Children recruiting new Green Power customers

Children recruiting new Green Power customers
By COBEY HITCHCOOK
Staff Writer

GATLINBURG – Environmentalists introduced a competition Friday at Pi Beta Phi Elementary School in an effort to switch more residents to Green Power.

Gatlinburg Gateway Foundation Air and Water action team members informed the students that their future well-being and health may be in the balance, noting that power plants are the biggest polluters of air and Tennessee generates two-thirds of its power from coal-burning power plants.

Paul Sacksteder, Southern Alliance for Clean Energy employee, explained to the children how air pollution causes acid rain and affects things such as agriculture and the health of natural vegetation and humans.

"It affects our quality of life," said Sacksteder. "If you're out there in the summertime and you're running around, and some of you are breathing hard. You're like, what is that? I'm not supposed to be breathing hard – I'm young and in shape."

"It's from the air. And then you start thinking, oh yeah, I'm breathing all this unhealthy stuff that could possibly make my life shorter."

He said just 20 years ago, the average visibility in the area was about 90 miles – today it's only 25.

"That's a big difference, and that's just happened in the last 20 years," he said.

Gil Melear-Hough, SACE Green Power organizer, told the children how the Green Power program will help make a difference.

"The long-term answer to this is Green Power," said Melear-Hough. "Green Power is clean, renewable energy – energy you can feel good about that doesn't have these air-polluting problems."

He said the challenge in getting people to sign on is a slightly higher cost for power. But he also told the children that the more people that sign on, the more Green Power will be produced and the costs will eventually be lower.

"The price is going down, and it's going down fast," he said. "But it still costs more."

Melear-Hough told children the sources of Green Power, which include solar panels, wind and methane gas. He said putting generators over landfills that produce methane gas is a huge source for Green Power.

"It burns cleaner and better,"

he said. "And instead of bad pollutants going into the atmosphere, you get a good one."

GGF Air and Water team volunteers Katie Green and Nancy Knipp informed the children about how the contest will work, including a pizza party for the class that signs up the most people.

The contest ends April 13, and prizes will be awarded on April 22 – otherwise known as Earth Day. Individual prizes will also go to the top sellers of Green Power. The prizes were donated by a variety of Gatlinburg businesses.

As part of the contest, students were encouraged to write letters to their senators to encourage clean-air decisions.

Earth Day is April 22 and will be celebrated locally at 3 p.m. in Mynatt Park. Music, food, games, demonstrations and clean air information will be provided during the free-to-the-public event.

"Of course, we don't know when the earth was born," she said. "But that's the day we've picked to celebrate. We're all going to hold hands and spend one minute in silence – just thanking the earth for everything it's given us."

For more information, phone 436-3800 ext. 102.

Cobey Hitchcock can be reached at cobeyh@themountainpress.com