Solar energy and HOPE

Raymond Kurzweil invented the synthesizer that Ray Charles and Eli Myers play. Eli was a member of Randy’s band The Concrete Frogs. Everyone knows Ray Charles. Kuzweil also invented the optical character reader which now is available for blind or poor sighted people to take pictures via your phone of the written word like the newspaper and it reads it to you via your Bluetooth. It also has a translator. So you can take a pic of that Italian menu and it’ll read it to you in English. My mother-in-law has macular degeneration and I thought this is just what she needs. It is available at Amazon.com for $1500. The universal translator is here for $1500! Who knew?

But the most exciting thing (to me) that Kurzweil is up to these days deals with solar energy and nanotechnology. Randy and I went to an event in downtown Winston-Salem, NC awhile back about a researcher at Wake Forest doing solar nanotechnology research to generate electricity. It was a more efficient than silica based solar panels.

As it happens, Mr. Kurzweil is also working on nanotechnology and solar energy and expects it to be ubiquitous in five years. FIVE YEARS!

Kurzweil said that we already have 10,000 times more sunlight than we would need to convert into electricity and serve the whole world. However, 1% of total energy we use comes from sunlight and wind. He also stated that we may be 5 years away from the point where solar power becomes efficient and competitive to fight fossil fuels.

“We also see an exponential progression in the use of solar energy,” he said. “It is doubling now every two years. Doubling every two years means multiplying by 1,000 in 20 years. At that rate we’ll meet 100 percent of our energy needs in 20 years.”

I am moving part my forlorn 401 K that has lost all hope to this investment! It can not do any worse and besides it gives me HOPE!

This past weekend, Randy and I attended our first Carolina Farm Stewardship Association annual conference in Anderson, SC near Clemson. CFSA envisions a regional food system that is good for the farmer, the consumer and the land. The professionalism of the group with many PhD researchers, business owners and professional farmers both within academia and the market place was inspiring. All food served was locally produced within a 50 mile radius with wonderful vegetables and  meats produced by farmers that respect the “pigginess of the pig” per keynote speaker Joel Salatin of Polyface Farms made famous in Michael Pollan’s Omnivore’s Dilemma.
 

We attended the event with the intention of finding a farm manager. Randy is interviewing for positions post graduate school and we are going to need help on the farm or turn the farm into a full time profitable enterprise. He found out Thursday afternoon as we were leaving for the conference that he has an interview as Director of Farming and Forestry with the Biofuels Center in Oxford, NC. http://www.biofuelscenter.org  Of course, I think he is perfect for the job.  But it made the trip to a sustainability conference all the more exciting and real!
 

Not only did we find potential help for the farm but we discovered so much more- a vibrant movement! As a result, we signed up for the Farm Incubator Program to become an educational farm to host a new graduate of one of the Sustainable Farmer Programs in the Carolinas and which will lease a parcel of land from us. Randy and his family will teach this new farmer how to do conventional farming but they are graduates from the new sustainable programs around the state and will teach us methods in organic farming. Very cool, eh?
 

Randy and I also found other crops we want to explore: mushrooms, specialty cut flowers and canola to make food grade oil for local restaurants to use and then contract with to pick up the used oil for delivery to the new biodiesel plant in Stokes County. It was a very creative group that inspired creative thought in us!
 

I also found that Organic farming is HARD! No wonder it costs so much!
 

On Friday, I attended an all day Organic Certification workshop put on by “Mr. Organic” himself, Jim Riddle. Jim was a founder of the Independent Organic Inspectors Association and currently serves as chair of the National Organic Standards Board.  Here is a synopsis of his
The constellation of organic values
1. Soil quality.
2. Water quality.
3. Farm safety.
4. Family.
5. Flavor.
6. Food quality.
7. Food safety.
a) Records.
b) Crop management.
c) Livestock management.
d) Process protection.
e) Residue tolerances.
8. Food security.
9. Health.
10. Biodiversity.
11. Genetic diversity.
12. Humane animal husbandry. 
13. Erosion control.
14. Carbon sequestration.
15. Traceability.
16. Farm income.
17. Rural communities.
18. Integrity
19. Spiritual needs
20. Understand life.
21. Work with nature.
22. Species survival.
23. Fun!

Organic Farming is rewarding but very different from conventional farming. We have a lot to learn! I can not wait to get our intern!
 

On Saturday, Randy and I attended “Taking Your CSA to the Next Level, hosted by Elisabeth Henderson of Peace Works CSA of Newark, New York. She has been doing this for over years. Organic vegetable production via a CSA is an advanced farm program. Certified Organic farmers go through a three year process to prove that their methods of production are certified organic.

These seminars helped us to decide that Medley Meadows will transition to organic practices and pursue organic certification with the help of our incubator intern. We definitely need help doing this.
 

