RAIN The Bioregional Movement Is There a Pothole in Your Future? Investing in the Community VOLUME IX, NO. 3 $2.00
Page 2 RAIN February/March 1983 RAIN: Journal of Appropriate Technology Volume IX, Number 3 Feb./March 83 Staff: Rob Baird Ann Borquist Nancy Cosper Steve Johnson Kris Nelson Contributors: Phil Conti Gail Katz Penny Fearon George Resch Robin Havenick Graphic Design: Linnea Gilson Comptroller: Lee Lancaster Printing: Daily Journal ofCommerce Typesetting: Em Space Cover Photograph: Ann Borquist RAIN Magazine publishes information which can help p>eople lead more simple and satisfying lives, make their communities and regions more economically self- reliant, and build a society that is durable, just, and ecologically sound. RAIN is published 6 times a year by the Rain Umbrella, Inc., a non-profit corporation located at 2270 NW Irving, Portland, Oregon 97210, telephone 503/227-5110. Subscriptions are $25/yr. for institutions, $15/yr. for individuals ($9.50 for persons with incomes under $5000 a year). Copyright © 1983 Rain Umbrella, Inc. No part may be reprinted without written permission. IN THIS ISSUE... Articles The Bioregional Movement ...................................................................... 4 Self Reliant Cities ........................................................................................... 8 Thinking The Unthinkable ...................................................................... 10 Is There a Pothole in Your Future? .......... ............................................... 15 Investing in the Community ....................................................................... 18 Appropriate Technology in Oregon ......................................................... 22 Peacemaking ................................................................................................... 28 Features Calendar ....................................37 Pacific Northwest Bioregion Report .................. 31 Access Bioregional Communication Vehicles .................................. 7 Community Economic Development ........................12 Raindrops .................................. 2 Rush .............................................38 Touch and Go .............................27 Good Reading .......................... 9 Organization Review ................26 Peacemaking............................... 30 Urban Agriculture ......................20 RAINDROPS The dead of winter and we are trying to imagine the hopes of spring that mav be evident by the time you read this RAIN. Pulling together the magazine during the dead of winter is always different. The mail is slow. Printers are backed up. People are difficult to contact. This year, RAIN's computer had a nervous breakdown — called an intermittent memory failure — while the humans at RAIN played host to the common cold. But through mail slowdown or whatever kind of weather— the RAIN must go through — and did. We had considerable more news and information for this issue than we could afford to print. Well, at least one person had a good idea. Betsy Timm, with the Farallones Rural Center, distressed to hear we had no room, offered to buy a classified ad. File this under publishing economics, example number 12. Another sign of hard economic times is dear to us as we receive more letters from periodical publishers regretting to inform us that they can no longer afford to exchange periodicals. Now we're probably no better or worse off than most, but if anything, in recent months we've INCREASED our number of exchanges, valuing them as an asset to the information flow in hard times. One periodical which could no longer exchange with us had only five readers in Oregon. In order to save a buck a year they cut their readership in Oregon by 20 percent — and maybe more since our copy of their periodical is used in the Resource Center library. We'd sure like to hear from anyone working on reasonable methods of evaluating the value of information. The next issue of RAIN will have a major focus on feminism, the state of the Women's Movement, and social change. Guest editor is Mimi Maduro, old friend, and RAIN board member, with on-staff assistance from Nancy Cosper. Write if
Februarv/March 1983 RAIN Page 3 you have any notions of good topics, literature, and organizations we may want to note. Pictured on this month's cover is one of the Southeast Asian community garden sites in Portland which RAIN helped develop. We are now coordinatPeace Poster in Russia The January 1982 issue of RAIN described the work of Diane and Joel Schatz. Well- knoum to readers ofRAIN as the creators of our Ecotopia posters, Diane and Joel have been working for over a year on their most recent effort, the visualization ofthe theme "if peace broke out, what would it look like?". Not ones to stand back politely on the sidelines, they went to the top to gain international support for their project. As a reward for such unexpected behavior they got a response, clearance from the Russian embassy inviting them to bring their project to Moscoiv. ing a series of workshops for the Southeast Asian refugee population, about such topics as energy conservation, food production and consumer awareness. This winter too, RAIN and Oregon lost a dear friend; former governor Tom McCall, who died at the age of 69, after impact will be broad and deep. If every American would take the initiative in reaching out to our supposed "enemies," certainly we would have fewer of the imaginary boundaries that seem to divide us. Thank you again for keeping me in touch with your energetic and encouraging activities. Please let me know if I can be of further assistance. Kind regards. Sincerely, Mark O. Hatfield United States Senator November 23,1982 Dear Joel and Diane: Many thanks for your most recent letter concerning your exciting new media project, "What Would the World Look Like if Peace Broke Out?" I am enthusiastic, it goes without saying! If you do with this what you did with November 1,1982 Dear Mr. Joel Schatz, On behalf of Mr. O. Tryanovsky, the USSR Permanent Representative to the UN, I would like to confirm the receipt of Your letter dated September 13,1982. I can assure You that the Soviet several years of strugging with cancer. He was one of those rare political leaders who gained strength and wisdom as he grew older. We will sorely miss him, and hope in our way to carry on some of the battles he waged during his life. Government and people completely share Your concern about the growing danger of nuclear catastrophe and will spare no effort to prevent it by bringing the arms race to an end. As to the request to provide You with names and addresses of leading Soviet experts to contribute ideas to Your interesting project I have the honour to advise You to contact the following Soviet nongovernmental organization that could provide You with the above said information: Soviet Peace Committee 129010U-10 36, Mira pr. Moscow, USSR Sincerely Yours, A. Khudiakov Press-attache Permanent Mission of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics to the United Nations Packaging Laws Elections this year brought