GLOBAL WARMING WILL BE A TOP ISSUE AT PEACE CORPS 40TH CONFERENCE
By Mike Tidwell (Zaire, 85-87)
     The growing crisis of global warming will be one of the top issues permeating activities at the 40th anniversary Peace Corps conference in Washington in September. A new alliance of RPCV environmental activists has secured approval to lobby Congress on this issue during the conference, conduct a prominent workshop on global warming, organize a writers' panel on climate change, and maintain an information booth with various literature and petitions related to the crisis.
     John Keeton, events chair for the conference, has worked closely with the newly formed RPCV Alliance on Global Warming to weave these activities into the conference agenda. So dire is the crisis, and so strong the special responsibility of RPCVs to respond, that Keeton has agreed to hold the Alliance's global warming workshop at the U.S. Department of Agriculture's main auditorium, the largest gathering spot reserved by the National Peace Corps Association for this three-day gathering. The workshop will feature testimonials from at least six RPCVs on the projected impacts of global warming on their countries of service. This will be followed by a discussion of the history and science of global warming and what RPCVs can do in their home communities to combat climate change.
     RPCV Jonathan Pearson, meanwhile, has worked hard getting global warming added to issues that will be presented to Congressional representatives during the conference's Lobby Day. (See Jonathan's report on this topic elsewhere in this newsletter.)
The information booth on global warming will be an especially useful resource, allowing conference attendees to gather important literature about the basics of global warming, the disproportionate impacts on developing nations, and the promising role of renewable energies in solving the problem.  As a demonstration project, the booth will be lit by light bulbs powered by on-site solar panels. 
     The writers' panel will feature several RPCVs with experience writing about environmental issues. One of the panel's goals is to inspire other budding writers to focus on the world's growing environmental crises, especially global warming.  (Mike Tidwell is a writer and founding member of the RPCV Alliance on Global Warming)

HOME ENERGY EFFICIENCY: HOW ONE RPCV HAS TAKEN A GIANT LEAP TO DEFEAT GLOBAL WARMING
      Earlier this year the UN-sponsored Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change projected the earth will warm between 2.4 and 10.2 degrees Fahrenheit by the year 2100. Even at the low end of that range, the warming will almost certainly bring serious social, agricultural and ecological disruptions to the planet. Higher-range warming could bring catastrophe to all living things on earth.
     What's driving most of the warming? The answer is straightfoward: Carbon dioxide, the bi-product gas created whenever coal, oil, or gas is burned. This means every time you drive your car, turn on a light switch in your house, heat your bath water or cook your dinner, you're contributing directly to what may be the greatest crisis human beings have ever faced.
     What can be done? Clearly, the world has to cease it's addiction to fossil fuels -- and do it soon. To re-stabilize the world's climate and stave off the worst impacts of global warming, most scientists say the present quantity of CO2 released into the atmosphere through human activity must be cut by 70-80 percent.
     Earlier this year, I took this goal as a personal challenge. To do our part to stop global warming, my wife Catherine and I pledged to cut our home CO2 budget by 70-80 percent. Sound impossible? Not at all. Here's how we did it.
* CONSERVATION: The very first step in combating global warming at home is to conserve energy wherever possible. Throughout our house, we already use compact flourescent light bulbs which use a quarter of the power of conventional incandescent bulbs. We also turn off lights in unoccupied rooms, dry our clothes outside on sunny days, mow our lawn with a fantastic old push reel mower, and save energy in a dozen other small and utterly painless ways. We've purchased a new Sears high-efficiency refrigerator which uses less than half the electricity of our previous, 10-year-old fridge.
* CORN-BURNING STOVE: I researched the issue and learned that about a third of American household energy use is devoted to heating and cooling the home. Since we already use ceiling fans exclusively in the summer, the obvious place to start our energy cuts was with our natural-gas furnace.  We burn a lot of gas heating our 90-year-old house in the winter, spending $200 per month in January and February alone.
Thankfully, last spring, I discovered a Minnesota company that manufactures an ingenious CO2-neutral corn-burning pot-belly stove that will easily heat our entire house, upstairs and down, for a fraction of the cost of natural gas. The stove, which will heat 2000 square feet, is certified as the most environmentally friendly home heating mechanism on the market by the EPA. It generates virtually zero net CO2, the main gas driving global warming, because the corn absorbs CO2 as it grows and then releases approximately the same amount as it burns.
The stove self-loads the corn kernels into the burner using an auger which is controlled by a thermostat. The stove stores 75 pounds of corn for self loading and the corn can be purchased at any feed store, the closest to my house being just 25 minutes away. With corn, we'll spend about a dollar a day heating our home, a savings so great over natural gas that the stove will pay for itself in just over two years. For more information check out the manufacturer's web site at www.magnumfireplace.com.
* SOLAR ELECTRICITY -- Okay, so we're warm in the winter without hurting the planet, now what about the lights? Our electricity here in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, DC comes from a coal burning plant, so something had to be done. The obvious answer was solar panels, but that's so expensive there was no way we could afford it. Right? Wrong. With just a little bit of research, I learned the state of Maryland offers a generous $3600 grant and a $2000 tax credit to anyone installing at least a one-kilowatt system of photovoltaic panels on their home roof. I applied for and was immediately approved for the grant and tax credit.
My local solar technician then helped me find another program, subsidized by the U.S. Department of Energy, offering highly discounted solar panels and the necessary inverter. Taking advantage of all of these program incentives, and installing many of the solar panels myself, we will by late August have a two-kilowatter solar system on our roof for a very inexpensive price. Best of all, this system will meet ALL of our electricity needs forever.
Call your state government to see if similar incentives exist where you live. Also, keep an eye open for federal incentives supposedly in the pipeline as part of the new Bush energy package.
SOLAR HOT WATER -- I got lucky on this one. My local solar technician sold me a used, six-year-old solar hot water system for a song. I helped him install it to bring the price down further. Now, on sunny days, all our hot water comes from the sun. Call a solar dealer near where you live to price out new systems. Many state governments offer grants and other incentives for solar hot-water systems. In many sunny states out west, the technology pays for itself in as little as four years.
THE BOTTOM LINE: Except for a smidgen of natural gas to cook our food and heat our water on cloudy days, my family will soon contribute NOTHING to global warming at home. But how much did all this cost us?  You'll be very surprised: Compact flourescent light bulbs: $300; New energy-efficient refrigerator: $500; Corn-burning stove: $2000; Solar-electric system: $3700; Solar hot water system: $1000. TOTAL: $7500
     Of course, I saved about $1200 installing some of this stuff myself, but clearly the price tag is utterly affordable for most middle class families. For a third of the price of an average new car, your family can make huge cuts in your home CO2 budget. Even if you just install flourescent bulbs, an energy-efficient fridge and a corn-burning stove, you'll almost certainly cut you household CO2 budget in half.
     As for my family, we went the whole way with no help from a rich relative. No uncle died allowing us to be self-indulgent technology nerds.  We've simply borrowed $7500 from the bank in the form of an equity loan, and will pay back approximately $175 per month. But by a VERY conservative estimate, we'll be saving an average of approximately $75 per month in energy costs, so all the investments will pay for themselves in no later than eight years.  After that, it's all profit.
     If we, a middle class family of two self-employed parents and a 4-year-old son, can pull this off with no help from anyone, employing only a little creativity and doing enough research to take advantage of great programs and technologies open to almost everyone right now, then you can do it too!