A List of Environmental and Telecommunications Events and Issues

July 11 to July 18, 1997







Published, Edited and Written by George Mokray for
Information Ecologies
218 Franklin St #3
Cambridge, MA 02139
(617)661-2676
gmoke@world.std.com

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Listings

Saturday, July 12

15th Annual Antique & Classic Boat Festival
contact 666-8530 or 498-1137
sponsored by the Friends of Boston Harbor Islands

2 pm and 7 pm
Pan-Twilight Circus "Tempest in a Big Top" - a circus version of Shakespeare's "The Tempest" to benefit Somerville's community gardeners and recyclers
contact 628-8850
corner of Summer and Vinal Streets, near Union Square, Somerville
Prices are $5 for those under 12 and $9 for those who are older

Sunday, July 13

2 pm and 7 pm
Pan-Twilight Circus "Tempest in a Big Top" - a circus version of Shakespeare's "The Tempest" to benefit Somerville's community gardeners and recyclers
contact 628-8850
corner of Summer and Vinal Streets, near Union Square, Somerville
Prices are $5 for those under 12 and $9 for those who are older

6 pm
Boston Greens potluck dinner and meeting (7:30 pm)
contact Chuck at 787-952
6 Pond St (right between Centre St and Jamaicaway), Jamaica Plain

Tuesday, July 15

10 am
Demonstration of CAMEO Environmental Emergency Management Software
Kenneth Ferber, EPA
contact Tom Parris, 496-6158, tparris@fas.harvard.edu
Lamont Library, Forum Room (5th Floor Central Stairwell)
R.S.V.P.

6 pm
Boston Bicycle Advisory Committee - Priority Projects, 1997-1998
contact Vineet Gupta at 635-2756
Boston City Hall, Room 900, Boston
Enter from Congress St. Use the brand new bike racks.

9 pm
Cadillac Desert: Water and the Transformation of Nature
contact http://www.pbs.org/kteh/cadillacdesert/
WGBH 2-TV

Wednesday, July 16

Ecological Risk Assessment Conference
contact IBC USA Conferences at 508-481-6400, http://www.ibcusa.com/environ
Boston, MA

10 am - 2 pm
Keeping It Green: workshop to strategize about the reauthorization of the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA)
contact Deirdre Buckley 727-9800 x 233
McCormack Building, 1 Ashburton Pl, Boston, MA
RSVP

7 pm
Boston Webmasters' Guild and Boston Webgrrls: Web Chat & Threaded Technology Panel Discussion
RSVP to boston-rsvp@webmaster.org or visit http://boston.webmaster.org or http://www.gen.com/bos-webgrrls
MIT Building 6, Room 120
free, $3 donation if you eat (pizza)

Thursday, July 17

Ecological Risk Assessment Conference
contact IBC USA Conferences at 508-481-6400, http://www.ibcusa.com/environ
Boston, MA

7 pm
The Natural Step Networking, Discussion and Action Group
contact FDixon87@aol.com
1A Sherrill Hall, Episcopal Divinity School, 99 Brattle St

Friday, July 18

Ecological Risk Assessment Conference
contact IBC USA Conferences at 508-481-6400, http://www.ibcusa.com/environ
Boston, MA
Sunday, July 20

9 am - 2 pm
MIT Electronic Flea Market
contact 253-3776
Vassar St Parking Lot, near Main St
buyers $4, sellers $10 per space

11 am - 5 pm
George's Island Children's Festival
Children's concert with Kids Break
contact 617-727-7676
George's Island Boston Harbor Islands State Park

1 pm - 4 pm
Sustainable Living Institute Picnic - potluck
contact 628-5558 or (508)287-5418
Boston Common, Monument Hill, overlooking Frog Pond

Sunday, July 20 - Saturday, July 26

Coastal Zone 97 - a major international coastal zone management conference
contact Stacey Rainey 727-9530 x417
Boston Park Plaza Hotel and The Castle, Boston

