T h e A merican D rea m- - - Verona Area School District

4
N E W S
Going green in the Middle East
By CLAIRE MILLER
Imagine living in a city with no cars
running on petroleum and with zero
carbon emissions. Now try to imagine
such a place existing in the middle of an oilproducing
giant of the Middle East.
In 2006, Abu Dhabi of the United Arab
Emirates took the initiative to begin building
the city of Masdar. Abu Dhabi has already
funded $15 billion towards the project, and
developers for Masdar plan to have the fi rst
section of the city opened by next year. They
also predict having at least 40,000 residents
and 50,000 daily visitors by 2013.
Many are in agreement that the construction
of a carbon emission free city is a major
step up in the efforts to counter global
climate change. “It’s really future-forward,
and I think the U.S. should defi nitely look
in on it,” said junior Caroline Kopp. One of
the more remarkable aspects of Masdar will
be the public transportation system there.
“You program what station you want to go
to, and [the vehicle] will directly take you to
that station . . . If you look at things like Blade
Runner, etc. that we had 15 years ago, it’s
really bringing that to the fore front now,” explained
Scott McGuigan from the construction
fi rm that’s building Masdar. People will
never be more than half a mile from one of
roughly 1,500 public transportation stations.
For the most part, people of Masdar will walk
from place to
place along
shaded sidewalks.
But
if the desert
heat becomes
unbearable,
people can
ride selfdrivingelectric
vehicles
guided by
magnets
embedded in
the roads.
The Masdar
project
aims to fi nd
solutions to
problems in
energy security,
climate
change, and
the development of human expertise in
sustainability. Senior Brittany Wiest is also
eager to see how the project develops, “I’m
as is exemplifi ed by the bridge collapses
that have occurred in America over the
past couple of years. The bill includes loans
for small farms that have been hit by the
economy, grants for new technologies, and
Wi-Fi networks to modernize the rural areas.
Much of this bill is reinvesting in America
including developing new train systems.
However, critics argue that not all of this
spending is necessary and that much of this
is wasteful spending. These critics cite the
fi gures such as around $100 million for Filipino
veterans of WWII and $650 million for
digital convertor box coupons. Also, critics
allege that this bill will not actually do much
to stimulate the economy, but rather is a
rundown of projects that these politicians
could not fi t into other bills. A large criticism
is also launched at how the voting on
the bill was conducted. The bill was written
in a very short amount of time and the fi nal
version checks in at 407 pages. One senator
even went as far as to chastise his fellow
senators for voting on a bill that very few of
them had actually read.
The reaction among students can be
T H E C A T ' S E Y E
Stills taken from the city of
Masdar.
glad to see that somebody out
there is taking the steps to move
forward, and I really hope to see this happen
in more places.”
Stimulus bill passed, despite critics
By TRAVIS SCHWARTZ
On February 17, 2009 history was
made with the passing of the American
Recovery and Reinvestment act,
better known as the stimulus bill. The bill
contains roughly $700 billion in spending
and is intended to get America out of the economic
predicament that currently plagues
the nation. This bill contains some of the
largest spending in the history of America,
however even with all this spending, opinions
are split about whether or not this bill
will actually stimulate the economy enough.
The bill received very little bipartisan support,
getting only three votes from republicans
in the Senate: Susan Collins, Olympia
Snowe, and Arlen Specter, and no votes from
republicans in the House of Representatives.
The bill focuses a lot on infrastructure
spending, meaning improving the roads,
trains, and other forms of transportation. It
also focuses on loans and other measures intended
to stabilize the housing market. Much
of this spending is intended to modernize
America and make it more green. Many commentators
have stated that the infrastructure
of America has become woefully out of date,
summed up best by the attitude of senior
Russell Pfeiffer who says, “I like the idea
of the stimulus bill, but not the actual bill
that was passed.” Other students agree with
Russell in the fact that there is too much
wasteful spending in the bill. Including fellow
senior Kyle Sundby who says, “It’s bogus,
they are spending
too much money
on things that aren’t
going to stimulate
the economy”.
Time will tell
whether the stimulus
bill will be effective,
but one thing is
for sure: the bill size
and scope is unprecedented
in American
history. To read
more on students
getting involved in
the bill, check out
Emily Wottreng’s
article on page 9.
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Photos courtesy of masdar.ae/en/home
M A R C H 2 0 0 9