Austin Coalition for Environmental Sustainability – ACES , Austin, MN

Press Release

For release: July 7, 2010

Contact:        Chad Burma Rydjor Bike Shop 433-7571

                         Mark Owens President A.C.E.S. 433-2735

                         Emily Croswell SHIP Coordinator 437-9971                      

 “Bike Walk” Week Comes to Austin

“Bike Walk” Week 2010 kicks off this summer, on Thursday, July 8 and continue thru Saturday, July 17 with more than a week of activities designed to have you peddling your wheels, moving your feet and swimming for fun. In addition to encouraging healthy lifestyles the events promote reducing your carbon footprint, by buying locally at Austin Area Farmers’ Market and learning how easy our bus system is by riding AMCAT buses on Wednesday July 14^th for free. 

A Bike Safety Day Camp with Austin Police Officers Mike Tischer and Todd Clennon will review the rules of the road, safe places to ride, and bike lock tips.  All who complete the free camp will receive a $10 gift certificate toward a helmet at Rydjor Bike and the first 400 participants receive a X-Strobe Reflector light.  Austin Medical Center (AMC) and YMCA have donated a YMCA membership for the participants’ drawing.  AMC also donated ten $25 gift certificates towards bike helmets – winners to be drawn from those who sign up at the events. Mary Nelson will teach participants how to properly fit their bike helmet. 

The Statewide Health Improvement Program (SHIP) along with Rydjor Bike Shop, Austin Coalition for Environmental Sustainability (A.C.E.S.), the City of Austin, YMCA, Early Childhood Initiative, Austin Public Library and Austin Medical Center are sponsoring this full week of special events. The planned events are:

*7/8 Thurs. Born Learning Event Mill Pond Playground. 1-3:00 PM – Fun for kids:  Zoomobile, crafts, activities and info.  Free to all.

 *7/8 Thurs.  3:30-5:30 PM & 7/16 Fri. 7-9 PM Free Open Swim- Austin Municipal pool. Come cool off in one of the coolest spots in Austin.  Free sunscreen to the first 100 to attend.

 *7/10 Sat. 12^th Annual Shooting Star Trail Ride  Adams City Park. 7:30 AM Routes: 4 miles (no charge), 19, 40, 60, or 100 miles.  Paid registration includes T-shirt. Pick up forms at Rydjor Bike.

 *7/10 Sat. Free Open Swim – Adams Community Pool. Noon – 5 PM and 7 – 9 PM

 *7/11 Sun. Family Bike Ride to Marcusen Park Mill Pond parking lot.  Meet 12:15 PM.  Enjoy the trails to Marcusen Park. Buy a ticket for an afternoon of amateur baseball! This game feature both of Austin’s Amateur Teams, the Austin Grey-hounds and the Austin Blue Sox.

 *7/12   Mon. & 7/17 Sat. Oak Park Mall Farmers Market 1301 18^th St. NW.  4 PM.  Park and walk – or – bike with baskets – saddle bags and bring home fresh, local food and goods.

 *7/14   Wed. Ride AMCAT “Free Day“ 7 AM to 5 PM.  Ride the AMCAT bus to see how the service works and give you one more reason to try them out.  Phone: 433-2379

 *7/15 Thurs. Bike Helmet Safety Fun AHS Cafeteria. 11- Noon or 1-2 PM.  With Mary Nelson – Bring your bike helmet and add reflective designs.

*7/15 Thurs. Bike Safety Day Camp AHS South Parking Lot. 12-2 or 2-4. With APD Officers Mike Tischer and Todd Clennon

 *7/15 Thurs.  Farmers Market Main and 1^st Ave NW. 4-6 PM (from Flaherty & Hastings to Knauers)

 Whether it’s biking to work, taking a leisurely weekend ride, or rolling to the grocery store, residents are making Austin a “Cool City” by bicycling, riding the bus and walking.  Be your own engine!  Participate in Austin’s Bike Walk Week.

Celebrate Earth Week 2010 flyer -( download pdf here)

(Note:  This event was held and is in the past)

Celebrate Earth Day – April 2010

Austin Coalition for Environmental Sustainability

A.C.E.S.

April 1-30 Switch & Save! Pick Up FREE CFLs at Austin Utilities.  Clip April’s Austin Utilities Newsletter Coupon and redeem at the utilities for a Compact Fluorescent Light bulb.  Return spent CFLs to be recycled.  Must be Austin Utilities residential customer.

April 7       Active Living Presentation –SHIP Presents - Nationally known, Motivational Speaker Mark Fenton. Southeast MN Statewide Health Improvement Program invites you to learn how to make a community more active. Sessions: Complete Streets, Blues Active Lifestyles. Held Rochester International Event Center Wednesday 9:30-3:30 lunch included. Call Emily Croswell 437-9771 or Deb McCullough 437-9783 to register.