disappointment for Washington and California bottle bill advocates. Bottling companies came out in force in the California campaign investing $6 million versus the proponents' $800,000. Jerry Powell, publisher of Resource Recycling magazine in Sacramento and recycling policy expert, was impressed with the well-organized pro-bill campaign and believes that its defeat was due largely to the opposition's tactics to confuse the issue. Anti-bill media coverage included a television ad in which five Oregonians voiced their opposition to Oregon's bottle bill — all five were discovered to work for a bottling company in Portland. In Washington, recyclers organized to defeat the bill to protect their buy-back recycling centers. Their success was abetted by their insistence that the bill would threaten jobs. Good news for the bottle bill from around the country included elections in Massachusetts where strong public support squelched the beer wholesalers' attempt to rescind the bill; Maine passed the bill 4 to 1; the Environmental Planning lobbyists in New York provided a decisive victory there; and a coalition of well-organized hunting and fishing groups passed the bill in Michigan to control litter. Soft drink and beer wholesalers are expected to propose alternative national legislation which would impose a product charge on glass containers. This front end charge would pre-pay the disposal cost for non- recycled material and subsidize the recycling industry. In Portland, a Citizens' Party leader, Stan Kahn, has designed a packaging law which would require all packages to be clearly labelled as redeemable, recyclable, non-recyclable, toxic, or compostable and taxed accordingly. The wholesale tax would provide subsidies for recycling efforts, establish a revolving loan fund, and encourage industries to use recyclable materials. This innovative packaging law is part of Mr. Kahn's Citizens Initiative Campaign which includes plans for school decentralization and neighborhood government tax reform. — PF
Page 4 RAIN February/March 1983 The Bioregional Movement Planet Drum Planet Drum started in 1974 to address the fact—made clear through the Arab Oil Embargo — that human beings live in one bio-sphere together. Planet Drum, under the guise of the Frisco Bay Mussel Group, began to call attention to the importance of acquiring a sense of place, by sponsoring conferences such as Listening to the Earth, and by sending out occasional bundles of information describing the relationship between culture and habitat. The earliest manifestations of bio-regional thinking were often delegated to the coffee table—pleasant, even fascinating topics of conversation, but hardly the catalyst for a grassroots movement. The ideas seemed like poetic extensions of the environmental movement or philosophical laments of the back-to-the-land movement. But the ideas have persisted. Thanks to Planet Drum, and other like-minded individuals and groups, bioregional thinking is taking hold. In some ways, the bio-regional movement IS an extension of the environmental movement, itself an extension of the earlier, more upper-crust, conservation movement. Although the environmental movement has brought about incredible changes in the ways we relate to our earth, setbacks still occur. The victories of the last decade seem tenuous. The movement needs fresh air. In order to achieve lasting results we need more knowledge about the places in which we live. One of the appeals of bio-regional thinking is that in studying the unique qualities of a place and the interaction of its inhabitants North American Bioregional Congress A Congress to unite individuals and organizations interested in bioregionalism, political ecology, and sustainability, has been in the hopp>er for some time. It was first proposed by Planet Drum in an article entitled "Amble Toward Continent Congress." Presently, the Congress is planned for fall/winter of 1983, and probably at a location in the Ozarks. Individuals and organizations are urged to correspond with the coordinators of the Congress so that the Congress might tmly represent the regions of the North American Continent. For more information, send a stamped, self-addressed envelop>e to North American Bioregional Congress, Box 67-2, Caulfield, MO 65626. with its resources, we can begin to envision a method for making sensible long range planning decisions that take into account the separate concerns of a variety of factions. If Planet Drum is a gauge for the bio-regional movement, then indications are that the bio-regional movement has taken hold. Raise the Stakes, Planet Drum's wonderful journal is an indication of the growth of the movement. When the journal was started, it was filled with contributions of individuals who sent in descriptions of their bio-regions. Today, Raise the Stakes contains news from organized groups of people working on specific bio-regional platforms of action, conferences, and publications. For more information; Planet Drum, P.O. Box 31251, San Francisco, CA 94131, 415/285-6556. □□ RAIN Interviews DRUM RAIN: What do you envision as appropriate forms of governance from a bioregional or biospheric perspective? DRUM: The present government structures are not appropriate to the conditions we are in, that is, inhabitants of the same planet. Not all forms of government are inappropriate. It depends on how long the government has been in place. In New England many of the districts conform more or less to watersheds, valleys, other natural boundaries. When you get west of the Mississippi River they reflect the acquisition of the Louisiana purchase. You find straight lines, square states. States shaped like pan handles, frying pans, trapezoids, every imaginable form and many that have nothing to do with local conditions. We think national governments should be replaced by continental forms of government, the North American Continent, Europe, Asia, Africa. We see the results of our current order of nations along unreal boundaries. In New England, along the Canadian borders, residents have as much to do with the French Canadians or the culture of Nova Scotia as they do with the rest of the United States. The second level of government would be bio-regional, large areas with separate identities within the United States, the Great Basin, the Plains, the Rockies, etc. Below the bioregional level would be watersheds, which might be large or small. Your own Willamette Valley is an example. The watershed is the natural way to deal with many problems. The siting of a nuclear power
