NOVEMBER 1980 • Karl Hess/Tom Hayden • Fireplace Retrofits •Global 2000 Volume VII No.2 $1.50 No Advertising
Page 2 RAIN November 1980 LETTERS You've been terrific . .. both your donations and your encouragement have been much needed and appreciated. We're still needful, however, and some distance from regaining solvency. The crunch is very real and very immediate. We may need to skip an issue or two. We are also considering some form of advertising to give us the steadier base most magazines rely on. In the meantime, yes, we're desperate, not just slightly pinched. We could really use your help. -RAIN Dear Dew, Good to see you again, especially after this dry summer. Sorry to hear of your financial woes. Enclosed you will find my renewal check and if you can send a bundle of flyers I'll see to it that our solar van, NE Coastal Power Show, distributes them (we are in dire need of free lit on alternates and nukes, if you have any suggestions). Now for the back-talk. I wish the letters were back at the back or the middle. I want to hear from you, not from the readers, at least first. It is also so ORDINARY. About Steve Baer: I admire the man very much and he has been very generous to me in a previous incarnation but it is plain to see from his writings and pronouncements that he has an authoritarian bent. If you talk to people who have worked with him they will confirm this. Recently, Solar Lobby printed an enthusiastic article about Mr. Baer in which he complained about OSHA interfering with his small business. It was your regular "Republican" rap. Byron Kennard's little tap-dance on rhetoric was a little too arch for my tastes. I never called myself or anyone doing what we are supposedly doing appro tech. I thought it to be a bogus term from the start. I don't think we have to have a name for it. Some things are better left unsaid. I can see appro tech for defense though and have been seriously thinking on it at the edge of my mind since I heard Tom Eastler talk about the depletion of essential elements to the Maine Organic Gardeners and Farmers conference in '76. He was in the Air Force, involved with Civil Defense and a geologist at Univ. Maine, Farmington. I think farmers markets and community gardens and food forests and solar collectors are not only renewable energy devices but also civil defense measures. I think defense means not only against war, nuclear or otherwise, but also against the eruption of volcanoes and earthquakes and tidal waves and epidemics and hurricanes. An integrated food, energy and transportation system will go a long way to making our cities and towns defensible against all of these things. It will give us greater " selfreliance" and bring us into Biblical compliance with the need to store the harvests of the good years in preparation for the bad. In this time of war and the rumors thereof it would behoove us to point out these cooperative and communal forms of taking the power back to ourselves, of bringing the circle closer, of making the supply lines shorter. Imagine the VFW planting trees or doing workshops on energy conservation as part of civil defense. For those interested in monitoring the military I would suggest The Defense Monitor from Center for Defense Information, 122 Maryland Ave. N.E., Washington, DC 20002. One other thing about the military: military spending if done carefully can have positive repercussions on the civilian sector. Does anyone remember the two government reports of three years ago that sa.id a half~ billion spent by the military now on photovoltaics for remote generators presently using diesel fuel would mean 50¢/watt solar electricity by '84? I am sure that there are a lot of possible positive interlocks like this. We shouldn't be afraid to look for them even if we are extreme pacifists. On permanence I would like to point out that again we should be looking for interlocks and concatenations. If New England's second growth pine forests were gradually replaced with deciduous hardwoods we would expand strearnflow rates by up to 50% because hardwoods transpire moisture much less than evergreens. If we are also planting carefully we could probably be channeling the wind away from our towns and thus reducing our heat loss due to wind chill while we direct those same winds towards our RAIN windmills. To say nothing about the impact on wildlife and flora. If we aim towards permanence we must aim for an almost impossible complexity. But still I don't even see these kinds of second order possibilities taken into account. Recently, I had a bumpersticker made up that says, "Expand the Biosphere." As far as I am concerned that says it all. I do little or no barter but a hell of a lot of cooperatives and farmers markets and gardening. My vocation used to be solar organizer/carpenter; now it is only carpenter. I registered as a Republican to vote for (hah) Anderson in my state primary. I probably heard about RAIN through CoEvo Quart or such. I've lived here for 3 years now and about 8 years in.Mass (en rnasse). Glad to see you guys are still ecumenical in your views and ideas even though being progressively invaded by the Amherst mafia. Hope you don't give up on the city as New Roots always seems to have. Love, George Mokray Carnbridge, MA Dear Rainpeople, Just a note to thank you for your superior reviews of our books in the Aug./Sept. RAIN, and to cast my personal vote in favor of what you seem to be doing. I don't know what to think about RAIN's financial problems, for our experience here runs dead against the conventional wisdom in your Raindrops editorial. We bust our heads to put out the best magazine we can, spend the spare money editorially rather than on marketing ploys, and charge the readers what it turns out to cost-no deals, no discounts. We'd have the same size