In the mean time, while our farm is transitioning to organic certification and we get our intern settled in, we are looking into specialty cut flowers. I went to this workshop on Sunday morning. The Association of Specialty Cut Flower informs growers in the production and marketing of field and greenhouse cut flowers.  They provide information on growing techniques, marketing strategies, and new developments in the industry. By joining this organization, we will get to know the top researchers, retail and wholesale buyers, suppliers and other successful cut flower growers. We decided upon perennial cut flowers and spent the four hours driving home discussing where we would move the iris bed, where we would plant sun flowers, hydrangea, lily and peony, columbine and more butterfly bushes. We love flowers now not only for beauty but for profit too!

Last weekend I went to a retreat called “Seasons and Cycles” presented by Gloria Karpinski. It was about how to age gracefully. Since I turned 49 in August, thinking of turning 50 has been on my mind, lets say.

I was introduced to Gloria via Randy’s cousin a while back and together she and I had a lovely “Afternoon Tea with Gloria” at The Blessings Project in Winston-Salem, NC. But this retreat was two whole days. It was amazing! I learned that my resume is great but I have no clue about my spirit or body. It was a true YMCA moment, you know their theme, YMCA for the whole you- Body, Mind and Spirit?  Well anyway, I started working on my body back a month ago after going to the doctor and he reported I have borderline high cholesterol. So I was already on the South Beach Diet which I love. But my Spirit stuff needs some attention.

During my Climate Project preparation for my presentation to the Professional Women of Winston-Salem, I re-found a book I had read back in the 90’s “Women Who Run with Wolves” and used some of the archetypes of being a strong woman to go out and address the current issues facing our environment with bravery, boldness and the intuitiveness of a sleek beautiful wolf huntress. Somehow this image came up for me again this weekend at my retreat on aging gracefully. I also thought of the character in the musical Cats about the aging Grizabella. Below is an excerpt from that musical that touches me.

.......

Memory, all alone in the moonlight
I can smile at the old days
I was beautiful then
I remember the time I knew what happiness was
Let the memory live again

......

Sunlight, through the trees in summer
Endless masquerading
Like a flower as the dawn is breaking
The memory is fading

Touch me, it's so easy to leave me
All alone with the memory
Of my days in the sun
If you touch me you'll understand what happiness is
Look, a new day has begun

I loved the musical Cats and saw it with my wonderful friend Lida Sedgewick in London in 1998 and cried so much. It was beautiful.

But getting back to the wolf image and the battle within to become this sleek, intuitive wolf huntress- I came across a story taken from an old Cherokee tale that floored me when I read it. It is titled, “The Battle Within”. It is rather long, but the punch line is universal as the grandfather is talking to his grandson. Here, it has been updated to a modern world issue but it is a universal truth and can morph to your story.

 

A Native American grandfather was talking to his grandson about how he felt regarding the tragedy on Sept 11^th, 2001.

He said, “I feel as if I have two wolves fighting in my heart.  One wolf is the vengeful, angry, violent one.  The other wolf is the loving, compassionate one.”

The grandson asked him, “Which wolf will win the fight in your heart, grandfather?”

The grandfather answered, “The one I feed.”

The full story is here:
http://www.lakotawritings.com/The_Battle_Within.htm

So I am feeding my Spirit by reading Indian writings and Gloria’s books and meditating. I go for walks on the farm to get exercise. Nature is going to save me. And then we are back to the environment.

I think about it always and read about it and work for it in every spare minute it seems. I just finished and recommend “The Bridge at the Edge of the World” by James Gustave Speth subtitled “Capitalism, the Environment, and Crossing from Crisis to Sustainability.” In light of the financial crisis, it is SO very relevant.

So, I am aging as gracefully as I can.

This is my granny look as I was learning to play Texas Hold 'em from an 8 year old that beat the pants off me! Oh and I see my mother in this pic too which REALLY scares the bejesus outta me! Ha!

Peace to us all.

And all this got me to thinking about the new baseball stadium being built in Winston-Salem to replace Ernie Shore Field.  “Forget the history”, they say. They think we need to honor some new corporation and aid them in their advertising.  Those who forget the past will repeat it. There is a small community called East Bend that is struggling to revitalize itself with the burgeoning wine industry and there are a few vocal people there that would like for it to fail and have done everything they can to shut it down.

I think we need to keep the Ernie Shore historic connection alive and well and remember his legacy. It may be a stretch for some to think that I.C. Shore Distillery in a previous era is connected in any way to this era’s Flint Hill Vineyards in the small hamlet of East Bend. But I think East Bend and Winston-Salem   need to help keep Ernie Shore’s legacy alive so we do not forget the past and repeat it by letting a few people outweigh the economic viability of a new thriving wine industry.

