Washblog

Back in 79 Jimmy Carter was saying these same things.  Now how can we have a President devoted to taking us off carbon dependency 28 years ago and still be where we are today?

The media destroyed Carter's image in order to defend the oil companies.

A poster my roomate put up back in 79 said it all:

Coal?  Coal would be a great alternative energy source.  We control all the coal plants.

Nuclear?  Nuclear would be a great alternative energy source.  We control all the nuclear plants.

Solar?  Solar would be a great alternative energy source.  We control all the, um, SOLAR WON'T WORK!!!

Meanwhile, my apartment manager was busily taking us off the grid and putting us on solar.  All 49 units in the complex he owned.  Back in 1979 when even then we were being told it wouldn't work.  We lived up here in the NW and never had to go back on the grid despite all the rain and clouds.

It worked all the way back then.

So why don't we have it?  Why are we STILL beholden to the oil companies?  Why are we fighting in Iraq?

Corporate greed.  Corporate control of our nations resources, of what's rightfully YOURS AND MINE.

from the SCALLOPs website :

Over the past couple years, local sustainability groups have been sprouting up all over Puget Sound, as neighbors join up to take action locally for the sake of our planet. This spring, a few of us got together to compare notes, and ended up launching SCALLOPS - a consortium of 35 "Sustainable Communities ALL Over Puget Sound."

At the Sustainable Solstice Festival, 16 SCALLOPS "delegates" are meeting publicly to share successes, troubleshoot challenges, and get inspiration and ideas from each other. JOIN US! Be a part of making your community more sustainable - connect with your local group, or learn how to start one!

And from   Cultural Change this excerpt:
Sail transport and Puget Sound's SCALLOPS network
Written by Jan Lundberg
(with contributions by Fulvio Casali, Paul Flowers, Dan Bednarz, and Vic Opperman)
Culture Change Letter #165 - September 1, 2007

In the waters around Seattle, Washington, three dozen communities are enriching their bioregion with a common vision of sustainability -- despite
the pressures of corporate globalization dominating almost everyone's life.  This new vision is being coupled with the resurgence of sailing, with an eye to the tempestuous horizon promising the unprecedented effects of peak
oil and global heating.

With faith in both humanity and renewable-energy powered sails, an historic movement is getting off the ground in the Puget Sound. The group called
Sustainable Ballard had already advanced green initiatives in their Ballard neighborhood northwest of downtown Seattle, gaining the attention of Al Gore. After much success in its four years of organizing, the group has an
offspring that seems destined to become far bigger than the parent: SCALLOPS - Sustainable Communities All Over Puget Sound.

It was born out of frustration
with anti-war activity when the U.S. and Britain invaded Iraq. During this
time, the founders were also aware of peak oil and climate change. Seeing
the futility of attacking a negative (the executive branch across the
continent) without offering an alternative, Sustainable Ballard's founders
-- Vic Opperman, David Wright, and Erica Jones -- decided to focus their
energy on rallying people around positive solutions to our oil-dependent,
global-heating lifestyle.

As an example of the projects spawned by Sustainable Ballard, the whole town of Seattle has been turned on to local food supply issues. On Aug. 4, 2007 a local daily paper paid front-page attention to Sustainable Ballard's "100 Mile Diet."

As people take the challenge, they get to know their local food sources while increasing awareness of the dangerous syndrome of "blueberries in winter" that Matt Simmons, petroleum-industry investment banker, has decried.

'Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them? ~ Abraham Lincoln