editorial hole without any ads because it's all subscriber based, and believe it or not, we're prosperous. The difference is probably in the scale of it all (now near 200,000 circulation) although the economics worked fine at 40,000. Best, John Kelsey, Editor Fine Woodworking Newtown, CT Our economics would probably work fine at 40,000 too-but that's a long way from here! -Rainmakers Journal of Appropriate Technology RAIN is a national information access journal making connections for people seeking more simple and satisfying lifestyles, working to make their communities and regions economically self-reliant, building a society that is durable, just and ecologically sound. RAIN STAFF: Laura Stuchinsky, Mark Roseland, Carlotta Collette,John Ferrell, Kevin Bell. Linnea Gilson, Graphics and Layout. RAIN, Journal of Appropriate Technology, is published 10 times yearly by the Rain Umbrella, Inc., a non-profit corporation located at 2270 N.W. Irving, Portland, Oregpn 97210, telephone 503/227-5110. Copyright© 1980 Rain Umbrella, Inc. No part may be reprinted without written permission. Typesetting: Irish Setter Printing: Times Litho Cover Photograph: Ancil Nance
D tp+. of Eto l~i c.o..l • • • WOYfa.vE 13u.lltJin ~.zq-'1. Dear RAIN, I just read Byron Kennard's piece iri the Aug./Sept. is.sue in which he comments on the incredible concept of "appropriate techn9logy for national defe11se." Good griefmy rr:iost morbid fantasiesare coming true! Enclosed ,is a copy of a doodle I drew on the back of an envelope in 1975. I thought I was just being a smart-aleck, no't prophesying a • whole new concept in warfare. Truly, an anthropologist from another planet would have to pronounce.our culture totally insane. Peace, James B. DeKorne El Rito, NM Dear RAIN, " . Looks like we're going to have wind-powered a-bombs: hold the launch until a windy 1 day! Rather than waste-to-energy it looks more like energy-to-waste, everywhere. War as if people mattered. Warm Regards, Sam Sadler Eugene, OR Dear RAIN, I was much saddened to read the latest Raindrops. You guys are appreciated a lot more than you think, I am sure. There I was a few years ago, a fat cat at the top ofthe government pay scale as Chie'f Scientist at one of NASA's laboratories. Like all engineers I know, the system doesn't bother me and I don't think about the system beyond what I get from TV by _osmosis. So here •_ comes RAIN. Holy Lord, did that open my eyes! I knew there was something wrong with us technocrats, but getting a hold of it was like trying to put a fishing worm up a wildcat's ass. • So I am stfre that there are a lot more like me out he-re, and I don't see how,th_ere is any way that you all can a?sess the impact that you are'~aving. Give us a little credit. There I ·, are a fe~ of us inside:: the Government/ Corporate complex who could have sat down and written the Tom Bender article, "Evil" in context from our own internal feelings (but not, of course, with his skill). We feel helpless inside the system and fantasize about coming out to the Rainhouse and sweeping • the floors. , I think in response to the sad news in • • Raindrops, that your reade}s wi'll apprecia'te it if, in case you can't keep your head above ·water, you give us as much advance notice as possible so we can pitch in more to help out. Respectfolly, ' · Nelson McAvoy Gree~belt, MD. Dear RAIN We just saw your review of Permaculture land II in the Augustf.September iss'\1-e and wanted to let your readers know that The Rural Education Center is the distributor for Bill Mollison's books in the Northeast. We ship copies of Permaculture II to both indiviauals ($10.95 ppd.) and b_ookstores. . The American reprinti11g of Permaculture I is due to go to press by October 151 1980. Once it is finished, we will be selling that also. • • Susan Stepick • Associate Director Rural-Education Center, Inc. Sto11yfield Farm, Wilton, NH 03086 Dear RAIN; - • -' My husband argues that RAIN doesn't advertise because advertising, i.e., pushing 'material goods into the consciousness and desires of people, is the antithesis of the goals of RAIN -trying to make do with as little buying as possible. That is true and •noble, but even as self-sufficient as we are, we still have to buy many items. Many of these items are available locally, but we do~'t hear about th~m. l believe you are being osNovember 1980 . RAIN • Page 3 trich-like and'I would even enjoy seeingad-:- vertising in RAIN. ' Sincerely, Barbara Fisk Tracyton, WA Dear RAIN, The appeal made on the page's of the Aug./ Sept. issue of the magazine reaffirms the co1:wictions which I expressed to you in an earlier letter. When all of these fine organizations are expeden_cing the SAME problems, it is ap- .parent that you all need to do something to resolve it, TOGETHER. What is the horror of working together? Cooperative activity is advocated'continually in the pages of the ' magazine; surely you believe what you write (?) . _ Go on as you wish, but it gets a little - heavy to be continually asked to support·an activity which could be made more efficient by thus using the contributor's money rnore effectively. Here is my $25, early, for a twoyear subscription. Hope this helps iruhe cash flow problem. I earned almost $6,000 last year, but I want to see RAIN expand; I will do what I can to get more subscribers. Cordially, • D. Paul Sondel Washington, [?.C. ". • • 1 the horror of ?,l)Orking together• • • 11 / _wonder if any RAIN. readers recall The Full Circle Resource Center? Vintage RAIN stuff, that. Before there was a RAIN: Journal of Appropriate Technology there was the Full Cir.de. That old title has new meaning for us here as RAIN the corporation (formally the RAIN Umbrella, Inc.) grows to include ThePort-· land Community Resource Center (PCRC). PCRC with its co-director Steve