Randy and I are reading Benazir Bhutto’s book “Reconciliation”. She was a moderate Muslim running for president of  Pakistan and fighting against radical Islam - she was a Muslim leader fighting against OUR enemy. Go figure. She was assassinated December 27, 2007 by radical Muslims just days before her book was published and before the Democratic vote in Pakistan. She was fighting radical IDEAS within Islam not Islam itself which was her very own religion. Christians can become terrorists too by becoming too radical.

05/15/07- Spray fungicides

The spray regimen for 2007 will be significantly altered versus that for a typical growing season due to problems associated with the freeze event of April 5 – 9. The freeze completely destroyed the substantial amount of green, growing vine tissue already visible. This necrotic tissue will eventually drop off but will harbor black rot and botrytis spores into the bloom period. It is import to aggressively manage this disease potential through a shorter spray interval and by incorporating a botrytis-specific fungicide such as Vangard into the tank mix. The recent extended dry weather will increase the likelihood of powdery mildew infections- powdery mildew sporulates during the mild, dry conditions typical of May in the Yadkin Valley. The period from now until just after bloom will be critical and growers should be diligent; monitoring weather conditions and leaf wetness to insure fungicides are applied in a timely manner.

05/16/07- Mowing row middles

Managing the vineyard floor may provide additional benefit toward controlling diseases at this critical time. Keeping the row middles mowed relatively close- 3 to 5 inches- will reduce drying time which is crucial to controlling such diseases as downy mildew, which spreads rapidly in warm, moist conditions.

05/17/07 – 05/18/07- Herbicide Vine Rows

Traditionally, vineyard floor management includes maintaining a weed-free strip app 3 ft wide underneath each vine row. Grapevines are poor competitors; young vines in particular may have difficulty during the establishment years if weeds are allowed to grow in the vine rows. A contact or burn-down type of herbicide is used such as Rely (Glyfosinate). Unlike Roundup and its cousins which are systemic in nature, contact herbicides only affect the tissues actually contacted by the chemical. There is no threat of systemic uptake into vine tissues which could kill translocate and kill the vine. While this practice has been around for some time, the trend may be moving away from chemical control of weeds for a number of reasons.

The chemical inputs involved in producing a crop of winegrapes are substantial. Concerns about the cumulative environmental impact over time are legitimate. Also, there is some- perhaps anecdotal- evidence that the constant reapplication of herbicides to the vine rows may eventually render the soil infertile; a concern for the grower as this is of course, the same soil occupied by the vine roots. Among the possible alternatives to chemical weed control are the use of perennial cover crops under the vines that do not compete for nutrients and are small enough to eliminate the need for mowing.

Cabernet Franc prior to herbicide application	Cabernet Franc one week after herbicide application	Cabernet Franc three weeks after herbicide application

05/19/07- Shoot Thinning Time Study

Shoot thinning may be particularly difficult this season due to the effects of the freeze. Vines have responded in one of two ways- shoot growth has been irregular and spotty leaving large unproductive areas on the cordons or vines have produced a plethora of shoots, many of which are not fruitful requiring a significant amount of thinning. Early estimates indicate the crop for 2007 may be reduced by as much as 50 %. The grower faces the difficult economic reality of production costs remaining constant in the face of 50% less income at harvest. Many may attempt to cut corners in an effort to reduce production costs where (if) possible. To obtain an accurate labor cost figure for shoot thinning the 2007 crop, I conducted a time trial in Cabernet Sauvignon vines.

51 vines were thinned in 80 minutes for a rate of 1.57 vines per minute. This was multiplied by 2650- the number of vines in the Medley Meadows vineyard. The projected total time to complete the job is 69.34 hours. Paying a five member crew a rate of $10.00 / hr. the projected labor cost for shoot thinning will be app $700.00.

After evaluating the above time study, I made the decision to hire a crew of 6 for one 9 hour day. Progress was exceptional, however there a 2 acres remaining to be thinned. Since I am currently in a situation where my personal time is available, I have elected to complete the job myself, hopefully in two full days.

As expected, Cabernet Sauvignon sustained the least damage from the freeze. Shoots were of a similar size any quantity as in a normal year. Due to the late bud break associated with Cabernet Sauvignon, and because of the delay in bud break owing to the freeze, I have to wonder if there will be sufficient ripening days before first frost to mature the crop. 

Cabernet Franc responded to the freeze in typical manner- vines produced a large quantity of unfruitful shoots in an effort to produce sufficient foliage for photosynthesis. This is a natural survival mechanism inherent in vinifera that although it helps protect against vines losses, the grower is left with precious little fruit in the current growing season. As stated earlier, this is the dilemma presented by the freeze of 2007- vines still require manual manipulations and spraying, yet theses costs may not be entirely offset due to the drastically reduced crop.

05/23/07- Tying Young Vines / Trellis Repair

In the Cabernet Sauvignon block of Vineyard Two training of young vines continues. These vines were hit particularly hard by the freeze and many require complete renewal up from the graft union. A handful of these vines have finally made it out along the cordon wire but for the most part the 150 or so vines will require yet another developmental season.

