www.bellinghamherald.com∞
Editor's note: With these stories about possible plans for a LNG terminal in Whatcom County, and the story below about how growing ethanol production is raising corn prices for Whatcom County dairy farmers, I believe we're starting to see the beginning effects of Peak Oil and Natural Gas right here in our own backyard. I believe these are very important stories, and harbingers of what is to come. As Tim Johnson put it in one of his Skinny columns a couple of years ago, "Wakey, Wakey, Whatcom∞." Read that column, but more directly related to this story, read "Shockwaves∞" and "Out of Gas∞." It is also interesting to note that The Oil Drum has recently posted more evidence∞ that Saudi Arabia has reached their all time peak of oil production, and it's all downhill from here. Down 8% in 2006, in spite of a significant increase in rig counts. As Matthew Simmons has stated, "if Saudi Arabia has peaked, then categorically the world has peaked." - DavidM

How does your garden grow?
“We take the training so we can go out and teach other people.” – Master Gardener Jill Cotton
by Sara Geballe - Whatcom Independent, 3/01/07
This year’s Whatcom County Extension Master Gardener class starts March 6. For seven weeks, 35 dedicated volunteers will attend some 15 class hours a week of horticulture lectures...
http://www.whatcomindy.com/news.php?subaction=showfull&id=1172768137&archive=&start_from=&ucat=2∞&

Rising corn prices put squeeze on dairies
Everson dairyman’s cost increased from $130 to $200 a ton
by John Stark, The Bellingham Herald, 2/22/07
LYNDEN — The increased demand for corn for conversion to motor fuel is pushing up the price of livestock feed, and that’s making it ever tougher for small Whatcom County dairies to survive...
The federal government has been subsidizing corn-based ethanol production for many years, Larsen said, but the recent increase in the price of petroleum has made ethanol more competitive and has spurred production of the fuel...
“There’s only one solution,” Whatcom County dairyman Sherm Polinder said. “The consumer is going to have to pay more for our product. … In the interim period there will be a lot of washouts.”
Alan Shank, a farm planner with the Snohomish Conservation District, agreed, adding that the higher price of corn is going to show up in a lot of things besides milk.
http://www.bellinghamherald.com/102/story/49458.html∞

Ferndale Partially Bans Big Box Stores
The Bellingham Herald, 2/22/07
FERNDALE — The City Council temporarily banned some new big-box stores on Tuesday night, after the Ferndale Downtown Development Association warned that a big-box ban in Bellingham would drive commercial development to Ferndale.
http://www.bellinghamherald.com/104/story/49464.html∞

City bans stores of more than 90,000 square feet
The Bellingham Herald, 2/06/07
The City Council on Monday voted for a permanent ban on new big box stores and imposed strict regulations on the design of smaller ones. The move effectively ends nearly five months of debate over how the city should handle large retailers, which, some people say, hurt the local economy with poorly paying jobs and the environment by encouraging traffic and sprawl.
http://www.bellinghamherald.com/102/story/48142.html∞

City, WWU among tops in nation for green power
The Bellingham Herald, 2/06/07
The color of energy is green in Whatcom County, earning Bellingham and Western Washington University spots on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s top 10 lists of renewable energy buyers in the nation. The city of Bellingham and Whatcom County governments, and Western Washington University, are paying Puget Sound Energy to pump enough green power into the grid to offset the energy required to run 100 percent of their operations. The EPA has recognized Bellingham as the largest city to buy 100 percent green power in the nation. The city is seventh for the quantity of green power purchased, behind cities with larger populations. The city started its purchase of renewable energy in January.
http://www.bellinghamherald.com/102/story/48120.html∞

Puget Sound Energy Announces Renewable Energy Production Incentive Program
Customers Can Produce $2,000 Worth of "Green Energy"
BELLEVUE, Wash. (Nov. 21, 2006) – Puget Sound Energy (PSE), the first and so far the only Northwest utility to build and operate wind farms, is now giving its customers who generate clean, renewable power the opportunity to become "green energy" partners by providing them with annual incentive payments for all the electricity they produce...
http://www.pse.com/insidePSE/newsREAP.aspx∞

