Opinion THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
FRIDAY, APRIL 23, 2010
PAGE 5A
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--the drain?
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I think all of Lawrence is asleep right now.
Really, printer? You choose 2:30 in the morning to stop working? Must the entire universe be against me?
Would somebody like to come over to my house and make me cinnamon rolls? I'll pay you by racing you in Mario
--the drain?
I am training my fish to do tricks.
All the sad lonely people of the FFA should all get a speed dating event together and quit complaining about it!
I really do like you, though. I can't show emotion or you'd quit liking me. It's because you're immature.
Wow, I'm super dizzy! It's awesome!
Did you do that thing where you look at the kitchen tiles and spin in a circle so fast that you think you're going down
Breakups suck.
I smell really good. Why can't I get a gf?
--minimum, The American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE) estimates Kansas as capable of producing 20,000 mW of electricity from wind power, or 200 percent of what it consumes.
I forgot about that lab that's due tomorrow morning, I guess I'll get drunk to feel
I wonder how many times Kenny from "South Park" has died? I find your lack of pants disturbing.
Should I name my band
"The Plain White G's" or "Fire!
At the Movie Theater?"
Are there really people who don't procrastinate in the world?
--minimum, The American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE) estimates Kansas as capable of producing 20,000 mW of electricity from wind power, or 200 percent of what it consumes.
Watching "Pride and Prejudice" and drowning out my sorrows. Win?
--minimum, The American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE) estimates Kansas as capable of producing 20,000 mW of electricity from wind power, or 200 percent of what it consumes.
I love drinking juice from a juice box
MARIAM SAIFAN
The children are the future The present belongs to me!
I bet those drivers that hit the buildings are atrocious at Mario Kart
Thank you, FFA, for spell checking my post that you published today.
ENVIRONMENT
--minimum, The American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE) estimates Kansas as capable of producing 20,000 mW of electricity from wind power, or 200 percent of what it consumes.
Sustainability blown in with the wind
Having been born and raised on the plains of Kansas, I know the wind is a constant companion to the prairie life. At its lightest, we welcome it. At its most destructive and awe-inspiring, we curse it.
The wind here is so ubiquitous that we prairie folk might fail to recognize it as our most valuable natural resource. Indeed, harnessing the wind could reshape the economic fabric of our state, and that of the entire nation along with it.
Right now, Kansas produces more than 75 percent of its electricity from coal. The National Academy of Sciences estimated the damage caused by air pollution from burning coal, including the human health cost, at $62 billion dollars per year.
During the course of a year, the average coal-fired power plant pumps 10,000 tons of sulfur dioxide, 500 tons of airborne particulates and more than 10,000 tons of nitrous oxides into the air, all to the harm of our lungs.
A single coal plant also puts an approximate 170 pounds of mercury into the air, which eventually settles into our soil and water. There is currently a warning against fishing in the Kansas River near Lawrence because of mercury in the water.
Not only would developing the potential of wind power in Kansas reduce our dependence on a dirty and finite resource, but it would fundamentally improve our state's economy.
Among U.S. states, Kansas ranks third in available wind resources. The U.S. Department of Energy has a conservative projection that Kansas will produce 7,000 megawatts (mW) of electricity from wind by 2030. This would produce more than $2 billion in economic output from construction and could power more than 1.8 million homes.
As part of a legislative compromise on the Holcomb coal plants, Governor Parkinson required that Kansas produce 20 percent of its electricity from renewables by 2020.
This is a substantial increase, considering we currently produce less than two percent of our power from sources such as wind, hydroelectric and geothermal energy sources.
I've never known Kansans to be people who shoot for the bare
Political Planet
BY DEVIN LOWEIL
Not only would this generate more than $6 billion in economic output from construction, but it would mean Kansas could become an exporter of clean, renewable energy.
ACORE estimates that by producing every turbine we put up in Kansas, the state would see a 238 percent growth in wind energy jobs, and a 400 percent increase in total economic output.
If we can achieve this gold- standard of renewable energy and also capture turbine manufacturing capabilities in state, the results would be astronomical.
If we transform Kansas, we can surely do the same to the rest of the country. We can truly set the stage for the rest of America.
Kansas has the capability to create a multitude of new, sustainable well-paying jobs and empower local communities and economies. Wind energy could revive local control and community decisionmaking.
Developing renewable energy manufacturing in our state would create 11,000 new jobs and billions in investment in 425 existing Kansas firms.
I dream about what reaching our full potential would mean for the home I hold so close to my heart.
Wind power developed along traditional corporate lines would be a huge economic advantage for our state.
However, smaller, community-owned wind projects have been shown to create more jobs and
produce more economic output.
This is a fallacy. The Kansas Energy Council reports that the state is in no immediate need of increased baseload power, and even an additional 20,000 mW of wind energy would not require any new backup generation.
Naysayers call wind power unreliable. They cite a lack of suitable transmission lines and a need for backup generation by traditional sources.
So what can we do? The one thing we cannot do is sit around and assume that achieving our wind power potential will happen on its own.
The politicians in the state house can craft legislation that encourages the development of wind energy, Kansas can do much better than the standards it is currently pursuing.
Our senators and representatives in Congress can push for a federal renewable energy standard to encourage investment.
