A List of Environmental and Telecommunications Events and Issues

November 7 to November 14, 1997







Published, Edited and Written by George Mokray for
Information Ecologies
218 Franklin St #3
Cambridge, MA 02139
(617)661-2676
gmoke@world.std.com

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Listings

Saturday, November 8

7:30 am - 4:30 pm
Volunteers to Build a Bike Path Bridge Over the Neponset River - postponed until next November 15 and 16

Second Nature 1997 Northeast Regional Workshop on Education for Sustainability
contact 292-7771, workshops@2nature.org, or http://www.2nature.org
Trinity Conference Center Cornwall, CT

1 pm - 5 pm
Radio Free Allston (106.1 FM) - responding to the FCC
contact 562-0828, improviz@gis.net or http://www.tiac.net/users/error/radiofreeallston/
107 Brighton Ave, Allston

Sunday, November 9

Second Nature 1997 Northeast Regional Workshop on Education for Sustainability
contact 292-7771, workshops@2nature.org, or http://www.2nature.org
Trinity Conference Center Cornwall, CT

Monday, November 10

Day of Action in Remembrance of Ken Saro-Wiwa
contact PR@FreeNigeria.org, http://www.FreeNigeria.org or Free Nigeria Movement, PO Box 441395, Indianapolis, IN 46244

4 pm
Nutrients and Ocean History: A Focus on Phosphorus
Peggy Delaney, Univ of CA, Santa Cruz
contact 495-2351
Harvard, Haller Hall, Geological Museum, 24 Oxford St

The Marine Os and Sr Isotope Records: What Can They Tell Us About the Geologic History of Chemical Weathering?
Greg Ravizza, Woods Hole
contact 353-2532 or earth@bu.edu
BU, Room B36, 675 Commonwealth Ave, Boston

4:10 pm
The Enemy Within: The Effects of Private Censorship on Press Freedom in Israel
Moshe Negbit, Isreali Public Radio and Television
Harvard, Kennedy School, Taubman Building, Room 275

4:30 pm
From Microscopic Atom Notion to the Macroscopic Behavior of Solids
Efthimios Kaxiras, Harvard
Harvard, Jefferson Lab 250

7 pm
The Art of the "Ask": Interpersonal Communication in Fundraising
Leslie Simmel, BU
Harvard, Barker Center, Room 133

Building Worldwide Resistance to Unfree Trade, Corporate Greed and the New Global Austerity Program
Four activists from the Basque Association Baladre
contact fnbboscamb@juno.com, http://home.earthlink.net/~foodnotbombs/tours.html or 800-884-1136
Community Church,565 Boylston St, Copley Sq, Boston
$2 or $3 donation requested

7:30 pm
Greater Boston Greens: Building a Green Urban Agenda
Bill Cunningham, Candidate, Cambridge City Council Anthony Shinella, Candidate, At-Large Boston City Council Robert Terrell, Candidate, Boston City Council
contact 787-9521 or oggc@fcl-us.net
Community Church of Boston, 565 Boylston St. Copley Sq, Boston
A suggested donation of $3 is requested

After Football
Nightline - ABC-TV - will show TecsChange in a show about access to technology (if breaking news does not bump them).
contact tecschange@tecschange.org, especially if you have computers to donate.

Tuesday, November 11

7 pm
Web-Net Group: Do-it-yourself database access from your vanilla web browser
Tony Giroti & Dan Kalikow, MaxSol
contact sudha@web-net.org or http://www.web-net.org/
MIT Building E51, Room 345

Wednesday, November12

11 am
Status Report on Nitride-based Blue Lasers
Arto Nurmikko, Brown Univ
contact 253-8504
MIT Building 34, Room 401B

12 pm
US Nuclear Weapons Reserach and Development Under a Comprehensive Test Ban
Christopher Paine, Natural Resources Defense Council
contact 253-0133 or llevine@mit.edu
MIT Building E38, Room 615

Environmental Engineering
Peter Levin, BU
contact 617-353-3083 or cees@bu.edu
BU STO 141 (Lounge), Boston

4:30 pm
All Is Foreknown, But Free Will Is Given
Lynn Andrea Stein, MIT
MIT Building 34, Room 101

4:15 pm
Truth Telling, Reconciliation, and War Crimes Tribunals
Payam Akhavan, Int War Crimes Tribunal and Martha Minow, Harvard Law School
Harvard, Pound Hall, Room 335
Editorial Comment: This week's _New Yorker_ has a piece on the current South African experience. How does that compare to Argentina's example?

