Welcome Our Group welcomes anyone
who loves the outdoors and wants to meet others with the
same love. We welcome anyone who is concerned about the
natural environment and wants to learn more. We welcome
those who want to help protect our natural heritage by joining
in political action. The Pikes Peak Group, currently almost
2,000 members strong, is proud of contributing to that important
preservation effort. We are here to help you enjoy, explore,
and protect the planet. All of our outings and general meetings
are open to the public. Please join us.
Statement of Purpose To explore, enjoy and
protect the wild places of the earth; to practice and
promote the responsible use of the earth's ecosystems
and resources; to educate and enlist humanity to protect
and restore the quality of the natural and human environment;
and to use all lawful means to carry out these objectives.
Mission The Sierra Club is
a nonprofit member supported, public interest organization
that promotes conservation of the natural environment
by influencing public policy decisions - legislative,
administrative, legal, and electoral.
Location The Pikes Peak Regional
Group includes all of El Paso county, plus parts of
Teller, Park, and Elbert counties in Colorado.
IT'S TIME TO STOP AMERICA'S ADDICTION TO FOREIGN OIL
We do not have much time. We are crossing natural thresholds that we cannot see and violating deadlines that we do not recognize. These deadlines are set by nature. Nature is the timekeeper, but we cannot see the clock.
Green Drinks Colorado Springs
Thursday - Sept. 11 and 25
Coffee Exchange, 5-7 p.m.
520 S. Tejon St.
Green Drinks is a social networking concept finally making its way to the Springs. Have fun and help plan the Revolution on the 2nd and 4th Thursday of each month. For more information, visit http://greendrinks.org.
Ever wonder where stuff comes from and where it goes?
The average American consumes over 25 times more resources than the average person from a developing country. That means that a family in a developing country would have to have 75 children to have the same environmental impact as an American family with three children!
Peak to Plains Alliance
Peak to Plains Alliance was formed to showcase some of the most notable locally owned food and agricultural businesses in El PasoCounty. All of the locations are special because they are owned by people who care about the land, the community, and the preservation of our heritage.
Don't Miss the Bus ...
A study by the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) released September 26, 2007 points to mass transit as one of the key weapons in the fight against global warming. According to the APTA study:
...a person who rides public transportation instead of driving reduces his or her carbon dioxide output, a harmful greenhouse gas, by more than 20 lbs a day and 4,800 lbs annually. That saves more than weatherizing a home, adjusting a thermostat, switching to compact fluorescent light bulbs and replacing older appliances with higher efficiency models, combined. A national climate change strategy that doesn't embrace public transportation has simply missed the bus.
Report: Corn Ethanol Not A Viable Energy Option
If Every Field Were Planted With Corn, U.S. Would Only Offset 15% Of Fuel
In a new report, three environmental and research organizations raise serious questions about the future of corn ethanol, a fuel that Congress has invested subsidies in already, and which is often viewed as a silver bullet solution to the nation’s energy and environmental problems.
Corn-based ethanol would, contrary to that belief, add pollution and contribute to other environmental problems — including the Gulf of Mexico dead zone that a separate report showed could reach its largest size ever, due in part to the record acreage of corn planted in the Midwest this year, and the attendant runoff of fertilizer.
The “The Rush to Ethanol” was released by Food & Water Watch, the Network for New Energy Choices and the Vermont Law School Environmental Law Center.
The key findings from the report, as defined by the groups releasing it:
Not all bio-fuels are equal. Corn, which is the source of 95% of ethanol in the U.S., is among the least efficient, least sustainable biofuels. Cellulosic ethanol, while not yet ready for market, has more favorable energy ratios than corn and presents more room for productivity gains, making it appealing to investors, farmers and refiners. Yet, most biofuels policies being debated in Congress would primarily benefit corn ethanol refiners in the near future.
Corn ethanol has little promise of reducing U.S. fossil fuel emissions. Even if the entire U.S. corn crop was dedicated to ethanol, it would displace less than 15 percent of national gasoline use. But a modest increase in auto fuel efficiency standards, such as those passed by the Senate last month, would cut petroleum consumption by more than all alternative fuels and replacement fuels combined.
The current path of corn-ethanol based biofuels is unsustainable. Using coal to power ethanol refineries can increase emissions in comparison to the gasoline fuel replaced. And since corn production uses more than twice the amount of pesticides than any other major U.S. crop, uncontrolled ethanol industry growth could exponentially increase environmental toxins.
Even large-scale development of cellulosic ethanol is plagued by potential environmental problems. Turning cellulose into fuel, for instance, would require a huge expenditure of increasingly scarce water resources and the mass production of cellulosic ethanol would likely impact soil quality and convert land currently in conservation programs.
Ethanol is not the solution to revitalizing rural America. While higher commodity prices and cooperatively owned ethanol refineries could be a boon to independent farmers, unregulated ethanol industry growth will further concentrate agribusiness, threatening the livelihood of rural communities.
To download a copy of the seven-page report, click here.
The Pikes Peak Group is currently looking
for people to serve as
Fundraising Chair, Programs Chair, Singles
and
Recycling Committee members.
We need individuals who can
reinvigorate our SC folks, and work with us to find new
folks, wanting to address local issues (as well as work
with others around the state). Our Fundraising Chair
plans and oversees Pikes Peak Group fundraising events.
For more information,
call Kirby Hughes at 685-3019 or Jim Lockhart at 385-0045.
Visit the
Sierra Club store to purchase Certified Organic, Shade Grown Coffee & Tea.
Please
visit the to
print the order form
and
see the other items we have for sale.
Get
information on topics of your choice, join
a PPG list.
We currently have PPG local
email lists for topics of special interest. All lists have
names in the format RMC-PPG-ABC@lists.sierraclub.org, where “ABC”
is a particular list identifier. If you are interested
in joining one or more of the special interest lists,
scroll down the page to the PPG lists, and select “Join
or Leave” any
of our lists.
"Those who contemplate the
beauty of the Earth find reserves of strength that will
endure as long as life lasts. There is symbolic as well
as actual beauty in the migration of birds, the ebb and
flow of tides, the folded bud ready for spring. There
is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains
of nature - the assurance that dawn comes after the night
and spring after the winter."
– Rachel Carson, Silent Spring
If you have
any information you would like to see posted here, or
any comments, corrections, or suggestions about the site, please
email me.
Last Updated -
September 3, 2008
Pikes Peak Group of the Rocky
Mountain Chapter of the Sierra Club
522 N. Royer Street, Colorado Springs CO 80903