Johnson (who you'll recognize as a co- ! ounder,of RAIN) will give us the opportunity to practice focally what _we preach nationally. It will also give us the mechanism for getting out more of the mass of • information we have access to. We'll be able .to apply successful strategies from other regions to Portland's community problems. _ • · . • • The growing Umbrella is only one part of our efforts at working with other groups. Over the past few months we've· met wi-th nearly all of the communitybased energy and A.T. projects in the city_ - to begin coalition-building aimed at joint fundraising, co:..operative program plan'- . ning1 and eventuqlly a shared space. Portland has.in its communitygroups_a _. wealth of information and expertise, and we figure we can make better use of all the time and energy spent competing with ' eaclJ, other for.funds and attention. Besides, as a team, we are really quite formidable. We may even find that we have clout . .. a cheery ~hought. So, thank you D: Paul Sondel, for your wise words in 1978, • and your continued company in 1980. ·-cc \
Page 4 RAIN __November 1980 . From the Outside in:· B.uilding the Solar Coalition, / /y Tom lltqtfM • Western Sun, the we;tern states Regional Solar.Energy Complex , held its first "whole staff" fprum this September. Consistent with Western Sun's (very posh) image, the forum was a first class affair. Tab for the day ran somewhere between $22,000 and· $45,000 (RAIN' s total expenses for 1979 amounted to $45,307). Attending as the·press, we feasted on crab atzd prime rib, served on J.P. Stevens (as in "support the Stevens-8dycott") tablecloths, an·d listened to David Morris (Institute for Local Self-Reliance), Fran Koster (Franklin County Energy Plcmand TVA's Solar Application Branch), Bruce Anderson (Solar Lobby and Solar Age Magazine) and several others. IYenis Hayes, director of the Solar Energy Research Institute (SERI), and Don Aitkin, director of Westkrn Sun, spoke in the morning; by lunchtime half of Western Sun's "whole staff" :had deserted us. They could have invited the local solar community Jo their forum and at least had an audience. They could have opened it to the public, charged admission, cmd made money on it. I was left with the question: "Just who's trying to impress whom?" . . • None-the-less, the forum was strong on strategy, and we've been given access to tapes of the key sessions. This, Tom Hayden's opening address, seemed a good summary of the new agenda facing the solar community. W~ found it i71.teresting to compare to our earlier interview with Karl Hess. In the next few months we'll be publishing se·veral of the other forum talks, each focussing · on ways to coalesce, finance, and,maintain a renewable energy future. -CC • ' • We are meeting today as the represent~tives of 13 Western governors, and as the staff of Western SUN, to e?{amine the progress being made towards the solar fu~ure,·and the obstacles stiUin ot1r way. . Let me describe the dilemma I see and frustration I feel, then suggest some possible ways out. • ,, My own perspective can be illustrated besdt:om our solar experience in California. In the past several years, we have made strides . that no one would have believed possible in the beginning. We have an excellent tax credit, which has just been ~enewed by the Legislature./We have a new program of loans to small solar entrepreneurs, • designed to begin in 1981. We have a program of "no cost" loans to solar.consumers by c;iur uti,lities, schep.uled to begin implementation this month. There is a law protecting small businesses from utility •dpmination of t_he solar market. Several millions of dollars have gone into retrofitting st~te bu'Hdings. The Legislature has approved a study aimed at maximum feasible solarizing of California in the· '·80s. 1To promote solar initiatives, we have the Governor's SolarCal Council, a citizens commission whose 1979 Action Plan, Towards a Solar California, was called the "most outstanding solar energy program" encountered by tlie editors of the Harvard report Energy Future.. There is also the SolarCal Commis~ion on Local Govern- • ment and Renewable Resm:Hces, a_rtetwork of more than 50 elected officials who are passing pioneering s~lar ordinances in Davis, San Diego, Santa·Clara and many other California cities'and counties. We-even have a solar foreign policy, symbolized by the joint effortbetween California and Israel to generate electricity from a "solar . pond" at the Salton Sea. It is fair·to say that Califor~ia leads the na- •tion in solar energy. . . • And yet such a claim makes me uneasy. Our progress is ambiguous when analyzed next to the re~l problems and potenti~ls we • face. Solar applicatio~s have approximately doubled i!i California in the past,four years, it is true, but the current count"is only 60,000 in1a state with a housing stock of over six million units (and 29,000 of the soliir devices are for swimming pools). This is within-a state whose solar potential is so bright that a Lawrence Livermore study in 1975 concluded that California could operat~ self-sufficiently on renewable, decentralized enrrgy systems by the year 2020 even if our population doubles and economic activity triples. In ·co~trast, a 1.979 memo by state energy commissioner Emilio Varanini suggests that a conventional energy future might require California to site 10-15 nuclear or coal plants, spend over $75 billion, increase our water requirements for cooling by thirtyfold, abandon 20,0QO acres of agricultural land, suffer much.greater air pollution, and establish hundreds of disposal sites near watersheds, · fault lines and populated areas. Not a scenario anyone wants, but a scenario which will be dictated by our energy onsumption patterns unless we create an alternative in the immediate future.
