May/June 1984 RAIN Page 29 But I think, however enchanting that image might be, the bioregional vision is even more important in that it actually has an air of the practical, the doable, the achievable; it has the smell of reality about it. Bioregionalism joins—or at least has the potential to join—right and left (or, perhaps more precisely, it ignores right and left), and thus unite the communard with the NRA hunter, the homesteader and the conservationist, the antinuclear activist and the antipowerline farmer. The concern for place, for the preservation of nature, the return to such traditional American values as self-reliance, local control, town-meeting democracy—these things can ally many different kinds of political people, in fact they have a way of blunting and diminishing other and less important political differences. The bioregional vision suggests a way of living that not merely can take us away from the calamities of the present, but can enhance human possibilities. Bioregionalism also has the virtue of gradualism, in that it suggests that the processes of change—of organizing, educating, energizing a following and a reshaping, refashioning, recreating a continent—are, like the overarching processes of Gaia herself, not revolutionary and cataclysmic but, like the drift of the continents on their tectonic plates, steady, slow, continuous, regular, and inevitable. One does not imagine a bioregional civilization taking place by revolutionary decree—no matter whose revolution—or even, in truth, by legislative or administrative fiat. If one had to dictate or legislate the bioregional future it would never happen, because it would be resisted and sabotaged as crazy and utopian and impractical and un-American; it is only by the long and steady tenor of evolution that people will ease themselves into such a society as the alternative futures gradually come to seem senseless and the bioregional prospect becomes the only sane choice. And finally, the bioregional vision does not demand elaborate wrenchings of either physical or human realities. It does not posit, on the one hand, the violent interference with nature that so many of the scientistic technofix visions of the future do—those, for example, that ask for icebergs to be floated into deserts, or the Great Plains to be given over to concentrated nuclear power plants, or rockets full of people to be fired millions of miles away into space colonies around the sun. And it does not imagine, on the other, the creation of some kind of unlikely and never-before-encountered superbeings as do so many of the reformist and radical visions of the future—those, for example, that promise "a new socialist man" without motives of greed or self- interest, or that plan by education or religion or therapy to create a populace living in aquarian harmony without human vices. On the contrary, bioregionalism insists on taking the world as it is—if anything, making it more ’ "as it is"—and people as they are. □ □ Even elephants enjoy heat pumps!: Elephants, tigers, primates, and other Southeast Asian animals at Tacoma's Point Defiance Zoo are all feeling a little more at home, thanks to the installation of an energy-efficient heat-recovery system. The recovery system pumps approximately 50°F water from an underground well to heat pumps within the buildings. The system extracts heat from the water and vents it into the Mammal House and other buildings. The rejected water is then used to water lawns and for re'circulation needs at the zoo and aquarium. (From: Washington State Energy Office Newsletter) Business (as usual?): The solar-powered calculator market is becoming so competitive that more companies are rushing into the field with superthin models. A few months ago, Casio jumped in with a version it boasts is "exactly the same size as a credit card," down to the 0.8mm thickness. At this rate, it won't be long before these companies introduce the solar-powered business card. Such a business tool might conceivably be held TOUCH & GO in the light to reveal the standard business-card message. It could even contain a chip for an artificial voice to read out the same message, adding, "Don't put me in your pocket, it's too dark in there." (From; Solar Energy Intelligence Report) Biomass conversion, American-style: Thanks to a drought-induced shortage of corn and grain, some of America's pigs and cows have had their diets "upgraded"—changed, anyway. Missouri Farmer Walter Yoder keeps his 35 head of cattle on a diet of Wonder bread, honey buns and Ding Dongs (which they eat with the wrappers still on). "When I holler 'come and git it,' these steers come running," Yoder says. "They like it more than the tall, lush grass in springtime. Even when the bread is moldy, they like it just fine." Ted Thore- son, another Missouri cattleman, offers his steers spent Lipton tea leaves and contaminated flour. Says Thoreson, "The truth is that cows can actually convert most any kind of waste into food." (From; Time magazine) Dragonfly aerodynamics: Scientists at the University of Colorado have discovered an amazing new science of aerodynamics that may revolutionize aircraft. The discovery was made by studying the dragonfly, which has been around for only 250 million years. It can hover, fly backwards and to one side—as well as forward—and move with considerable speed. It uses its wings to stir up air, thus creating what is known as "controlled turbulence." Furthermore, a dragonfly can lift 15 times its own weight. In fact, the airplane of the future may copy the dragonfly by creating turbulence above the wing by means of a strip that can be moved up and down. (From: The Washington Spectator)
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