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| Hot Spots: Cities Around the World Going Green |
| Bend, Oregon (USA) |
Bend, Oregon is making a difference in the environment by providing some of the nation's cleanest drinking water from Bridge Creek, whose water quality is so high it only requires disinfecting. This green attitude extends into Bend's corporate world. One example of an environmentally-friendly company in Bend is the Birkenstock shoe company. The company manufactures shoes that can last for over twenty years because they are completely rebuildable. The company can repair the shoes on-site. If you're visiting Oregon or happen to live there, stop by Birckenstock and try on a pair.
Bend also benefits from statewide environment programs. Last year, Oregon's governor, Ted Kulongoski, created the Oregon Governor's Fund for Environment. This fund will award grants to help various cities, including Bend, become stewards of their natural resources. "This fund provides Oregonians with the resources needed to protect and restore the habitat and watershed functions that are essential to not only fish and wildlife, but also to the quality of our rivers and streams," said Governor Kulongoski. The grants range from $14,000 to $50,000 with a total of over $310,000. The Central Oregon Environmental Center has a website that promotes green corporations in Bend and other Oregon cities. Their website is www.thegreenspot.org.
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| Reykjavik, Iceland |
Slaves named Reykjavik, which translates into Smoky Bay, after they found smoke coming out of the bay. Little did they know that what they were seeing was clean, free geothermal energy. Austurbacjarskoli, a school in Reykjavik became the first building in the city to be heated by geothermal energy. In 1920, people started using geothermal energy to heat greenhouses and by 1970 almost half of the country was utilizing geothermal energy. Today, ninety five percent of the buildings in Reykjavik are powered by geothermal energy. In the future, the city plans to be completely fossil-fuel free by the year 2050.
The city has an extensive interest in the use of hydrogen power; the city has recently added hydrogen buses to its streets and is working with two companies in Iceland to produce hydrogen cars.
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| Curitiba, Brazil |
Curitiba, a city of 3 million people in Brazil, is making green progress and is rated by CNN as the "Ecological Capital of Brazil." The students of Curitiba are taught at a young age to be green citizens. Instead of mowing lawns the old-fashioned, energy-intensive way, Curitiba citizens use sheep to graze lawns. No fossil fuels are consumed during this process. Also, one-quarter of its residents depend on the bus and boat systems for transportation, which has greatly reduced air pollution, allowing Curitiba to have the lowest air pollution of any major Brazilian city. Jaime Lerner, who instituted the bus system, was so popular, the people elected him mayor. Over 70% of Curitiba's garbage is recycled by plants that employ the underprivileged. Other countries are studying Curitiba's policies, including Japan.
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| Malmo, Sweden |
The city of Malmo is the third largest city in Sweden and has a population of 280,000 people. Malmo was founded in what is modern day Denmark in 1275. The city has an Environmental Program and Action Plan that identified 16 problem areas that the city is working to fix. In 2000, Malmo hired 4 million workers for the city's environmental fund. They created a green map to point out the problem areas that they are working to fix. Malmo is also apart of The Nation Campaign for Climate Protection in order to help raise awareness for climate effects. Already, two of Malmo's hospitals are no longer using chemicals in their x-rays; they switched to using only digital x-rays. The hospitals also are turning the lights off at night to reduce the amount of electricity they need and they are saving money in the process. Because Malmo wants all of its citizens to contribute in their environmental efforts, Malmo has distributed books to its children that deals with the city's environmental issues and teaches them how to be environmentally friendly.
- Garrett Chinn, Contributor
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