Now let me generalize from Califor:nia to the national scene. Since 1975, solar energy has made amazing progress from obscurity to a real option. There are solar panels on the White House roof, an official commitment to achieving 20 percent of our energy from the sun by the year 2000, a decent solar tax credit, a solar bank, a billion-,dollar solar budget, and literally thousands of applications • springing up.from Alaska to Florida. • · • But let us also remember that Presictent Truman's official commission, chaired by William Paley in J.95-2, foresa"¥ the possibility ·v of 13 million solar applications by the mid-1970s. The 20 percent goal actually means less than a one percent annual increase in solar usage, a snail's pace. More important, no independent solar experts believe that even the 20 percent goal will actually be reached by the end of the century, at.the present rate of progress. The reasons for this are institutional, economic, political and c~ltural, not technical. . From a technical standpoint, according to the 1979 Domestic Policy Review, it is possible to nearly double the 20 percent goal in the coming two decades. More disturbing, perhaps, is the fact that much of the existing budget for solar-up to 40 percent in ~ome estimates-goes to the expensive, high-technology and futuristic "power tower" and "satellite" projects while more immediate, • practical solar possibilities are ignored or short-changed. Moreover, the Secretary of Energy, iri a memo leaked to the press, has pro-_· jected a reduction of solar·energy spending over the coming five- . year period. • . We are not gathered here, however, to rail at dangerously outmoded attitudes, qr place-the blame for solar's slow acceptance at the feet of federal bureaucracies or oi1 company conspiracies. There· is no attitude so rigid, no vested interest so irrational, that it cannot be modified or changed when a positive ·alternative to,disaster exists. Our task, as important as any in the nation, is to argue for, • promote, and above all create the solar alternative. . • Let me then talk about ourselves, as the advocates and architects of a solar age. We are a strange band of refug~es, some from the • 1 '60s, some front the engiheeril)g and military worlds, some from business-or-govern~ent-as-usual, all drawn together by·an un- • spoken, hardly-describable commitment to this new sour~e of energy. · , As an observer of social reform in American history, I would say that one of the most..i;triking aspects of the solar energy sto,,ry is that it has not really involved a typical social movement. By the usual definition, such a movement mobilizes milliol).S of people for clear goals and includes.tactics ranging from civil disobedience to elec- · toral politics. The anti-nuclear movement is an example, the antiwar movement of tbe.'60s another. There are solar advocates, solar enthusiasts, solar do-it-yourselfers, solar researchers, even a solar philosophy and lifestyle. But: there is no solat..,movement. No one, to my knowledge, _has gone to Tf-!ere }s no attitude s9 tigid, no vested interestso irrational, that it cannot be modified.or:changed when a·positive alternative to . disaster exists. - jail for solar energy. No one.has been-elected to office on a solar platform. . • . I think certain obstacles to a strong solar.movement are rather . obviously built into who we, the solar advocates, are. And if we want.a soiar movement, we will have to consider changes in our own approach to the !Ssue. - 1. The sqlat business community (manufacturers, installers, . architects, etc,) is largely imbued with a free enterprise mentality, including an ideological hostility to government and often a·conservative attitude that inhibits making alliances.with liberals, labor, co_nsumer groups~the anti-nuclear-forces, a!'d so on/ -W:ith some November 1980 RAIN Page 5 The possibility of a movement is being replaced by a professional bureaucracy which sorrie might even callan elite. ... Even if solar hasn't made it, we have. ' . . . exceptions, most 'solar business people are primarily involved in .solar as a business·, are willing to sell themselves to a larger corn- .- pany, and see the marketplace as the arbiter of decisions about • solar's future. - • • • The problem with this view of twofold: a) 'solar is not like the home insulation or refrigerator business because·it involves national security, the health of our entire economy, and profound moral a~d philosophical choices; and b) the marketplace is rigged against solar because of government decisions favoring oil, gas, coal, syn-fuels and nuclear power. . The solar entrepreneur is thus faced with a deep dilemma: to be successful in the jungle of the market, itis necessary to act with the ·''bottom line''·as the crucial standard; but to advance the general prospects of solar, the business person has to be aligned with those who often favor government intervention, strong regulations on oil <::ompanies, rejection of the syn-fuel program, phasing out of.nuclear power plants, and policies which favor the interests of con-_ sumers, workers and communities more than tl}e multi-national corporations. The solar entrepreneur µ1ust work by the standards of cut-throat capitalism by day, and economic democracy by night, a seeming contradiction few·can embrace. • • •. 2. The solar activist is a seq;nd party in our community caught in. several dilemmas. If there is such a thing as the "solar lifestyle," or "the solar experience," the activist is living it. It isno accident that so much of the impetus towards solar energy comes from iitdivid.: uals who live in college towns and rural areas, adopting voluntary simplicity as an ethic, sustaining themselves on natural foods, jog- ~ing or practicing tai chi, priding themselves on their ~oodstoves, breadbox collectors, bicycles, backyard gardens, and reading • Mother Earth N eivs. ,Whether we call them qrop-outs or ecotopians, it is clear that they are trying to already !iv~ in the future, like a new generation of pioneers creating their own environment beyond the physical frontier. • At the·same time, the_se "solar lifestylers" often remain mar- _ginal, eveh alienated, from the mainstream of America as lived from the slums to the subµrbs. And the philosophical and nearattitudinal objections of many solar activists, to the bruising realities of big cities, marketplace competition, and political struggles place •them at a disadvantage as a functioning force for social change. ' . Their role is' as utopians 1n the polluted world of Sodom and Gomorrah, waiting for the example of Davis, C:aliforrtia, to attract the "sinners'! of Los Angeles. Somehow the solar lifestylers will have to decide whether it is a • personal salvation they seek, or a change by moral example, or whether the larger global crisis _calls on them to meet mainstream Americans half-way, at the point where idealism and self-interest converge to create a pressure for alternatives. While solar energy is a question of philosophy and lifestyleto many of us, it is also a , pocketbook rriatter of jobs, lower prices arid economic stability to others. While solar energy is a moral cause to many of us, it is also a practical matter of hard power-oriented bargaining in the halls of goverIJment. Perhaps the solar activists are numerous and confident· enough today to begin broadening t,heir appeal and sharpening their tactics: Otherwis~, the promise of,an idyllic experience will be no match for the blackmail and browbeating of powerful lobbyists. 3. The solar bureaucracy (federal, state and local energy officials, planners, research scientists, "technology transferers,"___etc.) arises • from, and has achieved, a degree of respectability that is double- . edged. Many of the new solar bureaucrats are form~r solar activists, who have made the transit~on to the mainstream without compro-, ' mising their values·. On the one ha:r,d, their resp~ctability is well- _ cont. /
