Critical mass for enviromental change

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By Gwen Bedient

Recently, I ran across an old Paul Fell cartoon from 1986. It depicts two office workers back to back. One has an overflowing ashtray on his desk and is smoking a cigarette while smoke engulfs the entire room. He is reading the newspaper as he calls out to his officemate, “Hey, Wayne … did you read this hogwash about cigarette smoke being harmful to non-smokers? Did you …? Wayne? Wayne?” Wayne is shown slumped over his desk apparently passed out from the smoke.

Today, the whole idea of someone smoking in an office is so unheard of that this cartoon appears as a relic of a hard-to-imagine other world. More and more cities and states are outlawing smoking in restaurants, bars, hotels — essentially all indoor public spaces.

Even the pubs in Ireland and cafes in Paris are going smoke-free.

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Gwen Bedient

Gwen Bedient

I’m old enough though to remember when the nonsmoking section of a restaurant was three booths surrounded by smoke, when smokers puffed away in grocery stores, movie theaters and even at the circulation desk in Love Library. The hope for smoke-free public buildings seemed light years away.

I also remember the decades-long reality of the Iron Curtain. Growing up during the ’50s and ’60s, I was certain that it would never come down in my lifetime. Those countries in Eastern Europe would be under the grip of communism for the foreseeable future. And then everything changed.

What happened in both of these instances? I believe that people’s actions, government leadership and news coverage all conspired to bring about a critical juncture, a tipping point if you will, that brought big changes.

I think we have reached another such tipping point regarding our impact on the environment. With $4-a-gallon gas, rising food prices and strange weather patterns, people are starting to realize that the age of cheap oil and unlimited use of our natural resources is coming to an end.

If we don’t make changes in our lifestyles, there will be consequences, some of which already are evident.

Sometimes natural disaster provides an impetus for change. A year after a tornado flattened the town of Greensburg, Kan., it is rebuilding using the strict LEED certification program administered by the U. S. Green Building Council.

This means homes are being built with such features as added insulation, double-paned windows and compact-fluorescent lights. Some use recycled materials and have extra-large south-facing windows. The John Deere farm equipment dealership and the town’s new art center have even erected wind turbines.

In contrast to Greensburg, the huge 18 million-square-foot Palazzo hotel and casino complex in Las Vegas is the largest LEED-certified project in the nation. This is due in great part to the fact that in 2005 the Nevada Legislature created the nation’s first tax abatement program for LEED-certified buildings.

The Palazzo project includes a solar pool heating system that directs excess energy in the summer to the hotel’s hot water system; a 75 percent reduction in irrigation needs through artificial turf, drip irrigation and moisture sensors; air conditioning controls in guest rooms that set back several degrees when guests are not present and reset when they return; lighting occupancy sensors for some areas; interior plumbing that uses 37 percent less water; and a waste recycling program that diverts more than 70 percent of waste from the landfill.

With several large upcoming building projects in Lincoln, such as the possible arena in the Haymarket, the hotel/apartment complex at 14th and Q streets, and now the Assurity building along the Antelope Valley parkway, it may be time for Lincoln to go green.

Going green with these projects could be good not only for the environment, but for owners who actually could save money in the long run.

It seems to me that we, as residents of Lincoln, need to decide whether we want to be at the forefront of changes that will benefit both the environment and ourselves or we want to wait until the big wave washes over us and we are forced to change.

Gwen Bedient works at the Center for Great Plains Studies and enjoys travel, gardening and volunteering in the community.