.
December 1978 RAIN Page 3 is now fielding specific requests for in Grassroots Energy, by Luther Gerlach, formation and assistance. By early next 1978,28 minutes, 16mm color & year a complete staff of six regional field sound, $225 purchase, $42 rental ENERGY Creating Jobs Through Energy Policy, Hearings before the Subcommittee on Energy of the Joint Economic Committee, Congress of the United States, 95th Congress, Second Session, March 15 and 16, 1978, from: U.S. Government Printing Office Washington, DC 20402 Senator Kennedy's hearings in midMarch brought together several influential voices on the jobs/energy question-most of them supporting a push for conservation and renewables. Of those testifying, perhaps the best known to Rain readers were: Jim Benson, speaking about the Council on Economic Priorities' Long Island conservation study; Bruce Hannon of the Center for Advanced Computation, with their calculations of jobs created per quadrillion BTUs saved through conservation; and Wilson Clark, Governor Brown's energy advisor, on solar and renewable energy impacts in California. In addition, there was strong testimony from more diverse interests, including speakers from the Sheet Metal Workers' International Association and the National Urban League-groups strongly interested in jobs-creation and highly in favor of developing the solar option. With several important reprints in its appendix, including the updated Jobs & Energy, by Environmentalists for Full Employment, this report serves as a thorough workbook on the positive employment prospects to be found in renewable energy development, with only a mini· mal amount of distraction from Big Energy apologists. Get a copy and brush up on these encouraging statistics. -SA Nuclear Information and Resource Service 1536 Sixteenth St., N.W. Washington, DC 20036 2021347-8317 NIRS is now with us- a non-profit public interest networking and information project designed to help citizen action energy groups become more effective in opposing nuclear power and promoting safe energy alternatives. NIRS has set up a number of d.irect service components for its constituents, including a national information clearinghouse and referral service, as well as legal and media assistance programs. It reps will be on line to work directly with local energy activists. (The Northwest's liaison, Alan Locklear, is already in business at 229 Broadway East, Room 21, Seattle 98102,206/329-7333.) NIRS is also publishing Groundswell, a resource journal filled with valuable networking information and data for the ever-growing citizens' movement for safe and renewable energy. Subscription rates for individuals and non-profit groups is $12.00/year, with a lifeline rate of $8.00/year. Let's plug into NIRS and put their good offices to good use. -SA Montana Legislative Candidates Renewable Energy Questionnaire, 50¢ from: Alternative Energy Resources Organization (AERO) 417 Stapleton Bldg. Billings, MT 59101 The First Solar Scorecard for California Legislators, SUNRAE Newsletter, Fall 1978, U5.00/year with membership from: SUNRAE P.O. Box 915 Goleta, CA 93017 Two good models for statewide renewable energy networks to pick up on: Elections are over, but this compact questionnaire developed by AERO for legislative candidates in Montana is a format that allows groups to not only poll their politicos, but also to educate and network with them as well. In evaluating the results of this questionnaire, the AERO people did learn that it is important to be tactful with this kind of effort, especially with candidates who may not be knowledgeable on the subjects at hand. In all, a good educational strategy. (Thanks to Wilbur Wood) The latest SUNRAE Newsletter features a thorough analysis of the solar bills passed (13 of them!) and defeated by the California legislature in 1978. Its Solar Sco'recard breaks down voting information on each legislator and assigns percentage scores for their voting record. The best and worst records are singled out to help local citizens figure out who gets praise and who needs help. Incidentally, copies of individual solar bills can be obtained at 25!t each and a self-addressed stamped envelope from SUNRAE Sacramento, 1107 9th St., Sacramento, CA 95814. -SA from: University of Minnesota Audio Visual Library Service Minneapolis, MN 55455 A few months back we featured a story on the rural people of the northern tier that have been struggling with the impacts of Extra High Voltage lines on their lives and livelihoods. Now the story of one of these groups-the far- . mers of Minnesota-is on film and available to the general public. More than just words could convey, Grassroots Energy brings home the enduring campaign of these people-confronting their legislators, praying at the steps of the State Capitol, grappling with state troopers in the dead of winter, and educating themselves about renewable energy options. Through it all shines their sheer determination to enforce a sense of equity in energy development and to retain control over the use of their land. Grassroots Energy has a clear, straightforward tenor, especially in its interviews with many farmer/activists. It should bc an important networking tool for the many groups across the country that find themselves in similar predicaments. -SA Backyard Alternative Energy, produced and directed by Kirby Brumfield, 1978, 26 minutes, 6th grade to adult, color, sale $295, rent $35, available from: Kirby Brumfield Energy Productions Governor Building, Rm. 322 408 S.W. 2nd St. Portland, OR 97204 A burp dome (?) . .. to collect methane gas released by belching cows is one idea featured in the film. This concept, created by an Oregon junior high sch 01 student, while seemingly impractical, is nonetheless admirable in its ingenuity. Backyard introduces audiences to designers and their homemade energy devices. We see an old-timer using steam to operate his two'person sawmill, several owner-built greenhouses, a family heating with geothermal energy and a Savonius Rotor generating electricity from the wind. Both novIce and hardcore renewable energy freaks have enjoyed this film. Humorous and informative. -PC
