Page 2 RAIN October 1981 LETTERS Dear RAIN, Your review of my book Solar Retrofit in your July 1981 issue shows a lack of understanding regarding the construction of site built solar retrofits. Site built solar retrofits demand good carpentry skills and extreme care in material selection and detailing. It is not a good project for someone unfamiliar with construction. While a good carpenter can construct an effective solar collector, efficient, long lasting collectors demand the use of materials and details rarely encounPOLITICS --------------- The Congress Watcher, bimonthly, $5/yr. from: Congress Watch 215 Pennsylvania Ave. S.E. Washington, DC 20003 Published by Ralph Nader's Public Citizen organization, this newspaper provides the best coverage you're likely to find anywhere of happenings in today's frighteningly rightward-leaning Washington. Included are in-depth analyses of the potential impacts of current bills before Congress, interviews with Congresspeople of all political persuasions, and background information on who's been paying for whose campaign in the hopes of getting what. Nearly all the good news in The Congress Watcher lately has come from outside of Vol. VIII No. 1 tered in conventional construction. The information in my book is based on experience gained from over thirty solar retrofits. The engineering, carpentry, and home owner experience gained from these systems has been found to be extremely useful by hundreds of people presently duplicating these systems. I think your readers would agree. Sincerely, Daniel Reif Amherst, MA ACCESS Washington. Reports from grassroots groups around the country, working hard on such projects as halting the Clinch River Breeder Reactor and saving the National Consumer Cooperative Bank, help to temper the tales of Pinheads along the Potomac. The message is a clear one: if the Congress Watcher staff is ever to have much upbeat news to report on in the nation's capitol, more of us are going to have to join forces with those fine folks out in the field. -JF Revolt From the Center, by Neils I. Meyer, K. Helveg Petersen, and Villy Sorensen, 1981, 186pp., $7.95, from: Marion Boyars Publishers, Inc. 99 Main Street Salem, NH 03079 This book by three Danes-a physicist, a politician, and a philosopher-sold 120,000 copies when first published in Denmark in 1978 and was "vigorously discussed and anaRAIN The beauty of passive solar is that it is an appropriate technology, i.e., a technology that is buildable and understandable to people who are not professional carpenters or solar designers . My criticism of Mr. Reif's book is based on his exclusion of the average person by the use of carpenter's jargon. We should be bringing people into the solar movement, not alienating them. -Gail Katz lyzed in public and by the mass media." Now why can't we have a country like . that? The day this book is read by 5 million Americans (the equivalent proportion of the population) will be the same day Rain outsells Time and Ronald Reagan is an aging television actor. · The sad truth, though, is that this book ought to be read by that many people. These three remarkable men have done something I thought was impossiblethey've drawn together the best ideas of liberalism, humanism, and marxism into one coherent, devastating critique of modern society. What they propose to fake its place is a society that emphasizes economic equality, democratic decentralization, human development and ecological balance. (Sounds like something you'd hear about in Rain, doesn't it?) The first half of the book is taken up by their critique of present industrial society and the laying of a philosophical foundation for a better one. The other half is a confessedly "utopian" model of the better society to October 1981 Journal of Appropriate Technology RAIN Magazine publishes information which can lead people to more simple and satisfying lifestyles, help communities and regions become economically self-reliant, and build a society that is durable, just, and ecologically sound. RAIN STAFF: Laura Stuchinsky, Mark Roseland, Carlotta Collette, John Ferrell, Kevin Bell, Steve Johnson, Steve Rudman, Nancy Cosper, Scott Androes, Tanya Kucak. 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, Oregon 97210, telephone 503/227-5110. Copyright© 1981 Rain Umbrella, Inc. No part may be reprinted without written permission. Typesetting: Irish Setter Printing: Times Litho Cover Photograph: Ancil Nance
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