7:30 pm
Mars Direct: Humans to the Red Planet within a Decade
Robert Zubrin, Pioneer RocketPlane
contact BMackenzie@draper.com or 258-2828
Boston Museum of Science, Hayden Planetarium

Thursday, November 13

2 pm
Global Environmental Change and Food/Water II:
Effects on Livestock; Famine and Loss of Drinking Water Supplies Alexander Leaf, Harvard Medical School, David M. Sherman, Tufts Univ School of Veterinary Medicine, David Pimental, Cornell Univ
contact 432-0493 or http://www.med.harvard.edu/chge
Harvard Medical School, Cannon Room, Building C, Boston
Editorial Comment: I've know of David Pimental's work for over twenty years. He is someone well worth hearing and listening to and what he doesn't know about agriculture is probably not worth knowing.

4 pm
Smart Structures
Gerome Connor, MIT
contact 253-7186
MIT Building 1, Room 350

Behavior of the Thermohaline Circulation and Ocean Anoxic Events in a Warm Climate Using a 2D Coupled Circulation-Biogeochemical Model
Yasahiro Yamanaka, Univ of Tokyo
MIT Building 54, Room 915

Reproductive Freedom for the 21st Century
Faye Wattleton, Center for Gender Equality
contact 432-2570
Harvard Medical School, MEC Amphitheater, Boston

4:30 pm
Thinking in an Emergency
Elaine Scarry, Harvard
contact 495-1336
Harvard, Kennedy School, Wiener Auditorium

War, Peace, and the UN
Kofi Annan, UN
contact 495-5001
Harvard, Science Center, Lecture Hall C

5 pm
What's New About Emerging Diseases?
Nick Murphy and Michelle Murphy, Harvard; Jospeh Dumit, MIT
Harvard, Barker Center, Room 133

The Immortal Foot: The Theological Implications of Standing Upright
Wendy Doniger, Univ of Chicago
Harvard, Andover Hall, Sperry Room

5:30 pm
_Hamlet on the Holodeck_ (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0684827239/alistA/) and _The Gutenberg Elegies_ (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0449910091/alistA/)
Janet Murray and Sven Birkerts
contact 253-5249 or authors@mit.edu
MIT Building E15, Bartos Theater

6 pm
Environmental Roundtable - dinner
6:45 pm - formal meeting
contact jandrews@world.std.com for agenda items
RSVP to Anju at 350-8866 for $5 pizza & drinks
The Wilderness Society, 45 Bromfield St, Boston
Editorial Comment: Contact John Andrews (jandrews@world.std.com) to subscribe to the regular ER Alert.

Extraterrestrial Life
Andrew Knoll, Harvard
contact 496-6972
Harvard, Geological Lecture Hall

7:30 pm
Boston Solar Lecture: Million Solar Roofs Initiative
Steve Kalland, Solar Energy Industries Association
contact 49-SOLAR or http://BASEA.org
1st Parish Unitarian Church, Harvard Sq, #3 Church St
Donations help provide BASEA Forums Series and it's always a good time to renew your membership.

Spirituality, Reality and the Dynamics of the Natural World
Oren Lyons, Onandaga Nation
contact 495-4495
Harvard, Andover Hall
Editorial Comment: Oren Lyons is the faithkeeper of the Turtle Clan of the Onandaga Nation. From what I have seen, he is a wise and learned man with a real connection to Turtle Island. With the recent death of John Peters of the Wampanoags, we should recognize these elders and learn before they are gone.

8 pm
Planets Orbiting Other Stars
Robert Noyes, Harvard
Harvard, Science Center, Lecture Hall D

Friday, November 14

Vacant Lots to Common Ground: Strategies for Community-based Brownfields Revitalization
contact 627-3162 or brownfields@tufts.edu Tufts Univ, Medford
Cost: $70 (both days); $50 (Fri. only); $20 (Sat. only)

12 pm
Great Powers Without Nuclear Weapons? Explaining the Non- Nuclear Policies of Germany and Japan
T V Paul, McGill
Harvard, Kennedy School, Littauer 370

3 pm
Engineering Antibody Recognition: Combinatorial Libraries and Thermodynamics
Dane Wittrup, Univ of IL
MIT Building 66, Room 110

4 pm
Looking for Europa's Oceans and Thinking about Life
Christopher Chyba, Univ of AZ
MIT Building 54, Room 915
Editorial Comment: Notice all the space exploration this week?