December 1978 RAIN Page 5 SOLAR Rays of Hope (Cuando's Solar Wall) - for information about community programs and service, contact: Cuando 9 Second Ave. New York, NY 10003 - for information about design and technical details, contact: Energy Task Force 156 Fifth Ave. New York, NY w York City community center wiJl be using passive solar technology to heat their gym this winter. The solar wall, the first of its kind in the city, was designed by the Energy Task Force (ETF is a group of architects, engineers and educator, offering technical assistance to low income people). Construction was shared by youth in a summer work program. ETF and Cuando (a Black and Puerto Rican community organization which runs the center). The ost of materials and installation (volunteer labor) was approximately $8/ ·q. ft. Instantaneous temperature readouls indicate a 50 degree rise in temperature between inlet and outlet vents. A 60-70,000 BTU/heating season is projected. (Thanks to Ted Finch. ETF designer) - PC WOOD Waste Wood Resource Directory, Paul A. Kelenian, 1978, 19pp., $3.00 from: The G&S Mill Otis Street Northborough, MA 01532 It's great to have access to waste woods for use as home heating. This directory has a county-by-county listing of sources for waste woods from ord wood to sawdust and bark for the state of Massachusetts. The author intends to ex- . pand the directory next year to include other states. Companies which produce wood waste by-products should contact him or, better yet, regional directories c uld get started, using this one as a model. I'd love to see one in the Pacific orthwestl One suggestion for 1979: Print on both sides of the paper and usc smaller typeface to cut the use of paper in this directory by possibly 1/ 3! It's important to express our values in as many parts of the process as possible. - LS ~R upper? vent GYM The winter sun heats the absorber sheets, warming the enclosed air. The hot air rises, flowing through the upper vent, and heats the gym. In summer, the upper wall vent is closed and the summer vent opened. Hot air is drawn out of the gym through the summer vent. This movement of hot air ventilates the gym. LAND People to Preserve Agricultural Lands, Inc. 33707 McKenzie View Eugene, OR 97401 503/726-7116 Here's an inte'resting cross-section of people working together to preserve farmlands by making it more valuable for growing food than urbanization. They're attacking the problem holistically by working on promoting common interests of farmers and consumers, taxation and legislation, public education, finding land for landless farmers, expanding local and direct marketing. Their unique way to promote direct marketing is by marketing non-perishable produce items to its members at great prices. Yearly membership is $S/single, SIS/family, $SO/sustaining. $100Ilife. - LS North Eugene, 1960 North Eugene, today
7 December 1978 RAIN OCCUR (Oakland Citizens Committee for Urban Renewal) 1419 Broadway, Rm. 711 Oakland, CA 94612 Renters in the S.F. Bay Area are being organized around post-Proposition 13 renter's equity issues by OCCUR, CHAIN (California Housing Action and Information Network, 6529 Telegraph, Oakland, CA 415/653-4613), and East Bay Housing Alliance (415/642-9952). They're working towards rent reductions in the form of rebates, rent rollbacks, and rent freezes, as the rollback received by homeowners has not been passed on to the tenants as was implied in Prop. 13 legislation. Assembly Bill 2986 calls for landlords to return 80 percent of their Jarvis-Gann tax break to tenants by establishing the Renter Property Tax Relief Act of 1978. Renters' hotlines have been set up to help renters who are experiencing rent increases since prop. 13: Oakland, 839-2442 (OCCUR) Berkeley, 843-6601 (Berkeley Tenants' Dion) San Francisco, 863-9191 (SF Tenants' Union Alameda-Oakland, 642-9952 (East Bay Housing Alliance) S. Alameda County, 537-9066 (Echo Housing) Mountain View, 969-1545 (MV Citizens for Rent Relief) Palo Mto, 326-()784 (PA Citizens for Rent Relief) Menlo Park, 323-5765 Cupertino,408/996-()930 Sonoma, 707/542-6446 (Sonoma Co. Tenants' Assn.) For more information, contact Lawrence Hynson, OCCllR, 839-2440. from Tenants Together National Economic Development Law Project 2150 Shattuck Avenue Berkeley, CA 94704 Follow the flow of money in savings accounts of poverty communities and you become acutely aware of the exploitation practiced by traditional lenders. Savings from low-income neighborhoods are used to finance homes, consumer purchases and businesses in wealthier areas. As a result, residents of poverty communities must rely upon finance companies and loan sharks for credit at rates averaging 30 percent. A Chicago study of 38 low-income neighborhoods shows savings account deposits exceeded $1.8 billion. Of that amount, $900 million was never returned to the <.:ommunities. The additional cost to those communities was $185 million in OCCUR is working on other vital community projects such as the street tree program (their goal is planting 20,000 trees in the city of Oakland in the next 3 years!) with the Oakland Tree Task Force (see Rain, Oct. 1978, p. 6). They've received donations to create a seedling center to provide the trees as well as a place for propagation of vegetable seedlings for community gardeners. (Thanks to Rhoda Epstein, former RAINmaker, now with OCCUR) -LS excess interest (difference between 30 percent and 12 percent interest rates) over a 24-month period. Community Development Credit Unions (CDCU), as neighborhood-controlled financial institutions, could prevent the flow of dollars out of the community. This ClIo.. I: IUIIC Mlauo AIID DIllED TO D&ATH Study of J8 alp cod. en•• In ChSUIO ••f 'ned •• pov.rty co..unttt••: "I bUlion In ••vtn,••ceo"",. froe the•••r••• . .t )2 b.nk. " aU Hon In h~ aort••••• to th... er... by .... b.nk. or More and more we're hearing about successful cooperative housing projects - where tenants have decided to stop playing the tenant/landlord game, stop expending negative energy fighting landlords, and have simply stopped being tenants. How can poor people afford to do this is a good question- and some answers are becoming more frequent and accessible. Sweat equity programs, cooperative housing, via neighborhood credit unions-see Rain, Nov. 1978, p. 14; check out Consumer Co-op Bill finance possibilities with NASCO Rain, Oct. 1978, p. 24. These are viable alternatives to explore now. - LS manual is excellent in explaining why a CDCU is needed and how they are established and operated. Our neighborhood revitalization center found this handbook so valuable in starting a community based credit union that copies were bought for all the directors. -PC c.c-unlty Iv $10 I~ , evelo,..-t 0+ ndlt untCH I. 'In.n~l.l b.lltutlon 2. lIel,hborhood lnuUutlon 3. In.t UutlOft 01 1••Tnl,.. .. Toul c~nlt,. control (1 "".r • 1 VOl.) 5. Told rdnv.u-ent 6. ec-uail, .,.nda A. Con.~r loan. .. Capital tor ~ooper.U"•• and olher bveine•••• C. ..... eort..... from Community Development Credit Union Self Help Manual
