Green Time TV, Aug 2014: Acting and Building Green
Acting green includes opposing environmental racism, which condemns people of color to higher rates of environmental pollutants. And building green actually begins with retrofitting homes before even thinking about new green construction. But August episodes of Green Time TV kicks off with a show on what acting green is not.
Building green does not include constructing more Confined Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs). Yet, that could be a major effect of a well-publicized effort to get a “Right to Farm” amendment to the Missouri Constitution. The first August Green Time show features Wes Shoemyer explaining that Missouri law already guarantees rights to family farmers; but the so-called “Right to Farm” would extend these rights to big business. That could give huge advantages to corporate agricultural investors.
During the second August show, Adolphus Pruitt and Sam Cummings discuss the NAACP’s new report “Just Energy Policies: Reducing Pollution & Creating Jobs?” Reducing air pollution is critical because childhood asthma is epidemic in the African American community. This could be due to 68% of African Americans’ living within 30 miles of a coal-fired power plant. The clean energy field may bring jobs to the African American community.
Can using energy efficiency save you money while it helps the environment? Residential energy efficiency is the focus of the third August show. For low income home-owners, reduction of energy bills can be critical for affording medications or food. Jessica Freiberger and Connie Taylor ask why “healthy homes” are important and how home retrofits can provide local jobs.
In the fourth show Ralph Wafer and Gary Steps discuss how they designed the first St. Louis Passive House with the floor plan the owners wanted. Hot water for cooking, cleaning, and bathing is delivered by a small solar thermal system. The air exchange radically improves the cleanliness of the inbound air, while protecting the temperature and humidity. It is highly tornado and earthquake resistant.
Ralph Wafer appears on the final show with Anthony Garavaglia. They look at details of construction which are critical for achieving Passive Building Standards for minimizing heat gain in summer, minimizing heat loss in winter and holding air infiltration to near zero. Exterior walls of the entire first floor are 14” thick insulated concrete forms. The roof uses 15” thick panels.
August Green Time shows include the movies “A Better Way to Farm,” “Asheville Beyond Coal – Green Jobs,” “The Cost of Coal: Michigan,” “My Generation: Home Energy Efficiency,” “You Know Clean Energy is winning when …” and “Passive House Revolution.”
Green Time appears at noon on Saturdays in St. Louis on Channel 24-1 and at 8 pm on Mondays in St. Louis on Channel 24-2, Springfield on Channel 39, Joplin on Channel 36 and Marshfield on Channel 17. August Green Time programs air on these dates:
·August 2 & 4: “The Right to Farm or the Right to Harm?”
·August 9 & 11: “Just Energy Policies”
·August 16 & 18: “Residential Energy Efficiency”
·August 23 & 25: “Passive House: The Idea”
·August 30 & September 1: “Passive House: The Building”
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