April 8       Spruce Up Austin – Invites you to a free seminar. “Treating the Emerald Ash Borer and Green Yard Maintenance.”  Seminar held at Dolan’s Landscape – 6:30-7:30 p.m.

April 22 Earth Day – A.C.E.S. Spring Gala Luncheon Green Silent Action at 11:30am. Lunch 12:00pm includes: cranberry chicken salad on a croissant, bacon corn chowder or tomato basil soup and strawberry shortcake.  AHS Going Green Club pansies for sale.  Special Music by guest artist.  Tickets $15.  Reserve tickets (Only 110 available) by calling Dorothy Owens 437-2251.  At Jay C. Hormel Nature Center 11:30am to 1:30pm.

April 24     Community Pride Austin’s Spring Clean Up Day.  Call Park and Recreation to volunteer – 433-1881.  Meet at pool parking lot, N. Main Street, for clean up and recycling at Saturday 9:00 am-12:00 pm . Bring your reusable water bottle.

April 26     Conserve & Save Workshop – FREE Conserve & Save at Home Workshop. Learn common sense ways to decrease energy use and save money on utility bills. After class, sign up for a Conserve & Save House Call, a comprehensive energy audit program; a $300 value but workshop participants will pay $25, non workshop value $50. House Call includes: blower door test & installation of low-cost materials. Registration required call 612-335-5869 or 437-0822.  At JayC. Hormel Nature Center 7 – 9 p.m.

By Dr. Chandler Harrison Stevens

In the first 100 days of the new administration, what did we accomplish?

During his 2008 campaign, our new president said that we, the people, “are the change that we have been waiting for.” So what are we waiting for?

Let’s think back over these past 100 days or so to see what we have done so far about the two main issues that confront us — the economy and energy.

First, what changes did you make in regard to the current economic crisis?

We get conflicting advice — spend more in the short run versus save and invest more over the longer run. Keynesian economics suggests that the massive downturn we have experienced will only turn back in the other direction if we increase spending, both individually and collectively through government.

My family is fortunate never to have had much credit card debt. However, we now buy nearly everything via one credit card, in order to review all of our expenditures on a year-end analysis that we now get for a small charge.

That helps the ailing national bank that handles our credit card, since our larger monthly balances now give that bank a greater cash flow, even though we always pay promptly and never incur any exorbitant interest charges.

We are going to “spend to consume” the entire next small economic stimulus checks, which they say we’re about to get. Those stimulus checks will help replenish our checking account, which no longer, in this year of supposed economic recovery, will receive “minimum required distribution” payments from my wife’s and my IRA retirement accounts that are invested in mutual funds.

Because of the current economic crisis, the government made a one-year exception for 2009, in that we are not “required” this year to take those taxable distributions.

So we decided not to take those monthly payments from our IRAs and therefore will pay less taxes this year. To keep on “spending to consume” we will first spend those stimulus checks when they arrive, then dip into a savings account, but then gradually cut back on wasteful consumption as is needed in the longer run — both to avoid a repeat of this economic crisis and because, in the U.S., we consume 25 percent of the world’s resources for less than 5 percent of its population.

I have decided to join in the generally “conservative” effort to replace income taxes (and the IRS) with the “fair tax” — as much as 30 percent on all consumption.

Unlike sales taxes, this is not a regressive tax, in that every one would receive a monthly pre-bate by electronic funds transfer (increasing bank cash flows) to pay taxes for necessities. That could not be enacted before next year, at the earliest.

The first economic stimulus checks we received last year we did not spend to consume but rather invested in a renewable energy mutual fund within a new tax-free college education account that we set up for our six-year-old grandson.

We knew when we made that investment that the market was declining. It was like when we decided to buy the only stock we own, Hormel Foods, after all stock trading halted following the 9-11 attack in 2001 on the World Trade Center. We “patriotically” placed our order knowing that stock prices would decline; they did.

While Keynesian economics says we should consume more in the near term, investing in consumable energy (like we did then) is better for both now and later.

We (you and I) could invest in small wind turbines in backyards and solar shingles on rooftops, with pluggable hybrid cars in garages. We might not be able to do that though for another year or two, for technical and political reasons. The solar shingles and plug-in hybrids aren’t quite ready. Nor are local ordinances concerning erecting small wind turbines and zoning laws updated.

Nor are there sufficient state and national incentives — such as proposed new energy mortgage vouchers. That could all happen in 2010. If enough of us “go green” by retrofitting our homes and businesses, we could generate increasing amounts of our nation’s and even our world’s electricity from renewable energy sources — surely 20 percent by 2020, 30 percent by 2030, and perhaps nearly 100 percent by the next century.

Let’s do it!

In the meantime, I work as a volunteer for the Austin Coalition for Environmental Sustainability (A.C.E.S.) on Renewable Energy and Communication Green Teams. Last week (see http://co.net/aces/?p=236/) we proposed that 2010 be Earth Year.

