Page 4 RAIN March/April 1985 Bhopal Tragedy Spurs International Dialogue The World Environment Center.has launched "Projrct Aftermath," consisting of a series of meetings between industry, leading international organizations, and government officials from both industrialized and developing countries. These meetings will discuss strategies and actions for improved environmental manageme'nt and training throughout the world. . The findings of the meetings will be presented to the Center's fourth international conference on the environment and develoment, to be held in the Hague on September 25-27, 1985. The conference is co-sponsored by the Dutch Government. Cooperating institutions include the U.S. Agency for International Development and the World Bank. For further information on "Project Aftermath," contact Center President Whitman Bassqw, World Environment Center, 605 Third Avenue, 17th floor, New York, NY 10158; 212 /986-7200. . Co-op Bank Changes Name The National Consumer Cooperative Bank has changed its name to the National Cooperative Bank. In addition to consumer cooperatives, the bank serves housing cooperatives, employee-owned producer cooperatives, r.etailer owned cooperatives, and shared services cooperatives whose members are professional or institutional providers. The bank is funding a program designed to address the special education needs of consumer cooperatives. The bank is also undertaking a new effort to expand cooperative housing for the nation's low and moderate income families and senior citizens. The bank will provide loan funds for projects originated by a Washington-based housing development organization, the National Mutual Housing Network. For more information contact Joyce Conrad the National Cooperative Bank, 1630 Connecticut Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20002; 202/745-4754. Smart Windows Scientists at the Department of Energy's Solar Energy Research Institute (SERI), are researching "smart windows" that can regulate the amount of sunlight and solar heat that enters a typical home during the summer and also prevent heat loss during the winter; · Researchers are attempting to combine evacuated (vacuum) window panes with electrochromic glazings to produce a window with electronically controllable light tra~smission and an insulating value in excess of R-12. Conventional double-glazed windows have an insulating value of R-2. Electrochromic glass resembles that of ordinary windows until an electric voltage is applied. The current causes a NEWS coating on the glass to darken as desired so that it transmits less heat and light. Glare and solar heat gain are controlled while the vacuum provides high resistance to heat loss. The electric current can be activated manually, by thermostat, or by light sensor controls. Studies have shown that between 15 and 35 percent of t~e total heat lost by a typical home in the northern U.S. is through windows. In passively solar heated homes, which have especially large windows, these losses can be as high as 40 percent. , A laser-welding technique has been developed to rapidly seal the evacuated window. This may make the massproduction of evacuated windows more economical. However, several more years of research and development are required to perfect the "smart window." For more information, contact Solar Energy Research Institute, Public Affairs Office, 1617 Cole Boulevard, Goiden, CO 80401. Windpumps for the Third Worlq Intermediate Technology, a British organization, has been awarded a Silver Medal of Excellence by the Worshipful Company of Turners for the design of a new Third World windpump. Intermediate Technology, which helps to identify, adapt, and develop tools and equipment for use in long-term, small-scale development projects, developed a long-lived (20-year), reliable windpump for use in remote, rural areas for irrigation, livestock, and drinking water. The design is nearly maintenance-free and capable of local workshop manufacture in small quantities, using a high proportion of locally available materials. The windpump is ' now manufactured in Kenya and Pakistan. In Kenya, more than 80 are in action, serving relief camps, clinics, schools, farmers and herdsmen, and tree nursuries. For more information contact Steve Bonnist, Intermediate Technolog.y, 9 King Street, London WC2E 8HW, United Kingdom; or Peter Reid, Development Techniques Limited, 3rd Floor, Myson House, Railway Terrace, Rugby CV21 3HT, United Kingdom. No Beryllium, No Nukes The Dene Nation of the Northwest Territories in Canada recently announced emphatic opposition to furthering the nuclear arms race. The Dene Nation, made of five separate tribal groups, will fight to block local development of a beryllium mine because the people oppose participation in the nuclear arms race on any level. The Dene will not permit beryllium to be mined from aboriginal lands because it is a key ingredient in the building of nuclear weapons. Commonly used in high-technology products, this substance is also necessary in the making of alloys used to produce missile~, space crafts, machine guns, nuclear
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