Protecting Lake Whatcom
by Craig Mayberry, Whatcom Watch, December 2006
It may be time to marshal the resources of the community and get serious about watershed protection. This will require tremendous work on everyone’s part, but permanent protection will only come through conservation easements...The system that controls zoning and development has gotten out of control for the average citizen. It will take work to fix the system to make sure that we have a future that is defined by the citizens, but it can be done. Lake Whatcom needs to be the starting point to make sure we protect our most critical asset in the county.
http://www.whatcomwatch.org/php/WW_open.php?id=762∞

WAL-MART and Sustainability
by David MacLeod, first published by the Whatcom Independent∞, Dec. 21, 2006
Wal-Mart’s announcement of plans to expand their Bellingham store, and the City Council’s subsequent moratorium on retail outlets larger than 100,000 square feet, provides a much needed opportunity to consider the collateral costs of such operations. Unfortunately, the Planning Commission recommended the moratorium be allowed to lapse, as they continue to look into the issue. Commissioner Doug Starcher claimed the Council had “punted a bad ball to us,” but he shouldn’t blame the ball for his own fumbling of it. For the sake of our community, I believe we should resist the Wal-Mart business model; it harms local economic and environmental sustainability, and likely can't even sustain itself in the long term. We must consider both the short and long-term effects of businesses like Wal-Mart...
WalMartandSustainability

big box stores create problems
Letters, the Bellingham Herald
Bellingham’s Comprehensive Plan, adopted in June 2006, is a blueprint for Bellingham’s land use and development. The plan envisions “development patterns that encourage walking, biking and transit use … that allow people to live within walking distance of shopping and employment.” Big box stores are the antithesis of this vision. They promote sprawl and a car-dependent culture. They generate large volumes of traffic, much more than other land uses, with the amount of traffic directly related to the size of the store. Surrounded by an asphalt sea of parking, a 200,000-square-foot store is nearly four times the size of a football field and generates 10,000 car trips on weekdays, more on Saturdays. Many communities across the United States have recognized the multiple problems created by big box retail and have enacted local zoning ordinances prohibiting stores above a certain size. Bellingham had a size cap for retail stores before the construction of Bellis Fair mall. Lynden still has a retail size cap. We have an opportunity at this time, using the comprehensive plan as our guide, to create an ordinance that will allow us to maintain some of the unique qualities of our city and to pull back from the pitfalls of sprawl. Fortunately, this community has other plans for shoppers.
Carole A. Jacobson Bellingham
http://www.bellinghamherald.com/124/story/44215.html∞

Bellingham Planning Commission Meeting Dec. 14, 2006 On The Big Box Retail Moratorium
by David MacLeod, for Sustainable Bellingham
In an opening statement, Commissioner David Auer gave a well reasoned argument that the Commission should take the moratorium as an opportunity to do some serious planning work on the Urban Village concept that the Comprehensive Plan supports. I've transcribed his statement, as well as a summary of the last 10 minutes of the meeting below. Doug Starcher had a lot to say throughout the meeting, but most of it seemed to me to have little substance. Joe Edwards said, "He speaks with forked tongue." Sandy Pratt's statements were mostly in the form of questions. Tom Barrett and Christopher Sahlin were virtually silent throughout the meeting...until 2 hours in, at the end of the meeting when Barrett put forth the recommendation that they let the moratorium lapse. Until that time most of the talk between the Commissioners had been about the idea of actually extending the moratorium another 60 days, giving the Commission more time to study the issue...
To read the rest of this article, click here: PlanningCommissionOnBigBoxMoratorium

Unchained: Author Stacy Mitchell defines costs of mega-retailers and the fight for authenticity
Cascadia Weekly, November 29, 2006
It turns out the City Council’s moratorium succinctly defines what a big-box is—a retailer over 100,000 square feet in volume with associated impervious surface parking that can cover the area of 10 football fields. Drawing on examples from virtually every state in the country, Mitchell unearths the impact of these stores on everything from soaring gasoline consumption to rising poverty rates, failing family farms and declining voting levels. Along the way, Mitchell exposes the role government policy has played in the expansion of mega-retailers and builds a compelling case that communities composed of many small, locally owned businesses are healthier and more prosperous than those dominated by a few large chains. “To a chain,” Mitchell writes, “a town or neighborhood is little more than a place that can be milked for profits. For a local business owner, the community is much more than that: it’s a home. Relationships with customers, suppliers and employers are face-to-face.
http://www.cascadiaweekly.com/pdfs/issues/200638.pdf∞ (large pdf file, page 13)