Earth Year would occur once each decade — similar to the “revolution” that Thomas Jefferson suggested we have every 10 years.

“Yes we can” declare 2010 and 2020 to be Earth Years. What are we waiting for?

Dr. Chandler Harrison Stevens of Austin taught economics at MIT, served in the Massachusetts legislature as an independent and ran his own business. He invites feedback as mailto:CHStevens@smig.net

Published in the Post-Bulletin on 22 April 2009

By Chandler Harrison Stevens

Change from the “bottom” up — when you think of it, there is no other way to achieve “change.”  In this age of celebrity, it is all too tempting to focus upon who is on “top” — perhaps President Obama, whose 2008 campaign emphasized “change” — or maybe Rush Limbaugh, who makes a living as a conservative changing people’s minds about “change agents” such as Obama.   But, we are the ones who need to change.  As a cartoon character of the ’60s, Pogo, said:  “We have met the enemy and he is us.”

Decades end with what sounds like the next decade’s 1st year (e.g., the ‘00s end in 2010).  Cartoonist Walt Kelly in 1970, the end of the sixties decade, used Pogo’s quote on a poster for the 1st Earth Day on 22 April. For a change, write dates-before-months.

We, from the bottom up, clearly have as “top” priorities: the economy, energy and health care.   Whether on the left or the right or somewhere down the “radical middle,” we all seem to agree that those three broad issues are most important just now.   So why can we not agree on what to do?   Well, we really can do quite a bit if we stop focusing on the “top” and instead focus on what each of us, at the so-called “bottom,” can do!   Do we need to agree on specific changes we each need to make?   Of course, not.  We’re all different.

The Pogo-like slogan of this decade, the aughts, 2001-2010, to quote our President, is:
“We are the change we’ve been waiting for.”

In general, we pretty much agree that: “We need to spend more money now to avert a short-term depression, then save more money later to secure our long-term economic future. We need to consume less energy in order to reduce our oil imports and carbon emissions as well as our household expenses. We need to quit [Mr. President] smoking, lay off the Twinkies and avoid other risky behaviors that both damage our personal health and boost the costs of care that are ravaging the nation’s fiscal health.” (“How Obama is Using the Science of Change” by Michael Grunwald, Time, 13 Apr 2009, pp 28-32.)  Many pundits predict it will take another year, maybe even through 2010, to see if we are capable of achieving change — economically, ecologically and personally (regarding health and other habits).

Perhaps, from the bottom up — today, Earth Day, the 40th such Earth Day, after being conceived probably in late 1969 (do the math) near the end of the “political ’60s” — we should declare 2010 to be Earth Year.  We could have that practice continue by making the last year of each subsequent decade another Earth Year, which would end each future decade but intentionally begin a periodic “revolution” of the sort that Thomas Jefferson recommended occur about every 10 years.  So join the revolution!

Since you’re “different,” pick from below or make your own list of how/what to change. Better yet, before you read change-ideas from others below, jot down an idea here:

·      _______________________________________________

·      A cousin of a Minnesota Congressman writes, “My Earth Day suggestion is to evaluate everything you buy (or do) as to whether it contributes to creating a sustainable economy and lifting people out of poverty, or whether it is not sustainable and widens the gap between the poor and the wealthy.”

·      recycling, prayer

·      need medical changes – for all of us

·      Consume less.  This relates to buying “things,” accumulating “stuff,” and to the use of resources such as electricity, gas and water.

·      Eat healthy.  Eat less.  Eat wisely by educating oneself about the nutritional values of foods.

·      Become “energy independent” by mortgaging home installation of rooftop solar and a backyard small wind turbine, in combination with plug-in hybrid car(s), networked with other energy independents and local utility companies, by 2011.

·      Get government during 2009 to issue energy mortgage vouchers as incentives for homeowners to become energy independent, during Earth Year, 2010.

·      Live within your means.  Make a family budget and follow it.  Don’t live on credit cards — avoid debt.  Expect your government to do the same, within reason.

Now that you have seen change-ideas above, think of actions you might take during a first periodic, revolutionary year – next year, 2010, Earth Year #1 — at the end of the first of 10 decades of our 21st century, the first of 100 decades of our third millennium?  What actions might you take then to help save our economy, our ecology, our Earth, our democracy, your personal health and health of our planet?  Jot down still another idea.  Then share that idea via emailto:chstevens@smig.net

·      _______________________________________________

OR  please just give me your idea(s) here as a blog  COMMENT below, possibly to appear in a future newspaper column anonymously.