Monday, July 21 - Wednesday, July 23

Innovative Remediation Technologies
contact (508)481-6400, reg@ibcusa.com, http://www.ibcusa.com/conf/innovative
Swissotel, Boston
registration from $295 to $1090

Monday, July 21

7:30 pm
Zero Population Growth of Greater Boston
contact Howie Breinan 225-8905, breinan@ortho.bwh.harvard.edu
500 Memorial Dr #255, Next House, MIT

Tuesday, July 22

7 pm -10 pm
Boston Webmasters' Guild and Boston Webgrrls: Casual Party Event
RSVP to boston-rsvp@webmaster.org or visit http://boston.webmaster.org or http://www.gen.com/bos-webgrrls
Wonder Bar, 186 Harvard Ave, Allston/Brighton

Wednesday, July 23

8:30 am - 10:30 am
Northeast Business Environmental Network Breakfast Meeting: Changes in Stormwater Permits
Thelma Hamilton, EPA; Ron Blanchette, HADCO Corp; Curt Laffin, Shawsheen River Watershed Initiative
contact Gail Schwarz at (617) 204-2727, execdirector@nben.org, http://www.nben.org
Gillette, 30 Burtt Rd, Andover
RSVP by July 21
Members: $10 Others: $20

Thursday, July 24

6:30 pm - 9 pm
Boards of Health: A Force for Protecting Our Communities and Environment - a roundtable hosted by Toxics Action Center and the MA Assoc of Health Boards
contact (617)292-4821, toxicsaction@igc.org
Newton-Wellesley Hospital, Allen Riddle Building

Friday, July 25

8 pm
Radio Free Allston Meeting (106.1 FM)
contact 617-562-0828 or http://www.tiac.net/users/error/radiofreeallston/
The Allston Mall, 107 Brighton Ave, Allston

Sources for Listings:
MIT _Tech Talk_ :
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/www
Harvard _Gazette_ :
http://www.news.harvard.edu/hno.subpages/hno.calendar.full.html
Harvard Environmental Resources On-Line:
http://environment.harvard.edu
MA Executive Office of Environmental Affairs calendar:
http://www.magnet.state.ma.us/envir/earth.htm
Earth Day Network international/national listings:
http://www.cfe.cornell.edu/EarthDay/ednethome.html
Earth Day Greater Boston calendar:
http://www.earthdaygb.org

Computer Organizations of NE (CONE) User Group List:
http://bcs1.ziplink.net/cone/sig
Signet Calendar of events:
http://www.signet.org/cgi-bin/Calendar/calendar.cgi
Webmasters Guild
http://boston.webmaster.org

act-ma the Massachusetts activists mailing list:
subscribe by emailing majordomo@igc.apc.org, leaving the subject line blank and typing "subscribe act-ma" as the message

Peace and Justice Events Hotline at (617)787-6809

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User Group Sources

I will be adding these two new resources to the Sources for Listings that follows the Listings section in each edition of "A List..."

CONE User Group List:
http://bcs1.ziplink.net/cone/sig
Signet Calendar of events:
http://www.signet.org/cgi-bin/Calendar/calendar.cgi

This is where you go to find the various computer user groups that are still actively doing something.

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Coastal Zone '97

From Saturday, July 19 through the next week, there will be a major international coastal zone management conference. Most of the activity will be taking place at the Park Plaza Hotel and Castle in downtown Boston. Exhibits will be on display at the exposition in the Castle on Tuesday, July 22 to Thursday, July 24.

