Pirates Ahoy! ‘Pirates of Penzance’ debuts tonight at Campus Theatre See Insert Friday, March 5, 2010
News 1,2 Sports 3 Classifieds 4 Games 4 SCENE see Insert
Volume 95 | Issue 28
Sunny 67° / 48°
ntdaily.com
The Student Newspaper of the University of North Texas
Experts differ on energy sources BY SHEA YARBOROUGH Senior Staff Writer
PHOTO COURTESY OF SCOTT BYNUM
The cleanup is the largest volunteer event hosted by Keep Denton Beautiful, Schmidt said. More than 1,200 people participated in the cleanup in 2009 and they collected more than 245,000 pounds of trash.
Denton volunteers clean up for pizza Residents flock to Denton cleanup BY LISA GARZA
Senior Staff Writer Denton residents w ill be get t i ng t hei r ha nd s d i r t y Saturday whi le pick ing up trash from the city’s streets and waterways as part of the Great American Cleanup. Volu nteers who meet at 8 a.m. at the Denton Civ ic Center can expect a city wide cleanup as well as activities for the kids and free pizza. “I think that it really resonates with people, because it gets them tied into their com mu n it y a nd t hey feel li ke t hey’re doing a lot of good t hings,” sa id Mendie Schmidt, event and outreach coordinator for Keep Denton Beaut if u l. “It’s a lso a way for groups, especially college groups, boy scouts and girl scout s to get com mu n it y service experience.” The cleanup is the largest volunteer event hosted by Keep Denton Beaut i f u l, Schmidt said. More t ha n 1,200 people participated in the cleanup in 2009 and collected more than 245,000 pounds of trash. “We’ve already had more p e ople pr e -r e g i ster t h a n we had show up last year,” Schmidt said. “We have about 1,700 people right now and are expecting up to 2,000 total on Saturday.”
Pre-registration has ended, but individuals and groups ca n st i l l sig n up Saturday morning. Participants sign a waiver during registration, then are assigned a site location and given a map, gloves, and recycling and trash bags. Schmidt sa id volunteers can pick their own site and t here are “quite a few still ava i lable t hat rea l ly need pick up.” José Chaidez, a social work senior, will volunteer Saturday with the group Social Work Students Association. “We need to help [Denton] out, it needs to be cleaned up,” Chaidez said. “People cannot simply ignore the env ironment that they live in.” A w ide ra nge of g roups pa r t icipates i n t he event, and sites are assigned with the group’s safety in mind, she said. “We have a lot of nursery school g roups t hat [clea n up] our pa rks because it’s safer for them and they are not on the streets,” Schmidt said. “Groups with older kids, col lege g roups a nd adu lts a re a ssig ned to neig hborhoods, streets or rural areas, where there tends to be a lot of dumping.” Un i v e r s i t y D r i v e , E l m St reet, L oc u st St reet a nd Loop 288 are some areas in t he cit y t hat Schmidt sa id do not often get the needed attention.
See DENTON on Page 2
Coal-powered energy has students and experts at opposite ends of the energy boxing ring. Denton leads the nation in wind power. However, 47 percent of the city’s energy source comes from coal at the Gibbons Creek Power Plant in Bryan, said Lisa Lemons, community relations manager for Denton Municipal Electric. “Hands down, coal is the worst,” said Nicole Cocco, a studio art senior. UNT uses the same power source as the city. “Texas leads the nation in wind energy,” Lemons said. “But the work horse of energy is coal.” Many experts said they favor wind power, but coal was the line in the sand. They agreed that coal is the most efficient energy source at this time. The meat of the argument against coal is about its use as a primary or “base fuel,” Lemons said. Because of the wind’s unpredictable nature, Denton uses a diversified power source, she said. “Coal is very successful as a base fuel,” Lemons said. “The wind could stop blowing on a cloudy day, but coal can always be shipped in and put to use.” Most environmentalists on UNT’s campus are against the use of coal as an energy source because of the greenhouse gases released by its use, said Sam Atkinson of the biology faculty. The problem is a lack of reliable alternative fuels that could do the job coal is doing now, he said. “If there was a switch I could flip to turn off coal use, I would,” he said. “But we currently have no alternative for the immediate future.” Outside of UNT’s campus, a different story is told about coal. More than 50 percent of the U.S.’s energy comes from coal, said Jan Horbaczewski, the mine, land and environmental manager for the Texas Municipal Power Agency. “Coal is the cheapest, most efficient and reliable
PHOTO BY DREW GAINES/PHOTOGRAPHER
Solar energy is at work outside of the Environmental Science Building. Sun-powered utilities may be a part of our energy future as researchers and engineers realize Texas’ bright potential for alternative energy. Texas is already the nation’s leading provider of wind energy and scientists say the state’s sunny climate makes it an excellent candidate for solar energy as well. Solar energy is not likely to replace coal as a base fuel because of its cost, experts said. source of energy at this point,” Horbaczewski said. “That’s not to say nuclear power won’t be tomorrow, and solar power is just the icing on the cake.” Sixteen miles east of College Station, the Gibbons Creek Reservoir thrives as a haven for multiple species of wildlife and serves as a recreational playground for residents in the area, Horbaczewski said. The land was once stripped by unregulated coal extraction. “Now, you can find alligators, spoonbills, pelicans and bald eagles at the reservoir that was once a strip mine for coal,” he said.
