Sustainability Rally and VECAN Conference

The last few days have been just crammed with ... wow - great, bad, wonderful, horrible stuff.

Let's start with the highlights:
Vermont Energy and Climate Action Network (VECAN) conference at Vermont Technical College in Randolph. That was just awesome. I went to regional policy session first: not that interesting, but good to know, and meanwhile I found myself brainstorming about other things. Then I dialogued with a VTC prof with whom I'd been meaning to connect, Joan Hall-Richmond. We're both interested in engaging students in the weatherization process. She might also be interested in the Summer of Solutions program (which I'm not sure if I'll do yet).

Then I got to chat with Ken Jones, which was great (as usual), then a final session led by the "ethical consciousness director" for Seventh Generation, Gregor Barnum. There were other people presenting, but he was mainly the show. And he was really good - gosh, he was funny, but I enjoyed his presentation on the Low Carbon Diet workbook very much. I've already proposed doing it with my environmental Bible study group at St. Andrew's.

And finally instead of hearing another speaker I connected with Kimberly Hagen of VEEP (Vermont Energy Education Program?) so she's planning to come to my class to do some energy demonstrations, which I'm completely stoked about.

After the conference I went to a friends house for a potluck followed by a contra dance in Montpelier. And wow. I had never been to the one in Montpelier before, but it was packed with spectrum of ages: people my age, high school-aged folks, middle aged, and more gray-haired folk. It was also one of the few events that I've been to at which there were more men than women. *gasp!* Anyway, I had a ball - thanks for entertaining this paragraph of non-physics related material.

On Friday of the weekend I went to a rally with a bunch of (mostly) college kids, followed by hanging out with legislators and getting a feel for the up coming session and students were able to discuss issues they cared about. It was great.

So now... instead of relating the low points of the weekend, how about we'll frame it as things I've learned:

From the rally:
If I'm not in charge, I should not pick up other people's garbage.
Rely most heavily on adults rather than students to get things done.
I just need to be a confident leader and people will follow.
It's important to keep an open hand and let things evolve as they will evolve. I can't control outcomes.
Having friends around can help me breathe in the midst of chaos.

From the press:
Be careful about what you say to reporters.
Don't involve the media unless you really believe in what's happening.

From the aftermath of the article:
It's best to sweep up miscommunications right away so that feelings are not hurt.

If you'd like to read the article it's here (it had some less than bright implications about our relationship with the cafeteria).


Altogether I'd say it was a successful weekend even with all the madness with the media. We'll just chalk that up to my own education.

Church and Sustainability?

I'm afraid the simpler design for a bicycle generator is going to have to wait a bit because I've got something on my mind.

It seems to me that the church (yes, I admit I am a Christian and a physics geek simultaneously) is in the business of bringing life to the places which are dead and need healing. That's the essence of the Resurrection, no? Taking things which are broken, and mending them. Healing wounded things. Reconciling broken relationships. Healing is divine. All healing. "Self-healing" is a property of living things, and so I think that's one regard in which God is in us.

Anyway, the reason I bring this up is because church usually addresses certain kinds of broken relationships: God-humanity, human-human, human-his/her body. This is evident in the types of prayer requests that come up during a prayer meeting. "Pray for Billy Wood's surgery" (human-his body). "Pray for Susie's salvation" (God-humanity). "Pray for Judy's relationship with her boss" (human-human).

But you never hear prayers like "Pray for the reduction of invasive species in our area". Or "Pray for global climate change". At least in the churches I've been to, you just don't hear that. It's not normal. But what better to pray about? Somethings which we pray about it's easy to picture the solution, but global climate change seems inevitable and huge - something that only God could control, so it would be a perfect thing to take to God. He specializes in the impossible! :)

Just now... something has occurred to me. I was going to list here the ministries that churches normally support, which address different kinds of brokenness, but I'm realizing that there really aren't that many. I've heard of some churches doing racial reconciliation, and churches supporting homeless shelters, or crisis pregnancy centers, or doing jail ministries, collecting money for needy families, or even "deliverance ministries". But when I list ministries of the church, I think of "youth ministry" or "new moms". These are not so much ministries as they are clubs. Curious.

In any case, it seems to me that there's space to have some kind of an environmental reconciliation ministry through the church.

I'm not sure what that looks like, but I think it should happen. Suggestions welcome.
(Also, I have to blame Hal Colston of the Good News Garage for this idea).

Here are the things which St. Andrew's (my church) has either done or is planning right now.

1. Give away sample sizes of eco-friendly laundry detergent to college students to advertise our church, and hopefully start them on good soap-buying habits.

2. We're going to have a church service series on environmental stewardship where we invite Seventh Generation to come talk about their products and how we can be kinder to the earth. yay!


3. We don't print bulletins, so we can save paper. Nor do we have our own building so we save on the consumption that comes along with a new building.

4. We serve organic fair trade coffee as refreshments.

5. mmmm... we don't have a 5, but I feel like this stuff isn't enough. These are little things - "lead by example" type things, but we definitely need to be doing more. We've just got to invent it. (oh the future is exciting!)