August/September 1978 RAIN Page 13 ---- 4. Symbolism: Try to get across visually various ideas about .the kind of renewable energy technology you"re demanding be installed. At a wind site which already has a recording anemometer, get the data from it and explain how much energy a large wind turbine could produce if sited there. Or actually represent the large wind generator by a smaller one, such as a 3 kw Jacobs, which could also provide electric power for lights and music. Another idea is to outline on the ground, with stakes and used-car lot banners, both the likely size of a large wind turbine's concrete pad or tower leg perimeter, and a side view section of the wind turbine so visitors and the media have something its scale to visualize. Similar ideas should be brainstormed for solar and biomass sites. 5. Sanitation: Make arrangements, as if you were starting a large outdoor family reunion that grows larger each weekend, for litter cans and porta-potties. If on government land and relations are good, the relevant agency can probably get it together on the picnic garbage cans. However, the portasans will most likely have to be rented by taking up a collection within the group. 6. Endorsement· If your group is pro-solar or -wind with no intention to rant vs. nuclear power, you can probably get the endorsement of respected technical and professional organizations whose co-sponsorship can lend credibility to your efforts, such as the International Solar Energy Society-American Section, or its regional or state sub-chapters, the American Wind Energy Association, or the Bio-Energy Council. Don't forget solar manufacturers and unions. And, of course, contact the Solar Lobby and the Center for Renewable Resources, SUN Day's follow-on organizations for help both in direct action strategy and planning, and technical assistance, respectively. Their address is: SUN Day 1028 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Rm. 1100 Washington, DC 20036 Let me know of other things I've forgotten . Maybe the Solar Lobby can put together a "Solar Commissioning Alliance" manual with more details on how to do a solar construction site-in. Well, what do you think? Could it work? Let me hear from you pessimists on this solar affirmative. JO_ Hb 0",_ o~ 0 0- _"'!.M, lK...,!!> 0 ~'l'" 100 ( ) ~\YiA\? \. ~_ ~'I." ." ~'t"" O_r~ m'l'" Prime potential Oregon solar electric power plant sites. ~~ \ ~ ,0",' ',.,,, '"'''''''' \ I ;r COLUMBIA HIL 0 IKCIVI LS CKENN oCAPE BLANCO ADEL & 1 COYOTE HILLS ~ 0 PEOUOP SUMMIT (WELLS) 0 Prime potential WTG (wind turbine generator) development areas. from The Art of Japanese Joinery The Small Towns Book, James and Carolyn Robertson, 1978, $5.95 from: Anchor Books 245 Park Ave. New York, NY 10017 Sometimes we all feel it is impossible to be Davids with so many Goliaths stomping around and on us. All it really takes to be a successful David is to get righ tfully mad. hang on like a rat terrier, and have a little luck. This is a collection of stories about people in small communities that got tired of being pushed around by the big guys and took over for themselves. North Bonneville, WA, vs. the BPA; the inside story on Cerro Gordo; tax revolts in Mendocino. Encouraging. Go to it! -TB Pioneering in the Urban Wilderness, Jim Stratton, 1977, $7.95 from: Urizen Books 66 W. Broadway New York, NY 10002 One of the fantasies of the' 50s-let government legislate and regulate our problems away-has predictably transformed itself into our present steamroller of bureaucratic controls and growth. Stratton's book is an urban sequel to Ken Kern's Owner Builder and the Code and provides a useful guide for getting space and surviving in the urban wilderness of New York and other crown jewels of modern civili:.:ation. A fascinating account of illegal but wise squatting by artists in commercial loftspace in Soho, and in other cities, and the process of renovating and living in a space where the physical problems are mere shadows of their bureaucratic parasites. -TB
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