Wire staples continue to pop out in Vineyard Two. This is due to the use of an extremely short staple -3/4”- in the establishment phase. As these staples have worked loose they have been replaced by a more substantial 2” staple.

05/25/07- Spray Fungicides

The need for continued applications of fungicides persists. Even though the current drought conditions allow for longer intervals between sprays, nighttime lows in the low 60’s coupled with dry conditions necessitate prevention of powdery mildew infections. I continue to use sulfur as the material of choice for powdery mildew control. While sulfur applications at or above 90 degrees may be risky, with little or no fruit on the vines the fruit burning associated with applying sulfur at higher temperatures is minimized.

05/29/07- Meeting at Westbend Vineyards concerning the freeze event of 2007 and possible courses of action led by Dr. Turner Sutton and Dr. Sara Spayd, both of North Carolina State University

Attended by app 75 vineyard representatives the meeting approached the remainder of the 2007 growing season from two perspectives-

1)      How vineyard spray programs for 2007 will need to be modified

2)      What actions need to be taken during 2007 to facilitate vine recovery and insure their long term survival

Dr. Sutton addressed the need for continued fungicide applications in a program that may include reduced amounts of materials normally required to protect fruit. With many vineyards not cropping at all due to the complete destruction of primary and many secondary buds during the freeze a somewhat less expensive route might be taken dependant as always upon weather conditions.

If the current drought persists, Dr. Sutton suggested stretching the normal 10 day spray interval to 18-20 days. Sulfur and Mancozeb are the materials of choice- inexpensive with no threat of fungal resistance. Growers were reminded to be diligent in monitoring disease pressure as a sudden wet turn with humid nights can cause a virtual explosion of downy mildew. As mancozeb is applied prophylactically, this would possibly require the use of an eradicant material such as prophyt.

Regarding insect control, thrips are present in varying quantities in most vineyards. Damage to fruit can cause splitting and cracking late season. If you tap a cluster and one or two fall out, there should be no problem however, if a handful appears in your palm, control with a material such as Spintor at 6 – 8oz. / acre.

Dr. Spayd spoke to the issue of vine survival even going so far as to say the lack of fruit is the least of our worries. All the vineyards she has visited have some degree of wood damage. Vines may continue to die throughout the growing season as xylem and phloem tissues have both been compromised. Xylem- the water pipe- conducts water and other nutrients upward from the soil while phloem- the food pipe- carries simple sugars back to the roots. To cross section a shoot one would see the pith in the center surrounded by the xylem tubes with the phloem tubes comprising the next layer. Meristematic tissue creates xylem and phloem.

Dr. Spayd observed phloem damage almost immediately after the freeze however xylem damage has only now begun to surface. Shoots may suddenly whither and die and new shoots will be of a markedly different color, appearing pale and yellow instead of the normal healthy deep green. Growers were advised to watch Merlot in particular as this variety is quite sensitive to xylem damage. If one were to cross section a shoot the outer ring of tissue- the phloem, normally green will appear brown. Taking a pocket knife and scraping away the outer layer of bark from the trunk will reveal tissue that is dry, brown and callous if damaged versus the soft, almost cream-like feel of healthy vine tissues. All these problems are exacerbated by the current drought conditions that persist across much of the state.

Vines are already in a depleted, stressed state and the severe water shortage makes their recovery problematic. Young vines with undeveloped root systems which require as much as a gallon of water per day are most susceptible. For non-irrigated vineyards the outlook is grim. While one may be tempted to relieve vine stress with additional soil amendments, Dr. Spayd advised against it. “Whatever you do, do not apply nitrogen- it may speed up the shoot withering that most surely is around the corner if the drought continues. I realize the phosphorus can heel root systems but really, the main nutrient they need now is water”. Dr. Spayd further advised growers against aggressive shoot thinning, preferring that growers leave as much green tissue as possible until the extent of xylem damage is known. Also it is advisable to leave trunk suckers- shoots growing from the bottom of the trunk near the graft union- as this regrowth may be the only thing left with which to renew damaged vines for next season. In the face of these obstacles many are concerned about the lack of crop income for this any possibly subsequent seasons. Debbie Hamrick with the North Carolina Farm Bureau spoke to these concerns.

“There are 47 counties in North Carolina that have been declared disaster areas and may qualify for a portion of the small amount- 1.5 million nationally- of funding available which was approved last week as an add-on the Iraq war spending bill”. Particularly frustrating to many startup vineyards- and many established ones as well- is the stipulation placed on the disbursement of these funds requiring proof of federal crop loss protection insurance in order to qualify. Crop insurance for grapes has been an enigma in North Carolina with virtually no farm insurance agents being aware of it or how to underwrite such policies independently. A short search of the USDA RMA (Risk Management Administration) website confirmed that yes- crop insure is available in 2007 for grapes but offered little practical guidance on how to pursue purchasing it. I plan to call the farm service agency in Stokes County tomorrow.

