Environmental Happenings

F.W. Horch hours: Mon by appointment, Tue-Sat 9:30-6, Sun Closed.

 

Global News

 

The Deepwater Horizon oil rig disaster in the Gulf of Mexico is the worst oil spill in United States history. According to Time magazine, by the end of May the undersea gusher had released at least 20 million gallons of crude oil -- almost double the amount of oil spilled off the coast of Alaska by the Exxon Valdez. BP, the company responsible for the event, has used nearly one million gallons of chemical dispersants on the surface and at the wellhead in an effort to break up the crude and accelerate the evaporation process. Scientists warn that the effect of the oil and chemicals together could devastate wildlife populations in one of the world's most productive ecosystems.

 

United Nations climate talks involving representatives from 182 countries opened in Bonn, Germany, on Monday, May 31. The goal of the meeting is to pick up where last December's Copenhagen Accord left off, and set the agenda for next December's 16th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in Mexico. Under the non-binding Copenhagen Accord, developed nations indicated that they would provide "new and additional resources, including forestry and investments through international institutions, approaching $30 billion for the period 2010-2012 with balanced allocation between adaptation and mitigation."

 

Local Events

Saturday, June 5 - Merrymeeting Bay Shoreline Cleanup, 12-2 pm, Abbagadassett Point in Bowdoinham or Butler Cover in Bath.  Celebrate National River Month with Friends of Merrymeeting Bay for their annual Merrymeeting Bay Cleanup. This year volunteers will gather in two locations.  Help your community by scouring the shoreline for trash; make this magnificent watershed even more beautiful. You can bring the kids too!  Pre-registration is required. To register for the Bowdoinham cleanup please contact Helen Watts at 666-3920 or 522-9366. For the Bath cleanup please contact David Barber at 442-9335 or boatshop@gwi.net.  Trash will be collected, documented and sorted for recycling and disposal. Please dress for the weather, wear sturdy footwear and bring work gloves.

Sunday, June 6 - FRESH the Movie, 4 pm, Colonial Theatre, Belfast.  Premier screening of FRESH the Movie, followed by interactive talk on the topic of revving up the connections between traditional family farms and local consumers. Led by a panel including John Piotti, Executive Director, Maine Farmland Trust; Troy Nelson of Nelson Family Farm, a fifth generation cattle farmer in Palermo who sells his meat direct off the farm and at the Camden Farmers' Market; Dr. Joseph Anderson of Belfast Pediatrics, a local advocate of the 5-2-1-0 Initiative, which teaches and promotes the integration of healthy habits in every area of children's lives; Vyvenne Ritchie of Healthy Waldo County. Sponsored by Our Town Belfast (a Maine Downtown Network community organization), the Belfast Farmers' Market, Healthy Waldo County and the Belfast Co-op. Maine-made drinks and snacks. More about the film at freshthemovie.com. For more information or to purchase tickets contact Anne Saggese 338-0651 or Larraine Brown at 323-2747 Advance tickets available at the Green Store on Main Street in Belfast and at Sweet Henry's at the Belfast and Camden Farmers' Markets.

Tuesday, June 8 - Maine primaries and referendum.  Don't forget to vote!

Tuesday, June 8 - Healthy Eating As A Vegan, Vegetarian or Omnivore, 6:30 - 8:30 pm, Barrel's Community Market, 74 Main Street, Waterville.  Panel discussion hosted by the Sustain Mid-Maine Coalition. Cheryl Wixson, MOFGA's Organic Marketing Consultant, will serve as the omnivore panelist.

Wednesday, June 9 - Music Inspired by the Environment, 7-10 pm, Liberal Cup, Water Street, Hallowell.  Join host Allison Wells and other Natural Resources Council of Maine  staff for an open Mic Night.  Bring your guitar, shakers, and your favorite environment-inspired songs, or just come, meet NRCM staff, and enjoy the friendly atmosphere and the Liberal Cup’s homemade English pub-style food and beverages.  NRCM staff will be performing some of our own favorites – and inviting you to sing along!  Admittance is free and open to the public.  If you would like to perform a song, please email your song title and artist to beth@nrcm.org.

