Appalachia
-- Science in the Public Interest
Working for healthy land and sustainable communities in Kentucky and Central
Appalachia.
Appalachia
-- Science in the Public Interest
Working for healthy land and sustainable communities in Kentucky and Central
Appalachia.
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A-SPI is a 501-3(c) Non-Profit
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Winter, 2002 Number 70
ASPI's Nature Center project is beginning to shape up despite the fact that other projects are constantly jumping in front of it and demanding attention. In December we received a grant to produce a video to promote the center to schools, churches and other organizations. An expected grant will allow us to improve the quality of the Center's exhibits by gifts from existing institutions and through commercial sources. We are actively seeking additional funding to start phase III of our financial plan by the end of this year and be ready to launch phase IV in 2003.
This Phase IV involves hiring a part-time Nature Center coordinator who will maintain displays and develop new educational programming such as the Rockcastle River Ramblers. This would consist of a pilot project involving local middle school-aged kids and focuses on non-point source pollution in the Rockcastle River drainage, e.g., educational programs, clean-ups and stream restorations, and one or two canoe trip/campouts during the year for relationship building and as a reward for their hard work during the rest of the year. We hope our emerging Nature Center program can be replicated in other areas of Appalachia.
On New Year's Eve our long-time associate Jerry Waddle died suddenly. At the graveside memorial on the cemetery overlooking his beloved Rockcastle River friends and relatives were reminded of Jerry's immense contributions since Air Force retirement -- starting Rockcastle River Rebirth; helping form the Kentucky Waterways Alliance; speaking to 15,000 school kids on the need to preserve the forest and watersheds; taking water samples as part of the Kentucky Waterwatch program; leading River Cleanup Days; organizing Rockcastle Canoe floats for a dozen River Days; being guest on two Earth Healing videotapes; helping to stop destruction by loggers of the Wildcat Mountain Battle site; initiating the first lawsuit of the Governor over cleaning up solid waste dumps; speaking out on numerous environmental issues and numerous other activities of which we are unaware. ASPI will miss him.
Added Note: The winter season is the time of good wishes and donations but also we become aware of the passing away of friends. We remember in prayers and condolences the following past supporters not previously mentioned: Anna Mary Harris (OH), Louise Perraut (KY), Jesse Lang (NJ), and Carol Bernstein Ferry (NY). Also we have received numerous memorials in honor of two supporters -- Lee Hirschberg (OH) and Paul Rothkrug (CA) who died during 2001.
January 26, 2002. Installment of a primary photovoltaic solar unit on the new WOBZ-TV station near London, Kentucky, the first such partly solar energy station in Appalachia. This is a part of the 2002 Kentucky Solar Partnerships Program. Come and participate in the installation.
February 12, 2002. Talk at Owensboro to Pennyrile Sierra Chapter and local colleges.
February 20-23, 2002. Earth Healing videotaping at Greenprints: Sustainable Communities by Design at Atlanta, GA.
March 15, 2002. Kentucky Utility and Louisville Gas & Electric Pilot Net Metering Tariff becomes effective. This means that residences and businesses in KU or LG&E territory can now install solar, wind, or micro- hydro systems that backfeed their utility meter. Contact your utility company representative for more information.
April 20, 2002. Installment of photovoltaic units at the Cranks Creek Survival Center in southeastern Harlan County, Kentucky as part of the KSP Program. All are invited to come and participate. The center is located near Cranks and is one mile to the north of U.S. 421 on state highway 568.
December was our third best month in 2001 for the quantity of our organic produce. From our raised bed garden in Mt. Vernon we enjoyed Japanese radishes, turnips, mustard, kale, Swiss chard, carrots, Chinese cabbage, salsify, parsley, dill, onions and garlic. From the solar greenhouse we also harvested tomatoes well into January. For the year 2001 we had a somewhat disappointing 992 pounds (due to summer and fall drought). Winter is the beginning of the new growing year. According to old European traditions one awakens the apple trees during the 12th night of Christmas, so we start the New Year with important January activities including planning and buying seeds for the upcoming garden season.
Carbondale Connections -- Professor Laura Murphy and research team at Southern Illinois University received leaf extracts from Eric Watson and Jack Kieffer in November. These extracts are showing the same cancer cell retarding activity as do the organic wild ginseng roots which are being furnished by Syl Yunker.
