Upcoming
Outings |
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Sat May 10: Trail Maintenance and Invasive
Plant pull/dig at John Muir Park
Sat, May 17: Garlic Mustard Removal Brooklyn
State Wildlife Area
Sat, May 17: Teacher Workshop and FROG HIKE
with Randy Korb.
Sun, May 18: Bike the Capitol City Trail
Mon, May 19: Cherokee Marsh Full Moon Hike
Thurs, May 22: Kayak Lake Monona
Click
here for details....
 
Our
Next Program
May:
Photo Tour of Big Bend National Park
Wednesday, May 21
6:30 - 8:30 p.m.
Madison
Public Library Main Branch
201 W Mifflin
Click
here for details....
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Top
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Moving
Beyond Coal
One
of Sierra Club's top priorities both locally and nationally
is to cut our global warming pollution a reasonable, achievable
2% a year. One of the best ways to do that is to Move
Beyond Coal — and in South Central Wisconsin, the
Four Lakes Group is working to do just that.
Wisconsin generates more than 75% of its electricity by
burning coal. Our over-reliance on is toxic from start
to finish. We get our coal from strip mines in the west
and mountain-top removal mining in the east that devastates
peoples’ health, their homes, and their lives. Burning
coal pollutes the air and water, acting as a main driver
of global warming, causing more than 22,000 people across
the country to die prematurely every year because of air
pollution, and filling our fish with mercury pollution
that damages the development of over 630,000 babies each
year. Once coal is burned, the toxic ash contaminates
our land and groundwater with heavy metals. There are
much better ways to meet our energy needs.
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Doing more with less. Experts tell us
that we can cut our energy use in half using off-the-shelf
efficient technologies from lighting to furnaces to motors.
We can more than double the efficiency of our energy production
by using technologies like cogeneration. The energy saved
by reducing waste will actually add-up to be America's
greatest, least tapped power source. By thinking of efficiency
as another orgfuel at our disposal we can lower energy
demand, which will keep energy prices low and combat global
warming—all while eliminating the need for dirty
and expensive new coal plants.
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Relying on renewables. We can rely on
much cleaner fuels like wind and the sun's energy. We
can burn biofuels that reduce global warming pollution,
soot, smog, and mercury. Many states across the nation
are already investing heavily in efficiency and making
the switch to renewable energy. California’s aggressive
efficiency programs have held per capita electricity use
constant for over 10 years, while other states have seen
energy use more than double.
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Cleaning it up. Old coal-fired power plants,
which are the worst contributors to global warming, smog,
acid rain and respiratory problems, need to be cleaned
up and retired. We can kick the dirty coal habit. New
coal plants lock us into the dirtiest fuel for decades.
We should work towards reducing our dependence on coal
and achieving a 2% reduction per year in global warming
emissions through energy efficiency and renewable energy
that can both guarantee our energy future and provide
cleaner, healthier options for meeting our energy needs.
We have the technology available today to begin moving
beyond coal by meeting our energy needs with sources that
are clean, safe, reliable and affordable.
To learn more about Moving
Beyond Coal, come to the Conservation Committee
meetings - we meet the 1st Monday of every month! For
details on meetings, contact Annie Staten at statenan@gmail.com.
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