Beyond Coal
Becki Clayborn,
Sierra Club
Tuesday, February 9th, 6:45 p.m., 6:45pm
Vernon Area Library, Lincolnshire
illinois.sierraclub.org/w&w/meet 
Our first meeting of the new year!

Electric Cars
Wednesday, May 26, 2010, 6:45pm
Grayslake

See what has changed since last year.

Save These Dates for these W&W Events

For updates, see Meetings.

An option to build an incinerator for solid waste disposal has come before the Public Works and Transportation Committee of the Lake County Board. It is currently being discussed as one option for waste disposal for the county. Proponents argue that it is only one possibility being considered and is not a final decision at this time. A host of Detractors suggest even considering an incinerator in Lake County would be a very bad idea for various reasons. They include:

1. Toxic emissions would be spread over Lake County and surrounding areas, including Lake Michigan.

2. It would derail efforts to reduce, reuse, or recycle waste in the county.

3. It would be very expensive to build and provide fewer local jobs than reuse or recycling.

4. It would convert solid carbon in the form of plastic, paper, or wood waste into greenhouse gases such as Carbon Dioxide and Carbon Monoxide.

5. The proposal is vague and wouldn’t limit what type of incinerator could be built.

6. Once built it would need to be fed a continual diet of resources in order to justify its construction thereby further reducing incentives to reduce, reuse, recycle.

7. The recent EPA ruling that CO2 is a pollutant would require the incinerator use “best available practices” to reduce CO2, which would mean sequestration. That technology is expensive, unproven and most likely would not be viable with our local geology.

The Sierra Club opposes incinerators nationwide», and the construction of a waste incinerator in Lake County, and asks for your support by contacting your local Lake County Board Members to let them know an incinerator is not the answer. Visit the website of a local group opposing the incinerator at www.incineratorfree.com»

The members of the Public Works and Transportation Committee who will decide whether to include an incinerator option in the SWALCO Plan are:

• Diana O’Kelly, chairwoman

• David Stolman, vice-chairman

• Melinda Bush

• Bonnie Carter

• Ann Maine

• Craig Taylor

• Terry Wilke

I have been blessed this year to learn from Swamis, Shamans and Native Americans.
What a humbling experience it has been.

They live with such a joy and reverence for all life
Holding a deep respect for the teachings of nature

Life spent in celebration
Knowing all is connected
There is no separation
We all share the same breath
The circle of life,
fluid.

I believe we are cut from the same cloth
Their ancient wisdom is stitched into our souls

We are healers
Walking gently on this earth
Working for the highest good

Our actions
Create ripples across the universe
Shifting the balance through
Purity of intention
Positive action
All done within the realm of possibility
And within a quiet mind

We have been honored to do our work
Sharing our gifts,
Our wisdom.

Our work is done with a deep knowing
That we are building bridges
Between the inner and the outer
The seen and unseen.
Forever
Infinite

I am a relatively new Storm Water Ranger. I took the training provided by Sierra Club in Oct 2009 and I must say, it opened a whole new world to me! I learned so many things…from how a sudden rush of muddy water kills life in our streams, to the laws and resources that already exist and can be used to protect our local environment! Did you know there is such a thing as a Storm Water Pollution Prevention Plan (SWPPP) that developers are required to submit to the EPA to be able to get a permit? Ordinary citizens like us can even submit a complaint form to the EPA if we find construction sites that are not adhering to the environmental standards and polluting local streams. And its amazing how easy it is!

I went on my first site visit (Sunset Grove at Aptakisic and Rt. 83) lead by Evan Craig, the highly driven and committed Chair of the Woods and Wetlands group. It was a fun outing, and an eye opener. I was looking at a construction site with a completely new perspective. We used a Prairie Rivers cool mini-field guide to identify inconsistencies and blatant violations at the site, and took pictures of problem areas like blocked culverts, silt fences and an non-stabilized hill of dirt. Evan also showed us how to measure the water quality in the storm drain to which the site was connected, using the Ohio Sediment Stick. All of this information was submitted by Evan to the IEPA and is also tracked on a wiki web site we Rangers can all edit.

What really excites me about the Storm Water Ranger program is that it equips a layperson like me with the knowledge and tools to actually make a difference in my local environment, and protect the health of my local creeks, streams and rivers, and the life they sustain. It makes it easy for me to be a hands-on citizen activist and gives me a sense of empowerment and accomplishment. And it’s a great field trip!

Does this newsletter give you the impression that our 2100 member group is well managed? If not, then we could probably use your help.

Sierra Club's groups organize members to enjoy and protect the environment at the local level, and this local member involvement makes the Sierra Club one of the most effective environmental organizations in the country. Group leaders decide how to use club tools and resources to engage our members. We can participate in campaigns and activities devised by Illinois or national leaders, or create our own campaigns and events to support the Club's mission.

The Woods & Wetland (W&W) Group includes members from most of Lake County, and also Northbrook and Glenview in NE Cook County. Our W&W Executive Committee meets for two hours once a month to discuss and plan. In between meetings we follow through on our plans, arranging outings, and meetings; writing alerts, websites and newsletters to our members; reaching out to community leaders; and coming together to celebrate our successes.

W&W Executive Commissioners serve two year terms, and about half of the seven seats are up for election every year. We invite you to consider serving as an elected W&W Executive Commissioner. If you would run for a seat this spring, or would like to know more about it, please contact me by e-mail or phone (847-680-6437) by January 31. 