December 1978 RAIN Page 9 • We also have an interesting habit of counting only additions to our stockpiles of wealth and not the losses from it. When we tear down a perfectly good four-story building and erect a new lO-story building in its place, or tear up a perfectly good two-lane road to replace it with a four-lane one, or build a new sewer in a community that already has a considerable investment in operable septic systems, we forget that we're destroying perfectly good things while building new. And we U5ually forget to add the cost of those losses to the cost of the changes we make, consequently thinking we're better off than we actually are. • Normal patterns of family indebtedness are usually ignored in economic calculations, though they have a major influence on the real costs to a family of choices in living and purchasing styles. A thirty-year mortgage on a home ultimately triples the cost of the house and requires several years worth of income to pay it off. A home purchase that avoids the use of a realtor immediately saves 6 percent of the cost of the house. But if applied directly to lower the mortgage, it ultimarely saves 18 percent of the price of the house. When a family has such credit purchases to payoff and the alternative exists to use the money to payoff the credit purchases more quickly, even cash purchases need to be considered as costing perhaps three times their price tag. How much of our incomes go to paying credit charges? • Mere realization of the magnitude of cash flow and profits removed from a community by outside ownership of economic activities-whether investor-owned utilities, franchises, pyramided corporate ownership of firms or just a non·local owner of a business- is reason enough for communities to revolt against present patterns and establish more locally-controlled ones. Where has that ~appened already, and how is it accomplished? •...•.••......•............. . _" '- '~'- ., -, ' •.~ : /. , a. ,. • • _ • ,,_\ \ ...., -;".- "~ - .-.:;;. -' .......~. ...:.. -,.. ".I'''.' ~ I,. ~ , '\ ~.......:.' ., .',' " '1//'1\\"" ,,'. '. j' ',,',•••!I\~\~,'.\,,\ ", -!. 11111 I I I IIIm.'...; , '111111 Inili/', ~'i 11,111 n!III."'!IIU, ', -iIIUIIIIIIIlII',, , 111111111111111 ' , I '11111'1 lil'IIIIlI' \ . I -'\' U 111,11111 1IIII t 'j'" fill UtII••II.lll1'l \. . .\ 1111111:'-::::1111111 t ' •.•••.......••..•.••..•..•... The list could go on and on-about functional diseconomies of scale and transportation and advertising, about the values of greed rather than need that are supported and encouraged. about "economic development" claims of benefit to a region that are totally unsubstantiated in actual experience or about who really benefits from particular economic concepts and accounting that are used. Increased land values, for example, are traditionally viewed as a sign of prosperity and considered beneficial, yet land values only benefit a few, while the other side of the spoon-land costs-affect everyone and represent a cost of location, something to be minimized. Likewise, schemes to increase revenues from tourism represent profit to a few, but increased costs for everyone's vacations. The confusion in these exchanges is between benefits to the community and benefits to certain favored individuals. and the community has come out the loser in most cases. It's clear, however, that both intentionally and unintentionally we are misled as to the effects of our present economic sys,tem. Better accounting concepts can improve our information considerably, but it seems in case after case that decrease in scale. regaining local control. or internalizing the split between producer and consumer are the inherent structural changes that eliminate or avoid the problems rather than trying to mitigate their effects. The alternative of self-reliant economic patterns appears to be particularly fruitful compared to the status quo today because of several recent changes in the forces underlying our economic patterns, The decrease in our power to negotiate favorable or even fair exchanges in the marketplace against increasingly powerful outside interests such as OPEC, other commodity cartels, multi-national corporations, and more efficient manufacturing nations is making more autonomous local, regional and national economies increasingly in our selfinterest, At the same time, the recent development of techcontinued self-reliant economics . Tom Bender
December 1978 RAIN Pa e 11 Alice Veilleux, conon-spinner in Lewiston, Maine particularly the development of a steam-based economy, forced rapid adjustments on itself and spread its competitive advantages to other regions, where raw materials were abundant and labor was unorganized and cheap. As mills moved into the South and even overseas, the textile industry turned quickly to exploiting the region that had first nurtured it. Corporate mergers and consolidations reigned over the steady decline of the New England textile economy. The liquidation of an increasing number of marginally successful facilities followed, providing the capital for corporate diversification into whole new markets and different regions altogether. To the New England mill, the price of progress, so defined, was obsolescence and ultimately abandonment. Much more than an economic history, '{he Run of th e Mill explores the skeletal remnants of New England's textile industry today. Its intimate view of the tenacious people- sons and daughters of immigrants- who still work the mills, and the hard-pressed mill towns scattered across the region is poignant. These are the heroes of this first cycle of American capitalist expansion and decay, now nearly complete. They are the survivors. And as this cycle is only the first, they are perhaps the bellwether for what confronts other industrial economies and regions down the road. Their story makes us ask more precisely what economy it is that enriches a region and its people, rather than impoverishing them-what economy it is that can be sustained indefinitely, rather than used as an expendable route to expansion elsewhere. This vast, sensitive portrait is the kind of regional history we need more of: a prelude to assessing the prior conditions our localities must deal with in restructuring their economies with the long term future in mind. -SA North Grossvenordale, 100 years later '" fJ .... o c "~ '" ..c f0E o .t: terials, veh icles, electronics, clothi ng and other man ufactured goods from locally available material. And it means the use of locally available, renewable forms