ASPI Technical Papers now available at $2.00 plus $1 P&H --TP 62 Herb growing in Appalachia with materials by Ilse Ackermann TP 63 ASPI's Solar Electric Car by Joshua Bills TP 66 Ginseng Siting Using GIS/GPS Techniques by Dan Bond Earth Healing Programs. In 2002 the ASPI-weekly produced weekly television show on WOBZ-tv continues at the Saturday night prime time location as the longest running show in south central Kentucky. Among new television programs have been two on solar energy (Solar Carports, and Installing Solar Path Lighting, Cooperative Farming Techniques in Tennessee, Co-housing in the South, Wetland Restoration as a Virginia High School Project, Green Housing Practices, and Grading of Ginseng with Ginger Shelby.
How should we process the events of 2001, especially after the September attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon attack? Many Americans favor an atmosphere of charged militancy and avowed determination to get Osama bin Laden dead or alive. These prefer to follow the Bush Administration and paint good and evil in very graphic terms. Some do not dare allow opposing views since their cause is clear and righteous. Do not allow the brave fire fighters in New York or the passengers who resisted the terrorists over the fields of Pennsylvania to die in vain. So this sentiment of the patriotic majority is heard throughout the land in lecture halls, pulpits and over the airwaves. The current President has reached an astounding approval rating of 92%, which even FDR did not equal. Certainly, September 11th has become a defining event both for Americans and others throughout the world. It is the war of the 21st century and many respond that they are partners in this struggle.
Anglo-American Invincibility. Was September 11th, as many of these patriots have suggested, analogous to the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 when Hawaii was still a distant territory? We can't deny that the well planned 2001 strike at the heart of our financial and military capitals (neither precisely in Washington, DC) has had a devastating effect on our American complacency and concepts of security just as did Pearl Harbor. We have been going to bed each night with the assurance that the military might of unconquered America will protect us and last forever. It is true the British marched on the U.S. capital less than 200 years ago in the War of 1812. But that was sort of a family quarrel among English speaking cousins. Significantly, foreign troops have not marched on our cousins' capital at London for about 950 years. Looked at this way, Americans and British have been in the ascendancy for almost a millennium.
Realistic View. Is rather September 11th closer to the sack of Rome on August 24, 410 -- the first time a foreign army had marched on the streets of Rome in 800 years? The crushing of an illusion of Anglo-American and Roman greatness is comparable. Obviously Osama bin Laden is no Alaric. He is perhaps equally as opportunistic, but the methods are as different as the Minutemen versus the marching British units in the spring of 1775. The present day terrorist are street smart and they seem to know how to make maximum impact on their enemies.
Watch and Listen. We need to take lessons from history and open our eyes and ears to what terrorists are saying and doing. First, they profess to oppose American policies such as the bombings of Iraq and the death of many innocent citizens; second, they consider the occupation of Saudi Arabian air bases by American forces to be a desecration of their sacred homeland and shrines; and lastly, they have a deep dislike for the American materialistic patterns of life which they regard as undermining their Moslem culture. They regard current "American" imperialism as encompassing global military and economic power and are committed to confronting it by all the means possible.
Knowing History. A minority of us Americans would take a far more critical view of an overemphasis on high or unsustainable technologies than the majority. For us, the highly subsidized non- renewable energy economy is simply unsustainable and cannot be secured by any amount of military power. Are we willing as a people to face up to this unsustainability, to the softness in our way of living, and to the flimsy state of the global networks we are trying to construct which are so susceptible to computer viruses? Are we aware that over concentration of power or wealth in the hands of a few (the haves versus the have-nots) is simply the ingredient of upcoming disaster? Do we ever care to see the inherent similarities between our own time and that of Rome in the fifth century A.D. i.e., huge military expenditures, large corporate farms, administrative breakdown? And finally, do we realize that today, well-placed monkey wrenches can mess up a very fragile communications or transportation system? The Osama bin Laden gang knows more than many Americans through practical experience, simple living techniques, and being willing to die for certain causes.
Grand Delusion. Immediately following the Attack, one person lamented on the radio "What will I tell my children?" The answer is simple -- Tell them the truth; tell it gently; tell it lovingly, but tell them that we are a vulnerable people, even more so with our over dependence on high technology. Tell them the well publicized reasons why others hate the American culture. Tell them that terrorists do not want to play Western games any more than our Minutemen played by the British rules of war etiquette in 1775. Tell them that the consent of the world's people is needed for a highly complex economic system to work and still preserve democracy. Tell them how it took more to stop a pony express service than a modern postal service. Tell them that street smart people with a little organization can do immense damage to a complex and vulnerable technology -- and terrorists know this. Tell them the world cannot continue to exist divided between the haves and the have-nots, especially since the have-nots are realizing their power. Tell them that these modern barbarians at the gates are most likely not going away too soon in the 21st century.