February/March 1983 RAIN Page 5 plant is a living problem to those in the watershed area it effects, and they should be able to judge its suitability. RAIN: At least in Oregon there has been a lot of recent publicity about the importance of international trade; for building up our failing economic base. What is Planet Drum's outlook on stressing international trade development? DRUM: It's a quesHon of real costs. Bio-regional costs are not considered in the current economic circus. For example, especially in California, the costs of soil erosion are passed onto taxpayers with a disproportionate amount of the cost carried by city people, instead of to large Just because we all watch the same television performer doesn't mean we all have the same culture. agricultural businesses who are primarily responsible for the loss of valuable soil. Bioregional real costs should be measured by what it costs to maintain and to restore, the accumulation of soil, the availability of water, and the natural succession of plants. This is the living base for people wherever they are or whatever they think they need at any moment. Enhancing intemahonal trade might do something to solve some immediate problems but it won't do much for sustainability. Sustainability just can't be measured in the same way as the Gross National Product. RAIN: With the growth of electronic technology, mass media, and the means to spread ideas and entertainment worldwide, how can local cultures survive? What is Planet Drum's attitude toward mass media and electronic technology? DRUM: In terms of human civilization all real culture has been developed in small areas. It may not seem so when we are used to measuring cultural successes in terms of a half-billion dollars gross profit from a movie. Mass electronic culture is an ersatz or pseudo culture that tends to meet the needs of alienation and loneliness that people have suffered during the industrial era. Just because we all watch the same television performer doesn't mean we have the same culture. People have expressed themselves through small groups and communities, through what Gregory Bateson calls resonant or redundant culture. Instead what we have is an appearance of universalism. It's unreal, as thin as linoleum or better yet as thin as plastic. The true culture doesn't come out of a wizz bang think tank. Technology can only provide tools. People who have "thick" relationships create culture. RAIN: Many local economies are dependent on peaceful invaders — that is, tourism. What is the bioregional perspective about the tourist industry which seems to be growing? DRUM: Bioregions don't change. One can jump into a car and go from the Atlantic seaboard to the Pacific Northwest. The place left, and the place visited are unchanged in bio-regional terms. The question is how much drain is Re-inhabitation Re-inhabitory refers to the tiny number of persons who come out of the industrial societies (having collected or squandered the fruits of 8000 years of civilization) and then start to turn back to the land, to place. This comes for some with the raHonal and scientific realization of inter-connectedness, and planetary limits. But the actual demands of a life committed to a place, and living somewhat by the sunshine green plant energy that is concentrating in that spot, are so physically and intellectually intense, that it is a moral and spiritual choice as well. There are many people on the planet, now, who are not "inhabitants." Far from their home villages; removed from ancestral territories; moved into town from the farm; went to pan gold in California — work on the Pipeline — work for Bechtel in Iran. Actual inhabitants — peasants, paisanos, paysan, peoples of the land, have been sniffed at, laughed at, and overtaxed for centuries by the urban-based ruling elites. The intellectuals haven't the least notion of what kind of sophisticated, attentive, creative intelligence it takes to "grow food." Virtually all the plants in the gardens, the sheep, cows and goats in the pastures were domesticated in the Neolithic; before "civilization." The differing regions of the world have long had — each — their own precise subsistence pattern developed over millenia by people who had settled in there and learned what particular kinds of plants the ground would "say" at that spot. Gary Snyder — Resurgence
Page 6 RAIN February/March 1983 created by travel, and is the necessity of sustaining or restoring these places a consideration? Tourism has a long history, started originally as pilgrimages to religious shrines. But today people are encouraged by things like hotel culture, television culture, MacDonald's culture. To see all places as the same, and therefore as no place at all, requires no sense of responsibility for restoring or sustaining those places. We are in danger of losing the value of local regions because of the practices of late industrial culture — not just capitalist societies, but Socialist as well, as evidenced by the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan, or suppression of ethnic cultures in the southern region of the Soviet Union. The late industrial drive is for some universal goal. The problem is, diversity gives way to homogeneity, and without individual liberty and creativity, and a relation to nature, then you have losses at such a universal level that you get losses you can't cope with — poisoning of the biosphere, DDT in the water supply. The problems are universal, but the solutions have to be local. RAIN: As the breakdown of nations takes place what can we envision as methods of conflict resolution? DRUM: Suppose it were a right-winger asking that question, they would mean would you have less trouble with left wingers, or if it were a left winger, they would be asking whether or not you'd have more trouble with right-wingers. What we, at Planet Drum, went through in making a stand over this issue was that we were more inclined to suffer the consequences of local people struggling over differences, instead of having them thrown into the late industrial escalator that roughly goes "if Carter saves Alaska, Reagan gives it away." And that's the thrust of fate industrial politics, not just the personal politics of a Carter or a Reagan. Neither of them have a bioregional or biospheric perspective, the perspective we need now, and which is going to come from the grassroots, not from late industrial politicians. We have to recognize our connection to the bio-sphere. There can be no conflict resolution without that, and we need to have a deeper relation to the bioregion we live in, establishing a stronger local cultural identity. More demands are going to be made on bio-regions. People are going to see that more clearly in the coming years. We, at Planet Drum, relate to the Northern California bioregion and can see the critical issues of that region, especially water and soil. Our connection from here to the rest of the world starts with being a part of the North Pacific Rim, as our part of the continent, and in that way we are uniquely related to Asia. Our relationships to one another change as we build up our forms of governance and conflict resolution from watersheds and bioregions. DQ Bioregional Activities Last year, in recognition of the growth of the bioregional movement. Planet Drum brought onto its staff Sheila Rose Purcell, to respond to the increasing correspondence, and to provide some initial support for fledgling bioregional groups. Listening to Sheila describe the number and variety of groups, it is evident that the movement is underway, even if still somewhat scattered. Many of the groups have just started, met once or twice, or might be attempting to draw up some tvpe