Imaging Neural Function in the Intact Brain
Karel Svoboda, Cold Spring Harbor Lab
contact 495-3905
Harvard, Pierce Hall

Saturday, November 15

Vacant Lots to Common Ground: Strategies for Community-based Brownfields Revitalization
contact 627-3162 or brownfields@tufts.edu Tufts Univ, Medford
Cost: $20 (Sat. only)

First Annual Massachusetts Recycles Day
contact Craig Ruberti or Kathi Miria at MassRecycle 338-0244

9 am
Volunteers to Build a Bike Path Bridge Over the Neponset River - remove old ties from bridge, place new stringers (with help from MDC crane), place and nail planks. This is heavy work and the volunteers should be sturdy people who can lift wood and bang big nails. Also looking for a few extra 5 lb or so sledge hammer (or similar) to bang in the 8" spikes.
contact Rich Kleiman at 727-9693 x293 or Rich.Kleiman@state.ma.us or dmink@cfa.harvard.edu
Neponset River in Dorchester Lower Mills

1 pm - 6 pm
India 50 years after : Which way forward
contact aashish@mit.edu, 547-6951 or ipsg@maestro.com, 864-0579
MIT

7 pm
Radical Auction - Proceeds to benefit the National Lawyers Guild, Mass. Chapter & CISPES
contact 227-7335
45 Danforth St, Jamaica Plain

Sunday, November 16

9 am
Volunteers to Build a Bike Path Bridge Over the Neponset River - remove old ties from bridge, place new stringers (with help from MDC crane), place and nail planks. This is heavy work and the volunteers should be sturdy people who can lift wood and bang big nails. Also looking for a few extra 5 lb or so sledge hammer (or similar) to bang in the 8" spikes.
contact Rich Kleiman at 727-9693 x293 or Rich.Kleiman@state.ma.us or dmink@cfa.harvard.edu
Neponset River in Dorchester Lower Mills

5 pm - 11 pm
The Economic Inequality Comedy Cabaret
Join United for a Fair Economy and special guests Jimmy Tingle, Judith Sloan, and "Professor Louie" for an evening of dinner, dancing, justice and laughter
contact 423-2148
Dante Alighieri Center, 41 Hampshire St

7 pm
Greater Boston Greens Meeting
contact 787-9521 or oggc@fcl-us.net
Community Church, 565 Boylston St, Copley Sq, Boston

Monday, November 17

7:30 pm (munchies provided)
Zero Population Growth of Greater Boston
contact 225-8905, breinan@ortho.bwh.harvard.edu, or hanauer@sybase.com
100 Lexington Street #B10, Belmont

7 pm
Greater Boston ACM SIGCHI: The Office of the Future - an Interactive Design Session to Study Space, Technology and OrganizationÊÊÊÊÊÊÊ
Chuck Kukla, MITÊ
contact 508-486-7425 (Security at Main Lobby) or http://www.xensei.com/gbsigchi/
Lotus, One Rogers St

Thursday, November 20

8:30 am - 10:30 am
Benchmark Your Environmental, Health and Safety Practices Against Others
Barbara Bernstein, WasteCap of NH: Sheila Burke, Hampshire Chemical; Tad Lincoln, NBEN; Bill Lindsey, Veryfine
Products/Balsam Spring Water
contact (978)557-5475, execdirector@nben.org, or http://www.nben.org
Hampshire Chemical Co, 2 East Spit Brook Road, Nashua, NH
"Seating is limited. Please respond by Nov. 17, 1997
NBEN Members & WasteCap Contributors: $20 Others: $40
Please bring check or cash to the event"

7 pm
ISIG: Search Engines: AltaVista and Northern Light
Richard Seltzer, Digital Equipment Corp
RSVP isig-yes@nethorizons.com, mcooley@nethorizons.com, 433-0825 or http://www.signet.org/isig/
MIT Building 6, Room 120