The Need for Soul-Searching. We need to do as much soul searching as flag waving. This conflict is not pure good versus pure evil, but the terror attacks are a way otherwise powerless people get their point across. From their own admission it was unfortunate that their struggle involves collateral damage in the thousands of lives. A super patriot may argue "love it or leave it" and provide the firepower to assist the terrorist departure. The ingredients are right for a new McCarthyism with its distrust and fear. Maybe our American materialistic ways and our own forms of terrorism -- to Central American countries, to the environment, to the poor in this world -- have encouraged other terrorist attacks, and we now reap the whirlwind. We have placed security in the wrong places and forgotten that all security is found in the motto "In God we Trust."
Appropriate Technology is a key to protecting our vulnerable democracy and nation. We cannot gain this illusive security that we so desire by clamping down on civil liberties or extending a corporate globalization scheme to the rest of the world. Certainly we rest far more secure with a decentralized economy, with solar and wind power installations working in numerous locations throughout the nation, with solar powered vehicles instead of those demanding oil from the Middle East, and with a conservation- conscious public. In fact, if we desire to be true patriots we ought to endorse appropriate technology in all its forms, while we pray together "In God we Trust."
Reflection and Memories. On that bright and glorious
September eleventh morning Syl Yunker (a Kentucky ginseng grower who worked
with us to promote "virtually wild ginseng") and I drove about 350 miles to
Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, Illinois. We were to consult with
Professor Laura Murphy on her cancer research project which was using Syl's
ginseng roots. Also attending was our friend, Professor Frank Shaw, chair
of the Eastern Kentucky University Chemistry Department, who was passing through
after lecturing in Illinois. Frank was generously offering the resources of
his laboratories for analytical work on ginseng. We learned of the Attack
on America as soon as we arrived having drove without a radio on after the
early news. While we had an intense early afternoon discussion on cancer research
using ginseng, the Attack was really on our minds. The entire seven hour trip
back that afternoon and evening was taken up with NPR news accounts. Like
many Americans this was to be a day I would long remember.
finis
THANK YOUS (from 9/19 to 12/31/2001 in the order received)
to Gene & Joan Wilhelm (library materials & equipment), Patricia Hoover, Richard & Barbara Simmons & Staff of St. Bernard, Geneva Morgan, Jane Rector Donaldson, Mary Pat Hill, Ann Magner, Marikay Boles, Francie Link, Edith Kearfott, Thomas & Jill Walton, Donna Goebeler, Anton Prange, Nancy Conrad Evans, Rev. Mike Lenz, Michele Handelman, Bruce Griffith, Dana Wildsmith, Paula Hays, Julie Rodolph, Betsy Olson, Lyle Starr, Cynthia Helkenn, Gretchen Shaffer, Daniela Handelman, Lilian Lawrence, Steve & Laura Harmeyer, Patricia Watlington, Dan & Gay Moffitt, Esther Kieffer, Anita Crofts, Allen & Elizabeth Burdett III, Judith McCandless & Grady Clay, Kathi Beerbohm, Thomas Brudenell, Laurie Webb, Jim Storm, Sherri Amos, Casey Sterr, Fred Schwerer, Dawn Ramsay, Gena Krueger, Rose Mary Foncree, Beth Grendahl, Judy Helton, Nancy Jackson, Charlotte Pyle, Mary M. Morgan, Paula Ferrenburg, Ray Dunkelberg, Elizabeth Legum, Charles & Joy Perry, Jerryanne & James Bier, James & Hildegard Wachob, June & Phillip