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Special
Live Presentation:
Bill
Bradbury, Climate
Change
Friday July 27, 5:00 in the
Sale Barn Free
Fair Entry
Mr. Bradbury, resident of Salem, Oregon, was part of a select
group of individuals who recently completed a rigorous training
program led by former Vice- President Al Gore to spread the message
about the threat of and solutions to global warming.
Each trainee took part in an intensive tutorial about issues
surrounding global warming, led by Gore and a team of renowned
scientists and environmental educators. In addition, each received
technical training to become experienced presenters of an in-person
version of Gore’s computer-based slide show, which became the
basis of his best-selling book and documentary film, “An
Inconvenient Truth.”
“Bill Bradbury is an outstanding example of the millions
of Americans who have been energized by the call to action on the
climate crisis,” said Gore. “We are so pleased that he has
made a serious commitment to this challenge by coming to Nashville to
become part of this unprecedented grassroots effort. Bill will be
spending the next year making presentations in and around Oregon
discussing how individuals and businesses, schools, and other
organizations can be a major part of the solution to the growing
crisis of global warming.”
There will be an audience participation session after the
presentation, and participants will receive a “What You Can
Do” handout.
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Opinion:
Energy, Food, and Money
by Jennifer Barker
“Your energy, your food, and your money” is the
theme of SolWest Fair, but for many, it’s also the theme of our
lives. Beyond basic infrastructure (i.e. the roof over our heads), we
spend most of our time earning the money for food and energy. After
all, we need to keep warm (or cool), keep our means of travel, work,
and communications supplied with the energy to function, and keep our
bodies fuelled with food so we can accomplish all that we set out to do.
Food is energy: indeed, you can convert food calories to
British Thermal Units (heat, electricity), and BTUs to horsepower
(mechanical energy) using basic energy formulas. Money, a
human-invented construct that serves as a medium of exchange for the
realities of infrastructure and energy, is the item that is out of
place in this word trio. We’ve been told that the pursuit of
money is a worthy career goal, since a plentiful supply of dollars
enables us to buy a posh infrastructure and lots of energy to run it!
“Energy, Food Push Wholesale Prices Up” -- The
headlines say it all. It’s designed to keep us pushing just a
little bit harder each year to keep up. But do we need to keep
pursuing that ever-retreating goal of “enough,” or can we
substitute something else for at least some of it, say, human
ingenuity? I’ll give you some examples:
Our political and economic system wants us to keep consuming
plenty of energy, but to obtain it from alternative sources instead
of increasingly imported fossil fuel. This is already leading to a
“food or fuel” dilemma, as the BTUs head in the direction
of highest financial return. I can’t see this situation
improving, so it’s past time to start applying that personal
ingenuity factor!
If you are here at SolWest, you are looking for ways to use
your individual competence to reduce your energy use and/or supply
your own energy from renewable resources. You’re here to learn
new skills, new techniques, new ways to inject the “human
energy” factor into your life. You’ll find that making your
own personal or local renewable energy is about more than just
providing environmentally responsible power to your home, your local
utility grid, and your community of friends and neighbors. It’s
also about a whole new way of living well!
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