Thursday, June 10 - Going Solar: Energy From the Sun, 7 pm, F.W. Horch, 56 Maine Street, Brunswick. Join us to learn how to harness the sun's energy for heat and power. John Capron of ReVision Energy will explain how solar power systems work, how much solar energy is available at different times of the year for space heating, hot water and electricity, and how much different options cost. For more information, please call 729-4050. Free and open to the public.

Tuesday, June 15 - Evening paddle on the Cathance River, 6:30-8:30 pm.  Join Friends of Merrymeeting Bay member and kayak guide, Ian Ramsey, for an evening paddle on the Cathance River.  To pre-register please contact Ian Ramsey at 751-7569.

Wednesday, June 16 - Sustainable Living Presentation, 6 - 8 pm, Falmouth Memorial Library, 5 Lunt Road, Falmouth.  Dr. Catherine Elliott, Extension Specialist and co-author of "Living Sustainable: It’s Your Choice," will explore the concept of sustainable living, discussing three of the barriers to living sustainably in the United States and suggesting ways to overcome them.  If you wish to adopt sustainable living practices, such as buying local foods, service, and products; spending more time outdoors; being more active; reducing carbon footprints; reducing use of toxic substances; living within your means and sharing rather than buying, or wish to reduce waste by reducing, reusing, recycling, repurposing, refusing, composting, or donating, this presentation is for you.  Free and open to the public.  UMaine Extension programs are open and accessible to all in accordance with program goals.  For more information on the Tidewater Learning Center, to donate to the building campaign, to get involved or to learn about future events, visit: www.extension.umaine.edu/tidewater/ or call 780-4213.

Friday, June 18 - LL Bean Green Expo, 10 am - 4 pm, LL Bean, Freeport.  Visit LL Bean's flagship store in Freeport for a day of green events. See "The Big Green Bus," a bus that runs on waste vegetable oil; learn about "Bean Green," LL Bean’s commitment to environmental stewardship; try "Greening your Home," with representatives from Efficiency Maine, Revision Energy, and Sunrise Guide; watch "Local Sustainability: Maine Roundtable," a multi-media presentation by The Green Living Project showcasing sustainability-related projects in Maine; and enjoy a "Pedal Power Smoothie," whipped up by a bicycle-powered blender.

Saturday, June 19 - Cathance River Education Alliance 10 Year Anniversary, Wild Duck Pub, Highland Green. Celebrate a decade of CREA with hikes, golf, games, a band, cookout, and ecology center tours. Speakers: John Rensenbrink, John Wasileski, Rick Wilson, and Angela Twitchell, Executive Director of the Brunswick-Topsham Land Trust. For more information, visit creamaine.org.

Friday, June 25 - Meet Your Farmer premier, 6 - 9:30 pm, Strand Theatre, Rockland. Eight short documentaries by filmmakers Cecily Pingree and Jason Mann tell the diverse stories of eight Maine farms: from Aroostook to York, from potatoes to dairy, from large commercial operations to small farms that sell directly to local people. Farm-Fresh Food from 6:00-7:15 pm. 7:15 pm doors open. 7:30 pm films start with commentary and Q&A. 9:00-9:30 pm: Coffee and Chocolates. Tickets: For the entire event - $20 for Maine Farmland Trust members; $25 for non-members. Film and coffee reception (doors open at 7:15) - $10. Purchase tickets through Maine Farmland Trust by calling 338-6575 or by emailing Anna Abaldo
. More about Maine Farmland Trust at www.mainefarmlandtrust.org

Friday, July 2 to Sunday, July 4 - Northeast Permaculture Convergence, MOFGA Common Ground Education Center, Unity.  The 6th Annual Northeast Permaculture Convergence hopes to continue the tradition of bringing the permaculture community together to share, learn, collaborate and celebrate.  For more information, please visit northeastconvergence.wordpress.com.

