Category Archives: Environment

By Don Corrigan

The bright lights and colors of Christmas were once a sure way to spread good cheer. Concerns about light pollution may have dimmed the holiday happiness a bit, but those concerns can be addressed.

There are plenty of ways to have a bright, eco-friendly Christmas, and it can start by replacing Rudolph’s red-hot, glowing nose with more energy efficient LED lights.

Santa Claus would approve! That’s because Santa swore off spreading light pollution on his annual sleigh ride journeys years ago. He’s sworn off naughty incandescent lights, and travels now with the nicer LED lamps.

Researchers find that in many major U.S. cities, nighttime lights shine 20 to 50 percent brighter during Christmas and New Year’s when compared to light output during the rest of the year. Energy consumption also increases.

LED Christmas lights are the best substitutes for regular Christmas lighting. They require 90 percent less energy than that needed for regular Christmas bulbs on trees and the exteriors of homes.

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All photos provided by SWT Design.

By Don Corrigan

Roof gardens, designed to increase green space and energy efficiency, got a work out in our red hot summer of 2023. Summer temperatures soared above 100 degrees in St. Louis and beyond. So, how did these roofs do?

“They did well. They did what they are supposed to do,” declared Ted Spaid, the green force behind SWT Design near the northeast corner of the intersection of Big Bend and Laclede Station roads.

Spaid knows what he is talking about. He’s been designing the green, environmental-friendly roofs for several decades. He puts his money where his mouth. The Shrewsbury company has built its own green roof.

Spaid loves it. He hits the roof whenever he can. He and his SWT Design team use it to show off their work to clients. They use it for lunch and coffee breaks. They take pride in how it keeps down energy costs on site.

“This was an exceptionally hot summer around the country, and with climate change, it’s going to get worse,” said Spaid. “This presents a challenge in looking at new materials and new plants for roof designs.

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By Don Corrigan

There’s a scene in “Oppenheimer,” a recent movie about the making of the atomic bomb, when a woman hanging up laundry outside is warned to take in the sheets. The laundry outside might get contaminated with the impending explosion of the first atomic bomb.

Karen Nichol of North St. Louis County notes that the mothers and residents downwind of the Nevada atomic test site at least got warned about dangerous radioactivity from the atomic bomb development. Not so in St. Louis.

“St. Louis moms did not get any kind of warning about uranium waste processing for the bomb,” said Karen Nichol of Just Moms St. Louis.   “They knew nothing about the careless, reckless, disregard to human life from the federal government that went into the making of the bomb here.

“So many moms to this day still aren’t getting the warning,” added Nichol. “There are people that have gone to great lengths to make sure St. Louis had no warning. There are also still no signs warning kids to stay out of the radioactive Coldwater Creek.”

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Pictured above: Dawn Chapman (Left) and Karen Nickel, co-founders of Just Moms STL.

By Don Corrigan

St. Louis residents have joined the rest of the nation in flocking to see the blockbuster, “Oppenheimer,” a movie about the making of the atomic bomb. Radioactive fallout from the new bomb descended over an area 250 miles by 200 miles in New Mexico.

The movie about the first atomic bomb brought renewed attention to Southwest U.S. residents downwind from the blast. Many are members of the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium, a group that feels they were poisoned by the explosion.

You don’t have to have seen the bright light, and felt the incredible rumble, however, to feel you have been affected by the bomb and the program for America’s nuclear arsenal. Just ask members of St. Louis County’s “Just Moms St. Louis.”

The Moms group has been fighting for the cleanup of radioactive waste in streams, creek beds, dumps and landfills near their homes. The huge amounts of waste are from the uranium processing that was necessary for making the bomb – and which was processed in St. Louis.

Instead of disposing of the waste in a responsible manner, chemical companies used careless contractors that dumped tons of radioactive waste throughout St. Louis County. Two radioactive dumping areas, which St. Louisans are familiar with from news coverage, are West Lake landfill and Coldwater Creek.

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