Page 6 RAIN November 1980 earned and extremely useful. In a very short time period, the government at all levels has adopted a commitment to solar programs that must be implemented well. Solar profe~sional associations have sprung up. Solar is being introduced in engineering, architecture, environmental and planning curriculums. The solar.advocates, against great bureaucratic odds, are praying the practicality and reliability of our option-in most impressive ways. But here is the other edg~. The possibility of a movement is being replaced by a professional bureaucracy which some might even call an elite: We have our conferences, ou·r trade associations, our scientific papers just like the rest qf the energy incl'ustry. We have our multi-million share of the Department of Energy budget, our government subsidies for grass-roots action, even someone in the DOE Office of Consumer Affairs to hear our grievances sympathetically. Even if solar hasn't made it, we have. But we know that solar will never become respectable just by the counter~culture putting on three-piece suits and joining forces with an exceptional businessman or two, Making solar acceptable is not as simple as having it tested and.certified. Advocating a solar path as the major emphasis of U.S. energy policy is an immediate threat to certain economic and institutional • interests. More deeply, it is a threat to the traditional Arnericap frontier mentality ("solar is too feminine," said one utility executive to·an interviewer, while "synfuels are more macho"). Whether solar is "really" a threat, or only a perceived one, is b~side the point: National priorities are determined by what powerful lobbies see in their immediate interests. Solar advocate~ ought not be lulled by their n~wly-won respectability into thinking that solar ~tself is therefore on its way. Nor should solar a·dvoc;~tes rule out the possibility of giving up that same respectability and job security in battles over energy priorities, especially if a new federal administration should throttle th solar program to a standstill. What I'm suggesting is that we use the r:ules of the system as effectively as possible in pursuing our cause, but never lose sight of the larger tact that those rules are rigged unfairly to our disadvantage, and that only changes in outer conditions (OPEC price hikes, nuclear disasters, changing public opinion) will bring our woik · The,·solar·entrepreneur must work _by the standards of cut~throat capitalism by day, ·economic· democracy by night. within the system to fruition. • Who are the potential allies available to us in this difficult task? I have already alluded to most of them. First, ther_e is a burgeoning solar industry I which is learning the hard way that, unlike.Horatio Alger, they will not make it on their own. Second, there are those energy-intensive businesses' (farming and transportation, for example) which are hard hit by rising oil and.gas prices, and which share none of the·windfall. Third, there are the schools and universities whose curriculums should begin reflecting a greater solar emphasis in the '80s. Fourth, there are the unions (sheetmetal, plumbers and others) which correctly assume a greater jobs potential from sola~ and conservation.than any other energy source. Fifth, there are the citizens organizations (the elderly~minorities, consumers arid so • on) which face inflation, service cutbacks, and joblessness due to the capital-intensive,nature of current energy policies. My point is that the transition to a conserving, solar society can and will occur through a renewed spirit of self-sufficiency among networks of people across America, almost in spite of what higher officialdom enacts or declares. There are signs of this change every-' where. Legislators I knowin Massachusetts·are working·on a bill to create a state "SolarMass," similar to our SolarCal. In Franklin County of that state, citizens are burning wood in their stoves and \ documenting the savings on their utility bills. In Fitchburg, Massachusetts, a citizen-action program weatherized one-half the hous~ ing stock in seven weeks this year. A couple in upstate New York has started their own "electric utility" by wheeling power out of the Hudson River. A Puerto Rican group in Jersey City contributes its own "sweat equity" to ins1J,lating and solarizirig neighborhood housing abandoned by <;1bsentee landlords. A.professor in Massachusetts hooks up a windmill and cpgenerator system to a school building. A group of Navajos in Ariz~na, calling themselves "the No one--has gone to jail for·solar energy~ ·No one has been ele~ted to offic;e on a solarplatform. solar savages,'' builds, sells an,d installs their inexpensive flat plate collectors (in this .case, with _the help of Western SUN). The first, affordable "solar condominiums" are sold in San Diego County. A Community Development Corporat_ion in San Bernardino builds a solar hot water-system for a block of ghetto housing. A farmer in . Iowa makes his own hydrog~n and gasohol to power his tractor and truck. A couple in Davis builq and,share a neighborhood _solar tract called "Villag_e Homes." And so it goes: the society based on renewable resources rises into vision through the personal efforts of its pioneers. The basic change comes on a personal and community level, and.can never be taken away from above-though it can be contained. And as Americans change from passive energy consumers to active energy producers, they will daily marvel at the new possibilities concealed from them during the age of profitable waste:- They will learn that solar is a lost tradition of great and ancient cultures and, for example, that the Greek playwright Aeschylus condemned the✓cipponents of solar energy long ago as '-~swarming ants in sunless ·caves." • The odds against this transition happening without chaos and war are slim indeed. The record of nations adapting to _basic change is strewn with failures. But try we must. It may be the ultimate task of Western SUN to prevent this natimi.'s energy policy from being dominated by the modern version of "swarming ants in sunless • cav'es." DO