Allen, W.R. & Virginia Kingsolver, Greg Schuler, Judson Cramer, Clare McBrien, Stephen & Susan Kute, Joseph T. Netherland, Ed Lammert & Maynard Tetreault, Maggie Brandt, Gregory & Ruth Maletta, Charles & Janet Lake, Richard & Michelle Harr, Barbara Holt, Richard Austin & Anne Leibig, Danny McKinney, Colin Raitiere, William M. Andrews, Orie & Elinor Loucks, Eric Matchette, Myrtle Hendrickson, Patricia Perraut, Bill Haas, SJ, Don & Rosemary Thielke, Murray & Grace Brenner, Nancy Jackson, James Zeller, Kris Peterson, Richard & Brunhilde Liebes, Bob Hoover, Wayne & Shirley Davis, Jane A. Spear, Mary Wickston, Richard Murphy, Carl Callenbach, David & Ethyl Merrick, Burton V. Barnes, Judith Effron, Ruth Fort, Margaret Gorey, Sam & Margie Lynd, Phillip & Linda Pfeiffer, Lilian Lawrence, Emil Posavac, William & Julia McBee, Paul OžKeefe Buterbaugh, Katherine Christensen, Joe Cramer, Gary Whitehead, Andy & Janet Ingraham Dwyer, Claire Carpenter, Fr. Jim Miller/St.Patrick Parish, Rev. Arthur Redmond, Bill & Dorothy Harmeyer, Donna Hanley, Nick & Julie Schnitzer, Beldon & Louise Paulson, Roger Frisch, Bruce Molholt, Edward Harris, Ruben Angel, Jerry Redden, Marilyn Cleveland, Joan Davison, Dr. & Mrs. Albert Kohn, Delbert & Ruth Shirley, Christopher & Della Oberst, Paul Hollenbach, Art & Carola Clark, Anita Brelage, Joan Gallenstein, Dan Shine, Sr. Leanne Herda, Chris & David Nadler, Roger & Stacy Campbell, Barry Howard, William Shallenberger, Karen Bakita, Valeria Wolff, Sisters of St. Benedict, Chad & Carol Jackson, Tom Vogelsang, Patricia Mundt, Jim & Katie Brausch, Henrietta Gobal, Richard & Jane Frank, David Schmenk, Anna Mae Riggle, Sharon Fradenburgh & Joseph Taylor, Charles & Rachelle Hollander, Ralph & Else Dowdy, Leah Aasen, Ursuline Sisters of Mount Saint Joseph, Christopher & Carole Pierce, John Cleveland, Ralph McCaslin, Betty Johnson, Leonard & Donna Wrona, Robert & Mary Ann McDonald, Hesperia Bevan, Jack Vetter, Kenneth & Virginia Smith, Tom & Linda Green, Kristy Higgs, Frank & Mary Nahser, Imogene Margison, Lena Cramer, Karen Aubrey, Sr. Alice Retzner, Helen Latour, John Hawes, Rosemary Corsetti, Arnold Simonse, Renate Craine-Sutterlin, Mary Dunning, Royal Graves, Mary Kelly, Marion Mitchell, Sr. Aloysia Schumacher, Jennie Davis, John Florian, Marshall Saufley, Carole Russell, Barbara Wetula, Tom & Carol French-Corbett, Lynn Chong, Richard Jentgen, Lucille Farrar, Claire Farnsworth, Aldine Rubenstein, Sr. Lucinda Mareck, Sara Darrock, Virginia Polanski, Mary Lou Eitzman, Beverly Bunnell, Connie Schmitt, Barbara Spicer, Ruben Angel, Mary Montgomery, Robert Mushaben, David & Becky Grandgeorge, Patti Staton, Thomas Widner, Pauline Reeser, Karen Valentine, Rose Marie Muzika, Cindy Jelinek, Susanne Fountain, Holly Holyk, Missie Carrigan, Betsy Crofts, Tricia Pace, Barbara Hellenga, Davee Setzer, Peg & Rich LaMartina, Lynne Moody, Helen Harms, June Tosh, Catherine Cameron, David Hinchen, Tim Lee, Kate Campbell, Carl Todd, Donald Newton, John Brazner, Robert Foster, David & Betty Lollis, Kim Reynolds, Andy McMahon, Herb Petitjean, Marge Rakow, Jane Thompson, Elaine Masover Potts, Glenda Keyes, Karen Silfvast, Allene Long, Richard & Lucy Henigham, Russ Tucker, Margaret & Charles Hollowell, John & Diana Carroll, Amy Rynell, Robert Harris, Sr. Loretto Driscoll, Sr. Marie Gangwish, Larry Osborne & Angelina Carpenter,Chuck Hines, John Ambagis, Joe & Kathleen Kennedy, James & Debra Weber, Betsy Bennett, Meg Moore, Becky Czarnik, John & Dorothy Tohill, Mary Dresser, Tecie Bauman, Elizabeth Olson, Ardell OžNeal, Edward Rogers, John Meents, Leonard Levine, Norma Allen, Raphael & Eleanor Edwards, Gregory & Ruth Botvinik, Scott Persons, Kate Larken, Richard Wemstrom, Linda Ewald, Mary E. 