As if the feature that appeared in our April/May issue (How Green is Alabama, Anyway?) wasn’t enough, this post covers the many, many items that we couldn’t fit in the story—and hopefully continues the conversation. In this, and the magazine, the idea was to take a look at the condition of Alabama’s environment—and how our citizens, organizations, politicians, and policy makers are (or aren’t) responding.
The essential question I danced around in the feature—and, I think, failed to sufficiently answer—was who leads this charge to change in Alabama? Does it start with our elected leaders or at a grassroots level? At the personal, household level, we all can strive to reduce our consumption and recycle more (even if it means finding a centralized location to recycle glass since few municipalities in the state—with the exception of Athens, Auburn, Daphne, and Fairhope do so) yet the larger issues such as public policy, transportation, regulations and other require larger solutions.
In its
2006 National Environmental Scorecard, the nonprofit League of Conservation Voters analyzed the 2nd session of the 109th Congress and frankly, Alabama (and many other Southern states) were found wanting in terms of their protection of the environment on a national level [Editor’s note: as we were going to press, the
2007 scorecard became available]. Looking at key votes on items such as offshore and artic refuge drilling, low-income energy assistance, environmental funding, and other subjects, along with Idaho, North Carolina, Texas, Kentucky, Wyoming and Georgia, Alabama’s Senate average voting record against the environment was poor. Senators Jeff Sessions and Richard Shelby improved from 4% to 5% in 2005 but returned to 0% in 2006. In deference to Sessions, at the local level, he recently helped secure $1 million in funding for the new
Red Mountain Park in Birmingham and was instrumental in
Dugger Mountain wilderness protection and establishing Mountain Longleaf National Wildlife Refuge near Anniston. And for years, Shelby has said that if local Birmingham authorities could raise $20 million for public transportation (they couldn’t), he would provide a 4-to-1 match of $80 million in support of this effort.
Overall, the House did better, with Congressman Artur Davis’ 50% voting record on the high end and Congressman Robert B. Aderholt’s 0% on the low end which represents his consistent anti-environmental action in Congress (a lifetime voting record of 3%). Give our politicians voting record, this raises a valid question: Does this represent what Alabama voters want from their legislators with regards to environmental protection? If it is, then there’s an argument to advance in support of our senators and congressmen. If not… In 2006, 1,431,980 pounds of material were recycled at the
Alabama Environmental Council’s Birmingham recycling center alone—yet Alabama has no
bottle bill that encourages glass recycling, an effort has consistently been defeated in the 1980s and 90s in the state legislature. Again, the will of the people—or something else?
In my article, I highlighted the fact that in Birmingham, two new major parks and one expanded one are poised to transform Birmingham into one of the greenest cities in the United States. What I didn’t add was that Birmingham would be wise to continue supporting these efforts: Atlanta, ever the competitive cousin to Birmingham, is talking about a revolutionary 22-mile ribbon of connected parks, light rail, and trail corridor called the
Atlanta BeltLine Initiative, that would encircle downtown with a transformative green circle. It would be rich, rich irony indeed if a sprawl addicted city like Atlanta managed to nudge past Birmingham in this regard.
Some Alabama municipalities have seized the initiative.
Cool Cities, a volunteer organization of cities that have made the commitment to stop global warming by signing the U.S. Mayors' Climate Protection Agreement, includes a handful of Alabama cities such as Auburn, Bessemer, Huntsville, Mantua Township, and Tuscaloosa (by comparison, North Carolina has 25 cities signed on, Georgia 9, South Carolina 8, Tennessee 7, Mississippi 2, and Florida has too many to count).
Yet short of a
new state constitution that frees the hands of counties and cities—or the painstaking process of amending the current constitution article by article—change will come slow at the municipal level in Birmingham and other cities in Alabama. Further complicating the process for cities is that while a municipality may have more home rule control than the county, development outside of a city’s limit is going to affect the city—even though the city often has no means to control those developments. For every rural town such as Greensboro and Newbern that benefit from a program like the Auburn University’s Rural Studio, other are often chasing jobs. “Plenty of counties would take German-steel maker ThyssenKrupp for the jobs it provides,” Quinn continues, “and yet what about the environmental impact that such a plant will bring?”
Alabama Power offers a renewable energy program that uses Alabama-grown switchgrass as its main fuel source (call 1-800-245-2244 to sign up) PowerSouth Energy Cooperative which supplies electricity to 385,000 customers in Alabama and Florida, offers the
Green Power Choice program as well. Agriculture & Industries Commissioner Ron Sparks and Montgomery's Mayor Bobby Bright recently announced a partnership to turn used cooking grease into biodiesel fuel for the city’s fleet vehicles, and opened a new Center for Alternative Fuels Biodiesel Production facility in the city.
And Alabama schools are contributing, too. The new Homewood Middle School in Birmingham earned a Silver
LEED certification, and others such as Hilltop Montessori School, the new Trussville High School, and planned Vestavia Hills Public Library are in the process of gaining LEED certification. Birmingham Southern College just started an Urban Environmental Studies program, the first of its kind in the state. Auburn University’s Rural Studio architecture program has been consistently experimenting with recycled materials and green building methods in their inventive projects such as rooftop water collection culverts at a Greensboro baseball field that reuses the water in toilets. And Auburn University’s 40 Tiger Transit buses recently switched from diesel fuel to biodiesel, a cleaner burning alternative produced from domestic renewable sources, making it the first university in Alabama to do so. Alabama 4-H has even seized the momentum as is set to open the first planned gold-certified Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) environmental education building in the eastern United States on Lay Lake near Columbiana.
Yet aside from all these agencies, organizations, towns, and politicians, what is ultimately reduces down to are the 4,599,030 individuals that make up Alabama. We set the agenda by demanding and using local recycling programs, by our generous donations to nonprofits, by volunteering, by getting involved, by agitating for positive change. When was the last time you wrote your state senator or congressman? When was the last time you called a local city counselor? When was the last time you or your family volunteered locally for an event that benefited your town, your village, your local environment and the people who live there?
The good news, finally, is that trying to assembly even a modicum of a list of all the individuals, nonprofits, businesses, municipalities, and state bodies that take an active role in making (or trying to make) Alabama more green and a more healthy place to live is a daunting task. That’s a good thing. This was not the case even 15 ago. “Back in 1990, there were maybe 10 people statewide at nonprofits doing educational work on the environment,” observes environmentalist Pat Byington, publisher of
Bama Environmental News and former director of the Alabama Environmental Council. “Today, it’s more like 100, and there are plenty more running various outreach organizations.”
Ultimately, someone in Alabama doesn’t have to give a hoot about Al Gore or the World Wildlife Fund. You don’t have to feel altruistic. Be selfish. Our Garden of Eden, Alabama, is undergoing a dramatic decline. And we’re the ones that can help.
[As an aside, Alabama Public Television is taking a look at just this question in a segment called Alabama Goes Green with Lakia Richardson which airs Friday, May 16 at 7:00pm.]
Posted by Todd Keith
