Reading about the sun ... and the rain and a lot of other things

Environmental Defense has just put out its new 2007 Summer Reading List, which includes a lot of oldies back to Silent Spring. They want to know which has been the most influential book on the environment. Use the list as inspiration, and vote in their list.
Certainly The Silent Spring was an enormous jolt in its time. I think now, Al Gore's movie An Inconvenient Truth provided the biggest earthquake recently in environmental awareness.

I was so inspired by last year's reading list that I took it over last summer and added a few more to it. I thank their staffers for their inspiration!

I have a little Squidoo blog heifer/bonsol, which has links to a lot of these books (way at the bottom.) If you happen to buy one through those links, a little contribution is made to Heifer International.

Helping people save money with solar

Bonnie with our 27 FRAs
Originally uploaded by bonbayel.

I've spent a couple of days recently at Home Shows telling people about how they can save on their electric bill (and incidentally also save the world - which is not their greatest interest) using the sun to provide the power for their homes.

The Los Angeles Home and Garden Show was in the Convention Center, next to the Staples Center, where we've seen both the Lakers basketball team and the Dixy Chicks. Unfortunately, it is several blocks from downtown LA, so I had to walk forever to find a "decent" lunch at a Subway, since all the food they had at the Show was hotdogs and hamburgers and coffee from thermos jugs!

At the same time, there were the beginnings of the big Wind Power convention, which started the next day. I would have loved going to that, since I worked for a while for the Danish Vestas Wind Systems, and own stock in the company as well. They are the largest (or have been) wind mill company in the world.

On Sunday I was at the Pomona Home and Backyard Show, which was held in 2 buildings at the Los Angeles County Fairgrounds (aka the Fairplex.) The same weekend there were RV, boat and other shows, so there were a lot of people, music and food available.

We would ask people if they would like to save money on their electric bill...by renting our solar panels. An amazing number of people actually said they liked paying their bill the way it is. A number of people figured out right away that we were doing solar - no-brainer, actually, when they see our great banners - and said they'd already been talking with someone about it, but it was too expensive. So then we emphasized the work "renting" one more time, and they stopped in their tracks (except for the ones who think renting can't possibly be as good as owning.)

We told them how our CEO decided it was about time there were solar panels on all those wonderful, but empty, south-facing roofs, and tried to figure out how to do it so everyone could afford it. Sort of like cell-phones, or cable - installation is free and you pay monthly for the priviledge of having the panels on your roof.

About 30 people each place thought that as a great idea, and signed up on the spot. Others gave us contact information, and many walked away with flyers and business cards. Unfortunately the latter get stuffed into bags with information about saunas, hot tubs and new windows. But maybe someday they'll pull them out and look at the website!

Our Regional Sales Directors, Jason Rodriguez and Steve Gates, have been in the solar installation business for several years, but they signed up with Citizenre because they were frustrated that home owners couldn't afford their products. Jason arranged the LA Show for us, and Steve the Pomona show, paying for the booth, and providing the great banners, tables, etc. Two or three of us then signed on for each day, where they were there to help us and train the new ones. At the end of the day we pooled our signed Forward Rental Agreements.

Afterwards we enter the new customers' data in our website, and print off pages to send to the corporate office and to the customers. I also had several names to call to follow up, which is also usually a good experience!

It really is a sunny experience helping people get solar!

Cherry Blossoms

Cherry Blossoms.

I spent the middle weeks of May in Maine, enjoying a northern spring time. It was delightful to see how much the sun makes a difference where you can't always count on it!

Mom and Dad look forward to the days the weather is good, so they can go out on their porch for lunch.

A new sun on the political horizon

I was getting pretty depressed about the Democratic candidates, because they all seem to have relegated environmental issues to a back burner, which was confirmed by an email from Environmental Defense today:

Partisan politics -- Global warming is quickly emerging as a top issue on the campaign trail. Some political operatives are advising candidates to delay action to maximize the impact of this issue in the presidential contest. As each party maneuvers to claim ownership over climate action, the net effect could be no action at all.

But then I also got an email today from the Chris Dodd for President Campaign. It looks like we do have sun in the polical sky. He is running on a strong platform that Energy Independence and fighting Global Warming together are the most important issue facing us at this time.

But whether he can get his message across and into the media is another question. Dennis Kucinich, who has a lot of good ideas himself, is relegated to the media swamplands, and even John Edwards, who also is not afraid to mention the environment, isn't making much headway against Hillary and Obama in the media.

We have to put them there.

Sun cloud play off Waikiki

Sun cloud play off Waikiki
Originally uploaded by pelleb.

Pelle sent me this as a birthday card. It reminds me of the Baroque Shadow and Light paintings.

It certainly suggests a greater being shining its light down on us. Or rather, giving light to us to guide our way, and provide us energy and food.

Waimanalo Bay

Waimanalo Bay
Originally uploaded by pelleb.

My son took this picture at about 4 pm, so it qualifies for one of the incredible pictures of sun coming in under the clouds in late afternoon. It has a 3-D quality about it and appears luminescent!

I can't think of anything much to say about it, except that the beach reminds me of what will happen with rising sea levels and the ocean warms up. At least the volcanic islands of Hawaii rise so steeply that they will still be around for a long while, but the beach might be gone before I get a chance to visit it.

Certainly the coral reef islands are in much greater danger of flooding, and the reefs themselves are bleaching as the sea gets warmer and the tiny animals that inhabit them can no longer live under those conditions,

But it's nicer to dream about lying on the beach!

Golden Pipes

Golden Pipes
Originally uploaded by Chris Inside.

I found this picture of St Joseph Catholic Church in Macon, Georgia (by Chris Inside,) while browsing Flickr pictures. The sun can also provide uplifting inspiration shining through stained glass, or coming in low under clouds in the late afternoon, when everything takes on a golden shimmer.

The sun also provides life by raising our spirits. All that sun-bred food isn't enough to sustain us. We need food for the spirit, too. Now I'm not religious exactly, but I am sure that I would feel some sort of exultation viewing this window in the sunlight.

I remember several years ago when we had experienced several days of gloomy weather ("June gloom" maybe, which seems to have moved up to May this year.) We finally got the idea that we could drive up the mountain and through the clouds to the sun, which we did. It was amazing how our grumpiness melted away under the glorious blue sky!