Subject: Viridian Note 00062: What I Did for Earth Day Key concepts: Earth Day, solar power, politics, Austin, Texas, carbon dioxide ascii symbolism, Earth Day 2000 Attention Conservation Notice: It's political. There's a lot of it. Links: http://www.bespoke.org/viridian The Viridian Products listing at bespoke.org has recently doubled in size. Entries in the Viridian Power Banner Contest: http://www.ugrad.cs.jhu.edu/~rmharman/img/viridian/warn.fossil.gif http://www.subterrane.com and http://www.netaxs.com/~morgana (note dino animation at bottom of page) This contest expires May 31, 01999 Today was Earth Day 1999. My home town, Austin Texas, opened a new solar facility, its third and largest. This is the biggest solar generating unit I've ever personally seen. Black tilted wings of glassy silicon cover maybe a quarter-acre at our new airport, and they can generate a hearty 111 kilowatts in the blistering Texas sun. I attended the formal opening. It was a windy, clouded day. There was a crowd of about forty there to help snip the ribbon, most of them city functionaries. The mayor gave a brief speech extolling Austin's high-tech, quality of life, competitive advantages. He's an okay mayor. I've seen quite of few of them in my 27 years here. We Austinites have done a lot worse than this guy. Austin has a city-owned electrical utility. If you volunteer to pay extra each month on your city electrical bills, you can buy 50-watt "blocks" of solar power. Therefore I do -- I splurged and bought 200 watts, or somewhat less than 4 light-bulb's worth. About one thousand other earnest volunteers also pay extra for solar. Thanks to these and other laudable fringe initiatives, the City of Austin now has 450 peak kilowatts of green, renewable power. That's about one percent of our local capacity. It may not sound like much, but the national American average is two-tenths of one percent, so (if you are another Yankee) that probably makes us at least five times more virtuous than you. And gaining. The chief of our local utility, also there, shouted into an ironically power-dead microphone that his outfit is moving forward "aggressively." This city is spending a full million dollars a year on renewable, sustainable power. By 2005, therefore, we'll possess a full *five percent* renewable! What does this mean? Well, imagine that this piece of electrical email (Viridian Note 00062, direct from green, high-tech Austin Texas) had truth-in-labelling about its sources of power. As whiz@ricochet.net^^^^^^*** artfully suggests: "All emails sent using a server not specifically known to use a renewable energy source ought to have a border of CO2 molecules following the message, thus: 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 "And perhaps a short written statement above, like: 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 THIS SERVER USES POLLUTING POWER, CONTRIBUTING TO GLOBAL WARMING. 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 or a simpler: 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 BEWARE! SMOGGY SERVER! 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0" Whiz has a fine idea, so let's extend his suggestion further. If one of his vile CO2 molecule ascii symbols represented one percent of the electricity I used to compose this heartening piece of Earth Day news, the result would look like this: Subject: Viridian Note 00062 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 * 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 While five years and five million dollars from now, it will radically improve to *this!* Subject: Viridian Note 28765 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 * * * * * 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 0=o=0 Still, it's surely better to light even one solar candle than to merely curse that black, oily darkness. Meanwhile, in national Earth Day news, the CO2 issue stumbles front and center in the gerontocratic green contingent: 04/18/99 1st leader to head 'Earth Day 2000' By Patrick McMahon, USA TODAY SEATTLE - It's an environmental back-to-the-future. The earnest student activist who was the national coordinator of the first Earth Day in 1970 is back for more. His project at age 54: "Earth Day 2000: New Energy for A New Era." "In 1990, we had on the order of 70 million people participating in Earth Day activities, and some 200 million worldwide," says Denis Hayes, now a foundation executive here. "We are confident that Earth Day 2000 is going to be bigger still." It is drawing support. "I think we can get people excited again," says environmental pioneer David Brower, 86. (((Yes people, that's right: Earth Day hippies are now million-year-old geezers. Hope the renewed excitement doesn't stop this fine old gentleman's heart.))) Earth Day campus organizer Ian Burke, 22, thinks "there are strong stirrings on college campuses" and predicts that college students will help "revitalize this movement that's gotten a little crusty after all these years." (((A *little* crusty? That guy is four times your age!))) Mitch Friedman, 35, a forest conservation leader in the Northwest, recalls being at the Earth Day 1990 celebration. (...) "You come to realize that while 'Earth Day everyday' is a nice idea, every decade or so it's powerful to get 10 million people in the street," Friedman says. (((Okay, I can only concur == in the Year 2000, any excuse to get 10 million people in the street is pretty much bound to be useful.))) The 2000 campaign - to be launched this week as part of 1999 Earth Day events - will focus on energy use and its connection to global warming. With a "clean energy agenda," organizers envision a month of lectures, rallies and concerts next April, culminating in what they hope will be the largest demonstration in history on Earth Day on Saturday, April 22, 2000. Clean, renewable energy use is "an issue with sweeping implications" in almost every area, Hayes says. "It's tough to find a better issue to rally around." ((('Largest demonstration in history?' Well, why not? It's 2000! Count me in!))) Bruce Sterling (bruces@well.com)