At one time in Texas, surface mining for coal — removing large masses of earth to get to the minerals underneath — was common practice, leaving the land environmentally devoid, Horbaczewski said. But the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 changed that. “We have to leave the land in a state equal to or better than the way it was found because of the 1977 act,” Horbaczewski said. “But people act like nothing has changed at all.” Today, coal is pulled out of the ground with extracting machines after 20 to 30 feet of earth is dug
away, he said. The hole left by mining is 150 feet wide and about a mile long. “Imagine trying to re-fill a huge hole in the ground,” Atkinson said. “But society is the one who makes that decision, not the scientists.” Cocco said she feels passionately about not using coal. Because of the death of family friends and the destruction caused by coal mining. “When you blow up a piece of earth, you can re-plant some trees, but that does not mean that it’s going to be restored to its natural state,” Cocco said. “The land should be preserved.”
Conference discusses Latin American media, democracy Center brings media experts, educators BY TIM MONZINGO Contributing Writer
A sy mposium by t he Center for Spanish Language Me d i a b r o u g h t t o g e t h e r med ia ex per ts a nd educators Thursday to discuss the effects of changing political systems in Latin America on news outlets. The conference, which was streamed live to Texas Tech and Texas State universities, focused on cha nges in t he governments of Venezuela, Ecuador and Bolivia and their effects on the media. “ W h at t h i s s y mposiu m is about is we are bringing i n n a t i v e s c h ol a r s f r om Venezuela, from Bolivia and a professor who work s i n Ecuador to ta l k about t he declining situation of a free media, a democratic media
who teaches at William Penn Un i v er sit y, a nd Bol i v i a n native Gonza lo Soruco, an instructor at the University of Miami, among others. Since Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez Frias’ election in 1999, the free press has been under attack, said Gibens. “President Chávez has been cracking down on the media for some time now, and he has also recruited or heavily i n f luenced t he presidents of the countries of Ecuador and Bolivia to do the same,” Albarran said. I n f luenc e by t he st ate has led to a decline in press freedom, López said. News services in Ecuador have been threatened by the PHOTO BY CLINTON LYNCH/VISUALS EDITOR government. They have been Alan Albarran, Gonzalo Soruco, Daniel Lopez, Guillermo Gibens and John A. Booth speak to students at a lecture titled told that if they continue to “ROGUES”, a symposium on the impact to media and democracy, Thursday afternoon in the Radio, TV, Film & Performing publ i sh c r it ic i sm s of t he government, t heir f unding Arts Building. w i l l be w it hd raw n, López said. López, dean of communicadirector for t he Center for in these countries and the “With this censorship, there tions at the Universidad de i mpact on t he decl i ne of Spanish Language Media. T he hou r-lon g c on f e r- Los Hemisferios, Guillermo is a loss of press freedom and democracy in t hese count ries,” sa id A la n A lba rra n, ence was attended by Daniel Gibens, a Venezuelan native the freedom of speech that
ever yone shou ld have,” he said. John Booth of the political science facult y sa id t hat a free press is necessary for the maintenance of democratic institutions. “T he problem a nd t he point is that in order to effectively defend one’s interests in a democratic system, the people a nd orga n i zat ions need i n for mat ion t hat i s available to them freely, that is not controlled entirely by the government regime. Now where do you get that information? ” Boot h sa id. “You need to have independent sources.” Si nce 2005, Chávez ha s de ep ene d r el at ion s w it h I r a n, a “U. S .- de s i g n at e d state sponsor of terrorism, by signing multiple economic a nd s o c i a l a c c or d s a nd publicly suppor t ing Ira n’s cont roversia l nuclea r program.
See POLICIES on Page 2