of energy. For a local economy it means as well innovative ways of providing public services, expansion of service industries such as appliance and automotive repair, localized rather than franchised restaurants and retail stores, as well as more locally owned bakeries, breweries, wineries and dairies. Sel f-reliance for the household means less dependence upon full-time jobs to purchase store-bought things, and instead, more homemade and homerepaired goods. It means more limited and careful use of credit; owner-huilt, -remodeled, and -repaired housing, more gardening and home food processing, and use of solar or wood heat. As with soft energy paths, the details of self-rel iance differ for each locale, but determining the feasibility for one specific case can both test ou t the general concepts and, if feasible, give support to other regions to develop specific programs tied to their own different needs. I'm interested in demonstrating for a particular area (Oregon) the comparative merits of these ideas-laying out new assumptions, social, economic and environmental im pacts of a 50 percent and 100 percent shift toward self-reliance, and laying out a framework for institutional and technological changes to accomplish it. We want to examine our "economics" through three major cuts: Household Expenditures (food, shelter, transportation, clothing . .. ), Public Services (health, education, utilities, government . . . ), and Major Industries (timber, agriculture, tourism, banking . .. ) to see their effect on both people individually and the region as a whole. It is likely that the real issues in economics revolve around scale and institutionalization, control, the effects upon people and the goals served- not around questions of free enterprise vs. socialism, profit maximization, or industrial growth. And there's reason to believe we're at a time when major change is possible in these patterns. • -
.~ ____________________________~x 0 -" " December 1978 RAIN Page 13 "The representation of a man, for example, must really correspond to the idea of the man, but must not look so like him as to deceive the eye; for the work of art, as regards its form, is a mind-made thing and aims at the mind, but an illusion is no more intelligible than the natural object it mimics." "More concretely, the master painter is said to be one who can depict the dead without life and the sleeping possessed of it. Essentially the same conception of art as the manifestation of an informing energy is expressed in China in the first of the Six Canons of Hsieh Ho, which requires that a work of art should reveal the operation of the spirit in Jiving forms , the word here used for spirit implying the breath of life rather than a personal deity (cf. Greek pneuma, Sanskrit prana). The Far Eastern insistence on the quality of brush strokes follows naturally; for the brush strokes, as implied in the second of the Canons of Hsieh Ho, form the bones or body of the work; outline, per se, merely denotes or connOteS, but living brushwork makes visible what was invisible. It is worth noting that a Chinese ink pain ting, monochrome bu t far from monotone, has to be executed once and for all time without hesitation, without deliberation, and no correction is afterwards permissible or possible. Aside from all question of subject matter, the painting itself is thus closer in kind to life than an oil painting can ever be." "Here there is no distinction of a "fine" from an "applied" art, but only one of a "free" from a "servile" operation, which operations are not allotted to different kinds of men, but to every artificer, whatever it may be that he makes or arranges; the painter, for example, working freely in the conception of the work to be done, and working as a laborer, as soon as he begins to use his brush. In other words, there is no such thing here as a "useless" art, but only a freedom of the artificer to work both "by a word conceived in intellect" and by means of tools controlled by his hands. Nor was it conceived that anything could be made otherwise than " by art." To bring into being an industry without art remained for us. We nowadays think of what we call "art" as useless only because we have no use for art; we have found out how to live by bread alone." Plato : "For all well-governed peoples there is a work enjoined upon each man which he must perform." "Leisure" is the opportunity to do this work without interference." "A 'work for leisure' is one requiring undivided attention." (Republic 406c, 370c, and Andromache 552) - from Vol. I ::CIAL KIND OF ARTIST For me, the volume on metaphysics-tying together the common threads in Asian and Medieval European traditions- was difficult reading. But the volume on art has a number of really mind-twisting essays and is well-recommended except for its price. The biographic volume contains as well a valuable list of his writings. Many earlier ones are less overwhelmingly scholarly and more readable, and worth some digging out. - TB Ananda Coomaraswamy: Vol. I-Traditional Art and Symbolism, $30 Vol. II-Metaphysics, $30 (Vol. I & II, $50) Vol. IV-His Life & Work, $17.50 from : Princeton University Press Princeton, NJ 08540
December 1978 RAIN Page 15 ~ ~ :c ! c o OJ -a i Ei ~ ~------------------------------------------------~ Innocently throwing out 400 pages of original manuscript for Whole Person Health Care, Charles Jennings' daughters provide a good situation for dealing with stress which is appropriately used as an example in the book! The School ofNatural Healing, Refer therapeutic properties and appli'cations ence Volume on Natural Herbs for the of several hundred herbs in treating disTeacher, Student or Herbal Practitioner, ease and maintaining a preventive health Dr. John Christopher, 1976,653 pp., regimen. Particularly useful is its group $39.95 from: ing of herbs by their functional uses: Bi-World Publishers alteratives (cleaning the blood and elimP.O. Box 62 inative organs), anthelmintics (destroyProvo, UT 84601 ing or expelling worms) and the like. The price is outrageous, to be sure. But if "In the course ofthis study, I want to you consider that this herbal is the cultell you a little bit about herbs . .." mination of 35 years of research and That's how Dr. Christopher begins his experience, that comes out to a little "short treatise" on the use of herbs in more than a dollar a year to share one natural healing. His definitive reference man's intensive compilation of basic work is so comprehensive and exten knowledge that is probably unavilable sively cross-referenced that it