7 pm
People's Hearing on Incineration in the Merrimack Valley
North Andover HS, North Andover

Friday, November 28

International Buy Nothing Day
contact http://www.adbusters.org/Pop/buy0dayposter.html

Editorial Comment: One reader answered last week's question mark by reminding me that International Buy Nothing Day is always on the first shopping day after US Thanksgiving, the heaviest shopping day of the year. The same reader added this announcement from an "industry environment" group:

Welcome to the Third Annual ULS Day, which will be held on November 20th, 1997! The date (the Thursday before Thanksgiving) is significant because it inaugurates the high-waste holiday season. During the five weeks between Thanksgiving and New Year's, Americans produce an extra one million tons of trash per week, compared to any other time of the year.

This year we are featuring a Use Less Stuff Contest, which will be kicked off by a call for a nationwide Waste-Free Lunch Day in schools. You can review contest rules and obtain entry forms from our contest page, and obtain tips on how to reduce mealtime discards from our lunchtime waste reduction page:

http://cygnus-group.com/ULS/ULSDAY/ULSDay.html

Sources for Listings:
MIT _Tech Talk_ :
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/www
Harvard _Gazette_ :
http://www.news.harvard.edu/hno.subpages/hno.calendar.full.html
Harvard Environmental Resources On-Line:
http://environment.harvard.edu
MA Executive Office of Environmental Affairs calendar:
http://www.magnet.state.ma.us/envir/earth.htm
Earth Day Network international/national listings:
http://www.cfe.cornell.edu/EarthDay/ednethome.html
Earth Day Greater Boston calendar:
http://www.earthdaygb.org

act-ma the Massachusetts activists mailing list:
subscribe by emailing majordomo@igc.apc.org, leaving the subject line blank and typing "subscribe act-ma" as the message

Peace and Justice Events Hotline at (617)787-6809

Computer Organizations of NE (CONE):
http://bcs1.ziplink.net/cone/sig - Special Interest Group list
http://bcs1.ziplink.net/cone/cal/index.html - calendar
Boston Webmasters Guild
http://boston.webmaster.org

Community Technology Center Network
http://www.ctcnet.org

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MassGreens

John Austin is the MassGreens newsletter editor. Please send him news and articles. His e-mail is <baltasar@aol.com> or 508 798-5103

If you can serve as a contact for Greens in your community, contact (508) 688-2068.

If you have a new local meeting, contact MassGreens, and send info to the web site coordinator, David Pitts in Taunton <dpitts@erols.com>. Editorial Comment: What's the Website URL again?

As always, membership is $20/year, $10 low-income. If you support MassGreens, please take the time to mail in dues. MGP, PO Box 43, Lawrence, MA 01842 (978)688-2068.

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Sharing Cars and Walking Buses

Editorial Comment: I got the following email from 751@fortress.squirrel.com.au, Stanley@fortress.squirrel.com.au, Streeet@fortress.squirrel.com.au, Woolloongabba@fortress.squirrel.com.au but my reply bounced back. I hope they read "A List..." so that they can get the information from me they requested.


>hi george.
>i read an article in rain magazine about staat auto (a few years ago
>now) which i found incredibly inspiring. since then i have been really
>keen to initiate something similar within my community. do you know
>how i can get more info on the details of setting something like this up?
>is there a way of ordering the video & can you let me know?

I have the RAIN for Summer 1996 (VOL XV, Number 1) and they have a video of Berlin Carsharing Interviews for $20, a CarSharing Start-Up Kit for $50, and a CarSharing Handbook for $15. All available from

RAIN
PO Box 30097
Eugene, OR 97403

RAIN VOL XIV, Number 4 has articles on the subject and is available from the same address for $5.