Also, feel free to revise the above article under your own byline to be published in your local newspaper between now and July 2009.  If you do happen to do that, then please say in a comment here in what newspaper and when that gets published.   Many thanks!  -harry

Austin Post Bulleten
4/9/2009
By Chandler Harrison Stevens

In 1948, George Orwell reversed the last two digits of that year to obtain the title for his book “1984,” in which he envisioned a top-down society manipulating individuals and families to do whatever “the State” wanted done.

In 1984, Apple Computer introduced in a TV commercial at that year’s Super Bowl a new Macintosh computer “for the rest of us” as a bottom-up answer to Orwell’s gloomy top-down prediction of what life might have been like in that year.

PCs, as well as Macs, have come a long way since then in producing bottom-up anti-Orwellian self-controlling information superhighways — the Internet, the World Wide Web, ubiquitous e-mail, electronic bulletin boards, online chat rooms, computer conferencing, blogs, secure electronic funds transfer and, recently, social networks such as Twitter, Facebook, My Space, etc.

These are online services through which alliances form coordinated efforts among individuals, families and neighborhoods from the bottom up; better to manipulate the top than to be manipulated by it. Old Orwellian fears of communism and socialism ring hollow as we now consider creating a “smart grid,” and for parallelism let’s put “smart medicine” under new energy and health reform initiatives.

By adding, in 1948, 36 years, Orwell looked ahead to 1984. Then, in 1984, by looking ahead another 36 years, we began constructing a “2020 vision” that is now becoming much clearer since we barely have one decade left until the year 2020. It is not unrealistic then to envision how the desired Smart Grid and Smart Medicine should look.

First of all, a smart grid should deliver global energy generated from renewable sources (such as wind, solar, geothermal, hydro, etc.) to as nearby local power users as possible, since electricity leaks during transmission and creates health hazards along the way.

The ultimate way to achieve “energy independence” — within any nation such as the United States — is to help families become “energy independent” by installing rooftop solar panels or even solar shingles along with backyard or, again, rooftop small wind turbines.

We can also achieve this goal with pluggable hybrid cars in garages to store excess generated electricity and to sell back to local utilities such power to avoid the need for expensive peak load sources such as dirty coal, dangerous nuclear power, or other large-scale concentrated energy sources burning fossil fuels. Or even by accessing more distant large wind farms and other sources of large scale power such as large river dams.

Thus, the smart grid needs to be similar to the Internet in involving many small family energy sources as well as large sources of electricity, for which the old obsolete grid was constructed nearly a century ago.

And, since global warming and wars fought over oil are clearly global rather than merely national issues, constructing such a smart grid from the bottom up rather than top-down is something that should concern all nations meeting in global summits. It would be naive to think that the current economic crisis could be resolved without resolving also the energy crisis.

Similarly, a bottom-up approach is needed for the medical information technology initiative that we have here dubbed “smart medicine.” First and foremost, patients and their families must have the ultimate control over how much information is shared and with whom. Electronic billing, electronic prescriptions, and electronically recorded diagnoses, of course, originate with doctors rather than with patients. Patients currently have the right to look at such information generated by doctors — but not immediately, as must soon become possible.

If this is a new era of personal responsibility, then we must all become responsible for our own health and the health of our planet. Bottom-up approaches to developing the smart grid and smart medicine will allow that. Don’t worry; Orwell would be pleased that we heeded his warning.

Chandler Harrison Stevens of Austin is a political activist and retired college professor.

By Mia Simpson | Austin Daily Herald

From carpools and energy audits to renewable remodeling and grant funding, all can take part in efforts to make Austin a “greener” community, according to members of the Austin Coalition for Sustainability, who hosted a community event Wednesday at City Hall that included local leaders from government, utilities and business.

“We just need to start,” ACES president Susan Hurm said, adding, “because we can make a big difference if we work together.” (Read the rest of this entry…)

Published by Austin Daily Herald staff, December 23, 2008

The Austin Coalition for Environmental Sustainability (ACES) recently awarded a free energy audit from Austin Utilities for an Austin couple.

The Allen and Kathy Toov household is saving more energy now, according to ACES. (Read the rest of this entry…)

In progress…

“Fraudulent global warming left wing nonsense” is how one Dialog07 respondent characterized his opposition when he voted on the third Media Ballot, which allowed him to express what he, no doubt, considers to be his right-wing views.  Yet the vast majority of 100 dialog voters online and 25 meeting at Hormel Nature Center on November 29th did not see this as a left-right issue, but one in which the radical middle agrees we need change from the bottom-up rather than by top-down actions of the traditional seats of political (& electrical) power.
(Read the rest of this entry…)

Imagine this.  You live in a home whose roof is covered with solar panels to generate electricity.  In your backyard there is a small wind power generator.  In your garage are two cars, one electric and the other a hybrid plug-in.  At night, when it is usually windier, your cars are plugged in and re-charged.  The sun, on sunny days, complements the wind in generating more than enough electricity needed in your home.
(Read the rest of this entry…)