Coastal Zone '97 is the 10th in a series of bicentennial conferences, a premier international symposium on coastal and ocean management. These Coastal Conferences began in 1987 and "provide a forum to explore issues related to coastal planning and engineering, environmental technology, and environmental management. Over 1,000 government officials and decisionmakers, scientists and technologists, engineers and planners, environmental advocates and industry executives and managers from public, private, and non-profit organizations are expected to attend. Coastal Zon '97 is sponsored by the Urban Harbors Institute/University of Massachusetts Boston, for further information regarding exhibits, exhibit hours and attendance please call the Coastal Zone '97 Coordinator at 439-7700, facsimile, 330-1732 or at http://www.infinitefaculty.com/CZ97

I looked through the Technical Program and found a lot of good stuff, including one session called "Vision 20/20 - A Future of Coastal Management." the description says, "Want to see the future? http://www.nos.noaa.gov/ocrm/vision2020.html"

Lots of pollution control and public education and public/private partnerships and resource sharing... but I didn't see any explicit global warming sessions. Wonder what the expectations of ocean rise is for the Boston area? Maybe Vision 20/20 and Coastal Zone '97 will tell me.

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Electronic Compliance Assistance Centers

_Massachusetts' Environment_ (11 Mountain Ave, Suite 101, Bloomfield, CT 06002, draymes@environews.com) reports that EPA is developing a series of electronic Compliance Assistance Centers designed to help small businesses with their environmental problems. The Centers are operated in partnership with private sector trade associations, educational institutions, and government agencies.

National Metal Finishing Resource Center (http://www.nmfrc.org), Greenlink: the Automotive Compliance Information Assistance Center (http://wwwccar-greenlink.org or 1-888-476-5465) and the National Agriculture Compliance Assistance Center (http://es.inel.gov/oeca/ag/aghmpg.html) are three that are mentioned by name and URL. Other Compliance Assistance Centers under development include ones for printing, chemical manufacturers, municipal/local governments, transportation, and printed wiring board manufacturers. Further information is available from Lynn Vendinello of the EPA at (202)564-7066

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GreenMoney, Good Money

Editorial Comment: Cliff Feigenbaum (cliffgmj@on-ramp.ior.com) sent this in, alerting me to his work and inspiring me to look up some other "money" resources.


George
A Responsible Business & Investing information resource for you -

THE GREENMONEY JOURNAL & ONLINE GUIDE - socially & environmentally responsible business & investing information since 91

Articles from the Summer 97 issue (in print or online at- http://www.greenmoney.com

1) THE SUSTAINABILITY REVOLUTION: DESIGNING A GREENPRINT FOR THE FUTURE
a) Environment & Design
b) William McDonough, architect & Hannover Principles
c) Paul Hawken, author & businessperson
d) The Natural Step Principles
e) Interface Corporation
2) WORK & FAMILY: The Redesign
3) ECO-NOMICS by Kenny Ausubel - excerpts from his new book, Restoring the Earth
4) DISCLOSURE AND DIALOGUE: HOW THE CERES COALITION IS LEADING THE WAY by Bob Massie, Executive Director, CERES
AND MORE

[For the Print Version ($35 - -one year), order with credit card by calling 800-318-5725 or send a check to Cliff Feigenbaum, Publisher GMJ, 608 West Glass Ave, Spokane, WA 99205 USA or call (509) 328-1741 and the expanded online version at - http://www.greenmoney.com ]

Business for Social Responsibility member since 1993 (415) 537-0888 in San Francisco, California

Editorial Comment: I remembered that Chris Mogil and Anne Slepian were also doing a Web publication which I thought was called "Good Money." So I looked up http://www.goodmoney.com/ and came back with a very thorough site on "Social, Ethical and Environmental Investments, Responsible Consuming & Corporate Accountability" from Dr. Ritchie Lowry of the Boston College Department of Sociology (McGuinn Hall, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA 02167 617-552-3346; Fax: 617-552-4283, lowry@bc.edu

Bur I didn't find Chris and Anne's page. I also looked for a global resource bank that was doing experiments in alternative funding over the Net but their URL was gone.

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Hannover Principles

Editorial Comment: I have been looking for the Hannover Principles since I heard about them at Barbara Bannon-Harwood's lecture to the Boston Area Solar Energy Association in May. I finally found them at Green Money (http://www.greenmoney.com/gmj/sum97/sum297.htm).