The infancy of the grape industry in North Carolina and the neophyte nature of many who are interring into this risky endeavor was summarized brilliantly by the following exchange-

Grower- “Was there anything we could have done to prevent this”?

Dr. Spayd- “That’s agriculture; that’s farming. This is the nature of the beast”.

05/30/07- Assess Chardonnay for Wood Damage

Using Dr. Spayd’s methodology for determining the extent of wood damage I started in the Chardonnay block as it was the most severely impacted by the effects of the freeze. The results were discouraging.

As Sara predicted, virtually all vines in the block showed at least some amount of damage to the permanent wood. In the photos the bark has been sliced away with a small knife and the tissue examined for brown outer layers and for a dry, callous texture. In the next series of photos a typical vine in the block is shown, which exhibits large blank areas along the permanent wood or cordon. Since there are several good shoots available near the head of the vine the decision was made to cut off the afflicted cordon with the intention of using one of the good shoots near the head for renewal. I will wait until further into the growing season when these shoots begin to lignify before tying one down to the fruiting wire.

05/31/07- Shoot Positioning, Cabernet Sauvignon

Cabernet Sauvignon currently shows the least damage- I say currently due to Dr. Spayd’s prediction that the current drought would continue to exacerbate the effects of xylem tissue damage. In response I have elected to keep shoot thinning to a minimum, retaining more shoots than normal in the event shoots with xylem damage begin to wither.

A disadvantage of a permanent catch wire system is graphically illustrated here. Since one cannot remove the wires all shoot positioning must be done by hand. Shoot positioning accomplishes several goals, among them gaining maximum sunlight exposure for the developing fruit as well as allowing for sunlight to fall on next years potential fruiting bud locations. Minimal shoot thinning was performed in order to open the canopy for good air flow, thereby lessening disease pressure.

• Justin Sane – Life, Love and the Pursuit of Happiness

• Anti-Flag – For Blood and Empire, Terror State

• Pink – I’m Not Dead

• Sum 41 – All Killer No Filler

• Good Charlotte –  The Young and the Hopeless, The Anthem, The Chronicles of Life and Death

• Green Day – American Idiot

• Simple Plan – Still Not Gettin’ Any – Crazy
  

SIMPLE PLAN LYRICS
"Crazy"

Tell me what's wrong with society
When everywhere I look, I see
Young girls dying to be on TV
They won't stop till they've reached their dreams

Diet pills, surgery
Photoshopped pictures in magazines
Telling them how they should be
It doesn't make sense to me

Is everybody going crazy?
Is anybody gonna save me?
Can anybody tell me what's going on?
Tell me what's going on?
If you open your eyes
You'll see that something is wrong

I guess things are not how they used to be
There's no more normal families
Parents act like enemies
Making kids feel like it's World War III

No one cares, no one's there
I guess we're all just too damn busy
And money's our first priority
It doesn't make sense to me

Is everybody going crazy?
Is anybody gonna save me?
Can anybody tell me what's going on?
Tell me what's going on?
If you open your eyes
You'll see that something is wrong

Is everybody going crazy?
Is everybody going crazy?

Tell me what's wrong with society
When everywhere I look I see
Rich guys driving big SUVs
While kids are starving in the streets

No one cares
No one likes to share
I guess life's unfair

Is everybody going crazy?
Is anybody gonna save me?
Can anybody tell me what's going on?
Tell me what's going on?
If you open your eyes
You'll see that something, something is wrong

Is everybody going crazy?
Can anybody tell me what's going on?
Tell me what's going on?
If you open your eyes
You'll see that something is wrong

==============================================================

This was originally my husband’s gig. He is a singer songwriter and was selected as part of the Soul Cafe’s music series. When Frank Newsome, the director, asked me to come along and speak before Randy’s performed, Randy and I worked up an Eco-Folk presentation. At each table, I distributed several solutions form. I presented the “Oprah” 40 minute version of the slide show, and afterward asked people to answer two questions:

1)      What are your fears for yourself, your family and your community regarding global warming?

2)      What gives you hope?

I asked Dianna’s conservative grandmother to read Dianna’s fears. “I am afraid of world chaos and that we’re all going to die,” was what Dianna had written. This was powerful if a bit staged. I said, “Kids are afraid.” I wish I had added “and we’re supposed to be the adults.” Dianna got up and spoke at this point and laid into this conservative crowd in a gentle but forceful way. “Why are there so many people still driving SUV’s?” You could hear the moans in the crowd. I tried to get control of the situation and asked someone else to read what fears they had. An elderly woman stood up and said she was afraid it was too late to do anything, that we had waited too long to get started. At this point I went through the part of the lecture-“We have the technology to stop the increase of green house gases now. We just need the political will to do it. We are a government for the people, by the people. We have to get involved. Get involved!” Then we took a break. People mingled, got more coffee and talked to Randy and I.