'Small-Mart': Buying Local Can Save You Money
by Michael Schuman, author of "The Small-Mart Revolution: How Local Businesses Are Beating the Global Competition"
Cascadia Weekly, November 29, 2006
NOW THAT it’s officially Buy Local Week, it’s time to debunk a myth still propagated by some mainstream economists—namely, that local goods and services are more expensive than what’s available from chains, big box stores or internet retailers.
http://www.cascadiaweekly.com/pdfs/issues/200638.pdf∞ (large pdf file, page 6)

Gardeners Get $30,000 Donation
Parkview Elementary students will eat food they grow, Cascadia Weekly, 11-15-06
“It is our intention to use the garden as a way to get children directly involved with the land; to build awareness of their natural landscape and to build an appreciation for what it can give us, whether it’s a quiet spot to sit and reflect, or the delightful satisfaction of finding, then eating, the first ripe berry. We want every child to have the experience of watching their food go from seed, to leaf, to table, to their mouth. We want to change children’s ideas of what delicious food is and give them the magic and power of creating life in a handful of seeds. With every new gardener comes the initial shock of success and wonder at the ease and richness of growing something good for you, of working cooperatively with others, building friendships, skills and lasting memories. It is the greatest gift we can give our children.”
http://www.cascadiaweekly.com/pdfs/issues/200636.pdf∞ (page 10)

The Nature of Things: David Suzuki on life, freedom and the environment
Cascadia Weekly, 11-15-06
CW: Any specific suggestions on how the environmental movement can stay relevant?
DS: Greens have got to link the issues that we’re concerned about to issues of human health. It is so crystal-clear that the skyrocketing
medical costs are related to the fact that we are poisoning the planet. The things that keep us alive—air, water, fire—are being used as toxic dumps. What the heck do we think is going to result from that? What the hell do we expect? What we put into the environment, we’re putting directly into ourselves. I also think we have to really examine the underlying destructive notions of conventional economics. We live in a world that is finite. The biosphere does not go on indefinitely. It’s finite. And yet we have a system within that biosphere called the economy that thinks it can grow forever. If we didn’t have nature, we wouldn’t even have economies, and we wouldn’t have people. Nature is the very source of our survival, of our health, of all of our productivity. We must stop this crazy, suicidal idea that we must have growth forever. Growth forever is the creed of the cancer cell and the economists. It is not possible.
CW: What is your hope for the future?
DS: My hope is that we’ll be able to make the big changes in time. I feel like we’re in a giant car heading at a brick wall at a million miles an hour. Someone’s got to say, “For God’s sake, put the brakes on and turn the wheel!” But everybody in the car is arguing about where they want to sit. It’s a lot easier to save things by putting on the brakes and turning the wheel than it is to smash in to the wall and then pick up the pieces afterwards.
http://www.cascadiaweekly.com/pdfs/issues/200636.pdf∞ (page 14)

Community Car Share
Bellingham Drivers Save Money Passing Around the Keys
No wonder we can’t decide whether to love ’em or leave ’em. Lorraine Wilde, general manager and cochair of Community Car Share of Bellingham, has a better alternative: share ’em. The organization’s first vehicle, on the road since August, is now shared by 12 drivers. “It makes a lot of sense for trying to get people out of their cars, trying to reduce the consumption of fossil fuels,” says Wilde, who helped found the nonprofit service this year.
http://www.cascadiaweekly.com/pdfs/issues/200634.pdf∞ (PDF file, page 8)

'Small-Marts' take on Wal-Mart
Small, local groups nationwide are fighting back against big business and helter-skelter globalization.
Fortune Magazine, August 30, 2006
NEW YORK (Fortune) -- Local businesses in Whatcom County, Wash., next month will exhort their customers to "Buy Fresh Eat Local."
Some people in the scenic, mountainous region will take a pledge to nourish themselves for a week entirely from the local food shed - drinking milk from local cows, eating fresh-baked organic bread and patronizing restaurants like Flats Tapas Bar, which will serve such dishes as flatbread with all-local smoked salmon, caramelized apple, gouda cheese and hazelnuts..."We want to help raise awareness of the value of local food systems," explains Max Morange of Sustainable Connections, a network of more than 500 Bellingham-area businesses that sponsors the annual event. "We're losing farmland very quickly."
http://money.cnn.com/2006/08/30/news/companies/smallmarts.fortune/∞