1. Insist on the rights of humanity and nature to coexist in a healthy, supportive, diverse and sustainable condition.

2. Recognize interdependence. The elements of human design interact with and depend upon the natural world, with broad and diverse implications at every scale. Expand design considerations to recognize even distant effects.

3. Respect relationships between spirit and matter. Consider all aspects of human settlement, including community, dwelling, industry and trade, in terms of existing and evolving connections between spiritual and material consciousness.

4. Accept responsibility for the consequences of design decisions upon human well being, the viability of natural systems, and their right to coexist.

5. Create safe objects of long-term value. Do not burden future generations with requirements for maintenance of vigilant administration of potential danger due to the careless creation of products, processes or standards.

6. Eliminate the concept of waste. Evaluate and optimize the full life-cycle of products and processes, to approach the state of natural systems, in which there is no waste.

7. Rely on natural energy flows. Human designs should, like the living world, derive their creative forces from perpetual solar income. Incorporate this energy efficiently and safely for responsible use.

8. Understand the limitations of design. No human creation lasts forever and design does not solve all problems. Those who create and plan should practice humility in the face of nature. Treat nature as a model and mentor, not as an inconvenience to be evaded or controlled.

9. Seek constant improvement by the sharing of knowledge. Encourage direct and open communication between colleagues, patrons, manufacturers and users to link long term sustainable considerations with ethical responsibility, and re-establish the integral relationship between natural processes and human activity.

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Remote Manufacturing in Alaska

Ann Stewart (Stewartship@compuserve.com) sent me a copy of an article from the _Boston Business Journal_ for July 4, 1997. The article was about a joint project between MIT and the Univ of Alaska to build small power plants to support small-scale manufacturing operations in remote villages and provide JOBS. They are hoping to develop methods and technologies which can be used in other remote areas around the world.

The two universities will target a band of 300 Alaskan villages, home to about 40,000 indigenous Americans among others, with everything from electric generators to small production plants, providing the foundation for small start-up businesses of anywhere from 10 to 50 employees using available natural resources.

One possible technology is small, electrically powered chemical reactors MIT researchers have created to transform wood chips into plastic. This production process operates on a small scale, with one 200-pound tree yielding 50 pounds of plastic. The electricity to power such a venture might be a small generating plant harnessing the power of one of Alaska's many rivers. The products of such ventures might be marketed over the Internet and flown out to buyers by helicopter.

I wonder whether either the Univ of Alaska or MIT researchers have looked at the Inupiaq family values displayed in the school in Kobuk, Alaska and reported by Gary Snyder in his book _The Practice of the Wild_ ( North Point Press, 1990 ISBN 0-86547-454-0 http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0865474540/alistA/ and quoted by me in http://world.std.com/~gmoke/AList.June697.html/#Inupiaq Values) or calculated the ecological footprint of their proposed ventures? Will they design with the Hannover Principles in mind or by using Wm McDonough's sustainable design principles: waste equals food, use only current solar income, respect diversity?

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Urban Quality Indicators

Editorial Comment: Marshall T. Spriggs (mtspriggs@igc.apc.org) sent me this from the Environmental Studies Discussion List (ENVST-L@BROWNVM.BROWN.EDU) and Cy Yoakam (cyyoakam@CYBERZONE-INC.COM).


Measuring the New Urbanism - Current Issue of UQI newsletter
Hello, Environmentalists,

(Current Issue: #5): In the Feature, Eliot Allen describes his work in "Measuring the New Urbanism", looking at 30 variables in the design of additions to a city in British Columbia. Major categories include Urban Form (eg., land use diversity), Housing, Employment/Job Balance, Travel, Energy, Water, Solid Waste, and Pollution. New Urbanism is a return to pre-World War II neighborhood design, more friendly to the pedestrian (& less so to the car.).
**Ordering and back issue info below.
Cy Yoakam, editor

*More on UQI*:
How do you measure your community's health and quality? Its sustainability?

Find out in the quarterly newsletter - UQI - 5th issue out now. As with the earlier issues, UQI brings important news about the field of measuring and evaluating the *quality and sustainability* of a community - be it your neighborhood or the entire city.