After a bout 15 minutes, Randy started into his music set and it was a splendid follow-up. He incorporated a wonderful Indian Brave rite-of–passage story as his opener for his own song “Unconditional Love” that had the crowd in tears. It was a magical evening if emotionally draining!

I gave Dianna my card but have not heard from her yet.

Global Warming is a tough topic and I could tell some of the girls were “shell shocked”. Annie Joyce was my helper and she walked back across campus afterward to help carry my things to my car. She even said so that she was shocked by some of the information.

Several of the girls asked questions about the food supply and medical issues since they were in food science and nursing. One of the girls father is the Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer John B. Hess of Hess Oil and understandably so, she is a global warming denier. When I gave my Kyoto agreement analogy about how each person on the planet gets a set amount of air and water and that’s all the planet can sustain, she spoke up and said, ‘Because of our economy, we need more than other countries.”  My pat response is not cuddly when I hear this. My pat response is, “How arrogant.” She was of course taken aback. But I won her and the rest of the girls over by the end of the lecture. The girls asked intelligent and insightful questions. This knowledge is a burden and encourages action. They were especially concerned about the polar bears and we talked about the litigation from the NRDC to get them onto the endangered species list.

Since Alpha Delta Pi helps the Ronald MacDonald House as their charity, I asked Annie to see about replacing all their lighting with the new CFC lights.  They are going to work toward “greening” the Ronald MacDonald house in Winston-Salem, NC.

25 students

Dr. Peter Meyers, Director
The Honors Program
N. C. A&T State University
322 Marteena Hall
1601 East Market St.
Greensboro, NC  27411
e-mail: peterm@ncat.edu
Tel:  (336) 285-2030
Fax:  (336) 256-2468

The pre-lecture reading addresses several basic issues:
1]  Can technology fix this problem? 
2]  How does the theory of the "Tragedy of the Commons" apply to Global Warming"  This would also be a way for students to see how they unwittingly contribute to it.
3]  The recent Supreme Court ruling on the EPA's role in limiting harmful emissions
4]  The impact of global warming on the developing world.  I also have a selections of readers' comments on this, many of which show how divided the public is on this issue.
 

Reading for April 11, 2007
1]   Alvin Weinberg, “Can Technology Replace Social Engineering?” in Eric Katz, Andrew Light, and  William Thompson (eds.), Controlling Technology, 2nd edition (Amherst, N: 2003), pp. 109-116.

      2]   Matthew Wald, “In a test of capturing Carbon Dioxide, Perhaps a way to temper global warming,” New York Times, March 15, 2007.

      3]   “Taming fossil fuels,” New York Times, March 17, 2007.

4]   Garrett Hardin, “The Tragedy of the Commons,” in Morton Winston and Ralph Edelbach (eds.), Society, Ethics, and Technology, 3rd edition (Belmont, CA: 2006), pp. 309-318.

      5]   Thomas L. Friedman, “How Many Scientists?” New York Times, March 28, 2007

      6]   Felicity Barringer, “Ruling undermines lawsuits opposing emissions controls,” New York Times, April 3, 2007.

      7]   Linda Greenhouse, “Justices say E.P.A. has power to act on harmful gases,” New York Times, April 3, 2007.

      8]   Andrew Revkin, “Poor nations to bear brunt as world warms,” New York Times, April 1, 2007.

      9]   Andrew Revkin, “The climate divide: reports from four fronts in the war on warming,” New York Times, April 3, 2007.

      10] A Reader Forum on Climate Change.  This is a brief selection of the wide range of reader responses to the two Revkin articles listed above.  See if you agree with the opinions expressed by the readers. 

Log on to http://carbonfund.org/site/pages/calculator/ and try to estimate your carbon footprint.

==============================================================

April 13, 2007

Hi Vivan.
I wanted to thank you for your great presentation at my class on Wednesday.  Students got a lot out of it and were especially impressed by your commitment to the "cause."  I hope you other presentations go just as well.
Yours,
Peter

==============================================================

            During the prior week, I listened to a two hour conference call from The Empowerment Institute. From this training, I decided to write two questions on the board before the students arrived:
1)      What fears do you have for yourself, your family and your community regarding global warming?
2)      What gives you hope?
 

At each person’s seat was placed a solutions handout, my card and an “Answer the Call” sticker.  I gave the 40 minute “Oprah” version of the slide show and the afterward asked each person to write their response to the question on the back of their solutions sheet. I told them to think about it and write coherently because they were going to have to pass it to the left and share it with their neighbor.  Also, if they had a family member such as a child they had in mind, I asked them to write that person’s name into the sentence. 
 

