Walking the Narrow Ridge (Page 2 of 4)

May 31, 2007
By: Knoxville Voice

Leading by example, residents also incorporate solar energy, composting toilets, straw bale insulation, on-demand water heaters, wood-burning stoves and other sustainable practices into the construction of homes.

“The whole bottom line of it all is that we are really in a crisis situation on the planet and any way we can conserve energy is going to lessen our impact,” Nickle says.

Indeed, the same day I’m speaking to Nickle, Knox County’s air quality is ranked at the sensitive/orange level, and people with lung and heart problems, pregnant women, young children and the elderly are advised to stay indoors. Knoxville consistently ranks in the top 15 metropolitan areas with the worst air pollution, and our city is home to the Tennessee Valley Authority, the nation’s largest power provider that relies most heavily on energy from coal-fired plants, the dirtiest source of electricity.

Coal-fired power plants are responsible for releasing sulfur dioxide, nitrous oxide, toxic mercury and particle pollutants into the air, in addition to producing more than 40 percent of the country’s total carbon dioxide emissions, a prime contributor to global warming, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The dire circumstances aren’t lost on concerned citizens around the country, but government leaders have been slow to respond, Wallace says.

“I think the responsibility lies with the upper-level so-called ‘leaders,’” he says “There’s a tremendous amount of greening worldwide at the local level, something like 67 cities have passed green resolutions, and there are five states that have adopted the Kyoto Accords, so it’s really with the White House, the governors, the mayors who don’t have a clue, but they’re getting pushed harder.”

President George W. Bush has refused to honor the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, an international agreement to limit carbon emissions in industrialized countries. An updated policy is scheduled for discussion at The Group of Eight (G-8) summit June 6-8, but the Associated Press reported May 27 that U.S. officials are “preparing to reject new targets on climate change … dashing German and British hopes for a new global pact on carbon emissions.”

“There are a lot of local organizations fighting for change, like those pushing TVA, I think there is a movement for it, but I think people in the U.S still consume an awful lot of stuff,” Nickle says. “The more we do our own thing as a consumer society and are disrespectful of the planet and what it’s trying to tell us, then the shorter our life span and our children’s life spans will be.”

Nickle says simple measures can be taken to sidestep harmful sources of energy and take advantage of the earth’s natural resources.

For example, many of the buildings at Narrow Ridge are insulated using straw bales, a locally grown product that conserves almost four times the energy of traditional insulators like cellulose and fiberglass.

 “We still grow wheat here in East Tennessee — you don’t have to go very far before you can find a farmer who grows straw, and you don’t have to truck 18 wheelers across the country, so local use is another way of sustaining community and reducing the impact,” Nickle says.

He warns that a tightly insulated home needs proper natural ventilation to combat mold growth and the inhalation of chemicals and toxins found in synthetically produced carpets, rugs, paints, bed sheets and other household materials.

“The option there would be to use more organic materials and cotton. Sometimes, you pay a little more for them, even in non-toxic paints and stains, but it’s all part of our health,” he says.

Narrow Ridge residences also have composting toilets that use little or no water and rely on natural decomposition to treat wastes that can then be re-used as valuable compost. Composting toilets aren’t as primitive in appearance as they sound — the bathrooms in Narrow Ridge’s buildings are all indoors with the full conveniences of more traditional models. In fact, the composting concept actually produces less odor than conventional toilets because of the continuous air flow and the lack of a water trap.