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Albert Ruschman, Greg & Kathleen Harmeyer, Ian Rudick, Richard & Elaine Stoltzfus, Robert & Mary Byrd Davis, Everett Brooks, Veronica Ries, Connie Schmitt, Ed & Dorothy Singer, Joseph & Dottie Farrell, Cathy & Ihor Hlohowskyj, Jerry & Penny Clark, Colleen Fogarty, Lisa Schmidt, Mimi StoutLeonard, Ella Jacobs, Margit Berman, Mary Ellen Neill, Jim & Heather Bartos,Patty Kipps, William Bole, Jim Clark, Susan Nachazel, Beth Davies, Twila Colley, Joe Steen, Chris OžConnor, Sharon Shannon, Marge Cipkar,Mary Templeton, Robert Beaudoin, Eddie Schmid, Eric Rohr, Sr. Catherine Reichenberg, Kath Birmingham, Karol Osborne, Francis Main, Leslie Smith, Chris Klug, Celeste Wojcik, Patrice Emmerson, Richart & Barbara Blewett, Kristin Shrader-Frechette, Wes Jackson, Marilyn Pilmaier, Alex Lee, Stuart Butler, Miriam Therese Mac Gillis/Genesis Farm, Mother Paula Seiple/Holy Redeemer Monastery, Ruth Kalin, Hedi Kaufman, Adam Rothkrug, Tom & Lois Smith, Rebecca Glasscock, Neal Smith, Ellen OžBryan, Diane Roche, Kit & Ev Pilgrim, Nancy Stein, Charles & Mary Janet OžNeill, Patricia Wolf, Angela Showalter, Ronald & Mary Beth Lusby, Gertrude Jaggie, Linda Boggs, Ernest Spittler, Faith Wright, Kasey Moulton, Mr. & Mrs, Richard L. Smith, Robert & Debra Ross, Gilbert & Margaret Switala, Charlie & Kathy Fritsch,William H. Martin, Phil & Mary Stern, Paul OžBrien, SJ, Robert & Roberta Guthrie, Beth Dotson Brown, Barbara Blecka, Daniel Knight & Virginia Carrigan,Mary Goodwyn, John Patterson, Ben Atkins, Doug & Pat Macneal, Ralph Nader, John Preston, Louise Chawla, Donal & Mary Parks, Roger & Arleta Hommes, Don Pratt, Jerry Hardt, John P. Rogers, Woody & Carol Bartlett, Nancy Osborne, Barry Horowitz, Paul & Ann Rapien, Terrie & Philip Curd, Mary M. Morgan, Margaret Selby, Joy Crosby, Dean Hill Rivkin, Audrey Sorrento, Brenda Evans, Elizabeth Churchill, Brien Brennan, Frank Ettensohn, Rustum Roy & Kathleen Mourant/Incogniti Trust, James & Carol Lichtenberg, William & Barbara Boeck, Claire Nader/Safety Systems Foundation, Phyllis Fitzgerald, John McClaughry, Gwen Hall, Angela Cox, Kurt Keljo, Stephen Rhodes, Paul Gade & Martha Moore, Alan Okagaki, Terri Hogan, Mary Durkin, Mike & Donna Eisenstat, Theresa Cross, Marjory Donn, Betty Graham, Margaret Hay, Lisa French, Kedi Kaufman Susan Ludwig, Jake Wright, Joan Kay Yeager, Suzanne Smith, Penny Yarman, J.D. Wulfhorst, Paul Kapczuk, Nelson Belizariao, Jennifer Van Alstine Steve Swanback, Martha Dillingham, John & Jean Rosenberg, Barbara Blecka, Anna Belle Day, Leslie Wood, Martin Albert, Mary Ann Lambert, Joe Cayen, Rob Brown, Rev. Pamela Tinnin, Janet Berkenbach, Cathy Faulstich, to the over seven thousand purchasers of our Simple Lifestyle Calendars, and to the sixty institutions and individuals who became Kentucky Solar Partners.
ASPI is still focusing on obtaining display materials for our Nature Center such as dried plants and other materials (flora, fauna, rock or other specimens). We ask again for scientific, nature and appropriate technology periodicals and books.
Appalachia -- Science in the Public Interest
(Main Office, ASPI Publications, AGF Conferences)
50 Lair Street, Mount Vernon, KY 40456-9806
Phone (606) 256-0077 FAX (606) 256-2779
email:aspi@kih.net
ASPI (Appropriate Technology Demonstration Center,
Appalachian Sustainable Forest Center)
Route 5, Box 423, Livingston, KY 40445-9506
Phone & FAX (606) 453-2105;
Jack Kieffer (606) 453-3211;
Mark Spencer (606) 453-2026.
ASPI Web Site: http://www.a-spi.org/