Tom haa'some specific suggestions fora program Western Sun can implement. . . • • "Public awareness has to consist of more than seminars with builders, expensive conferences, and the creation of a good library. It means contesting the DOE rule that pro- , hibits television advertising of solar. Where the public interest and national security are at stake, where other technolo- , gjes have immense r~sources for advertising, it is a legitimate function of government to subsidize ads proclaiming the • merits of solar energy for the here and now; It is a signal o'f skewed priorities that the federal government would adver- • tise the obligation Qf young men to register for the draft, perhaps in a war for oll supplies, but would not advertise the potential of energy conservation and solar for creating a new basis of national security. , In addition to television advertising, we solar advocates ought to consider employing the techniques of mass mail so effectively used by business and political candidates today. By these methof s, we could deliver individualized messages to consumers e~tolling the economic advantages of solar in ways that·co~ld never be done by a standardized government pamphlet. In addition to a direct s,ales pitch, we could be informing the consumer of the tax credits, loans and other a_vailable incentives which are ·currently among government's better-kept secrets. • Without being·exhaustive, here are some other priorities , ~e need to cons.ider if we are to reach and mobilize the public m solar's behalf: • • Western SUN needs a presence in Washington to lobby for our budget, to explain our mission, to identify and tap every possible source of additional funding, to make alliances with consumer, environmental, labor and business organization~ already headquartered there. • • We need immediate focus o·n such issues as effective im- • plementation of the Residential Conservation Standards . (RCS), perhaps the single greatest contact the American con-.• sumer is going to have with the solar market this year. We November 1980 RAIN Page 7 perhaps also need urgent pressure to include solar and wind architecture in the Uniform Building Code. • We need effective Solar Advisory Groups (SAGs) in each .,state, brought together for a regionalwor.king conference on an annual basis. • We need the equivalent of the Local Government Commission in every state, with at least one regional conference of local elected officials in the·'COQ:ting year. • We need similar regional decision~makers workshops of public utility commissions, state architects, boards of education, etc. from the 13 states. A much.:needed workshop, for example, would be to explore utility conservation programs .and, in particular, the California PUC's new solar loans programs.. , 1• We need a regional meeting to explore the investment of . state pension funds into energy-efficient, solar-equipped housing in the West. . • We need to lobby to change Western SUN's federal mandate so that photovoltaic cells will be considered a technology ready for commercialization; . • We need "jobs from the sun" and "save energy, save • money" coalitions for.med regionally to attract consumers, labor and mi~orities to our program. • These-efforts should be aimed at formation of a broad solar constituency composed of business, labor, consumer, minority and environmental interests, rallied around a consensus program:,a) a greater (than 20 percent) commitment to solar by the federal government in.this generation, b) incentives and subsidies to the ~olar industry at least equal to those for synfuels, oil, gas, coal and nuclear; c) government invest-· ment in alternative energy technology similar,to the Manhattan Project or NASA;, d) phased-in national requirements for energy conservation in industry, agriculture,·transportation, / offices and residential buildings; e) maximizing of the n~w technological productivity and job-creation possibilities in a . ·renewable resource economy. hairy ey~ball at do-it-yourself installations which, they think, may pose additional haz.:. ·ards that would raise insurance premiums. emment offices at both state and federal levels, and even non.,-profit groups involved in solar. Most of the lists are well organized and easy to use, the manufacturers'lists being the unfortunate exception. A state-by- "Insuring the Solar Home," 1980, $.95 from: • Citizens' Energy Project 1110-6th Street N. W., #300 Washington, DC 20001 202/387-8998 Homeowners and solar do-it-yourselfers: here's something fo get your "hands on" to. - Ken Bossong has w·ntten a brief report on solar and our favorite iµ.dustry-thatls right, • insurance. The study contends that there is a cautious optimism towards decentralized solar hot water and space he~ting technolo-_ gies emerging among members of the insurance indus; ry. Insurance companies are wary I though, of a number of potential hazards associated with solar hardware, including those of fire, contamination of p·otable. water supplies, damage caused by winds, lightning, hail, and freezing weather (volcanic ash too, Ken?), structural collapse of a building, and personal injuries. Further, many insurance companies cast a Likewise, solar hardware sold or installed by small firms may be considered less reliable and thus cause increases in liability insurance for emerging solar businesses, whereas there is increasing support for solar hardware produced by larger companies and_products • which meet federal or state solar equipment standards. ' The report concludes with a short resource • list of publications and organizations. -MR The Solar Jobs Book by Katharine Eric- 1 son, 1980, 211 pp., $7.95 from: • Brick House Publishing Company 3 Main Street ·' • · . Andover, MA0l~l0 , • The Solar Jobs Book is not another analysis of how many jobs can he created by a transition to solar as opposed to nucle·ar technologies. Ms. Ericson assumes you've read one or two of those (in case you haven't she lists ten in her footnotes!). She picks up where they leave off d_irecting you to what jobs exist; in which areas (government, private corporations, small businesses etc.) and how to train for and pursue them. She includes extensive lists of solar equipment manufacturers, gov-- state breakdown would be more practical I than the alphabetical listing by business title she provides. One 0th.er small criticism is that her training survey, like most educational d~rectories, pays little attention to the solar training being provided at Area Vocational Technical Institutes (AVTI) . Some of ' the best programs in the country are at "votechs" and I've yet to see a list of them. If · you're looking to get started in solar and other renewable energy fields contact your own AVTI, your local colleges, and state universities. Almost every campus now offers some technical solar, wind, or bio-mass training. Ericson's book will be useful to career seekers and career counselors, as well as energy informationproviders who get frequent requests (as we do) for lists of schools, offices and solar businesses. -CC
