It's in the wind ... the air of change.

Behold! New Hampshire's first wind farm.

Lempster Mountain over looks this small town, which is no doubt about to get bigger and bit richer.



The Union Leader has an article about it that went to print on Monday ... Here it is.

The Concord Monitor had something to say about it, too.

The Lempster Company, based in PA., is creating a wind farm in Dixville Notch very soon. The buzz has already taken hold of the state. Cross your fingers.

So, wind power is finally coming to the Granite State. This is a great thing, guys- especially for small northern towns that struggle to remain economically sound after the eventual fall out of the lumber/paper industry. If you ask me, Berlin, Gorham, Groveton and several cities in Maine should follow this lead. Sections of forest cleared by the logging industry can be used to establish farms in high altitude areas. There's no emissions, just clean power. If you want to get really crazy about it, you can camouflage the turbines the way lots of towns try to hide cell phone towers.

The Lempster project claims it will create enough power for 33,000 homes. Sweet, but that's not even cracking the numbers we should really be trying to hit. I know, baby steps. This is our first attempt. No, I take that back- way back in the day, when I was still a wee tyke, I heard stories of a fella up north, near Berlin, who erected a wind turbine on his property. It was ultimately vandalized and shunned by the surrounding community. This was what feels like ages ago for me, but then again I'm still young, but it perfectly illustrates the obstacles we'll have to overcome in order to make alternative energy a reality in a state known for being slow to change. Did you know that New Hampshire has the second oldest population in the country? We're right behind Florida ... the Shire's retirement home. Go figure. With that being said, I call upon you, young reader- will you do what you can when you finally own property? Will you be active in your community's decision making process? Will you vote to make alternative energy a tangible medium for you and your neighbors? Will you support your neighbors should they have the ability to make some of these possibilities a reality? Will you remain open minded and continue to educate yourself on these matters and others that impact our environment?

I hope so. We're the generation that's finally going to be able to make a difference. Let's stand up and reverse the problems created by the masses before us. Let's put an end to our use-and-toss culture. It's up to us.

ALSO!

Fun factoid for my female friends.

Do you use exfoliant? I would start reading the labels of anything you use to slough off dead skin. Turns out a lot of the companies that make these products use small pieces of plastic in the formula to act as those "scrubbers." When you rinse off, those small particulates escape into waste water and eventually make their way to the ocean. They're so small they often can't be removed in conventional waste water treatment plants and many are so small that once they get to the oceans they can be ingested by phyto-plankton, the base of our entire food web- the very same organisms that clean our air and water. When they eat those little granules of plastic they choke and die. After that, the animals biodegrade, but the plastic pieces won't which leaves them available to be eaten by something else. It's a cycle we can't stop, since the garbage is already in the sea and near impossible for us to remove ... but we can change our habits. Please read the labels of items you use on a regular basis. Do you see words that look strangely familiar to "Petrol," things you can't pronounce ... with three consonants in a row ... words that barely make any sense and may have a number incorporated into their name? Those are the substances to avoid.

Now, I understand that products sans these long and elaborate substances made of rigid and durable polymer chains are kind of expensive. Until the industry of organic beauty care is flooded with demand, the prices may not change, but look at it this way:

Would you rather pay a bit more right now for a biodegradable face wash than pay thousands of dollars in medical bills later in life when you're suffering from a skin disease that was most likely related to pollution??

Yeah ... think about it.

Happy hump day, everyone. More to come, so stick around.

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