of bioregional platform or policy. In some cases, the groups are well-established grassroots organizations which have more recently taken on a bioregional perspective. A food cooperative group, for example, in Tucson, Arizona, which publishes a newsletter, has strayed away from food issues into water, energy, and environmental issues, and now subtitles their newsletter a Journal of the Southeast Desert. In New Mexico, the Mogollon Highlands Watershed Association sponsors monthly meetings, and recently participated in the development of a barter fair in their area. Reinhabiting New Jersey is a bioregional group whose attention is focused on educating state government decision makers about bioregional perspectives. The Wyoming Citizen's Alliance was founded over a year ago to bring together energy, environment, and other movement groups to initiate a plan of action for their region. The Pend' Oreille Center for Appropriate Technology in Newport, Washington, is an example of an appropriate technology/alternative energy group which has recently adopted a bioregional stance as a more effective way to resolve local resource management issues. The groups do not all share a common methodology for working toward a bio-regional-based culture. There is none. The movement is too young. In many cases, however, the formation of groups follows the track set out by one of the most well-established groups, the Ozark Community Congress. In a recent issue of Raise the Stakes, one of the Congress's founders, David Henki spells out a process for starting a bioregional group. The process is generic to most cases: locate" interested people, uncover the basic state of anv bioregional planning information, and announce a meeting for people to attend, making that meeting a work party to ratify some basic operahng goals for bioregional development in the chosen region. □ □
February/March 1983 RAIN Page 7 ACCESS: Bioregional Communication Vehicles Rain also hears a variety ofbioregional voices through the development of the moi'ement's periodicals. As ivith any other categorization, the ones ive have selected as bioregional may have as many differences as similarities'. But there is ' something distinct about their development. One of the threads is the fading of distinctions behveen previously distinct areas of concern. These vehicles are speaking increasingly to relationships between issues. Out of ivhat seems like a near-panic response to inter-connectedness, one bioregional monthly in California subtitles itself, “the journal of safe energy, peace, appropriate technology, self-sufficiency, and community." Consistent with'the bio-regional per- svectii’e is the number ofperiodicals that ciefine theirgeographic coverage in terms of non-traditional yolitical boundaries: the Journal of Hudson Vallei/, the Journal of the Southeast desert.' The selection ofperiodicals we’ve chosen for review in this issue reflect a range of orientations. We will continue to reideiv other like-minded journals in future issues of RAIN. Agayuli Rt. 2, Box 132 Leicester, NC 28748 $10/yr. (contribution) A newsletter that focuses on perma- culture activities in the Southeastern part of the United States. It is an interactive/ networking oriented newsletter, similar to the old standby. Smallholder, from British Columbia. It contains many letters and brief articles from individual contributors looking for information and/or communication with others, technical as well as policy-oriented news and information. Maine Times 41 Main St. Topsham, ME 04086 Weekly, W8/yr The Maine Times has been an exemplary regional voice for quite some time. It continues to prove that a strong regional voice doesn't have to be provincial. Its coverage is regional and national, and its special features often contain information useful to people anvwhere. They recentlv published their blockbuster annual Energy Issue with information for the individual wanting to conserve energv or save money as well as news about public policy issues and new energy resource developments. Mountain Life and Work Council of Southern Mountains Drawer N Clintwood,VA 24228 Monthly, $9/yr This journal is concerned with cultural and social issues. It covers news in the South Appalachian area with special focus on work and employment issues. Coyote — Community News and Views of the Southwest Desert Food Conspiracy Cooperative 412 N. Fourth Ave. Tucson, AZ 85705 Coyote is an example of the enhanced quality and increased coverage of food cooperative newsletters. In a recent issue. Coyote editors expressed their bioregional perspective: "Part of Coyote’s purpose is to help spread the word on bioregional thinking. What does it mean to talk about bioregions? It's simply another way of looking at the world in terms of natural coherence of resources." Hudson Valley Green Times PO Box 208 Red Hook, NY 12571 Produced by the Hudson Valley Grass Roots Energy and Environmental Network, this small tabloid provides news to Hudson Valley area about environmental dangers, and alternative plans for future sustainable developments. All Area T7 Reade St. New York, NY 10007 $5/issue All Area follows on the work of Talking Wood, a bioregional oriented publication that has been around for several years. All Areas, unlike several others reviewed, is a general bioregional publication, focusing not on a specific bioregion, but on the concepts of bioregional awareness. The issue on hand at RAIN is 180 pages, graphic-full, slick paper. Articles include "Logos/Mythos" by David Finkelstein; "A Metalogue," Gregory Bateson and Paul Ryan, "Alaska in Transition" by Paul Metcalf; and "Maximus, to Gloucester, From Dogtown, after the Flood," by Charles Olson. The next issue of All Areas will be published in Winter 1983. San Antonio Artists Alliance Revue 121E Ashby San Antonio, TX 78212 The Alliance works with the Humanities Program at St. Phillips College in San Antonio on the Regional Awareness Project which includes publication ofa series of journals on earth, air, and fire (energy); sponsorship of a conference on the San Antonio bioregion in May 1982; a folk- fesHv'al and performing Arts Showcase. The September 1981 issue of the Alliance Revieio had a special section describing the San Antonio bio-region. VCAT News Appropriate Technology Program University of California 2030 Bainer Davis, CA 95616 The UCATNeios is a well-written quarterly that reports on the program's activities as well as other apropriate technology and small-scale biological agricultural projects in the area. The summer 1982 issue featured an article by Gil Friend on the potential of biological agriculture. Urban Ecology Newsletter Urban Ecology, Inc. PO Box 2334 Berkeley, CA 94702 This is the group that has had its truck garden arrested and impounded because the garden is in a car, and cars are not supposed to be on the streets of Berkeley for more than 72 hours. Since being arrested, the car has been invited to become a portable monument for the city, a symbol of our culture's devotion to the automobile. The newsletter is an important link in bioregional thinking, attempting to reweave urban ecology.