has quickly in such completeness anywhere else, become a hands-down classic, deserving at any price. A masterwork. (Thanks shelf space in every home concerned to Mikihasa Shima) -SA with organic health alternatives. School of Natural Healing focuses on the myriad Whole Person Health Care and Directory ofNorthwest Practitioners, Mark Tager, M.D., and Charles Jennings, 1978,448 pp., $8.95 from: Victoria House 2218 N.E. 8th Ave. Portland, OR 97212 This book just arrived, and it's one that I want to spend lots of time with. A very personal approach. Emphasis on self-care makes for an active relationship for the reader with the book. Provides exercises, nutritional information, self care plans related ~o body, mind, spirit, as well as a section on health activism and making change. Suggests keeping your own personal health journal-a great way to begin taking more responsibility for ourselves. It's a book that emphasizes preventive medicine, so anyone who's not been taking care of his/her earthly container or spiritual house would do well to use this book as a guide to greater well being. Especially nice for Northwest folks as it includes a good beginning directory of N.W. practitioners of holistic medicine which will be updated. -LS Getting Yours: A Consumer's Guide to Obtaining Your Medical Record, Melissa Auerbach and Ted Bagne, 1978,36 pp., from: Health Research Group 2000 P Street, N.W. Washington, DC 20036 If you're 35 years old and the idea of keeping your own personal health journal has just come up, you'll need a book like this to help you fill in the blanks. Use this guide to continue demystifying the health professions-and pursue having access to information that unquestionably is ours! Here's a stateby-state survey of access laws and an outline of how to obtain your records, or get the law changed so that you can. -LS The Book ofGarlic, Lloyd J. Harris, 1975,248 pp., $7.85 from: Panjandrum/Aris Books 99 Sanchez St. San Francisco, CA 94114 Healing takes on many forms-the hands, herbs, the foods we eat. Here's a book about a notorious healer of everything1rom leprosy to increasing sexual potency! The Book of Garlic includes garlic literature, art, mythreally just about everything "lovers of the stinking rose" would delight in. -LS
APPROPRIATE TECHNOLOGY Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Due: Women and Appropriate Technology, Judy Smith, 1978,38 pp., $.75 from : National Center for Appropriate Technology P.O. Box 3838 Butte, MT 59701 S me very deep places that have long been slumbering within me were aroused upon reading this piece about women and a.t. I discovered subtle patterns in my own way of relating with my mostly male co-workers here at Rain: those of being submissive, martyred, and yet at the same time I've watched an opposing side of myself burst out in a sporadically forceful way. I step back and wonder what it's all about, then reading this booklet, reached new levels of understanding about my present work relationships. I'm also re-examining the women's movement, which I've leaned away from since 1974 due to the separatism/divisiveness/alienation that is often created by that inertia. Now it's something to pay attention to in my own life again, it's an integral question in a.t., it's an issue in the women's movemcnt, and a point of convergence for both. Women as consumers, women as a large segment of the low income communities, women and independence from old roles via time saving inappropriate technologies, women in science and technology, women in a.t. These are the questions and connections presented here. In a sense, the presentation is negative because it's telling about how things are and have been, without playing with the vision of how things can be-the positive potential. Something Old, Something New . .. is done as the first of a series of NCAT Briefs to discuss issues cri tical to the development of a.t. It is the beginning of a dialogue on a subject which is an important one to everyone involved in a.t. Tbe timing of the first Women in Solar and A.T. conference sponsored by Ecotope in Seattle, Dec. 2-3 (see Rain , Nov. 1978, p. 11) is perfect for continuing the dialogue and exploring new possibilities. This booklet is in valuable in bringing into sharp focus December 1978 RAIN Page 17 Female Instructor, Women's Studies: "Do you know who first developed environmental studies and called it ecology?" Male Professor, Wilderness Studies: "Gary Snyder?" FI: "No, Ellen Swallow, the first woman student allowed in MIT and the first to graduate with a science degree. She created an interdisciplinary environmental scient e. In 1892 she named it ecology." MP: "Never heard of her." The science developed by Ellen Swallow encompassed environmental quality, including nutrition, air and water pollution, transportation, architecture. waste disposal and industrial health and safety. Since Swallow believed this science should be available to everyone, not just the educated few, she spent much of her time lecturing and setting up demonstration projects. The subsequent history of this science is all too familiar to students of women's history. Her science, practiced by women, was soon called home ecology and later home economics. It never achieved the status of other sciences, and today the scientific roots of home economics are rarely visible. In fact, many colleges and universities do not consider home economics sufficiently respectable academically to offer on their campuses. No one talks of Ellen Swallow as the founding mother of ecology or environmental studies. She was a chemist on the faculty of MIT, yet her work rarely receives credit. MIT accepted Swallow as a special student but required her to study in a segregated laboratory. In 1876 MIT admitted more women, but it was 1883 before the college allowed them to study in the men's laboratory. the possibility and necessity of convergence of the women's movement and a.t., as well as presenting a good resource list and directory of women working in a.t. throughout the country. -LS It isn't fair -the way the work of the human race is pro· portioned out and distributed. Look at the drudgery of wash· ing dothes and ckaning house. Compare it in its \ hardness and wearingness with the occupations of most men! The only way out of it is to use Pearline. Use Peartine and take the drudgery away from housework. Pe4riine makes woman's work womanly and healthful and fit for her to do. All the washing. all the cleaning. and hundreds of ocher thinfls besKb. are made eas), with Peartine. us£Pedlline from Something Old, Something New from Something Old, Something New Environmentalists for Full Employment (Australia) 672 B Glenferrie Rd. Hawthorn, Victoria 3122 A AUSTRALIA Convergence between labor u rrions and environmentalists, ecologists, appropriate technologists is an integral part of the success of any of these movements. 