On this Earth Day 2008, the Northwest Missouri city of Rock Port deserves to be proud of its standing as the first 100 percent wind-powered community in the United States. And we’re proud of Rock Port.

No doubt, this distinction was achieved in part because of substantial private investments already being made in a nearby wind-energy project in Atchison County. But that doesn’t change the fact that when Eric Chamberlain proposed the idea, he found willing partners in Tom Carnahan of Wind Capital Group and David Brija-Towery with John Deere Credit.

Their teamwork led to Friday’s official “switch-flipping” ceremony, signaling that the Loess Hills Wind Farm — four turbines in all — is open for business and busily supplying Rock Port’s municipal electric system with a surplus of power.

Detractors will suggest that Rock Port hardly is large enough to be seen as a model for the rest of the country. But sometimes symbolism does matter. Rural America is filled with entrepreneurs and risk-takers, and also with an ample supply of people who are eager to tap into renewable forms of energy.

We are convinced that Rock Port’s big step forward matters in the grand scheme of things, and its example of energy independence will matter even more in the years to come.

A practical public

We’re intrigued by new research from the University of Missouri. The Harry S. Truman School of Public Affairs on the Columbia campus polled 1,000 people about environmental issues.

The survey found that the public, if it had to choose, would want government first to protect drinking water sources; second, reduce pollution in rivers and lakes; and third, reduce air pollution.

That sounds like a list we all can identify with. Bigger, more complex issues fared worse in the survey. Concerns for rain forests, global warming and the ozone layer all finished lower.

Less litter, less expense

The new “best” reason not to litter: It’s breaking the bank.

The Missouri Department of Transportation figures it costs about $5 million annually for the department to pick up trash along the state’s roadways.

That figure doesn’t include thousands of hours of labor provided by prison inmates. And it doesn’t account for the fact that, despite all of these efforts, our ditches and fence rows fill up with a new crop of trash just about as quick as the old one is harvested.

Some 228 groups have adopted stretches of roads in Northwest Missouri, pledging to pick up trash on more than 10 percent of the highways in our region. That’s a start, but it’s not the preferred long-term solution.

As Stacy Armstrong, MoDOT’s roadside management supervisor, says, “Ultimately, we’d like to get people to stop littering altogether.”