In each issue, you get a Feature article plus five departments: Survey (of North American activity), Critique, Library, Data, and City Culture Map.

The "centerfold" of each 12 page issue is the *City Culture Map* , showing the "people zones" of a major city - where the rich, the ethnic groups, and the homeless live; where the youth gangs, drug dealers, and the prostitutes roam, and more. Lower Manhattan (New York City) in Issue 5 (see below for other cities).

(Previous Features):
Contents of Issues 1 to 4 are listed below. And in Issue 6 (this Aug.) read about "post materialistic" indicators of urban quality. This includes Terry Pindell's six criteria for the "good places to live". Among them are the Cheers, Foot, Cake, Comfort, Someplace, and Fudge Factors.
**(To Order)**:
Prices: $21.75 - US dollars - for subscription (reg., $29 - with your *first issue being free*); current issue (#5) or back issues, $7 each. (Note: Add $1 per issue, or $4 for a subscription for locations outside the US & Canada). Please make checks or money orders out to "UQC". We can bill you with your first issue if you like. Order by email (cyyoakam@cyberzone-inc.com), phone/ fax (313-996-8610), or snail mail (see below).
Cy Yoakam, editor/publisher

Urban Quality Indicators: April 1996 to present*
Features by issue:
1-Pioneer Jacksonville, FL: Performance targets for the Year 2000
2-Sustainable Seattle: Creating a city of last value
3-FunkyTowns, USA: The best alternative, eclectic, irreverent, and visionary places.
4-Attitude Surveys: How do we know when Good is "good"?
5-Measuring the New Urbanism: Land use indicators as clues to urban quality (May 1997)
6-Post Materialistic Indicators of urban quality, and America's "last migration" (Aug. 1997)

City Culture Maps by issue:
1-Detroit; 2-Baltimore, 3-New Orleans, 4-San Francisco, 5-Lower Manhattan, NY, 6-Miami (Aug.1997).

Critique: Issues 2-6 by Maureen Hart, consultant with communities developing indicators of sustainability

Survey, Data, & Library (issue sampling):
1-Oregon Benchmarks, Healthy Communities 2000, 3 perspectives on urban security, more.
2-Green Mapping, National Neighborhood Indicators Project, Minneapolis Report Card, more.
3-Hate crimes data, Cities with a heart, What makes a city cool?, Feldt's Index of Societal Well-being, more.
4-Best cities for women, new Places Rated Almanac, Nationwide survey of community indicators projects, more.
5-best hiking cities, measuring pedestrian friendliness, web sites for urban quality, more (Spring 1997)
6-best cities in the world (according to the Corporate Resources Group), Adopt an Indicator program, 50 most enlightened cities in US (Aug. 1997)

Cy Yoakam
Urban Quality Communications
1756 Plymouth Rd., Suite 239
Ann Arbor, MI 48105
Ph/fax: 313-996-8610
email: cyyoakam@cyberzone-inc.com

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Two from Wind Energy Weekly

Editorial Comment: From the electronic edition of WIND ENERGY WEEKLY, Vol. 16, #743, 14 April 1997, published by the American Wind Energy Association contact AWEA, 122 C Street, NW, 4th Floor, Washington, DC 20001, USA, phone (202) 383-2500, fax (202) 383-2505, e-mail <windmail@mcimail.com>. Or visit the World Wide Web site at <http://www.econet.org/awea>. Wish I had had the Vermont information when I testified on the Massachusetts utility deregulation bill.


OHIO STATE TEAM DETAILS STRONG CLIMATE EVIDENCE

A team of Ohio State University researchers said April 3 that its research provides "some of the most compelling evidence yet for recentglobal warming."

Ice caps in alpine regions throughout the tropics and subtropics are melting at "a phenomenal rate," the researchers said, while last year, other scientists discovered that the freezing point in the upper atmosphere has been gaining altitude.