Page 8 RAIN November 1980 ENERGY CONT. "A Warning: E.F. Schumacher on th~ Oil . Crisis," by Vince Taylor, in MANAS, · Sept. 3, 1980, $10/yr., $.30/issue from: MANAS Publishing Company . P.O. Box32112 • • -Los Angeles, CA 90032. Schumacher buffs will fall all o~er themselves trying to find copies of this special issue of MANAS, but it's worthy of a good reading by everyone-concerned with energy today and tomorrow, especially those involved in projects like The Global 2000 Report . Taylor, from the Union of Concerned Scientists, explains in very accessible Ian- ·, guage how the author of Small Is Beautiful II could _consistently see dearly and accurately the unfolding of the energy crisis when almost everyone else was _'.befuddled and confused." He cites, for example, a passage from 1961, when most people thought the ,world was ·just entering the age of limitless growth, where Schumacher wrote: "'Fhe oil crisis will come; not when all the world's oil is exhausted, but when world oil supplie~ cease to expand.;, He pegged that date to be about • . twenty years off, roughly 1980. Today, says Taylor, we "are in exactly the situation he • . described, with exactly the consequences he predicted." The morning pa.per gives a chilling confirmation. r ' ' ' '' Building on the late Schumacher's work, Taylor shows that OPEC oil production will continually decrease as "the ~bility of the international financial system to provide real • returns on $100 to $200 billion per year of additional oil-country investments seems • questionable at best." For OPEC, "oil in the . ground seems far safer and more profitable than money in foreign banks." Taylor continues: It i~ n'ot just oil scarcity that threatens the . present system, but the expanding need for non-renewable resources of all kinds. Attempts to circumvent oil scarcity by substitution of other resources will soon run into other limits.' . .. Efforts to prop up the present system, whether.through· subsidies, tax breaks, "bailouts," or (sure - to come) rationing_of oil products, will · merely delay the day pf reckoning and raise the cost of making the inevitable transition to an economy appropriate to the limits of the earth. . Pointing to the "inescapable and unavoip- • able" reduction in expected, future, and real income of the industriaJ nations, Taylor cautions that "goyernment action cannot cancel the loss in'wealth, but only influence who is to bear it." He conclud.es with a thought so in the spiritof Schumacher it may cause -the · old man to smile even now: • The world without reflects-the world within. This.ancient truth places the oil crisi$, which is.forcing the world intone~ dir~ctions, in a fresh tight. It suggests that rather than representing a failure _of economics, the crisis reflects a change in hu- · man consciousness, a new awakening of the human spiri,t. Seen from this viewpoint, the ,unexpectedly rapid demise of the petroleum age is a cau~e not for mourning but for rejoicing. -MR Shining Examples: Model Projects Using Renewable Resourc.es, edited by Kath- . leen Courrier,..et al., 1980, 210 pp.,_$4.95 from: Center for Renewable Resources . • 1001 Connecticut Ave. N.W. Washington, DC 20036 This book tells you who is doing what, the .problems they've encountered, and where they've found their funding. Reading it will impress you with thefact that renewable energy use is·no longer a function of e_nvironmental awareness, political persuasion, • economic status or geographical location. • 1.he Boy Scouts have their projects_, poor people in•the Deep South are getting involved, and even heavy industry is starting to see the sunlight: Shining Examples would be an excellent resource for your local library. -Gail Katz • Successful Alternative Energy.Methods, by James Ritchie, 1980, 191.pp., $7.95 from: Struct:ures Publishing Co. Farmington, MI 48024 . ( If my mother'was interested in using ah al- !ernative energy source in her home, this is_ COLD WATER SUPPLY ACTIVE SOLAR SYSTEM PASSIVE SOI.AR SYSTEM A C COLD WATER SUPPLY one book I'd loan her. It's on~ of the few books I've ever read which tries to give an energy overview and succeeds ona useful level. It starts by looking at your house as it is: where you're losing energy and whe~e your potential lies for utilizing waste energy. It then suggests some good ways to get the house tight and efficient while stressing that this process should take place before you. .even begin looking at renewables. After you weatherize, you can turn to the later chapters for guidance on a range of available en:- ergy systems utilizing solar, win4, hydro ·and geothermal. • · • You eould loan the book to your father, too! -Gail.Katz Consumer Energy Atlas, ;t.980, 251 pp., single copies free from: DOE Technical Information Center P.O. Box62_ Oak Ridge, TN 37830 This document comes out of Tina Hobson's office at op( th,e office of Consumer Affairs. Tina is our ally on the inside that T~m Hayden refers to in this issue, so it's not pleasant to find myself c_ritical ofa project she sponsors. We certainly need a directory to the bureaucracy, but I'm concerned that , this is so dryly presented and so complicated at first glance that it will sit on shelves all over the country while the majority of us will continue to bother the Federal Information Center staff with our questions. That may be more the fault of our laziness than the uninspiring quality of this publication. 'The fact is, on second glance, the Atlas is a basic phone book, cross-refere·nced by staff people, subject, and state. The~e are also general numbers up front 'including a good • list .of " locators" who can help you out if the rest of the book either confuses or intimidates you. We keep demanding access to _the spr!lwl of government. The Consur1'!er En- -ergy Atlas can get u~, if not in the door, at least on the line. -CC s ACTIVE SOLAR SYSTEM from Successful Alternate Energy Methods
