How to get rid of coal burning power plants

Could we (as a society and a government) stop giving subsidies to the “big” power producers and use those funds to provide low cost solar panels to everyone. With the use of the smart meters and a guaranteed buy back price (see California or Colorado) we might be able to provide the extra energy that we would need to be able to close or cut back some of the big plants. I know that there would be economic disruption, but this would be balanced by the increase in the solar panel (etc.) industry.

Education

In a perfect world, educational centers at whatever level would be about learning. But they are not. They are about marks, about passing, about memorization, about scholarships, about degrees, about money, about jobs, but somehow learning has taken a back seat.

I hear that there are a couple of universities out there offering undeclared majors. I actually like that idea. Students could study what they are interested in. This, I think,  would promote interdisciplinary courses at the undergraduate and graduate level as students would be exposed to a variety of ideas. It would allow for these same interdisciplinary courses to be developed and driven by users. It would also allow for some generalists to graduate. I kind of like the idea that our future corporate leaders & political leaders might know something about gerontology, the environment and 19th century literature for example.

Has anyone heard about any long term results from these programs? Although I’m not sure that they have been around for too long- I would be interested to know what/who they are turning out.

School daze

I would like to see the schools (up to high school) operate on a Masters System. I ran into this in Vail, Colorado. It works like a one room schoolhouse with each age group in a seperate classroom. Each student works at their own pace and continues with a subject/topic/curriculum requirement until they master it. This must be crazy for the teachers as they could have a grade 7 age group class with students doing grade 9 english, grade 5 english etc. but how great for the students eh? Since all of the students are all over the place academically, no one would feel out of place; and socially, age groups would stay together. This would focus schools on Learning and not Testing.

Environmental idea

I think that a small to medium sized city should apply for federal grants to make a car-free city. It would involve building huge free parking lots on the outskirts and free transit throughout the city (probably the sticking point). You could market the city world-wide for ecological tourism, and I bet the inhabitants would be much healthier.

Hamilton’s green problem

I don’t understand why Hamilton and other cities are taking away the green areas in the city and replacing them with gravel. Has no one ever heard of plants like gout weed or lamb’s ears? I mean, I don’t know much about gardening but I’m sure there are many other varieties available. These plants look good and choke out weeds (low to no maintenance), and while fairly invasive, could be used in the centre islands maybe with a small bush or tree. Or let’s try a zen garden. Use some of the rock that falls after winter along the escarpment along with low maintenance plants (see above suggestions). One time cost, and would look good.