These findings may be among the best evidence to date that the planet is experiencing a recent and rapid warming, Ellen Mosley-Thompson, a professor of geography at Ohio State, told attendees at the annual meeting of the Association of American Geographers in Fort Worth, Tex. Mosley-Thompson said the resulting climatic and environmental changes will have "massive impacts on human populations around the globe."

She cited the following recent scientific observations:
o The edge of the Qori Kalis glacier that flows off the Quelccaya ice cap high in the Peruvian Andes Mountains was retreating at a rate of four meters (13 feet) annually between 1963 and 1978. By 1995, that rate had grown to 30 meters (99 feet) each year.

o The freezing level in the Earth's atmosphere -- the height where the air temperature reaches 0 degrees C -- has been gaining altitude since 1970 at a rate of 4.5 meters (nearly 15 feet) each year.

o Ice cores taken from the Dunde ice cap in eastern Tibet have shown that the last 50 years were the warmest in recorded history. A similar ice core record from the Huascaran ice cap in Peru has shown a strong warming over the last 200 years.

"Most of the evidence for warming that we see in these high alpine ice caps is in regions that are already water stressed," Mosley-Thompson said. "These tropical areas are where most of the planet's population lives and where subsistence agriculture is incapable of feeding the population. And in the future, the greatest increase in population will occur here."

For years, scientists have argued whether the evidence for changes in world climate were being hidden behind normal climate variations. The Ohio State team now believes that the evidence is getting stronger at the same time our ability to decipher it has improved dramatically.

They cited the loss of ice volume in the tropical and subtropical ice caps, in the Antarctic Peninsula, and in the Russian Arctic, along with increased snowfall over East Antarctica , as further evidence of change.

Mosley-Thompson said that in spite of this evidence, little will probably be done to address the probable underlying causes of these changes until the people who make environmental policy decisions recognize the immediacy of the problem. "We're making massive changes to the climate on an unprecedented scale in some parts of the globe," she said. "This kind of discussion has to find its way into the general conversation."

Mosley-Thompson's co-author on the paper was LonnieThompson, professor of geological sciences at Ohio State. Both are researchers with the Byrd Polar Research Center at theuniversity.

For further information, contact Ellen-Mosley Thompson, phone (614) 292-6531, e-mail <thompson.4@osu.edu>.

VERMONT SENATE APPROVES BILL CONTAINING RPS

The Vermont State Senate became the first legislative body in the nation to approve a renewables portfolio standard (RPS) April 3, passing the measure as part of a comprehensive electric utility restructuring bill that was endorsed in a 20-9 vote.

The Senate bill also includes a system benefits charge (SBC) of three mills (0.3 cents) per kWh that will raise an estimated $15 million annually for energy efficiency, including $500,000 per year for renewables R&D; an "environmental portfolio standard" for retail suppliers that covers all emissions and other impacts on environment, health and economy; and fuel and emissions disclosure requirements.

The RPS is structured as a two-tier requirement that would (1) preserve the existing level of electricity supply from renewable energy sources in Vermont (about 15% of electricity sales), and (2) ensure growth of new "innovative" and "emerging" renewables (including wind and solar) starting in 1998 and reaching another 4% of sales over 10 years. That goal had been developed by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), an environmental group that has strongly supported the RPS, and was endorsed by the Vermont Department of Public Service (DPS) (see Wind Energy Weekly #694, April 22, 1996) on the recommendation of its consultant, the Tellus Institute. UCS testified in favor of the proposal before the Vermont Senate Natural Resources Committee at the invitation of the DPS.

Since the state's annual electricity consumption is approximately 5 billion kWh, a 4% requirement for additional renewables would amount to 200 million kWh, or approximately as much power as would be generated by 90 MW of wind capacity at a 25% capacity factor.

Forty-six New England environmental, consumer, low-income groups and renewables businesses have endorsed a resolution supporting a portfolio standard which would increase renewables by at least 4% over 10 years in New England and at the national level, along with a system benefits charge to fund commercialization efforts and net metering and disclosure requirements to facilitate customer choice of renewables.