Page 8 RAIN February/March 1983 SELF-RELIANT CITIES Ifyou were vacationing over the last decade and want to understand what has so radically transformed this country, Self-Reliant Cities will catch you up to the present. Ifyou were around, and especially ifyou were involved in energy politics, Self-Reliant Cities may be like reviewing a family snapshot album: it's all there — the trials and tribulations of America's response to the new world oflimited energy resources. The book is jammed-full ofexamples ofcommunity responses to the energy crisis brought to the foreground in 1973 with the Arab oil embargo. There are the zvell-known responses: the City of Davis, California; landmark decisions such as the Polemina, California limit to growth policy; the countless city energy studies and plans; the alternative energy booms and boondoggles; the wheeling and dealing of corporations, governments and grassroots groups attempting to lay down new ground rules for the post-Arab Oil embargo world. But Self Reliant Cities is more than snapshots from the last decade’s energy lessons. The book is also a good primer on the changing role of the city in our society. In several concise chapters, the book covers the history ofcities in America, from Thomas Jefferson's attitude that cities should be destroyed as breeders of immorality, through the succession ofcompetitions betiveen cities, states, federal government, and private and municipal corporations, all bidding for shares of financial and natural resources. Self-Reliant Cities could play an important role by giving all of us a common knowledge base from which to make sensible decisions for development ofcities in the future. Morris has much to say about ivhat that shape might and/or should be. But that hardly seems the point. What he has done has brought us up to the present, shown us the forces that have brought us here, documented the realities of the present (talk about lots of statisticsl), and presented the trade-offs now before us. Solar energy isn't necessarily good by itself, nor is any other specific technology. It just all depends. We might use wood to heat our homes and lose by polluting the air. There are no simple answers in this book, but perhaps a guiding light: in order to exist, our cities must become more efficient in using energy and other natural resources. • S/ ^ ^One company. Calorific Recovery Anaerobic Process (its acronym, appropriately, is CRAP), is turning manure from a hundred thousand head of cattle of feedlots in Guymon, Oklahoma, population eight thousand, into methane. The methane is sold to People's Gas Company, a Chicago gas utility. In the ever-changing world of energy, Chicago's homes are now in part heated from the manure of Oklahoma's cows. J J ^ ^In 1977 the Burlington (Vermont) Electric Department converted one coal-fired unit to wood. The 10 megawatt facility generates electricity for two cents a kilowatt hour, much cheaper than nuclear power and one-third less expensive than burning coal. Burlington's voters overwhelmingly approved an $80 million bond issue to take the next step and build a 50-megawatt wood-fired plant . . . However the plant will need half a million tons of wood a year, the equivalent of a forest area the size of a Burlington itself, so not all the wood can be acquired in the immediate vicinity. The neighboring town of Winooski worried about the substantial number of vans, each carrying a payload of 22 tons, traveling down its main street. Winooski City attorney William Wargo argued before the Public Service Board against approving Burlington's application for a permit to truck its wood along Winooski's streets. "Even an ideal transportation schedule would present an [unbearable] burden," he noted, "not only on traffic congestion but open road conditions, on safety, on air quality and on the noise level as well. 9 9 • ^ ^In July 1980 Charles Olmstead and Jeanine Lanier, botanists at the University of Northern Colorado, were granted a variance to build a greenhouse onto their house despite the vigorous objections of Shalto and Alma Davis, neighbors to the south. The Davises objected that the greenhouse would create glare and that melting snow would slide from the greenhouse roof and ice up their driveway. The Davises appealed the variance, but the council not only upheld the board's decision, it removed all the conditions of the variance. The greenhouse was built, and the Davises claimed their original objection had in fact been well founded. They claimed the glare harmed Mrs. Davis's eyesight, killed or harmed houseplants, and even peeled the paint on the house. Omstead offered to buy reflective window shading material for the Davises, but they refused. Instead they built a six-foot fence on their lot line. It partially shades the greenhouse, and they are seeking a variance to erect a covered carport. This would shade a much larger portion of the greenhouse. It was Olmstead's turn to object. As this book went to press, he was threatening to sue the Davises for the amount of fossil fuels he would have to purchase as a result of decreased heat from the greenhouse. 9 9
February/March 1983 RAIN Page 9 ACCESS: Good Reading The Process Report; How It Happened and Energy Future, A Citizen’s PlanforEnergy Self-Reliance Prepared by Resource Transitions, Inc. P.O. Box 3021 Santa Cruz, CA 95063 $25,1982,112 pp. Unless a community is totally self-reliant, it produces a product or service that brings money in from outside the community then spends that money on goods and services that the community cannot produce. One measure of the economic health of a community is how many times each dollar changes hands within that community before it is used to pay for an outside commodity. As more people handle each dollar, the standard of living increases. At the present time, the single largest dollar drain in most American communities is the money spent on energy. Energy Future, a grassroots organization in Santa Cruz County, has come up with a comprehensive plan for that county which seeks to reduce the exit of local resources to pay for energy. The plan combines the goals of energy conservation on all levels and increasing local control of energy sources by