How to save a mountain

Colorado Voices: Louisville
Article Last Updated:11/11/2006

In the Appalachians, mountains that have stood for thousands of years are being blasted away to provide electricity for televisions, computers and light bulbs. I've been in an ecovillage that uses only solar, water and wind power, and I can say first-person that there's no need whatsoever for this massive destruction.

Two recent documentaries, Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" and Jeff Barrie's "Kilowatt Ours," have brought some solutions into the foreground of thought in the Southeast. It's time for the Mountain West to start working to save our softer sisters, the Appalachians, from certain death.

The first and easiest change that any American can make would be to replace all incandescent light bulbs with compact bulbs, those curly looking ones that cost a little more upfront. Each one saves $55 during the life of the bulb, along with hundreds of pounds of coal.

Wind and solar power destroy nothing, and it's easy to create a solar-powered life, even for a nightbird like me. I'm a night reader, and I love to write at night. Instead of brightening a whole room, I can turn on my curly light-bulb lamp, using a little bit of coal instead of a lot, or I can wear my hiker's light, which has an LED bulb. The hiker's light actually supplies exactly the right amount of illumination for writing and reading, and it costs almost nothing to run. Plus, it uses no coal at all.

There's no real sacrifice to living this way. In ecovillages, solar panels store up energy, and each house in the community has a unique style. The Earthship is insulated with recycled tires. The community building has straw bale insulation in the walls and a gorgeous floor of recycled marble.

It doesn't take living in an ecovillage to make a significant difference. Cities, counties and school districts can make sweeping changes and save millions of dollars while saving the mountains. In traffic lighting, LED lights will last seven years instead of 90 days. Exit signs, too, can use LED for power.

Any new buildings in the city, be they schools or other new construction, could use daylighting as a means of conserving energy usage. Schoolchildren would benefit most, since use of daylight instead of artificial light increases test scores and improves student attitudes. Instead of those annoying, buzzing overhead fluorescents that actually can cause headaches and anxiety, the kids sit in rooms awash with sunshine.

I propose that cities in Colorado make sweeping changes to save our sister mountains to the East. We can insist that no new developments be built anywhere in the area unless they are completely self-sufficient, net-zero-energy homes, passive solar and utilising only renewable power sources.

By using a geothermal system, passive solar construction and integrated photovoltaic panels, a home can be made completely self-sufficient. The geothermal system pumps water and recirculates it, keeping houses cool in summer and warmer in winter. In Boulder, Xcel Energy offers the option of green, clean wind energy for people who simply check a box on their energy bill, so there's no reason for every citizen not to do exactly that. Energy companies can take it a step farther, too, by offering rebates and incentives for homeowners to add solar panels to existing homes.

In my ecovillage, nobody cares about television, but many of us use computers. We also don't use aluminium cans much; instead, we drink fresh spring water and make our own tea, wines and juices in this fertile land. The irony is that the mountains being destroyed by the energy companies to feed those TV needs are ecologically diverse beauties that provide the real resources that human beings actually need to be self-sustaining - fresh spring water, daylight, clean streams, green plants, fresh air.

People with modest incomes often are the first ones to begin to make a significant difference, knowing that every penny counts, motivated by saving money as well as saving nature. Some people can afford to waste their money, but humanity as a whole can't afford to waste the mountains.

The results of our efforts will have one huge, tangible result: Our children's grandchildren will be able to enjoy the birdsong and beauty of the Appalachian Mountains. A simple visit to the Southeast shows mighty mountains falling down - and for what? Lights and computers left on for no reason; televisions blaring in the dark.

I'd like for schoolchildren across America to rally their all-too-complacent elders. Their grandchildren will be the ones choking with asthma, in an ecosystem devoid of soft mountains and fresh air. Then again, why make the children carry our conscience and the consequences? We can start now to save the country's softest mountains.