Communities can get involved. We can organize. Groups such as the Climate and Energy Project in Lawrence and the Great Plains Alliance for Clean Energy can rally support and make Kansan voices heard.
Business leaders and local economic development organizations can focus their efforts on drawing outside investors to see the benefits of wind energy in our boundiful state.
If we transform Kansas, we can surely do the same to the rest of the country. We can truly set the stage for the rest of America. I'll leave you with a quote from William Allen White, the immortal voice of the plains:
Consider this a call for statewide action to harness the wind. Everyone can get involved, and everyone has a part to play.
"When anything is going to happen in this country, it happens first in Kansas.
Abolition, Prohibition,
Populism, the Bull Moose, the exit of
the roller towel, the appearance of
the bank guarantee, the blue sky
law, the adjudication of industrial
dispute as distinguished from the
arbitration of industrial differences — these things come popping out of Kansas like bats out of hell."
Lowell is a senior from Concordia in political science and journalism.
Currently, Kansas produces 74 percent of its electricity from burning coal and less than 2 percent from renewable sources.
If Kansas meets its renewable energy standard, 20 percent of the state's electricity will come from renewable sources by 2020
Landslide may not be so representative after all
CAMPUS LIFE
It seems that KUnited really was KU, united.
The coalition dominated last week's elections, winning almost every single seat it contested. Envision's largest victory came when it won all graduate student senate seats. Even that number is deceiving, considering United only ran one graduate student candidate.
Michael Wade Smith and Megan Ritter won seats for KUnited as president and vice-president respectively, with 66 percent of the vote. For comparison, last year United Students won the presidency by two percent.
Are these numbers telling the truth? Were students really that united in their support for a single coalition?
Hawk Life
To be sure, those who voted were united. The results bear that out. But the vote doesn't tell the whole story.
As it turns out, the vast majority of the student body didn't vote. From a student population of 25,000 students on the Lawrence campus, only about 3,000 actually voted. That means 12 percent of students voted. That's a pretty small amount, by any standard.
KUnited will surely claim victory, and to some extent they should. However, the coalition should also not construe its success as an endorsement by the entire student body. It is, in fact, only an endorsement of the small percentage of students who voted
Most students don't feel strongly about which coalition won and couldn't care less about the day-to-day politics of Senate. They do take notice, however, when the actions of Senate have direct impacts on their lives. This is why KUnited's new senators should not expect widespread support for every measure they attempt to pass through Senate.
One of the downfalls of power is that, when you have it, you
BY JONATHAN SHORMAN
tend to become overconfident. To avoid this, Smith should appoint either Envision candidates Ross Ringer or Devon Cantwell to the Senate Executive Staff when he makes his selections. The appointment would make sure Smith and other top senators take a variety of opinions into consideration when making policies.
caution when placing photo.
If members of KUtined can keep a diverse range of points of view in mind as they pursue their agenda, they should be able to get a lot accomplished.
With essentially a one-coalition body, Student Senate is likely to have less internal accountability; it only makes sense that members of the same coalition are less likely to be looking over each other's shoulders. That's why the pressure of ordinary students is important.
But we as students also have to work to keep senators accountable.
I still advocate for constituent reports, which would require senators to submit a written report twice each semester justifying their votes to the students they represent and saying what they have done individually for their constituents.
Absent that, I implore students to e-mail their senators, talk to them and generally get on their case about what they do.
The better decisions Senate makes, the better this campus will be.
Shorman is a sophomore from McPherson in journalism.
Consider alternate historical opinions
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
I am a third generation Jayhawk. That being said, my Dad, although he attended the University for three years, didn't graduate. The article "A Generation Ablaze" shows exactly the reasons why.
My Dad was a Vietnam veteran and worked as a nightshift policeman while at KU. He explained he chose to finish his education at Pitt State because times were different then. He said it was a different university that was greatly affected by the times. When I read the article, I immediately knew why my dad chose to forego his KU education. I texted him and told him to read the article. This was his response;
"Brings back memories; too few of them good. The source material for the article was weighted with interviews of former activists, protesters and radicals. It is so comforting to hear that they have all taken their '60s world views with them into adulthood, and, frequently into positions at other colleges and
universities where they are able to dissemble and disseminate their distinctive world views and interpretation of morality and truth to succeeding generations of students. Nothing changes with these people. Idealism is all that is important.
Good intentions always serve as exculpation for tragic results. They never admit error. They never apologize. My generation screwed this country up and has spent the last 40 years congratulating itself for a job well done. In reading the article, I wonder where are the interviews with those on the other side of the argument? The policemen? The firemen? Or any number of the thousands of students who didn't support the agenda of the radicals who took over the campus?
Romanticizing criminal activity through the bifocals of perceptrators isn't good journalism.
The University is a terrific institution, but 1969-73 were four of the most discouraging and disappointing years of my life."
— Mackenzie Abernathy is a sophomore from Plano, Texas.
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THE EDITORIAL BOARD
Members of the Kanian Editorial Board are Stephen Tomemayor, Brianna Pfannenstein, Jennifer Torline, Larue Cunningham, Vicky Lu, Emily McCoy, Kate Larabee, Sarae Penn, James Castle, Michael Holtz, Catllin Thumbrush and Andrew Hammond.