conversion to local renewable fuels. Specifically, the plan establishes goals and priorities for energy conservation on a community-wide basis, ranging from curbside recycling and light rail, to residential, commercial and industrial energy conservation. It also addresses such basics as increasing the p>ercentage of locally-grown food and starting energy education programs in the schools. As we move into the second stage of Reaganomics, more communities are making or trying to make basic energy/ economic decisions for increased self- reliance. Davis, California has done it. Franklin County, Massachusetts, has done it. Get a copy of this plan for Santa Cruz and start a movement in your community. — Gail Katz The Human Impact Man’s Role in Environmental Change Andrew Goudie MIT Press 28 Carleton St. Cambridge, MA 02142 $10.00 paper, 1982,316 pp. There is the obvious part of the story. We know—with or without statistics—that we have had a tremendous impact on changing the earth, and that we may be endangering the planet's very ability to sustain the quality and diversity of life. But The Human Impact is subtler than that. As in another earlier and similar work, Man’s Role in Changing the Face of the Earth, Goudie examines the many ways we've changed our planet. Examples range from the eighteentti century lord in Britain who simply removed thirty feet of a hill that was blocking his view, to the devastation of war with its extended impact on the land and its ecology. The Indochinese War alone, displaced 2.6 billion cubic meters of earth by bombings, more than was displaced by one of man's larger engineering feats, the peaceable creation of The Netherlands. There's a sense after reading the book that nature is a very good healer. Raw holes in the earth created by mining, war, and other calamities, over the years turn into lakes undistinguishable from "natural" lakes. Elaborate adaptations occur when new plants and animals are introduced into local areas. But The Human Impact doesn't present a "so everything is all right" p>ersp)ective. By the book's conclusion it is evident that, while many of our mistakes can be corrected by nature, there isn't as much room for error. Types of changes we are able to make now, while perhaps curable, may take centuries of healing, and the demands of population growth just won't allow. -SJ Nothing Can Be Done, Everything is Possible Byron Kennard Brickhouse Publishing Co. 34 Essex St. Andover, MA 01810 $9.95 paper, 1982,180 pp. Byron Kennard's account of community organizing is very personal — not a "1-2-3, this is how we organize to gain equality." No, Kennard's approach could be best described as networldng—if that term weren't so quickly outliving its usefulness . It's the story of one of those relatively invisible social change fanatics, uninterested in serving specific political roles, and yet capable of influencing the direction of pubUc policy by being out there on the edge, translating the fringe ideas back ihto the mainstream. It isn't just a biography. Scattered throughout is helpful advice about organizing, and most important, it can serve as a kind of cheerful outlook on how change takes place. "Have faith," Kennard says, "you probably have more of an effect than you realize" — and he adds as a word of caution, "don't expect to necessarily see the change or get credit for it." The radical program ofyoung William Jennings Bryan was finally implemented by “progressive" Woodrow Wilson. It took twenty years for the ideas to gain legitimacy. Norman Thomas ran for president halfdozen times and his candidacy was derided, but liberal Democrats under Franklin D. Roosevelt ultimately appropriated much of Thomas's program without so much as a thank-you note. -SJ The Energy Saver’s Handbookfor Town and City People The Scientific Staff of the Massachu- ' setts Audubon Society Rodale Press Emmaus, PA 18049 $14.95,1982,322 pp. Most books on energy conservation are written for homeowners who want to reduce their personal energy bills or for engineers and architects who do studies and design work in commercial buildings. Cont. on next page
Page 10 RAIN February/March 1983 This book fills the void between these well documented subjects by addressing energy conservation for urban areas. The first section deals with mechanical systems for weatherization in existing buildings ranging in size from a single family dwelling to large apartment complexes. The information, though not new, is well organized and very readable. The book also includes such issues as community energy systems, landlord- tenant relations, financing for groups, and alternative energy sources. Gail Katz Stop Burning Your Money: The Intelligent Homeowner’s Guide to Household Energy Savings John Rothchild Random House 201 East 50th St. New York, NY 10022 $15.50,1981,2S8pp. Have a few spare thou' that you're considering investing in'T bills or Swiss bank accounts or works of art"? Well, forget it. . . those items are passe in the world of investment finances. John Roth- child's Stop Burning Your Money is bullish on conservation. Even if you are not heading off to Wall Street, don't let the initial high-brow approach to home weatherization deter you from finishing the book. Your time will be well spent. Rothchild has compiled the most inclusive, comprehensive analysis of precisely what measures will save you money and how long the payback will be. Included are charts comparing furnace, air conditioner, and appliance efficiencies for would-be purchasers, a wealth of up-to-date information on conservation methods and materials, and what to look for in terms of energy efficiency when buying a house. Low-cost items such as caulldng and weatherstripping are big favorites on the market with storm windows falling off rapidly. Wood stoves are down, insulation is holding steady. Water heater wraps and flow restrictors are rallying, while active solar systems are showing mixed returns. Genera, eat your heart out. Even though I haven't had treasury bills in mind, this is the best book I have read for a hard-nosed look at the smartest way to spend your conservation dollars. And it's no secret, saving energy is one of the soundest investments a homeowner can make today. For