STRETCHING . . . No physical techn_ique Jive engaged in over the last few yea;s has · • been as simple to learn or as immediately and consistently rewarding as stretch. Used to limber the body at the beginning of the day, as a tension-release in the middle ofsome pressured work activity, or to warm up for another form of exercise, stretch is universally useful-and it fe~ls so good! But it also tends to be ill-defined and often-confused with other conditioning techniques. Good stretch is nothing like the calisthenics we used to do in high school gym, nor does it approach the body in the same way as does hatha yoga. Utilitarian 'and every bit wholistic, stretch has its own niche. That's why it's 11ice to see people in the know starting to shed some light on the subject. , I first came across Susan Smith Jones' article "Strrrrretch" two years ago and still consider it to be the best ·short introduction • around. What good stretch is-3:nd why you should be doing itare explained here very nicely..The author also does a nice job-explaining the physiology of stretching. The object, of course, is to increase flexibility-or the-range of motion within a joint or series of joints (like the spine). By increasing the range of motion, and thus agility, flexibility ~ncourages movement and helps retard the effects of the aging process. Without it, quick athletic movement in particular becomes much more difficult. • Interestingly, many athletes tend to either underuse stretch, or • - to go about it improperly. If not accompanied by stretch, those ever popular.ae.robic conditioners-ru11ning,'cycling, jumping rope--'- actually lead to decreased .flexibility and ttghtening of the muscles. Moreover, many who do wa'rm.up with stretch are still into the old ''~allistic'' ap~roach-bouncing, jerking or bobbing their way through their stretches. It may look macho, but as Jones explains, _a muscle that is stretched with a jerking motion responcls with a contraction-the amount and rate of which corresponds ·directly to the· original movement. This phenomenon, originating in t~e muscle spindle, is called the myotatic reflex. Not suqfri~ingly, studies show that tension increase is doubled by the quick stretch.·And i11:- • juries can result. • _ ,;Stafic!' stretching-the preferred stretch-invokes the inverse response, i.nhibiting the ]Iluscle tendon reflex and allowing the muscles being stretched to relax in the process. Very simply, this kind of stretch implies a more deliberate approac_h, using orte's breath to ease into the movement, and maintaining an awareness of one's physic<cll limits. Because of this, one is less likely to exceed the limits of the muscle tissues involved. Rather than provoking sore:- ness, good str~tch remedies it, In addition, no specifi~ skill is required-the optimum stretch is.determined solely by the doer's · current degree of flexibility. Yet with the static approach-and here lies the reward-those limits.are gradually exceeded. It's a physical metaphor, Jones adds, for surmounting all the barriers that confine our present potential. November 1980 RAIN Page 9 If you're looking for a complete exploration of stretch in all its many facets aJd forms, .with extensive·emphasis on how.:to-do-it • techniques; Bob Anderson's Stretching is just your ticket. first self-: published by the author and his wife five year·s ago, this book is newly revised and being distributed nationally. With its appe.aling homespun thoroughness, Stretch.ing is built solidly on the ground-- swell of interest in fitness that surfaced in the '70s. It promises to do for flexibility what George Downing's. The Massage Book didfor that high art. A born-again stretcher, Anderson starts with all the above-mentioned concepts ·and adds his own refinements I the results of a great, deal of personal experience. H_is two-step approach to developing a , good stretch is right.on th~ mark and shol!-ld become standard technique for stretch practitioners. • He wends his way through an unending (and profusely illustrated) series of1stretch combinations, not only by the muscle group areas they address, but also by a whole range of specific sport activities they will benefit most. The book gives good advice on lots of related ideas-stretching over age .fifty, spontaneous stretches, 'special care for your back and much more. If you are at all in- •terested in opening up your body to ·s~e what it can.do for you, Stretching is the place to start. A real gold mine at a good price. There's no ·doubt that the growing phenomenon of.good stretch has been positively influenced by hatha yoga. Upon closer examination one finds that there is1a high degree of similarity--:--indeed a kind of gray area-between the two. Some positions are identical, and this sparks the inevitable comparisons. But the different objectives of stretch and yoga real'ly demand that they be thought of differently. Sfretch is primarily to develop flexibility and its ensuing benefits; yoga moves beyond.to strive for physical, mental and spiritual balanc.e. They are like <;:oncentric circles, with.stretch being more simply usable--:providing ground rules for anyone, regardless of age or spiritual affinity, to bring more suppleness into their daily activities. . . All ofwhich is not to say yoga has no practical applications, or that it is not ail excellent complement to athletic endeavors. It's really a question of how far ohe wa.nts to go. Culturally intimidating to some, yoga can nevertheless be very Western in its pursuit of ideal form through the body's concreteness. This is something athletes seem to be tuning into, and the recent publication of Jean Couch's Runner's World Yoga Book makes it all the more apparent. This book is based on the system of yoga developeq and taught by B·XS. 'Iyengar of India- a system known for its precision-like technique art~physical discipline. As a manual designed to meet the needs of physically active people, Runner's World Yoga Book can help athletes move beyond warm-ups and flexibility, to attain better body aligl)ment; muscular balance and maximum spinal extensjon. Couch ~overs the concepts of flexibility, but also explains the physiological rationale foryogic.stretching-especially how it can help prevent the problem of continuous contraction of isolated mus- • de groups typical of athletic exertion. Readers learn how to work \ with specific imbalance~ for example, runnerswho have h:equently allowed their upper bodies to become tight and unresponsive-in order to free up greater physical potential. The book's tenor is ·a true blend .of East and West. Couch's models are runners-cum-yogis, photographed in their jogging ·clothes. They demonstrate.poses in varying degrees of proficiency, showing what good beginner stretches look, like. The author lays to rest some of athleticism's grosser myths; but still speaks supportively to her fellow athletes. In so doing, she undoubtedly opens up her audience to new and exciting turf. In short, Runner's World Yoga Book feels like a real breakthrough, and that feels good. -Steven Ames ( "Strrrrretch,"by Susan Smith Jones, pp. 21-.24, June 1978, The Herbalist, $11.00/ ·yr. from: Thomwood Communications, Inc. 1680 S. Main St. '. Runner's World Yoga Book, Sb'etching and Strengthening Exe,:cises for Runners and Other Athletes I by Jean Couch with Nell W~aver,-1979, 228 pp., $11.95 from: Stretching, by Bob Anderson, illustrated • by Jean Anderson, 1980, 192 pp., $7.95, from: , • Shelter Publicc1tions P.Q. Box279 Bolinas, CA 94924 Springville, VT 84663 Anderson World, Inc. • 1400 Stierlin Rd. Mountain View, CA 94043
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