1timately, we all share the same goals of having not merely full, but also fully satisfying employment that is environmentally sound. The sooner this coalition occurs, the more effective our solidarity and strength, the more quickly change and an equitable society can bc attained. EFFE is working to create that coalition. They're working with unions, providing information for workers and public on energy/jobs (for example describing how the capital required for a plant at the proposed Ranger Uranium mine in the Northern Territory could provide 25 times more jobs if invested instead in a manufacturing industry such as solar-collector production.) Spon ors are vital to the function of EFFE's work, groups $15/year, individuals $5/year. Contact them for information about their current projects, newsletter, publications and films. They have available for hire a 3Q-minute video cassette presentation on the Lucas Aerospace Workers' Alternate Corporate Plan. ~LS
December 1978 RAIN Page 19 numerous and constant credible individual and organizational critiques of Carter's pro-nuclear energy program, the "goslow" attitude and continuing underfunding of DOE solar power programs being clamored for by the citizenry, and the lack of the "moral equivalent of war" when it comes to wind power, it is hard to see how Brown can fail to gain ground on Carter on this issue. . The second important item was a general perception that the independent, non-government contractors who have already built large wind-turbines on a totally private enterprise basis were far ahead of those feeding at the government trough of taxpayers' dollars when it came down to the question of who really had cost-effective units available for sale. There are only three private U.S. companies now building large wind machines and all were present to explain their products. They are: WTG Energy Systems, Inc. Box 87, 1 Lasalle St. Angola, NY 14006 Energy Development Co. Contact: AI Wellikoff RD2 7161549-5544 Hamburg. PA 19526 (200 kw size coSts $200,000, or SI000/kw) 2151562·8856 Wind Power Products Co. Contact, Torry Mehrkam KPff Engineering (10 to 225 kilowatt sizes; 225 kw version costs 580,000 or $35 lIkw) 700 Uoyd Bldg. Seattle, WA 98101 Cc;mtact: Charles Schachle 2061622-5822 In any case, perhaps the outstanding presentation at the Thrivial conference was an updated analysis of "Voluntary Simplicity" and other consumer groups by Arnold Mitchell of SRI International. Called "Changing Consumer Values," it basically projects a decline in the number of "outer-directed consumers" known as the American middle-class, who buy to impress others, presently set national consumption patterns, and support mass markets; while suggesting that "innerdirected consumers," composed of the "I-am-me" types, the "experiential" buyers, and the "sociallY conscious" consumers, will be expanding rapidly. This is shown in Figure 1. For information on how to get a copy of Mitchell's talk, write: Publications SRI International Menlo Park, Calif. a thousand words" to the participants and so that citizen antinuclear advocates could actually take something away with them that would further empower their efforts on the local scene. There were too many "general" plenary sessions which were simply simple-minded "rah-rah" cheerleader talks imparting little useful information. The rest of the conference consisted of easy-to-organize panels from which it was difficult to extract real data useful in stopping nuclear power. In late September and early October, the conference season began again for me. With a truly wasteful use of jet fuel, I flew to the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) conference in Hyannis, Mass., then back across the country to "Thrivial" the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA) annual meeting in Asilomar, California, and finally, after a one-day respite in Portland, to the Critical Mass '78 citizens' antinuclear conference in Washington, D.C., speaking at all three. I picked up a lot of interesting stuff, from gossip and rumor to hard technical data on the "soft path," that seems vital and weird enough to share. Third, but possibly most illustrative of the kind of Americans involved in wind work, was an evening banquet questionand-answer session on personal values led by Alvin Duskin, former aide to retiring Senator Abourezk (D- ND). Instead of the conventional speechifying, AI challenged us to ponder, and share with one another aloud, the reasons why we were there ... why wind power? As one after another of the diners stood up and stated why they'd decided to work on aeolian energy, it became clear that this was a group of scientists, businessmen and technotwits who relished their opportunity to apply technical know-how in a humane, environmentally benign way and rapidly see the results of their personal efforts. The phrase that summed up the feeling was, "I feel good about engineering/seiling something that is not only not a piece of military weaponry, but also quite likely to greatly improve our lives." In addition, people expressed enjoyment at being part of a small group of people in a rapidly growing field where their individual contributions would be noticed and in which they were just plain "having the time of their lives." Proceedings of the Sept. '78 AWEA conference are available for $7.00 from : Dr. Vaughn Nelson '78 AWEA Proceedings Alternative Energy Institute West Texas State University Canyon, TX 79016 r- ----~~~~-------- • There was one bright spot for me, however . .. Tom Hayden. For a former SDSer like me, it was a real upper to find Tom still working along with us on all those changes we began in the '60s. Just seeing him tied together a lot of history, including the changing values which surfaced at the other two conferences-AWEA and IDSA, and reminded me of my earliest reason for working on a.t. ... to empower people. We call it democracy. It's important not to forget that goal as we lobby for the technologies to make it possible. -Lee Johnson