inspiration on self-reliant living, read RAIN Magazine; for the dollars and cents brass tacks. Stop Burning Your Money is better than a broker. — Meg Roland Resettling America: Energy, Ecology, and Community Gary Coates, Editor Brick House Publishing Co. 34 Essex St. Andover, MA 01810 $14.95,1981, The expression of vision is often not found in the mainstream, but rather in the productive or reflective eddies of the culture. Gary Coates has put together a decade's worth of disparate, often little- known research and community ventures to complement his thesis in Resettling America. It is a prodigious introduction to what is becoming a global change in consciousness — that materialistic, centralized, and hierarchical ways of thinking and organizing of our economies are not only exploitative but ultimately selfconsuming. Linking appropriate technology, ecological farming, community and regional planning, sweat equity, and the contemplative communities of the Zen Center and the Abode of the Message, Coates illustrates an approach to regional planning that has its origins in the science ofecology, in a renew^ sense of the sacred, and in the value of living in community. Coates provides an excellent synopsis of resource depletion and environmental degradation as an introduction to the analysis of the available alternatives. It is not the technology itself that is new or alternative, but its application. The guidelines for this application emerge from a reading of the various projects — among them self-reliant cities, ecological villages, contemplative communities, community development corporations, and urban agriculture, all featured in the book's major section, "Expressions." The contributors represent a diversity of backgrounds and interests, but converge on some basic principles. The principles of biological diversity, nutrient cycling, and "no free lunch" are here applied, with people coexisting with rather than dominating other life forms and processes. Resettling America provides one of the most thorough and accessible introductions to the work in progress around the country, and, more importantly, to some of the conceptual framework that will ultimately unify this work in a science of ecological design and "right livelihood." — John Peterson Thinking the Unthinkable: A Declining Economy ------------ Inflation and Debt------------- The two economic indicators of unemployment and inflation must go together since they are so closely related. There seem to be as many explanations for both as there are schools of economic thought. This explanation focuses on energy as the critical variable. Economists generally agree that high energy prices are a major source of inflation, but they are unwilling to go on to the obvious conclusion — increased energy prices should mean falling incomes rather than cost of living increases. Energy is a fundamentally different kind of a cost item than the other sources of inflation. High energy prices are a reflection of scarcity; the only By Warren Johnson reason OPEC could keep on jacking their prices up over the last decade is because we did not have cheaper alternatives. Our import bill is now around sixty-five billion dollars a year — down from ninety billion — but this is still three hundred dollars for every American being sent out of the country to pay for oil, money that used to stay in the American economy. Avoiding this bill by developing our own domestic resouces would be more expensive. The Alaskan pipeline was the last good bargain, costing "only" eight billion dollars; the natural gas pipeline is estimated to cost thirty-five billion dollars since it must come overland all the way. The gas found in
February/March 1983 RAIN Page 11 Unemployment is likely to be a debilitating social problem in the future, yet from another perspective there is a huge amount of work that needs to be done — building a way of life not so dependent on energy. Alaska so far, some twenty trillion cubic feet, is only one year's worth of consumption, and so it is not surprising that the job of financing such a huge project has not been successful. Offshore drilling is much more expensive than onshore, as is the drilling of many holes to find the last small oil and gas deposits on land. Synthetic fuels from coal and oil shales will be the most expensive of all, which is why Exxon and Occidental have stopped projects on which they had spent many hundreds of millions of dollars. All of these huge new costs for energy, whether im- orted or domestic, are costs that wouldn't have had to ave been paid if the old oil fields were still meeting our needs. And even if all the OPEC revenues were spent back in this country, American workers would still be working for foreign consumers rather than for American consumers. These are the costs of scarcity. The only place to get the money to pay these bills is out ofAmerican paychecks. As we pay these higher energy bills, the real incomes of Americans should come down, to account for the drain of money from the consumer economy. But instead, we asked for — and usually received — cost of living increases to cover the higher cost of gasoline, heating fuel, and all the things made with energy. We assumed higher energy costs were part of the usual cost of living calculus. This was the way we had always interpreted higher prices before, and this was the way we wanted to see it now. Cost of living increases to cover higher energy costs are, in effect, an attempt to deny the reality of scarcity; higher incomes simply gave people the money to go on consuming oil as if scarcity didn't exist, as if cheap oil was still coming out of the old fields in Texas and Louisiana. The usual function of higher prices, to discourage consumption, was weakened by the fact that the consumer had the money to pay the higher prices. The overall result was that higher incomes sustained consumption rather than discouraging it. There were more dollars chasing fewer goods, the age old source of inflation. Still, economists were perplexed. Not only was inflation a problem but so was unemployment. Classical economic theory said both should not occur at the same time, and the term staglfation had to be coined to describe