And here's something from EcoNews and the Victoria Car Share Co-operative EcoNews http://www.islandnet.com/~gdauncey/econews/
To receive EcoNews by mail, call (250) 592-4473. To receive EcoNews by email send a message to gdauncey@islandnet.com

THE WALKING BUS
Calling all parents ! One of the crazier things that is happening these days is parents driving their kids to school, claiming the roads are dangerous. And we want a livable region ? Well listen up - if they can do it in Toronto, we can do it here. The "it" is the Walking Bus. Up until the 1970s, we used to walk or cycle to school. Isn't it crazy that we are conditioning our kids to expect to be driven everywhere ? That's what parents in Britain and Australia - and the Greenest City Project in Toronto - thought when they got together to talk about walking their kids to school. A 'Walking School Bus' consists of a group parents or retired people who follow a set route through the streets to school, collecting kids along the way and walking them safely to school as a group. In Toronto, its called 'Safe Routes to School'. In a nutshell, here's how to start one : (1) Map the neighbourhood, to determine the safest routes to and from school - can be done in the classroom. (2) Invite parents to a meeting where they mark their home locations with red dots on a map, or send them a map with the PAC newsletter. (3) Set up Walking School Buses with set routes, led by parent 'drivers' who take it in turn to accompany their own and neighbouring children safely to school. (4) Create a 'no-idling' area around schools, where bus drivers and others must turn off their engines to improve local air quality. The children enjoy it, and have fun walking together. Here in Victoria, there's one informal walking bus that walks 5 kids from Government St to South Park School (details Janet Hawkesley 383-7806). Contact : Safe Routes to School, (416) 977-7626 fdshare@web.net Greenest City Project : ntgc@web.net

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Creating the Market

Food coops built the market for organic and fresher foods, for tofu and Oriental vegetables, for sprouts and herbs, mesclun and no hormone beef and chicken. We changed the way the USA eats and how every supermarket displays food. Together with farmers markets, food coops opened the way for stores like Bread and Circus and other "whole foods" supermarkets.

The "storefront" coops of the Boston, MA area are the Harvest coops of Cambridge and Allston (http://www.citysource.com/Shops/HFCoop/welcome.html). They arose out of a network of preorder coops that existed in neighborhoods all over the Boston area starting in the late 60s. The Harvest still retains some of that spirit by the fact that it offers lower prices for working a certain amount of hours in the store.

When I first joined the Cambridge Food Coop in 1975, the store was in a basement across the street from the present location and members earned work credit by playing live music for the shoppers. There was a community room we shared with a martial arts instructor, Arthur Goodrich, from whom I learned tai chi years later. I got my work credit by walking the Chelsea Terminal Market with Lenny Dankner, the Federation buyer, or helping with the coop garden at the Fernald School in Waltham. As well as stocking the shelves and bagging nuts and grains.

These days, Harvest Food Coop is planning to sell its Allston store, the original Boston Food Coop. Not enough sales in that location lately. They are looking for another site closer to their customers and large enough to be a full service grocery. They plan to be back sometime in the next year or so.

These days, I no longer put in my 3 hours a month for a 10% discount and certainly not 2 hours a week for a 20% discount. I shop everywhere I can reach: the Harvest, the farmers market, City Foods, and Star Market, even Stop and Shop and Purity Supreme when they were around. I read the circulars, clip coupons from the Sunday paper, and buy in season and on sale. I stock up on canned goods and staples and keep my pantry full, year round, remembering the Mormons and the seven lean years in Egypt.

Years ago, when the regional coop warehouse was in the neighborhood, I preordered a carton of tomato sauce, another of tomato paste, as well as ten pound bags of garbanzo and kidney beans. I'd like to be able to do that on a regular basis. The Harvest could be more useful to me by offering such monthly preorder specials on staple items. If any preorder coops are still around, perhaps we could expand the program to them, too. Or put the idea up on the Web. With proper economic and nutritional forethought, such a program might help reduce members' food bills while providing more nutritious meals and possibly opening up a new market as well.

I wonder if we all could step outside the current marketplace box and think about food differently. I'd like to see a food system that included local and regional market gardens and farms, farmers markets, community supported agriculture, and food coops working together. I want to bring agriculture into the city through windowboxes, back yards, and porches with urban and suburban greenhouses and composting, public orchards and berry patches, community gardens, kitchens, and home pantries, freezers, and cold cellars. I like knowing where my food comes from and growing a portion of my own (even if it is only a few cherry tomatoes) and having places in the neighborhood where I can pick a few raspberries or an apple in season. (That used to exist here between a community garden on Watson St and my own garden on Pearl. But I stopped taking care of the raspberries, gooseberries, and currants by the fence of the community garden after my landlord destroyed the raspberries, gooseberries, strawberries, currants, crapapple and peach trees, tomatoes, peas, cucumbers, and wildflowers in my own garden a few years ago. Only the crocuses and the grape vine still exist and the maintenance people cut the grapes back so far that they don't bear fruit.)