At random, I asked one person to read a response. It went something like, “I am afraid my little boy Aaron will  not be able to enjoy hiking and the outdoors like we do now when he grows up.”  I asked several others to share their neighbor’s fear with the group. It was so simple and so effective. I told them that by sharing our fears, we diminished its power over us and it bound us as a community. From there the questions and ideas just burst. One student spoke up and asked. “How come the V W which got 60 MPG back in the 60’s wasn’t around any longer and that someone should refurbish all of those old cars and retrofit them for bio-fuel.” I told him to do it. Why not? Capitalism and environmentalism must work together in this new paradigm. Go for it! Start your own business. He was truly excited at the thought of it and said he LOVED to work on cars.
One of the students, a High School History teacher asked me to speak at his class May 14. I was not  available and posted a message to our NC TCP group and Peter Olson stepped up to do it.

This was an amazing experience.

The Adventures in Learning series was well attended this day with about 100 retirees attending 4 tracks of day long one hour lectures on various topics ranging from Middle Eastern society, Environmental Awareness to Pilates. I was invited to speak to this group by our friends, retired Wake Forest Anthropologist Dr. Tony Layng and his wife Donna. They are very active in their 70’s and my husband and I met them playing tennis at the Wake Forest indoor tennis center. Tony and Donna were also the ones that invited us to take a Peace Bus to DC to protest the Iraq war.

I set up in the impressive board room of Salemtowne’s community center. There were about 25 people in attendance gathered around the long board room table and along the walls of the room. I presented the 40 minute version of the slide show that I created using the notes posted that recanted The Oprah Winfrey Show slide show version. Afterward I had many questions. I assumed correctly that there would be retirees from RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company there. I was displaced during the KKR buyout of RJR and incorporated the tobacco lobbyist reference into my talk but not into the slides. I am very careful doing this saying, “I worked on the Joe Camel promotional system and was part of the PAC when I worked there. Mr. Jim Johnston, the former RJR CEO was part of our Old North State Winegrowers Cooperative. I understand the mind numbing duality of making your living from a product the world is against, and should be. But people change. I know I have.”

A retired RJR Asian woman research scientist asked, “What are governmental plans for the impending disasters and what other GHG do we need to consider.” I mentioned that FEMA is the best disaster relief organization in the world and we saw how badly they handled Katrina. Governments are not ready and this is why it will cost us less in human lives and GDP to do more about GW now rather than later. I brought up the Alaskan government’s predicament involved in moving small villages which cost millions of dollars better spent someplace else if they did not have this inconvenient GW. Regarding the other GHG, I mentioned methane and how covering landfills to trap methane as an alternative fuel was a double good whammy in that it reduced two GHG at least if not more by displacing some quantity of CO2 that would ultimately have been burned instead of the methane and also the net loss of the methane that would have gone into the atmosphere as a GHG had it not been captured. I also mentioned that we eat too much meat. If we could cut our meat consumption in half, we and the planet would be healthier. Rainforest are being cleared to provide grazing space for cattle which is a negative double whammy because cows give off lots of methane (they fart a lot, I said and got a good shared embarrassed laugh) and the trees are no longer there to absorb the excess CO2.

One question was, “What happened to you to get “The Religion” regarding wanting to proselytize about Global Warming?” This being the south and my being from the south, I understood this to be a compliment and not a stab. Religious lingo is commonplace in the south. I pulled out Dr. Seuss’s “The Larax”. I told them to buy this book for their grandchildren and make sure they talked to their grandchildren about nature to instill that sense of awe. This was how I started, as a 'wee child'. I think if we instill a love - a true love of nature- one can not help but want to take care and be appreciative of all that we have been given. I told them the micro and macro solution action items. I only printed 10 copies of my solutions hand out and needed many more. I did have enough surveys to give out but only got 6 back. They were all positive. I really enjoyed speaking to this group of caring retirees. It made my day!
 

The Piedmont Club could be described as the hob-knob place for the movers and shakers of Winston-Salem. My tennis partner’s husband is the United Way director for Forsyth County and he dines there with the CEO’s of his major contributors: Wachovia Bank, RJ Reynolds, Sara Lee, Hanes, etc.

I set up the slide show as per Al Gore’s show which he used on the Oprah Show since I only had 30 minutes to speak. I set up my projector, computer, screen and materials at 7 AM that morning before going to work which is only a couple of blocks away. I placed my Climate Project calling card and a “Call to Action” sticker at each place setting.

Things were going great until I started getting heckling with statements like “This is garbage science”, “But I read in the papers that Antarctic ice is increasing”, “We’re never getting those ugly wind machines up on our mountains”.  I ignored him and stayed on track until I got to the Three-Misconceptions-Slide. By then my blood pressure was as high as the decibel level of my voice. I added sound effects- “Isn’t there disagreement among scientists about whether the problem is real or not?” like the sound made during a TV game show- “nnnnnnnngh WRONG! There are ZERO REAL scientists that disagree!!!!,” and I punctuated it with the shape of a big “O” with my fist pointing at my heckler. I was so angry because he would not shut up. But I pressed on to a standing ovation. I think his club mates were embarrassed for him. Afterward, people were looking at the books I brought – US Climate Change studies and other literature I had bought. I handed out the surveys.