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Local permaculture groups in Brunswick and Portland have several events planned. You can learn more about these groups and their events using the Meetup web service.  Check them out at

• http://www.meetup.com/Brunswick-Permaculture/
• http://www.meetup.com/portlandpermaculture/

A transition town group is active in the greater Brunswick area. Find out more about them and their events at

• http://www.meetup.com/Transition-Town-Brunswick/
  

For more news about Maine's environment, check out Maine Environmental News

Go Solar

June's Sustainable Living Tip

Go solar for abundant clean energy. You can start with simple steps like growing a kitchen garden -- the closer to home your food is grown, the less dirty fossil fuel required. Or you can make the switch to heat and power your home completely by clean solar energy. The sunlight falling on just one acre in Portland could support all the energy needs of one hundred and sixty Maine families.

Facts about Solar Energy

1. By some calculations, the typical meal eaten in Maine requires more than its own weight in fossil fuel for transportation, storage, packaging and synthetic fertilizer. Growing your own food or supporting local organic farmers is a delicious way to "go solar," relying more on the sun than oil for your personal energy.
2. Every year each acre in Portland, Maine, receives over 24,000 gigajoules (GJ) of solar energy. This is 160 times greater than the total annual energy (heating, electricity and transportation) needed by an average family living in Maine.
3. The average Maine family burns 900 gallons of heating oil in a 78% efficient boiler, using about 100 GJ of energy for space heating and hot water annually. That energy can be collected every year by about 21 square meters -- about half the size of a two-car garage -- of solar thermal collectors operating at 80% efficiency.
4. Solar thermal collectors collect the sun's heat. Then fans blow air or pumps circulate liquid to bring this heat inside where it can be used for space heating or hot water.
   
5. The average sized Maine home (200 square meters) built to super-efficient standards would require less than 11 GJ for space heating per year. This would require just 2 square meters -- a little bigger than the hood of a Volvo station wagon -- of solar thermal collectors.
6. The average family in Maine uses about 20 GJ of electricity annually (around 500 kilowatt hours per month). That energy can be collected every year by about 17 square meters -- about 10 feet by 18 feet -- of photovoltaic solar panels operating at 20% efficiency.
7. Photovoltaic (PV) panels directly convert sunlight to electricity. This electricity can then be fed into regular house current, or can be stored in batteries. Maine has a "net metering" law which allows homeowners to "spin their meters backwards" when sending excess electricity to the grid.
   
8. If a family could reduce its monthly electricity consumption to 350 kilowatt hours per month (for example, by replacing an inefficient refrigerator and using clothes drying racks instead of an electric dryer), their annual electricity needs could be met by just 12 square meters of PV panels -- about 10 by 13 feet.
9. The average family in Maine burns 1,300 gallons of gasoline in vehicles that are about 20% efficient at converting fuel to motion, using about 31.5 GJ of energy for personal transportation annually. Most of the energy released by burning gasoline in an internal combustion engine is wasted as heat.
10. It is difficult to use solar energy to produce liquid fuels (such as ethanol) that can replace gasoline. Serious concerns have been raised about the sustainability of growing corn as an ethanol feedstock.
11. If a family could purchase an electric car, which could be easily recharged with electricity generated by solar power, 26 square meters of PV panels -- about 10 feet by 28 feet -- could satisfy their annual transportation needs.
12. Switching from internal combustion engines to electric motors in our cars will allow us to switch from gasoline to solar power for our transportation needs. The batteries in our electric vehicles will allow us to store solar power for use when it is needed. The first all-electric, mass-market cars are expected to be widely available in the United States starting in 2012.
    
