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Passionate Discussion at Christ the King Church

By Shirley Gilbert

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The program began with a tour of the church’s excellent conservation program.  Pastor Warren Nielsen pointed out the solar panels on the roof and explained the function of the monitors that chart how much energy is manufactured by the panels and how much is used.

“The church saves $3,000 a year in energy costs and, said Pastor Nielsen, while it might take us some time to amortize the cost of the panels, church parishioners and management feel good about doing something positive for the environment.”  “We’ve really taken the message of Friedman’s book to heart,” said Pastor Nielsen.

The participants also visited the draught tolerant landscape made up of grasses that don’t require much water.  There is also an attractive dry rock river to also cut down the need for water and yet still offer an attractive look and feel.

The book talk featured One Book, One Community team presenters who passionately talked about their favorite sections of Friedman’s book.

Jo Szeto opened the discussion with what the One Book, One Community program was all about and Florence Silver followed that up with why AAUW Fremont Branch members chose this particular book for the 2010/2011 season.  “We wanted a book that was timely, relevant and thought-provoking and this was certainly it,” she explained.

Jo explained the Hot, Flat and Crowded of the title and expanded upon the five pressing problems that the book addresses:  the growing demand for fossil fuels; the ever increasing global population; the massive transfer of wealth to the middle class in developing nations; disruptive climate change (Friedman calls it “global weirding”); and the extinction of animals, forests and our natural landscape at record rates we’ve never seen before.

Joan Caldwell expanded on what is happening with our climate.  She pointed out the number of tsunamis, earthquakes, and hurricanes that take place on a daily basis.  “Did we do this or did God do this?” Friedman asks.  Joan showed some current National Geographic magazine covers that highlight our environmental problems in detail:  lack of water, the melting of the ice caps, the demise of many species, etc.

Martha Crowe described the chapter “China for a Day.”  She echoed Friedman’s sentiment that if only we could just for one day dictate some very necessary changes.  However, the pace of democracy is very slow and the U.S. government often takes a short-term view, explained Martha.

Shirley Gilbert painted a picture from Chapter 12 of the book of what our day-to-day lives would be like if we had a “smart grid” helped by clean, abundant, cheap and reliable electronics as well as internet technology.  “According to Friedman,” said Shirley, “this is possible and would make a world of difference to our lives and our planet.  We already have the technology to do this, we just need the political will.”

Genevieve Angelides read Congressman Pete Stark’s reply to four questions she posed based on Friedman’s book.   (You can see it in more detail at https://fremont-ca.aauw.net/hotflat/articles/petestarksreply/).

She also asked the audience what they are doing today to conserve, what they plan to do in the future and what can be done by the federal and state governments.

Martha ended the discussion session by showing a bulletin board filled with articles that address some of the messages in Hot, Flat and Crowded.  She also passed along some of the effective conservation efforts taken by the City of Fremont.

Refreshments were offered and presenters and guests enjoyed some informal chatter.

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