The Vermont Senate bill allows existing small hydro (below the 80 MW in capacity), but not electricity from large hydro plants such as those owned by Canadian utility Hydro-Quebec, to be included in the tier preserving existing levels of renewables. Sales by Hydro-Quebec to Vermont utilities have been sharply criticized by environmental groups because of the substantial impacts on large hydro projects on the environment of northern Quebec.

The bill now moves on to the Vermont House ofRepresentatives, which was debating at press time whether to consider the legislation quickly or to postpone it, possibly until next year, because of its complexity.

For further information, contact Alan Nogee of UCS, phone (617) 547-5552, e-mail <anogee@ucsusa.org>.

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Subsidizing Our Own Destruction

I've been watching "Cadillac Desert" on PBS and learning about the history of California water. This week the show focused on the Central Valley, the Tulare Lake region, and how Federal and State funded irrigation projects allowed that area to produce about 25% of America's food by 1974. The legislation that authorized the expenditures was supposed to benefit farms of no larger than 160 acres but all that food was grown on huge corporate farms of 1000s and 10,000s of acres. The businesses that worked that land never had to pay the full costs of the water they used. Huge public works subsidized a whole industry, a severe deformity of the "free market" I would think. The situation has now changed, to a certain extent, and water prices have risen dramatically. Somehow, the TV show did not explicitly say that all the farmers are now paying the full cost of the water they use nor the full ecological costs of that particular form of agribusiness both locally and nationally.

I've been reading _Who Owns the Sun? People, Politics, and the Struggle for a Solar Economy_ by Daniel Berman and John O'Connor (Chelsea Green Publishing, 1996 ISBN 0-930031-86-5 http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0930031865/alistA/). _Who Owns the Sun?_ is a history of solar since the first energy crisis back in '73 through the Carter boom and Reagan bust and the end of tax credits in '86 to the rapidly "deregulating" energy market of today. _Who Owns the Sun?_ asks why the 94% of Americans who favored the rapid development of solar power in '78 never got that it and what the 63% today who think renewable energy sources should have the highest priority for funding might be likely to receive. You should read _Who Owns the Sun?_ to see what strings to the utilities those million solar electric panels President Clinton wants to install to forestall global warming or global warming criticism will include.

Are we going to jumpstart solar power or give to the utilities along with paying for the "stranded costs" of all those nuclear power plants which will probably not be competitive in the energy future? I remember that MIT build a new cogeneration plant to supply its campus with electricity, heat, steam, and chilled water. Commonwealth Electric sued them because as a publicly regulated utility, they had invested in generating capacity which now they couldn't sell to MIT. The court ruled in March '96 that MIT has to pay $1.3 million per year indefinitely to Commonwealth Electric. This ruling is now under appeal to the Supreme Judicial Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Are we going to have to pay for the nukes we didn't want, the solar and efficiency we do want, and never get to own and control any of it? Ever?

Editorial Comment: John Andrews (john.andrews@sierraclub.org) sent this to me as part of the latest ER Alerts, the publication of the Environmental Roundtable. To subscribe or unsubscribe to ER Alerts, send a message to john.andrews@sierraclub.org. Subscribers are encouraged to provide their name and address in the body of the message.


ACT NOW TO PROTECT FORESTS
[from John Leary, Forest Policy Specialist, Sierra Club, Washington Office]

******* Please take action: call your representative right away and ask them to vote for the Porter/Kennedy amendment to cut the taxpayer subsidies for building logging roads in our National Forests.
************

This week, the House of Representatives will vote on whether to cut the taxpayer subsidy for the construction of new logging roads in our National Forests. The vote margin is expected to be razor thin, so every single phonecall to Congress will definitely make a difference.

Your representative needs to hear of your support for the Porter/Kennedy amendment to the Interior Appropriations bill, which we expect to be on the House floor *this Thursday, July 10th.* This is the bill that contains funding for many important natural resource programs, but it also provides money for the Forest Service subsidy that supports the building of environmentally destructive logging roads in our National Forests.