With world leaders assembled in Copenhagen for COP15, the 15th United Nations Climate Change Conference, most here in the US have jobs on our minds. If you have one, you’re hoping you’ve made it through the recession with it. If you lost one, you’re hoping companies start hiring soon. A few are looking at all the available talent around, and thinking about starting a company. If you’re reading this, I hope you’re thinking about how your job can help stop what Amory Lovins calls Global Wierding. That’s one thing I was thinking about when I left my job designing medical analyzers in 1987, and joined a small company researching high efficiency battery technology – still the lynchpin for electric vehicles. In 1995 I left that technology in the care of Motorola, and thought about what my next job should be. I decided I could have as big an impact helping a regular polluting company to clean up as I could working for a company already working on the new technologies for a cooler planet. I still have the job I found then. I’d like to share some of the ways my plan is working out and challenge all of you working in or outside the home to think about how yours might.

The first part of any job is getting to it. Some of you have the luxury of working in your home, and enjoy the 20 ft commute from bed to your workplace in your slippers. As an Engineer, I work with things and other people, so I resigned myself to at least some commuting to get to where that would happen. I decided that I’d be willing to trade a rung or two of my steep career path for a couple of hours not spent commuting or working extreme hours. So I stuck a stack of resumes on my bike’s rear rack and rode a small area around my house handing them out to nearby business. That resulted in an interview and some leads less than two miles away! I rode a little larger area, and got some more leads, but no job. So I resorted to the usual methods, and after exploring more distant possibilities I decided to call back those first ones. The HR manager at one of them said, “We thought that you were overqualified, and when you didn’t call back, thought you weren’t interested.” I took that job less than 5 miles from home. This gave me the option of a 20 minute bike ride to work. One day I put a sign on my back that said “ONE LESS CAR” and hitchhiked. I got a ride from one of my neighbors I hadn’t met before! True, most of the time I still drove to work, but this simple choice has saved me thousands of hours of my personal time while keeping tons of CO2 out of the atmosphere. Deciding to work and live less than five miles apart is the first step to a green job.

The next element of a green job is to minimize the direct impact of the operation. After a while at that job I realized that many of the people where I worked were concerned about the environment, and luckily, one was the owner. He was a pioneer in, among other things, using the internet to sell from business to business, and now we’re serving our customers better, printing our catalog less, and saving money. I started asking for small changes: recycled paper in the copier, reduced packaging on our products. I also started designing our products – small electronic circuits inside steel boxes – without toxic lead, and other materials that make them hard to recycle. A few years ago the owner sold the company and now I work for a global multi-national. When we moved to a new facility I noticed that the place had single temperature thermostats, and convinced my boss to upgrade them to programmable ones. Now we save energy and money every night. This June the company announced savings from energy conservation measures, and plans to do more energy audits to save even more. And - this just in - has committed to 10% emissions reduction in the next 2 years. Some of the furnaces and air conditioners on the building are failing, so this will make it easier for us to convince the building owners to replace them with high efficiency units, like I did at home (see Newsletter 47  - white plastic furnace pipes on the outside wall of your utility room are a better green status symbol than a hybrid SUV in the driveway). Remember that less waste in the environment often results in less wasted profit. Green business is good business.

The third part of a green job is the same for any business as it is for solar cell and windmill manufacturers. Find ways to help your customers reduce their environmental impacts. Almost every product, from service to heavy equipment, leads to environmental impacts by its consumer. Recently I designed a new product line, and took simple steps to make it more energy efficient. These small improvements save energy and money in manufacturing, will save megawatts of power in use, and provide a more desirable product for our customers.

There are literally hundreds of opportunities to reduce energy use at every company, and most of them can save money and make the company more competitive. Our job as environmentalists is to create demand, through public education and lobbying, to help make them priorities for our recovering economy.

In the mean time, try not to get swept up in the claims of those who think that we shouldn't reduce our CO2 emissions to slow global warming. It's crunch time, and industries that make their money emitting carbon dioxide are spending millions hiring hundreds of lobbyists, and creating fake science and astroturf (fake grassroots) campaigns. Remember when the government went after cigarette smoking, and the same tactics of doubt were deployed? The leaders of companies making millions appeared before Congress to say, "I believe that nicotine is not addictive." Don't be surprised to see the same thing happen now. Tragically, delaying action to slow global warming will have a compounded effect, making it impossible to prevent the worst consequences later. The time for doubt is over. The science is in, and getting more compelling every year. It's time for all polluters to make green jobs. 

No more silly rhymes and monkeyshines with the US Post Office. With the cost of postage still rising, and Sierra Club donations down, it’s time to say goodbye to the old L&P. This is your last edition of the Lake & Prairie with our W&W News attached.

Don’t get all misty faces, we’ll just be sending our Sha na na´s and Doo be down´s in our newsletter by e-mail instead of by mail. It’s fast, and it’s free! We’ll send you these same great stories and events, with better pictures and richer content - in time to respond and participate! To sign up, address an e-mail message to

LISTSERV@LISTS.SIERRACLUB.ORG

and then include the following commands in the body of the message :

SUBSCRIBE IL-WWG-ALERTS firstname lastname yourtown

(inserting your first name and last name and your town).

Worried that you might have missed an issue? We post this newsletter here on our website too. Bookmark our website:

http://illinois.sierraclub.org/w&w

Still don’t do e-mail? Mail us a note at our POB and we’ll keep you on a list for a printed copy - when we have them.

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