Architectural Designs

what roles can tax laws, landscape designs, and sharing of resources play in the search for a greener earth?

be creative: how can each (or all!) of these things help to create a more sustainable earth, decrease waste, and improve both our physical and social environments?

Public Comments

1. Tax laws can play a major role, people more readily respond to things having to do with the money in their pocket. Use of renewable resources can be encouraged by lower taxes on those more readily available, and increased taxes on those we're rapidly depleting. Landscape design is a biggy, we're cutting down far more trees than we're planting, green areas in our cities are disappearing. At one time parks were a major part of city planning (One of my ancestors laid out those of Paris), we need to return to this ideal and make it a reality, Deciduous trees are a great benefit around any residence, giving shade in the hotter part of the year and permitting more of the sun's warmth in the colder, as well as adding insulation from wind and noise. We need to consider all the means of heat transfer, convection, conduction, absorption, and radiation within the different parts of our environment, passive means are technically simple, non-invasive, and non-destructive, in addition to their economy they are deserving of grants and tax rebates where they are used. People often ignore the area of shared resources, with the end result that there is needless waste it costs money to dispose of while yet more money is spent purchasing and transporting diminishing and ever more expensive resources from elsewhere. One prime example is the use of fossil fuels while the waste from animal farms chokes our rivers and estuaries. Our local county security building's heating and cooling runs entirely on biomass from the farms across the road. Did you know how much methane a herd of dairy cattle produces? And they didn't even have to drill for it or run a pipeline more than a hundred yards. Smells a whole lot sweeter than the piles that used to accumulate and be broken up each spring. Columnar wind generators are more omnidirectional, less fragile, and have a smaller footprint than the ungainly propeller types appearing on many wind farms where trees have been clear cut to position them. There is yet more that can be done to make these more aesthetic and less invasive in our landscape while relieving the burden on our electrical grid. I installed solar heating in one of my parishes in Canada. We barely squeaked through on a provincial grant, with the lowest amount asked and spent out of total grants of some $8 billion. The system cost $100,000.00+ with myself and men of the parish doing much of the work other than the panels and electric furnace we opted for for backup. We increased the insulation to r40+ from nearly nothing in the 150 yr. old building, and installed ceiling fans. We used a large septic tank we insulated filled with river rock as a heat sink, buried below frost line next to the building, and did everything hot air (Not photovoltaic or fluid filled) rather than lose energy by heat transfer between mediums. The new furnace replaced an inefficient old oil burner, allowing us to take down a chimney that blocked a back window and itself made for a lot of heat loss. As we completed the work the province's engineers came through with their analysis that they were sorry, it wouldn't work, so they forgave us the loan part of the grant and decided we didn't have to keep records they'd be embarrassed by, even promising to pay for removal (we declined). Awfully generous, the bumblebee flew, and is flying to this day, nearly 30 years later. In the first three years alone it saved $3,000.00 a year in heating costs, and much more in cleaning and comfort, allowing the church to build a new parish hall and attracting a larger congregation. The largely passive nature of the system has meant minimal upkeep and maintenance, no corrosive or expandable fluids were used. The thermostats were placed on the furnace and exchange, making it largely idiot-proof and maintaining temperature in a comfortable but economic range, no more nor less than 55 Fahrenheit in off hours and 65-69 during normal hours of use. The province's taxes went to good use, the facility is used for many community functions as well as church services, and is an historic church in an historic village, Sharon, Ontario.
2. They can continue to increase the power of the politicians and take it from the people.
3. No tax laws. We already have enough taxes. Landscaping can definitely help with energy costs, putting shrubs around your AC unit to shade it makes a big difference and so do large shade trees. The best sharing of resources example I can come up with is this car sharing thing we have. I'm not really sure of how it works exactly, but I think you pay a fee to have use of this lot of cars...kind of like rent-a-car by the month.
4. First Burn the IRS, just think how many trees a year that would save, also tax at a higher rate, anyone who is currently on entitlements, just look at your welfare neighborhoods, their cars burn oil, smoke, and are aways old, so very fuel inefficient. Tax the bottles of water, why cant people drink from a faucet???? Landscape designs, sure, get rid of all these ball fields, baseball football, soccer, plant trees instead, put the kids to work plating crops that can be used, that will keep them busy. Decrease waste? sure require all school, and library's to remove all computers, video games, and other elec. wasting items. Next require all people who claim to be "green" to prove it, remove them from the elc. grid, and public water systems. Both use coal, or oil to work, so by removing these people from this a double standard is avoided, also , ALL automobiles that they may posses, should be sold off and the profits used to by carbon credits in the amazon. sharing resources??? sure let the Chinese have anything we have, then maybe you can talk the Arabs into sharing their oil at a cheaper price.