Non-Radioactive Smok Alarms Update Two types of smoke detectors are available for homes, ionization and photoelectric. A recent Raill (May 1978, p. 2) discussed the danger of ionization smoke alarms which contain americium 241, a radioactive material with a halflife of 433 years. Sources selling photoelecni (non-radioactive) smoke detectors have been difficult to locate until we came across this list published in Popular Science {October 1978). - PC Architects of the world have finally taken a step forward in relating to people's values by declaring obsolete the prevailing Charter of Athens, a code of opcration which is a highri e/freeway disintegrated urban approach to architecture. The new Machu-Picchu Charter is a humanistic approach which espouses revitalizing urban areas through citizen participation, historic continuity, integrating the environment, public transportali n, relating the urban to the surrounding region, and responding to human needs. Perhaps we'll begin to see some changes in the ways our cities develop rather than feeling alienated as structures are built that don't relate to people and c mpletely de-humanize our environment and then need to be revitalized. Contact Don McGarth, Jr., Dept. of Urban and Regional Planning, Geo. Washington V., 2023 G St., N.W., Washington, DC 20052 (From A lA J Ollrn al, Sept. 1978, thanks to Sue Tldeman) - LS Alternative Celebrations Catalogue, 4th Edition, 1978, 242 pp., $5 from : Alternatives 1924 East Third Street Bloomington, IN 47401 elebration or SELLebration? Most people will agree celebrations, nce a time of reating and sharing, have been replaced by thoughtle.s consumption. This catalogue is an attcmpt t reverse the trend. It is a resource book filled with suggestions for lifesryle examination, communiry involvement and alternative elebrations f all kinds. A new edition with new possibilities. A good idea is worth repeating. - PC December 1978 RAIN Page 21 PS BUYER'S GUIDE TO PHOTOELECTRIC DETECTORS s...· ~ ............. .... '-., \IwtIJ 1.' PrIce lSI IMIctIIr AOT 75·35 30 'N 1.S-2.0 (b) 75·28 24 AC 1.S-2.0 Ic) -- Edwards 217/217T 31 AC 2.0-4.0 Ic) Gillette lCaptain Kelly) 941 22 AC 1.5 (cl 942 30 12.6V 1.5 (bl Montaomery W"d 838 1590 40 'N 2 (b) 838 1548 40 AC 2 (c) HIS 135' F heat detector Nutone S·185 50 9V 1.5 (b) S-190/191 50 AC 1.5 Ibl Has 135' F heat sensor J.C. Penney 7550 20 AC 1.5 (c) (b) Uses incandescent li",t source Pyrolector (Chloride) 30-77 40 9V 1.5 (b) (c) 30-52/53 30 AC 1.5 Ic) RCA 965001 35 9V 1.5·2.0 (b) Rittenhouse S7665 45 9V 1.5·2.0 (b) S7660/1 38 AC 1.5-2.0 (c) Sears 57042 25 9V I (bl 57043 30 9V I (b) Has 130' r helt sensor 57061 20 AC I Ic) Sylvan.a SO 1001200 30 AC 0.9 (c) Has no test bunon Westin.house 100-7 30 9V 1. 5-2.0 (b) 100·8/9 30 AC \.5·2.0 (c) Notes: n.•. OIta not lIII.lIable from manuf.cturer (.) Rail".. in percent lmOke obscur.tion per '00': see Ie'" (b) Low· banery chirp Ic) POMf·on LED from Popular Science Magazine, Oct. 1978 MushuDlaa Zawadi ., " f..om Alternative Celebrations Catalogue a J 1 I 1 .a 1 J
Dccember1978 RAIN Page23 RAIN PU8LICATIONS o Stepping Stones: Appropriate Technology and Beyond, edited by Lane deMoll and Gigi Coe, 208 pp., Fall 1978, $7.95. A valuahle reader providing the philosophical glue and backgrou nd of what appropriate technology is. ompilation of classic essays by Schumacher, Odum, Lovins, etc., as well as new visions of what may lie beyond by David Morris, Margaret Mead, Tom Bender, Gil Friend and Lee Johnson. o Stepping Stones Poster, by Diane Schatz, approx. 22"x 33", $3. This incredible new vision landscapes a community combining rural and urban views' of Ecotopia. It was designed for the cover of our new book, Stepping Stones, to illustrate some possibilities for beyond. The detail in the poster is great. o RAINBOOK: Resources for Appropriate Technology, 256 pp., April 1977, $7.95. Resources for changing our dreams and communities, Compilation of the best of RAIN through Spring 1977, with much new material on economics, communications, health, energy, community. building and other areas, Fully indexed, DUrban Ecotopia Poster, by Diane Schatz, 22"x33", $3. A reprint of the "Visions of Ecotopia" line drawing that appeared in the April '76 poster issue, Great for coloring. o Suburban Ecotopia Poster, by Diane Schatz, 22"x30", $3. Available for the first time in full size, this finely executed drawing illustrates Small-Is-Beautiful and self-reliance principles applied in a happy suburb of the very near future. Also great for kids' (and grown-up kids'!) coloring, (See cover of April '76 poster issue) o Emerging Energy Policy Principles, by Tom Bender, August 1974, $1. o Cosmic Economics, by Joel Schatz and Tom Bender, revised revised March 1974, $1. Principles to be carefully remembered in wending our way through this transition, and outlines for the simplest and most effective economic mechanism we've seen for guiding that transi tion, o Consumer Guide to Woodstoves, revised Sept. 1977, $1. Compiled reprints of Bill Day 's article on selection, installation, repair of woodstoves, wood cookstoves and wood furnaces of all kinds. o Sharing Smaller Pies, by Tom Bender, January 1975, 38 pp., $2. Discussion of the need for institutional change tied in with energy and economic realities. Begins to layout new operating principles, including some criteria for appropriate technology. o Environmental Design Primer, by Tom Bender, 206 pp., 1973, $5.95. Meditations on an ecological consciousness. Essays about moving our heads and spaces into the right places. o Living Lightly: Energy Conservation in Housing, by Tom Bender, 38 pp., 1973, $2. Early ideas on the need for change in building and lifestyle, compost privies, Ouroboros Project (self-sufficient experimental house in Minnesota) and the "problem of bricks in your toilet." o Employment Impact Statement, October 1976, 2 pp., 5011. A simple, step-by-step way to figure the employment impacts of a new industry and consider the benefits of different options. Back Issues Available, $1 each. List those desired: Vol. I. Nos. 7, 8, 9; Vol. II, all 9 issues (Vol. II, No.6 was a poster issue; Vol. II, No.9 was a special issue on North west Habitat.) ; Vol. III, all 10 issues; Vol. IV, all 10 issues; (Vol. IV, No.2 was a special issue guest edited by the California Office of Appropriate Technology.). RAIN SUBSCRIPTION RATES' NEW RATES 2270 N.W. Irving o Regular: $lS /year- l0 issues $ _ ____ Portland, OR 97210 o Living Lightly: $7.S0/year-l0 issues (income less than $5,000 . .. ?) $_ ____ o Foreign Rates: Payable in U.S. Dollars, add $2.80 for surface mail. Inquire for air mail. $ o DONATION $'--- Name o PUBLICATIONS (listed above) $ o Add $5 billing fee if payment is not Address enclosed $ City State Zip TOTAL AMOUNT ENCLOSED $ The Post Office won't deliver magazines without zip codes.