So, you see, I know it is possible. It's just not possible alone.

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Eat the City

Editorial Comment: This item comes from ECOCITY: Sustainable Urban Development" (to subscribe, email listserv@segate.sunet.se and type the message: SUB ECOCITY ).


Dear Friends --
In view of recent posts to ECOCITY on various aspects of urban agriculture, the comments below, pulled from message archives, might be thought provoking.

Best wishes, Dave Matthews
Internet address: dmatthews@acf.dhhs.gov

> From: Michael_O._Patterson@hud.gov
> Subject: Fwd: The Dream
> Date: Thursday, September 4, 1997 8:59:54 EDT

Linda Runyon's _A Survival Acre_ (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0918517036/alistA/) details 50 plants that grow in the temperate zone worldwide, several times as nutritious as anything you can buy in a grocery store, so prolific they are known as "weeds"... Tom Brown, Jr.'s _Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants_ (or is that _Tom Brown's Guide to Wild Edible and Medicinal Plants_ [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0425100634/alistA/]?) details 100 such plants. I have a friend in town, for example, who cultivates wild amaranth to eat. Sue Halvorsen, of Tom Brown, Jr.'s Tracker School Staff, is assembling a guide on generating just such habitats, from "postage stamp lawns" to large acreages, which would also provide other benefits. You can literally feed a family year round from a postage stamp size lawn, though the diet might be monotonous. Linda Runyon has shown that NY city could feed itself from the open land w/in its boundaries, using these plants.
Editorial Comment: I like lamb's quarters myself and stripping the kernels off of rat tail plantains through the gap in my front teeth.

The U.S. Forest Service has its LA 2000 model, which combine biodynamic agriculture with silviculture, for what they call "agriforestry", similar in concept to this. Their model becomes self-sufficient, i.e. it pays for itself, after 3 years.

It is further possible to reforest desert. _The Next Whole Earth Catalog_ (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0394707761/alistA/) reviews a book by a woman doing just this in Algeria. It is tricky, but can be done.

_Secrets of the Soil_, (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=006091968X/alistA/, out of print) by Chris Bird, details a number of successful efforts to revivify dead soil. It is possible to farm so as to INCREASE topsoil. Editorial Comment: I've kept a worm bucket for 20 years creating soil from vegetable scraps in my kitchen and, when I could garden in the city of Cambridge (thank you, dear landlord), composted many pounds of leaves into the earth, visibly improving the soil and reducing the city's trash bill just a little bit.

Consider Native American systems farming: instead of expensive cattle, with fences, shots, and the works, they used fire to maintain fields, so a larger deer population could be maintained...
It doesn't get much easier than a system that almost runs itself.

> The lesson here, is that if you have a dream, unless it is really
> hi-tech, someone else has already done much of the work for you,
> and you need but maintain a focus to find it.

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Coca Cola Lobbying

Editorial Comment: This item comes from the ER Alert (contact jandrews@world.std.com to subscribe). We always have to remember that the no decision is ever final in the current political arena. Coca Cola is an interesting company. I read somewhere that the late CEO, Robert Goizueta, proclaimed that Coke considered water its main worldwide competitor in the beverage marketplace.


The Coca-Cola Company, using its Coke Civic Action Network (Coke CAN) has been mobilizing its shareholders to oppose bottle bills and updates to bottle bills around the country. They send newsletters to their shareholders calling for grassroots action against bottle measures. You may subscribe to the newsletter by e-mail by sending them your e-mail address.

Their e-mail address is civicactionnetwork@na.ko.com

Please e-mail Coke CAN to tell them any of the following:

1. You disapprove of using shareholder dollars to oppose Bottle Bills.
2. The information in their newsletter is wrong. A majority of legislators in Massachusetts do support updating the Bottle Bill.
3. Beverage container recycling has decreased, so their alternative "efforts" are not working.
4. Most single serve beverages are drunk away from home, so curbside collection doesn't address this problem.
5. Litter collection does not help recycling. Bottle bills do.

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Free GIS Software!