this new phenomenon. But high wages can be seen as frustrating another fundamental change that energy scarcity leads to — the increased use of labor. Our minds, shaped by growth in the past, think in terms of using more machines, but the increasing cost of energy points in just the opposite direction — to the use of more labor and fewer machines. Cost of living increases, however, simply push up the cost of labor along with the cost of energy, and this substitution does not occur. Labor is too expensive, and therefore is not used. Inflation is easy to deal with, in theory at least, by restraining federal deficits, the money supply, and personal incomes. Unemployment, however, is a different storv; it will be a pervasive problem as less energy is available to the economy. It is difficult to imagine how labor will be able to compete with the efficient machines we have, even if wages were lower. Yet if we do not have enough energy to keep workers at their stations by the machines, where will the new jobs be found? Are we to be plagued by the "Detroit syndrome" from now on out. Increasing energy prices should mean falling incomes rather than cost of living increases. of displaced workers trapped without work, with houses that can't be sold, and in cities and states that are going broke? Cutting wages would help, but not very much because they will not bring down the cost of the energy and materials that go into the building of a car. Nor will lower sales prices bring down the cost of operating a car as long as gasoline prices are high. Worse yet, falling wages would reduce demand for other products, causing further unemployment. The moderating force in all this would be OPEC; they would have to lower oil prices in order to sell it, permitting a much needed infusion of energy. This will help, but at some point OPEC resources too will decline, since they are serving the entire industrial world; current estimates are that they will last twenty years longer than ours, but such estimates assume steady economic growth, which is growing more unlikely. Unemployment is likely to be a debilitating social problem in the future, yet from another perspective there is a huge amount of work that needs to be done—building a way of life not so dependent on energy. □□ Warren Johnson is author o/Muddling Toward Frugality, and is presently in the Geography Departmental San Diego State University. This article is part ofa longer article. Mr. Johnson is looking for a general audience publication for the longer piece. Any takers ?
Page 12 RAIN February/March 1983 ACCESS: Community Economic Development From: The Cihi Greenhouse Book The EntrepreneurialEconomy Corporation for Enterprise Development 2420KSt.,NW Washington, DC 20037 Monthly, $78/yr, $39/6 issues Starting and Running a Nonprofit Organization Joan Hummel University of Mirmesota Press Minneapolis, MN 55414 $10.95 paper, 1980,147pp. Setting Up Shop The Do’s andDon’ts ofStartingA Small Business Randy Baca Smith McGraw-Hill Book Company 12216th Ave. New York, NY 10020 $19.95 hard cover 1982 This is one of the best books of its type. Many business books are too technical, over fondling the author's pet bookkeeping system or describing things like where to hide the petty cash. Ms. Smith tells us where to find out what we need to know and points out what kinds of things we might want to know. She devotes a full chapter to the mechanics and financial ins and outs of advertising, which many books ignore completely. She tells how to do a market survey, suggests setting up a chair and watching traffic at a proposed location, and gives concrete information as to how to approach a bank or other granting agency for a loan. She lists the kind of businesses most likely to fail: dry cleaning, used car lots, and gas stations; and those most likely to succeed: building materials, auto tires and accessories, and liquor. One tip alone — that any business dependent for part of its trade on the telephone coincide its opening with the issuance of the new phone book — is worth the price of the book. The book is indexed and has a good bibliography. Chapter and section headings are over cute and the writing owes more than it should to Helen Gurley Brown, "guys" "gals," but these are minor reservations concerning what is otherwise a very good job. — Dick Showalter The Entrepreneurial Economy is an effective resource for neighborhood development organizations, nonprofit groups seeking sustainable financing, and small businesses. Past issues have included articles on public/private partnerships, plant shutdowns, diverting pension funds to community enterprise, youth unemployment, and community revitalization programs. The "Shorts and Resources" section puts the reader in touch with new developments, from pertinent legislation and community development projects to special issues of periodicals and new books and reports. This is a useful tool for building a community-based economy. This is an excellent guide on the nuts and bolts of running a small nonprofit organization. All of the basic topics include the board of directors, legal aspects, program planning and ^nd- raising, finances, personnel, and community relations, are covered thoroughly in a straightforward manner. There is a resource list at the end of each chapter for further information. For those starting a nonprofit corporation this book is a valuable resource; there is even a checklist of "things to be done." The book would also be useful for staff members of established groups who are newcomers to nonprofits or are taking on more administrative responsibility. Co-op Development Report Conference on Alternative State & Local Policies 2000 Florida Ave., NW Washington, DC 20009 Qrtly, (Exchanges encouraged) As a broader newsletter of the Co-op Development and Assistance Project (CDAP), the Report includes both information to improve functions of co-ops as well as news and analysis of the National Consumer Coop Bank, which was the focus of the previous CDAP newsletter. The Co-op Bank Monitor. AU co-ops will benefit from the Report's effort to bring tips on creative financing, case studies, and innovative approaches to co-op
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