Pagc 24 RAIN December 1978 Farallones Institute's Rural Center is filling positions, including a gardening and teaching assistant with familiarity in French intensive methods and an ability to help others learn, and an apprenticeship in animal husbandry, with dairy work, sheep, pasture and hay crop management as well as conducting specialized workshops. For either position, contact the Rural Center at 15290 Coleman Valley Road, Occidental, CA 95465. Santa Clara County Office of Appropriate Technology is offering several new CETA-funded positions, including market facilitator (to work with OAT and the Cooperative Agricultural Marketing Alliance), housing coordinator, office support person, management coordinator (to assist in organizing a community owned business), and alternative energy coordinator. Applicants must be CETA eligible. For more information contact Richard Wenn or Howie Simon (for market facilitator position) at Santa Clara OAT, P.O. Box 5651, San Jose, CA 95150. Total Environmental Action has announced its Winter/Spring J978- J979 schedule of Workshops on Alternative Energy, covering a wide range of topics including passive solar, greenhouses, retrofitting, owner building, waste management and water conservation, wind energy and many more. For a complete schedule, contact TEA at Church Hill, Harrisville, NJ-f 03450. The Farallones Integral Urban House is looking for a new resident manageran individual or couple skilled in some aspect of the a.t. and an interest in environmental education and working with the public. The job involves living at the house with primary responsibility for the maintenance of Life support systems. Contact Tom Javits, Integral Urban House, 1516 Fifth St., Berkeley, CA 94710, 415/525-1150. Now out in paperback : Wendell Berry's important recent book, The Unsettling of A merica' Culture and Agriculture, $4.95 from: Avon, 959 Eighth Ave., New York, NY 10019 (see Rain excerpts Dec. 1977 and June 1978). The Institu te, providing technical assistance and training in community organizing, has announced its training calendar for the next several months, including several one-day conferences in community organizing beginning December 14 in New York City and ending May 3 in Nashville. Week long workshops in a variety of subjects will be held also at their new training center in New Orleans. For more information contact them at 628 Baronne St., New Orleans, LA 70113. Networking A. T. in California or CrossPollination in the Golden State-It's increasingly difficult these days to keep up with what's happening in a.t. even in one's own town, much less the statc or country. It's a good sign, of course, of healthy activity, but frustrating sometimes. People from the California Office of Appropriate Technology, Farallones Institute, the University of California Davis A.T. program, OCCUR and the regional Department of Energy Office are going to compile a mortthly calendar to network information about events in Northern California. Send material (and ideas for further networking) to Rhoda Epstein, Oakland Citizens' Committee for Urban Renewal, 1419 Broadway, Room 711, Oakland, CA 94612. Small classes on Learning to Use Sun Energy taught by Norman Saunders, P.E., at the Solar Cambridge School, Georgian Road, Weston, MA 02193. Tuition is $70 per course with the next session beginning January 3. RAIN 2270 N.W. Irving Portland, OR 9721(; . Non-Profit Org. U.S. Postage PAl D Permit No. 1890 Portland, OR Forwarding and Return Postage Guaranteed
Page 22 RAIN December 1978 l2aind..-()P§ The holidays are with us, and the spirit of giving and selling abound. Lee wants us to sell Rain by suggesting that you give subscriptions as gifts, but we didn't want to capitalize on the Christmas spirit- so we won't suggest that. We do want to thank all of you for the support and positive energy we've received this past year- ... ~~--------'~iuJl ::;o;:() . ~PO -/,000 -,b()() _4000 f'ip 1.'1.1+!1~l¥r~ ~uf 1(J·)H6) here's our bucket of rainsubscribers, so we can all watch the progress towards the end of the rainbow. Several years ago we traded Rain's mailing list with other good publications. Because of some negative feedback, we decided to discontinue. Right now we've been encouraged to re-examine that possibility, as it would enable us to cut costs of acquiring mailing lists for our promotional drive. So we want to know how you'd feel about this now. We would only exchange with groups that we feel you'd have an interest in hearing from. We won't be selling our list-only trading it. We will exclude your name if you are a.dverse to the idea. So let us know right away, as we're going to start soon. Fall: Lots of changes at Rain, mostly in color, not in spirit. New faces: Nandie Szabo is a welcomed addition to our staff! She's working with us as an intern and also at Oregon's Department of Environmental Quality. Let us hear about what new things you're doing and how Rain feels to you. What you'd like to see-or know about. Joyful holidays. -LS Rain Orders Dept. Update Here's the current (Nov. 20) state of affairs in our orders department for those those of you who have sent in for publications: * Rainbook : We're holding shipment on orders of Rainbook due to a post office problem (is Rainbook a book? -yes, folks, I'm not kidding!) * Stepping Stones: Our shipment from Schocken is expected here any daybut it does take a few weeks from the time we mail them, too, so hang in there. * Stepping Stones Poster: The first printing on our poster was just not up to our standards, so we've decided to re-print the poster and offer-to replace substandard posters with new ones to those of you who have already received the first edition. So if you've received a poster that's a bit on the light side, just send us your name, address (and $1.00 if you canto cover mailing tube and postage) and you'll be sent a new poster. We'll do this for a limited time-so please be in touch soon! Any new orders (received after Nov. 13) will be filled with the 2nd printing. *Rain Index: Price and ordering information will definitely be in the January issue. -------------------------------------~~--, Send us the names and addresses of 3 friends who you think would like to know about Rain . name ______________________________________________ address_.____________________________________________ city, state, zip_______________________________________ name ______________________________________________ address _______________________ _________ city, state, zip _________________________________ name ___________________________ _______________ ~ address _________________________________________ city, state, zip
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