Editorial Comment: Just when I was going to ask to be dropped from a forest issues listserv focusing on British Columbia (bcen@alternatives.com), one of the participants, Paul Senez (psenez@direct.ca) posted this announcement. ESRI has a fine reputation for its GIS software and Desktop Assistance is a subscriber to "A List..." (although I suspect nobody there reads it anymore). If you have a program that needs GIS software, this may be a chance to get some of the best for the best price of all.


Conservation Technology Support Program
Request for Proposals

The Conservation Technology Support Program (CTSP) requests letters of inquiry from nonprofit groups that need to initiate or upgrade their geographic information systems (GIS) to address conservation and environmental issues. Letters of inquiry for awards to be announced in April are due January 2, 1998.

Begun in 1994, CTSP is a partnership between Hewlett-Packard Company, the Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI), and the Conservation GIS Consortium (CGISC) to donate hardware, software, training, and technical assistance to US-based, 501(c)(3) organizations actively engaging the public in natural resource conservation and environmental protection.

Eligible organizations include grassroots conservation and environmental organizations, community action groups, economic development organizations, sustainable development groups, community-based conservation groups, growth management organizations, environmental justice groups, action-oriented research groups, and other 501(c)(3) nonprofits.

CTSP is the largest technology grant program of its kind in the US. Since its inception, CTSP has provided close to $3 million in inkind grants to 150 conservation and environmental groups. Funding for CTSP administration is generously provided by The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.

For complete information about CTSP and the 1998 letter of inquiry and application process, please send an email message to ctsp@lists.desktop.org. The 1998 CTSP guidelines will be automatically returned to you by email. 1998 guidelines are also available via the CTSP web site: http://www.desktop.org/ctsp/.

The primary intention of CTSP in 1998, as in previous years, is to provide GIS hardware, software, training, and technical support to nonprofit organizations that can demonstrate the need to apply appropriate GIS methods to accomplish their objectives but lack the necessary tools and skills to do so.

CTSP seeks a balance among rural and urban, and traditional and innovative approaches to conservation and environmental protection. CTSP also encourages collaborative proposals, as well as proposals from organizations engaged in building the capacity of conservation groups that do not have the time or resources independently to take on GIS. In 1998, CTSP is also particularly interested in proposals that address the three sectors of sustainability -- environment, community, economy.

The 1998 CTSP application is a two-stage process: letters of inquiry are due January 2, 1998. These will be reviewed and invitations to submit a full application will be issued on January 23. Due date for full applications is February 20.

All CTSP applicants must have Internet access at the time of their application. Email is required and Web access is desirable. This requirement is made because all GIS technical support services available to grantees from ESRI and from CGISC are Internet-based. Guidelines will be available only on the Internet.

For more information about CTSP, contact:
Janet Seymour
CTSP Director
Desktop Assistance
324 Fuller Avenue - Suite C2
Helena, MT 59601-6228
jseymour@desktop.org
http://www.desktop.org/ctsp
406.442.3696

Please feel free to repost this announcement in any appropriate Internet forum.

Jody Holmes, Ph.D.
Conservation Director, BC Wild
PO Box 2241 Main Post Office
Vancouver, BC V6B 3W2
ph: (604) 669-4802
fax:(604) 669-6833

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Green Dream Jobs

Editorial Comment: Rona Fried (rfried@bccom.com) sent out notices about this month's edition of the Sustainable Business Journal and their new feature on green jobs. I got two of each. I wonder if they are going to allow jobseekers to post their dream job descriptions and maybe help redefine work just a little bit.


PITTSBURGH, November 10-/E-Wire/-- After being deluged with requests, The Sustainable Business Network has launched, "Green Dream Jobs". This is the first job and internship listing service devoted to helping people find jobs with green businesses and organizations. And it's free.

A green job seeker wrote, "I just checked out the Green Dream Jobs section of SBN. It is excellent! As a recent MBA graduate interested in pursuing a career in the sustainable technology/sustainable business field this is exactly what I've been looking for!"

"So many people emailed me saying they want to work for a green business but don't know how to find them; I knew this would be a very valuable service," explains Rona Fried,Ph.D, Executive Editor. "It's very exciting that there are so many green jobs available for people with business skills. The green economy is growing. SBN's role is to make these connnections and let people know they no longer have to compromise their values in their worklife."

"Sustainable" is a concept that is becoming widely accepted not only in the environmental community, but also by traditional business and government. Leaders in sustainable business count environmental considerations as an integral part of doing business, not as an afterthought, and find they increase their profits by doing so.