Cleanup in the Whatcom Waterway And ASB
Oct. 2006. Wendy Steffensen is the North Sound Baykeeper with RE Sources. She’s a trained toxiciologist and specialist in water quality issues. She has been working on Bellingham Bay issues since 2000.
The hot topic in Bellingham is the cleanup of mercury-contaminated sediments from the Whatcom Waterway and from Georgia-Pacific’s former treatment lagoon, known as the ASB. As the North Sound Baykeeper, I’ve been closely tracking and commenting on the many aspects of this issue, including the various cleanup options presented by the Department of Ecology (Ecology). Because this is so important to the community, I hope you, too, will take the time to understand the issue and submit your comments.
http://www.whatcomwatch.org/php/WW_open.php?id=757∞

How Safe Is Our Lake Whatcom Drinking Water?
Whatcom Watch, October 2006
Since 1999 the city of Bellingham has published Pure Facts, a Consumer Confidence Report about the status of our treated drinking water — where it comes from, how it is purified, what is in it and how we can help protect it. Each year the report is mailed to all households serviced by the city, in part to keep us informed about our drinking water quality, as well as to comply with federal regulations requiring each public water utility to provide such reports annually. The reports are excellent sources of information about our drinking water quality over time, as well as an insightful, though unintended record of drinking water related issues that have come up in our community during that time.
http://www.whatcomwatch.org/php/WW_open.php?id=748∞

PSE offering new incentives for green power use
Bellingham Business Journal, September, 2006
Currently, 110 businesses in Whatcom County purchase some amount of green power, which costs about 2 cents more per kilowatt-hour than regular electricity, said Heather Mulligan, green power market manager for PSE. As an example, The Bellingham Business Journal in June used 693.6 kilowatt hours, at a rate of roughly 7 cents per kilowatt hour, for a total bill of $48.40. Switching to 100 percent green power would raise that bill to $62.37. About 0.6 percent to 0.7 percent of Whatcom County’s current electricity usage comes from green power. The Green Power Community Challenge sponsors want to see that number increase to 2 percent by the campaign’s endpoint in March. With that percentage, the Environmental Protection Agency will designate Bellingham a Green Power Community, providing the city with highway signs and national press opportunities. Only three cities in the U.S. — Eugene, Ore.; Moab, Utah and Boulder, Colo. — can boast that designation.
http://www.businessjournal.org/ejournal/september_06/green.html∞

City of Bellingham leads nation in support of renewable energy by “greening” 100% of municipal energy use
The Bellingham City Council recently established the City of Bellingham as a nationwide leader in the support of renewable energy with a unanimous decision to “green” 100% of the electricity used in city operations. Purchasing renewable energy credits representing 100% of the electricity used in 2007 by municipal operations will make the City of Bellingham the sixth largest purchaser of renewable energy in the nation by a local government, according to officials at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
This action is a part of the Bellingham Green Power Community Challenge, a community wide campaign to promote renewable energy that is being launched the afternoon of September 2, 2006, in conjunction with the Bellingham Traverse. The City of Bellingham, Sustainable Connections, and Puget Sound Energy are working together to urge residents and businesses to also participate in Puget Sound Energy’s Green Power Program to support the development of renewable energy resources in the Pacific Northwest.
http://www.cob.org/features/2006-07-31-green-power.htm∞
http://www.sconnect.org/greenpower∞

College campuses are going green - Sustainability seen as key for next generation
Aug. 23, 2006, The Seattle P.I.
Pineapple heads, watermelon rinds and lettuce leaves fertilize the flowers at Seattle University instead of going into the garbage.
Staff members at the University of Washington drive hybrid cars and may soon be able to fill up other motor pool vehicles with biodiesel.
The student body at Western Washington University agreed to pay up to $10.50 a quarter to buy renewable electricity -- becoming one of the first in the state to go 100 percent green on the main campus.
These and other efforts on Washington campuses underscore the movement to turn the unofficial colors of each college to an Earth-friendly green. Local universities are reducing the garbage and pollution they produce while cutting back on the amount of energy they use.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/282232_greencampus23.html∞

