[ ENERGY ) Solar Energy Handbook, 1979 from: Power Systems GrouplAmetek Inc. Chilton Book Co. Radnor, PA 19087 This is a good nuts and bolts overview of active solar systems from the people who brought you all those nuts and bolts car repair books. It starts with the sun, explaining the equations of its motion as it traverses the sky. Once you know where the sun will be, the book explains how to collect the energy available detailing collector types and efficiencies. It proceeds to explain how to distribute the energy you've just collected. To wrap it up, there are collcctor and storage sizing techniqucs and methods of estimating long-term cost and payback. It's a better than average book in that it describes the good as well as bad points of the types of systems it covers. - Gall Katz Feminist Resources on Energy & Ecology (FREE) P.O. Box 6098 Teall Station Syracuse, NY 13217 " Eco-Feminism" promises to be one of the buzzwords of the '80s. Last month women from all over New England and New York gathered in Amherst, Massachusetts, for " Women and Life on Earth: A Conference on Eco-Feminism in the '80s." (More on that In a future issue!) One of the groups represented at the conference was FREE, a feminist ecology organization. FREE provides information, materials, speakers and skill-sharing "dedicated to addressing women's concerns from an ecological perspective and providing i.nformation on energy, technology, politics and the environment from a feminist viewpoint." FREE was started not too long ago by Donna Warnock and others with the help of the Syracuse Peace Council. The graphic on this spread of a beautiful old tree encircled by the words "feminist ecologist: everything is connected" is from a FREE button (uh, Ilctually, it's $.65 ppd.). The tree, by the way, is from Rainbook I Give FREE your support; send them a self-addres.sed stamped envelope and put yoursel1 on their mailing list- and put FREEon yours I - MR Present Value: Constructing a Sustainable Future, by Gigi Coe, 1980, $5.95 from: Friends of the Earth 124 Spear Street San Francisco, CA 94105 Present Value describes example!? of renewable energy projects in California. As such it is a regional guide. But the California models can be adapted to serve in other d imates as well and so the book has a broader usefulness than its California focus would suggest. The book is divided into three parts. The first describes systems, active and passive solar retrofits, utilizing .the technology for such novel tasks as preheating water for dairy farm use to warm cows' teats and sterilize the stainless steel holding tank for the milk. This saves the dairy farm an average of $700 per year in fuel bills. The second part of the book " shows how these basic concepts can be integrated and used in different structure." Homes and office buildings design ed for Apn l1980 RAIN Page 7 solar reliance and natu ral cooling are featured, with the last example being Village Homes, where the concept of energy conservation is extended to include a whole community'Splanning. In part th ree the natural conclusion of the book blends the earlier mentioned technologies with " local enterprise, food and energy production, and waste recycling" to describe ways to build "self-reliant communities." The book's order, layout and graphics all combine to make it readable, enjoyable and valuable as a tool for, yes, "construcllng a sustainable future."-C CANVAS TUBE CIRCULATION SYSTEM ;",v .. :l ~ ;:.. '".. .t E 1 ism, ageism, ethnic oppression, the "energy crisis," corporate power, conventional medicine, bureaucratic manipulation, conscription, militansm, urban devastation or political centralism can be separated from the ecological issue. All of these issues turn around hierarchy and domination, the root conceptions of a radical social ecology. It is necessary, I believe, for everyone in the ecology movement to make a crucial decision: will the eighties retain the visionary con ccpt of an ecological future based on a libertarian commitment to decentralization, alternative technology, and a libertarian practice based on affinity groups, direct democracy, and direct action] Or will the decade be marked by a dismal retreat into Ideological obscurantism and a " mainstream polities" that acqUIres " power" and " effectiveness" by following the very " stream" it should seek to divert? Will it pursue fictitious " mass constituencies" by imitating the very forms of mass manipul3tion, mass media, and mass culture It is committed to oppose? These two directions cannot be reconciled. Our use of "media," mobilizations, and actions must appeal to mind and to spirit, not to conditioned reflexes and shock tactics that leave no room for reason and humanity. In any case, the hoice must be made now, before the ecology movement becomes institutionalized into a mere appendage of the very system whose structure and methods it professes to oppose. It must be made consciously and deciSively-or the century itself, not only the decade, will be lost to us forever. Murray Bookchin leacht's in thl! School of Envir(lnmental Studies at Ramapo College, N/, and is fo under and directo r of th e lTJstltllte for Social Ecology at Cate Faml (c/o Goddard ( ollege, Plafll!ield, VT 05667). HI! is the autho r of lI umerOll5 articles and books on social ecology. Essays which elaborate more freely on vIews only noted in this letler are available from Comment Publishing Proiect (P.O. Box 371 , Hoboken, NJ07030). ~
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