13. More solar energy reaches Maine in four hours than our entire state economy uses in a year.
14. Enough solar energy falls on just the 23,450 miles of public road in Maine to power an economy that uses three and a half times as much energy as our state's does. We could stop using all other sources of energy except solar and still have plenty of capacity to grow our economy.
15. More than half of the electricity generated in Maine already comes from renewable energy sources -- primarily hydropower and wood -- that are forms of stored solar power.
16. Per square meter, over one thousand four hundred times more energy is available per year by directly collecting solar energy than by harvesting firewood. In other words, cord wood is approximately 0.07% efficient at storing solar energy. One acre of solar thermal collectors is the energy equivalent of a 1,400 acre wood lot .
    
17. Super insulated water tanks, such as the Marathon hot water heater, can store solar energy for up to two weeks. This allows solar hot water systems to provide hot water at night and during weeks of inclement weather.
    
18. Solar panels capture more energy than is used to manufacture them. Depending on the manufacturing process and how much solar energy is available for the panel to collect, it takes between one and six years for the panel to "pay back" the amount of energy used to create it. Since panels last for up to twenty years, almost every solar panel in use is providing a net energy benefit over its lifetime. Solar panels are now providing the energy to make more solar panels.
19. Wind power derives from solar energy because winds are primarily due to uneven heating of the earth's surface.
20. Although there is much less solar energy available in the winter in Maine than in the summer, the winds in certain locations are stronger in winter. Wind power, hydropower and tidal power can complement solar power by being available at night, in winter, and during overcast periods.
21. In general, solar power is much more reliable than wind power and much easier to install on a wide variety of existing buildings without adverse visual and noise impact. Wind power, on the other hand, lends itself to economies of scale and is generally a cheaper way to generate large amounts of electricity intermittently at specific places, particularly offshore and along ridges.
22. Solar power is easy to incorporate into consumer electronics. Our store sells solar-powered clocks, radios, flashlights and battery chargers. These are fun and easy ways to try out solar power on a small and affordable scale.

Going Solar

Join us on Thursday, June 10, from 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm here at F.W. Horch Sustainable Goods and Supplies, 56 Maine Street, Brunswick, for a talk by John Capron, of ReVision Energy, titled "Going Solar: Energy from the Sun." Free and open to the public.

Five hundred square feet of solar electric panels on a sunny, south-facing roof in Maine generate 100% of an average family's annual consumption (about 6 million watt hours of electricity per year). Thousands of Mainers have already decided that the risks of remaining dependent on fossil fuels -- none of which is produced here in Maine -- outweigh the cost of harvesting clean and reliable energy from their own rooftops in perpetuity.

"Solar energy is one of the best investments you can make for your children and grandchildren," says John. "If we do not begin solving our energy problems today, we will leave them a legacy of fossil energy pollution, scarcity and geopolitical conflict."

John's talk will explain the basics of harnessing the sun for heat and power. You'll learn how solar power systems work, how much solar energy is available at different times of the year for space heating, hot water and electricity, and how much different options cost. The talk will also cover common questions and concerns, such as how you can find out if your location is sunny enough, how long an installation will take, how reliable is solar equipment, how to integrate solar energy into existing house plumbing and wiring, how to participate in Maine's net metering program to "spin the meter backward," and how to qualify for the myriad financing options, tax credits and rebates available.

ReVision Energy is a full service renewable energy company offering design, sales, installation and service. Formerly known as Energyworks, ReVision Energy has emerged as an industry leader in northern New England, having installed more than half of all solar energy systems in Maine for the past four years. Their engineers from MIT and Brown University have a combined 25 years experience in the design, installation and service of renewable energy systems.

This talk is part of the F.W. Horch series on sustainable living. Each monthly talk is held on the second Thursday of the month at the F.W. Horch Sustainable Goods & Supplies store, 56 Maine Street, Brunswick. Space is limited, so if you are interested in attending, please call the store at 729-4050 to reserve a seat.

For more information, please visit www.FWHorch.com.