Turned Green By a Twister

Loretta Lucas 2/6/08 for assignment due 2/8/08 Blog #4

ARTICLE TITLE: “Turned Green by a Twister”
SOURCE NAME & WEB-LINK: Time Magazine
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1709542,00.html
BLOG SUBMISSION DATE: 2/6/08 for assignment due on 2/8/08
POST #: 4
SUMMARY:

The tornado that hit Greensburg on May 4, 2007 took its time, rolling up Main Street like it was on a Sunday walk to church according to Ron Shank, the owner of the Kansas town's only General Motors dealership.Bottom of Form The tornado had measured EF5 on the Enhanced Fujita scale, the highest possible rating, and it left hardly a single wall standing. "I could only think of Hiroshima," remembers Lonnie McCollum, then the town's mayor. Over 1,000 people — more than two-thirds of the town's population — were left homeless, and residents feared their town had suffered a deathblow. Greensburg had been losing population for years due to jobs being scarce, and a migration away from town after high school graduation.

Why rebuild a dying town? To make it into a “greener, energy efficient one” that was powered by Kansas’ abundant winds and bio-fuels."We were barely making it before the tornado," says Wylan Fleener, whose century-old furniture store was reduced to a pile of bricks by the storm. "I thought about leaving every day." The heartland community could become a Mecca for environmentalists, including green businesses that would bring jobs, said Daniel Wallach, an entrepreneur from a nearby town who formed the non-profit Greensburg GreenTown. At first there was resistance to changes but Wallach and his allies began to shift local opinion by showing that going green was about cutting waste and saving on rising fuel bills, and building a stronger and more resilient town with a sustainable economy.

Today Greensburg is living up to its name. Consultants from the Department of Energy and the National Renewable energy Laboratory are helping residents build new houses that are up to 50% more energy efficient than their old homes. The Discovery Channel has spent months documenting the town's reconstruction for a miniseries on the Greensburg experience that will be produced by Leonardo DiCaprio. In early January 2008, the city council approved a plan that would make all public buildings in Greensburg conform to the Platinum rating of the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Design (LEED) standards — something no town in the America has ever tried. Ron Shank's car dealership, which had been close to closing, will be rebuilt as a model green facility for GM, and Google is even thinking of opening a wind-powered data center nearby.

ANALYSIS:
I think that the citizens of Greensburg are to be applauded for trying to better their town and the planet. It is also interesting to note that the US Dept. of energy has gotten involved to help. I’m not familiar with the LEED standards, but I will research them after reading this article. I think more towns in the U.S. and globally should try to raise their town to meet the standards of being “green”, but I realize that there will be resistance to such changes from a myriad of sources.