And that was it. The best thing that happened out of all of it is I made connections at the Piedmont Club. I had lunch with the membership committee chair on Friday and joined the club to use as my place to make my future presentations. We are organizing an event for the Professional Women’s Forum which meets at the club for me to speak to them in the fall as a joint event with the Wine Club since my husband and I are winegrape growers. She hopes it will be well attended. But in the mean time, I can use the lovely meeting facilities to host any other talks. I tentatively have a meeting with the Sierra Club’s cool cities group to make a joint presentation to the City of Winston-Salem. This would be an ideal location to host that event.
 

In order to spread the word about the global warming crisis, I set up a vendor booth along with about twenty five other vendors showing their wine industry wares at the North Carolina Winegrowers Association annual meeting.  For my booth, I created three talking point posters.
One large three panel poster was the centerpiece with twenty slides from the movie “An Inconvenient Truth” titled “The Climate Project”. I set up a flat panel monitor with AIT slide show on automatic. On the second poster board, in order to draw people, were beautiful photographs of our vineyard in each season: spring, summer, fall and winter. As people walked by, I could see the quizzical look on their face. I told them I was not selling anything but asked, “Did they know today was National Arbor Day?” I had them come closer to look at the third poster with the hardiness zone map changes I downloaded from www.arborday.com that shows the U.S. hardiness zone changes from 1990 to 2006. Also on this poster I showed a classic viticulturist zone map of grape varietals by zone broken down by growing degree days which is the heat summation of the growing season. I showed our vineyard’s 2006 GGD and how we are on the verge of heating up too much. I then said, “If we continue to increase heat summation the next 16 years in the same fashion that we have the last 16 years, the Yadkin Valley will no longer be a viable wine region.”
The reactions varied.  There were winegrowers at higher elevations that were not worried. However, after I moved to the second poster on which I used 25 slides from the AIT slide show, I segued into the other problems with global warming – more vineyard damage from stronger hurricanes, tornados, soil moisture decline and increased pressure of infectious diseases from insect vectors not dying out because of less frost days. Dr. Turner Sutton, a pierces disease researcher at NCSU was very interested. He pressed me to tell him what we could do about it.
On the back of a third poster, I dramatically turned it over and said we had to turn over a new leaf. It contained a NC Green Power application and information from NCSU “Database of State Incentives for Renewables and Efficiency”. I explained that my goal is to make the Yadkin Valley AVA the first carbon-neutral wine region in the world. I said, “What a marketing plan, eh?” As the day went on, two other professors, Dr. Grant Holder and Dr. Lucian Georgescu said they would help write a grant requesting funds for Yadkin Valley wineries to achieve this goal.   
One reporter, Rebel Goode, the editor of “One the Vine” at yadkinvalley.com, talked to me at length and wants to do a story for the next issue. I think I was well received. I have a lot of follow-up work!

2007 Events

Body

First thing was Randy and I started working out with a trainer at a local gym. This is going to be great. I actually have a body under all this flab. It felt so good to at least get started. My tennis is coming along very good too. We won the fall USTA 3.0 women’s league handily. I also got back in on the permanent slot at Wake indoors on Wednesdays through the winter. Body beware, here I come!

Mind

With my first big project under my wings at my new job, I took a vacation day to go to the Zig Ziglar Motivational Seminar in Charlotte with a close republican friend. She and I love to rib each other with nasty political jokes. The seminar had all the great Republican’s though and it was awesome – former Mayor Rudolph Juliani, George Foremen, former Secretary of State, General Colin Powell.- all were very motivating, awesome human beings! Even if they are Republicans.

Soul

Then the song “Oh My Soul” hit me sideways on the day before my period and I cried and cried the tears of release. It was a great Saturday to Saturday week!

Here are the words to the song and a link to the artist:

Kabir’s Song, from ANAND by Snatam Kaur

This song is inspired by words of Kabir ji, found in the Siri Guru Granth Sahib page 327. The words were composed by Livtar Singh Khalsa, Ganja Bhajan Kaur, and Snatam Kaur Khalsa.

Oh my soul, you come you go

Through the paths of time and space.

In useless play you’ll not find the way

So set yourself and go.

Sing such a song with all you life

You will never have to sing again.

Love such a one with all your heart

You will never need to love again.

Walk such a path with all your faith

You will never have to wander again.

Give yourself to such a Guru

You will never have to seek again.

Pray such a prayer with all your soul

You will never have to pray again.

Die such a death at the feet of God

You will never have to die again.

Breathe my love, breathe my love,

Breathe in the quiet center.

Be sure to allow the Active X control to play.

http://kindredspirits.ws/snatamkaur/