Like many newcomers to Asheville, I moved here after being smitten by the area’s natural beauty: All it took was one invigorating late-summer dip at a swimming hole in Madison County about three years ago. But when people gush about Asheville’s unique sense of place, they’re referring to something more than just the picturesque mountain […]
Author: Rebecca Bowe
Showing 1-21 of 322 results
The Green Scene
Imagine sailing past the long gas lines in a 1980s Mercedes wagon without a trace of stress about the price of fuel, the availability of fuel, or the valuable time that could be lost waiting at the pump. Grease is the word: Local author Greg Melville brings his story of the ultimate green road trip […]
A green light for jobs
The day is winding down, and members of a small work crew are putting the finishing touches on a cob oven they’ve constructed in the Burton Street Community Peace Garden. Artisan Builders’ Collective co-founder Tony Beurskens—his hands covered in red, earthy grit—is there to supervise the group in working with cob. It’s one of a […]
The Green Scene
Filmmaker David Huff might seem like an unlikely tree-hugger, trekking into the forest bearing a heavy load of high-tech recording gear. Then again, the subject of his documentary—hemlock expert Will Blozan, who spends a lot of time scaling old-growth trees in the Cataloochee Valley—could be considered an unlikely film star. What Blozan and the Back […]
Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius in Asheville tomorrow
Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius will visit Asheville on Friday, Sept. 19, in support of Sen. Barack Obama.
The Green Scene
The inspiration hit Asheville resident DeAnna Hatch at around 4 a.m. “I was laying in bed about two-and-a-half years ago, mad about the war and mad about the price of gas,” she says. “And I thought, surely I can think of some way to create a gasoline. It’s just a fairly simple molecule—so why can’t […]
A postcard from the climate frontier
Editor’s note: Xpress reporter Rebecca Bowe was part of a team of journalists invited by the Knight Center for Environmental Journalism to travel to Alaska Aug. 13-16 to view the on-the-ground effects of climate change. Her experiences there provided some of the material for this article. Click the image above to view a slideshow by […]
The Green Scene
The Blue Ridge Forever coalition has just released its “Conservation Vision for Western North Carolina,” a report spotlighting 28 areas in North Carolina’s 25 western counties deemed to be in critical need of protection. A different point of view: Fairview resident Francois Manavit speaks out while Jim Anthony, CEO of The Cliffs, looks on. The […]
Making noise about a silent crime
“The worst part was the way that my family wanted to pretend that it never happened. After i slit my wrists, after i came home from the hospital, after my parents found out the truth … it became the official skeleton in the closet that no one would ever ever ever talk about again.” Life […]
The Green Scene
Asheville hasn’t seen a lot of gully-washers this summer, but the heavy rains that pummeled the mountains Aug. 25 and 26 pumped new life into a long-running controversy concerning erosion-control problems at development sites on steep slopes. Mapped out: RiverLink’s new Web page charts hot spots for polluted storm-water runoff. In an Aug. 26 e-mail […]
It’s the bark, not the bite
Living in a bark house never seemed so cutting edge. As green building surges in popularity throughout Western North Carolina, a new book titled Bark House Style: Sustainable Designs From Nature (Gibbs Smith, 2008) highlights the rustic aesthetic of bark shingles, a traditional building material that’s making a comeback as an element of green design. […]
Moving experiences
Accem Scott and Michael Clark are working hard to get people moving—literally. When Xpress caught up with Scott recently, he was in Ohio, between stops on the Tao Brothers Tour: Conscious Movement Across America, which so far has brought free conscious-movement instruction to Baltimore, Philadelphia and Chicago. An acupuncturist, and martial-arts instructor, Scott is one-half […]
The Green Scene
It’s late August in Western North Carolina, and the trees are drooping due to lack of rain. The French Broad River is at a record low level, gas prices are higher than ever and the skies are stained with smog. Pedal power: The Southern Energy and Environment Expo offered bright ideas for people of all […]
Vandals hit Buncombe Dems’ headquarters to protest “oil drilling and war” **UPDATED 5:15 p.m.**
The Buncombe County Democratic Headquarters was vandalized last night, and Xpress has received an e-mail from a group taking credit for it.
Utilities Commission to take a look at NC SAVE$
The North Carolina Utilities Commission opened a docket yesterday to consider an independent statewide energy-efficiency program called NC SAVE$.
S.E.E. and be green
Question: What do the Southern Energy and Environment Expo and President George Bush have in common? Answer: They’ve both been around for eight years. The S.E.E. Expo draws thousands of environmentalists to the Western North Carolina Agricultural Center annually to learn about sustainable technology and green living. But to hear founder/organizer Ned Doyle tell it, […]
The Green Scene
Every year for the last five years, a ribbon of runners, bikers and walkers has navigated a 100-mile route from the Great Smoky Mountains National Park all the way to downtown Asheville. More civil-rights march than sporting event, the Relay for Clean Air was created as a protest against poor air quality in the park […]
Study finds no cancer clusters near CTS site
An analysis by the North Carolina Central Cancer Registry has found no evidence of cancer clusters in the immediate area surrounding the former CTS of Asheville site. But the small sample size places sharp limits on the reliability of the conclusions, researchers caution. And other types of studies being undertaken now may yield a more […]
Asheville’s black history honored on Burton Street
Last year, Leicester resident Valeria Watson-Doost submitted a letter to Mountain Xpress about an historic building in West Asheville’s Burton Street neighborhood that was slated for demolition (see “Wrecking Ball Swings Toward Asheville Black History,” Letters, May 15, 2007). “I did research on the building … and found out that it was built in 1924 […]
The Green Scene
Asheville and environs are used to gathering national acclaim: America’s favorite highway. Top 10 greatest places to live. Best place to retire. Home of a world-famous ecovillage? Earthy all around: A gathering at Earthaven Ecovillage in Black Mountain. Courtesy Joshua Canter According to Joshua Canter, co-leader of the Asheville Communities Network and a consultant and […]
The Green Scene
Anyone making a conscientious effort to scale back, consume less and live “green” has probably met with an irritating setback: It’s not that easy. Advertisers may portray earth-friendly living as a kind of Zenlike simplicity, but the questions people must confront when attempting to make the greenest choices are often more likely to induce a […]