Beyond Peak Oil
by Art Baner
The buzz around “peak oil” has finally hit the mainstream. We are now hearing from many conventional sources about the decline in fossil fuels and the inevitable rise in oil and natural gas prices. The increase in such reporting represents a unique and powerful opportunity for those of us interested in sustainability, relocalization, and human rights. In a moment, we’ll look at how we can wisely and responsibly meet this opportunity, but first let’s review the basics of peak oil for those who may be new to this vitally important dialogue.
http://www.anewworldrising.com/node/421∞

Our Long Term Energy Future
April, 2006
Cheap oil has driven the American economy and led to suburban sprawl that is the bane of mass transportation, to large over-powered, gas-guzzling private vehicles as status symbols, and to cheaply built, poorly insulated houses that require much fossil fuel to heat them. Many Americans understand that progressive depletion of oil reserves is accelerated by increasing demands for oil by the growing economies of China and India and is keeping gasoline prices high. While some Americans are having difficulty paying for fossil fuel to heat their homes this winter, the price of gasoline is still too low to shake complacency. We are okay now, they think. The future has always taken care of itself, so why worry? I am a grandparent and old enough to be concerned about my descendents and all Americans. I am not alone. The September 2005 Scientific American cover headline is “Crossroads for Planet Earth,” the cover of the January 14, 2006, Economist headline is “Danger Time in America” and the title of the recent book by Bill Bonner and Addison Wiggin is “Empire of Debt, The Rise of an Epic Financial Crisis.”
http://www.whatcomwatch.org/php/WW_open.php?id=677∞

Solar Power Case Study: An Old Idea with New Economics
April, 2006
The pollution avoidance realities outlined above have always been in existence, but were obscured by the benefits of low energy costs and an almost tacit acceptance of incremental environmental degradation. How easy it has been to ignore these impacts— almost like a frog in a pot of water, slowly being brought to a boil. Now that energy costs are rising rapidly, global warming is visibly happening and the economic gap between personal/family incomes and necessities is growing, we are suddenly able to see more clearly the impacts of continuing a ‘business as usual’ attitude toward how we live and use energy....Coupled with the new economics, more new high-tech and high efficiency devices are being developed to help curtail energy waste, but these are not—in themselves—the answer. There are no good substitutes for personal awareness, accepting responsibility and taking action. Consumption has its own limits, and its expensive consequences. As Dana Brandt suggests, a great new ‘take-away’ message to offer is: “All you who care for the environment, and/or wish to be less dependent on foreign oil, the time has come that you can afford to do something about it. The confluence of an array of incentives and high energy prices makes solar power—and other highly energy efficient systems—accessible to nearly all of us.”
http://www.whatcomwatch.org/php/WW_open.php?id=682∞

The Time Is Right for Solar
April, 2006
Solar electricity works in Bellingham. I know this may come as a surprise to many as we’re just finding our way out of months of cloudy weather, but we have plenty of sun—enough to send utility meters spinning backward. Solar electricity or photovoltaics (PV) is a pollution-free way of generating electricity for your home or business. Not only does solar electricity work here, but an array of financial incentives make it cheaper than it’s ever been before. Money is available from the state and federal governments, Puget Sound Energy and elsewhere to help you pay for a PV system.
http://www.whatcomwatch.org/php/WW_open.php?id=683∞

Support local businesses
Dec. 22, 2005, Letters
The following statement is from the Organic Consumers Association: "From rural to urban areas, an ever-growing chorus of citizens laments losing a sense of community.
Meanwhile, national chains continue displacing locally-owned businesses countrywide. This trend is considered symptomatic of our loss of community orientation, but could it also be a primary cause? And how is our economic well-being impacted? Before developing shopping habits, we typically choose to do business where we perceive the best value for our time and money. But perceptions only are as sound as the scope of information creating them, and we humans like short-cuts.
Thus, it's as easy to accept as truth the omnipresent corporate chain ads bombarding us daily as to misinformation about the values independent businesses provide us, both personally and in community.
The disappearance of local businesses leaves a social and economic void that is palpable and real-even when it goes unmeasured. A community's quality of life changes in ways that macroeconomics is slow to measure or ignores completely."
I hope this holiday season you, your friends, your family are all shopping and supporting local businesses. Spend money with local places and your money stays in the community. Spend your money at WalMart and KMart and watch it vanish into some other community. It may cost more for us to buy local products, but at the very least we're sustaining our locals, and not deepening the pockets of corporates we don't even know...
-Jennifer Devreaux, Bellingham
http://www.foothillsgazette.com/gazette.php?s=139∞

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