What have you done for Planet Earth lately?
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Inspiration on the agenda for September's Sierra Summit
There'll be something for everybody when Sierra Club holds its first national convention at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco for four days in September. All Sierra Club members are encouraged to attend-either as an official delegate or as an interested participant.
Why a Sierra Summit? The 3,000 members expected to flood San Francisco will send a strong message that the environmental movement is healthy and robust. Full Sierra Club grassroots representation is expected.
News and Notes
Full-time position at Angeles Chapter
We have an immediate opening for Chapter Coordinator. This position handles the daily administrative functions of the Chapter office, with strong emphasis on financial record keeping. The successful candidate will have at least two years experience in general office administration; proficiency with computer programs, including Word, Excel, and Access; database management experience; working knowledge of Quick Books Pro is preferable.
Surplus of books on oil's decline
The Party's Over: Oil, War and the Fate of Industrial Societies, by Richard Heinberg (Gabriola Island, BC: New Society Publishers, 2003). Available from www.musletter.com. Written for undergraduates as well as the general public, The Party's Over is the best single read on the coming oil crisis. World oil production will peak between 2006-2015, then slowly decline. However, world demand for oil will continue to grow as countries industrialize and automobile use increases.
Banquet promises cut-loose party for Chapter members
Pull out your environmentally friendly décolletage, your super-macho tight jeans, and a throw-caution-to-the-wind attitude and come party with the Sierra Club at the annual Chapter Awards Banquet.
Passages
Muir Dawson, 1922-2005
Muir Dawson, one of the Angeles Chapter's longest-term members and a staunch supporter of the Chapter History Committee, passed away in February.
Renewables impractical? Tell that to the rest of the world
Many energy companies, as well as the Bush administration, are very fond of telling us that renewable energy may be an option...20 or 40 years from now. Much of the rest of the world, however, is not adhering to this timetable. Wind power already supplies 5 percent of Europe's residential electricity demand, and wind and solar energy generating capacity worldwide are skyrocketing.
Europe
Nuclear power: Industry's rabbit in the hat
The Bush administration's refusal to deal with global warming seems inexplicable. Rising oceans and temperatures, after all, do not selectively spare Republicans, Texans, or oil executives.
But they are not baffled, puzzled, or stymied. They are simply keeping quiet about their plans. These originate in the 2001 President's Task Force on Energy (the one whose records Cheney still hasn't released to Congress).
Forest campaign intensifies as final management plans near
Sierra Club Regional Representative
Our local national forests, so often taken for granted, are in trouble. As people build more and more houses, businesses, and roads around and even on the forests, wildlife and their habitat continue to decline. Increasing numbers of motorcycles in the back country and commercial demands to slice the forests with highways, power lines, and even hydroelectric dams complete the picture of forests in crisis.