The Sustainable Business Network is a focal point on the Web for the full range of green business sectors, from recycling to building & construction, from social investing to renewable energy. It offers a compelling, constructive way for people to stay abreast and contribute to the accelerating developments propelling the business of the future.

SBN is located at http://www.envirolink.org/sbn

The Sustainable Business Network website includes:

<> Sustainable Business Opportunities. Allows green businesses to find investors, partners, distributors, licensees, and respond to solicitations.
<> SBN Journal. Free, on-line, monthly magazine succinctly highlights current thinking and activity in the sustainable business community. It's known for its positive, rejuvenating style.
<> SBN Library. Thorough compilation of resources on sustainable business.
<> Green Dream Jobs. Job and Internship listings for people with business skills in green businesses and organizations.

SBN is hosted by The EnviroLink Network,a non-profit organization. Over 6 million people per month turn to EnviroLink for the most comprehensive, up-to-date environmental resources (http://www.envirolink.org).

Contact:
Rona Fried, Executive Editor
Sustainable Business Network
rfried@bccom.com
(516)423-3277

Josh Knauer, Executive Director
The Envirolink Network
josh@envirolink.org
(412)683-6400

Table of Contents



The Begging Bowl

When I talk about the finances of "A List...," I'm not complaining. I'm just doing the accounts. That's what money is for, isn't it? I'm running an experiment in virtual community and conversation, a bastard hybrid between an information economy and a gift economy, and I'd like to know how it works or doesn't. So far, the Begging Bowl has paid for my Internet account the last three years and part of my phone bill for the last two.

Another way to assess the effect of "A List..." is by the correspondence it inspires. This week, I got eight emails in response to last week's edition or to include events in this week's. I thought when I started that there would be a lot more of this kind of back and forth with the community of readers. Experience has shown me that there is a reason why it is called a community of readers and not writers. People may read but only a few will write back. There are even fewer who will write back more than once but those who do will write almost every week. Thanks for all those comments. I appreciate them, even if I don't respond to all of them. How do I add all those two cents of thoughts into the "A List..." bottom line?

Mr Spriggs (mtspriggs@igc.apc.org) keeps on telling me that I should market "A List..." more. I used to notify everyone who had a piece in "A List..." of my publication of their work and cross-post various pieces to the relevant listservs and newsgroups but I don't do much of that anymore. Too much trouble. That is the kind of marketing I feel comfortable with but I have always believed the poet (Gerard Malanga) when he said: "Fame - more people know you than you know." By that criteria, we are all of us famous and that's all right with me. My ambition is to present the ideas, images, and references that leverage the public debate a few inches more toward my goals and dreams. I am the ruler of my own domain ("A List...") and have no ambition to be anything more than that. My sneaky vision is to be the man behind the man behind the woman behind the soft machine. I am perfectly content to find my words in other peoples' mouths. Let them take the brickbats and praise while I go back to the library.

So, please remember, you don't have to take the Begging Bowl personally or think that I am starving in poverty because I insist on talking about how little (or how much) "A List..." brings in from week to week. Although I would not be dismayed to find a few checks in the mail or some good articles and comments the next time I open Eudora. I can always feel your kind thoughts and unspoken prayers and appreciate them more than I can enumerate.

How "A List..." works:
If you want to have a listing included in "A List..." please send it to me before noon on the Friday before the event and if said even is deemed suitable for coverage, it will be included in the appropriate edition of "A List..." Articles and reviews, ideas, rants and opinions are also solicited. Publication is up to the erratic discretion of the editor.

"A List..." is also a listserv. You can subscribe or unsubscribe to the listserv by emailing a-list-request@world.std.com, leaving the Subject line blank, and typing "subscribe" or "unsubscribe" as the message.

"A List..." is a freeware/shareware publication. If the information is of any value to you, please contribute - money, information, encouragement, prayers and good wishes are all valid currencies for feedback and will be gratefully appreciated by
George Mokray
Information Ecologies
218 Franklin St #3
Cambridge, MA 02139
(617)661-2676
gmoke@world.std.com

This publication is copyrighted to George Mokray and the individual writers of the articles. Permission to reproduce is granted for non-profit purposes as long as the source is cited.

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