The bipartisan amendment by Reps. John Porter (R-IL) and Joe Kennedy (D-MA) will cut $41.5 million from this subsidy directly, and would save taxpayers another $50 million worth of publicly owned trees that the Forest Service intends to give away to the timber industry. This is because the Forest Service not only builds logging roads directly with this money, but they often "trade" more trees in exchange for the timber industry to build the roads. When you take into account both the direct subsidy and the $50 million worth of *our* trees the Forest Service intends to give away, taxpayers will lose over $90 million next year on the timber roads program unless the Porter/Kennedy amendment becomes law.

Please call your representative at 202-224-3121 as soon as you can (certainly before Thursday!) and ask them to vote for the Porter/Kennedy amendment to cut the taxpayer subsidies for new timber roads in our National Forests. They can save taxpayer money, protect water quality and important fish and wildlife habitat, and encourage corporate responsibility -- all with one vote! Please act now! Thank you so much.

Editorial Comment: Water, energy, natural resources - we are subsidizing our own destruction.

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The Begging Bowl

I want a solar economy. In fact, I believe that we have always had and still have a solar economy. We just don't recognize it. Think about it: all of us are powered by the food we eat which is grown through photosynthesis, the use of sunlight by plants to produce nutrients for themselves and for us. The last time I looked, agriculture was the third most energy intensive industry in the USA, after oil and chemical production and steel. The energy counted in that figure consists of all the energy for fertilizer, chemicals, fuel for ground preparation, cultivation, harvesting, processing, and transportation. Nobody counts the original solar input which is by far the most important energy input in agricultural production. If agriculture requires 3% of all the energy produced in the USA, the sunlight that actually grows the food is probably on the order of 100 times that figure.

So, just the solar input to the food we eat is three times more than the annual energy budget for the USA. Steve Baer, the solar inventor, once wrote about "the clothesline paradox," how nobody counts the energy input from clotheslines into the annual energy budget. The clothesline is invisible to the planners and movers and shakers who are all too busy with their plans and shakey moves to notice the sun on the wheatfields or feel the warmth through their south-facing windows and understand what that means.

The Firesign Theatre used to say, "Everything you know is wrong." Rev. Bob Dobbs of the Church of the Sub-Genius says, "Pull the wool over your own eyes." Seems to me that both of them are right.

At the Environmental Roundtable last night, I found out that there's a lot I don't know about "A List..." too. Two folks from Second Nature told me that they receive multiple copies of "A List..." the whole "A List..." every week because people out there in the great electronic unknown copy it and send it on. "A List..." seems to be cc'ed to more people than subscribe to the listserv (about 250) or look at the Webpage (I have no idea how many people do that). That's what it's all about but I feel sorry for the folks who get three copies of the 20 pages or so of "A List..." every week. Would be nice to have some feedback (acknowledgement, articles, good wishes, criticism, solar keychains, or just plain money) to discover what "A List..." is being used for and who is really reading.

How "A List..." works:
If you want to have a listing included in "A List..." please send it to me before noon on the Friday before the event and if said even is deemed suitable for coverage, it will be included in the appropriate edition of "A List..." Articles and reviews, ideas, rants and opinions are also solicited. Publication is up to the erratic discretion of the editor.

"A List..." is also a listserv. You can subscribe or unsubscribe to the listserv by emailing a-list-request@world.std.com, leaving the Subject line blank, and typing "subscribe" or "unsubscribe" as the message.

"A List..." is a freeware/shareware publication. If the information is of any value to you, please contribute - money, information, encouragement, prayers and good wishes are all valid currencies for feedback and will be gratefully appreciated by
George Mokray
Information Ecologies
218 Franklin St #3
Cambridge, MA 02139
(617)661-2676
gmoke@world.std.com

This publication is copyrighted to George Mokray and the individual writers of the articles. Permission to reproduce is granted for non-profit purposes as long as the source is cited.

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