Our brave new world

We've enjoyed another beautiful week of autumn and a very busy, but great, weekend that included dining out with friends both old and new.  In our travels, we managed to visit the Chautauqua Energy Conference and Expo and collect a boat load of information. Rather, a couple of Wegmans reusable grocery bags full of information.  Lots of freebies, including a bag of compact fluorescents and weatherization goodies (window film, outlet draft stoppers, weatherstripping) from National Fuel, a coloring and activity book about water conservation, more reusable shopping bags, and the the usual reams of brochures and articles (I hope some of them were printed on recycled paper). It's going to take me a little while to read through and digest everything.

There seems to be a lot of emphasis on conserving energy, with government rebates as incentives-- Energy Star appliances, more efficient heating and cooling systems, better windows and doors, more insulation, tankless hot water heaters, etc.  There's also a tantalizing array of wind,solar, and geothermal options now available, and a "green" building (including straw bale construction) industry gaining ground, although the current costs of these technologies are prohibitive for most people.


In the gadget department, on the other hand, there are many fun, cool, and affordable little solar gizmos available, and there was a vendor who had a variety of them on display--various kinds of chargers and lighting, including this awesome little blinkie for bicycles.

Speaking of which, I would like to see more on transportation alternatives (not just hybrid automobiles) at future energy shows, as well as a presence of the local food/grow your own and compost/recycle elements. Surely these must be recognized as important components of saving energy and saving our planet.

Side note: there was a solar cooker on display, and coincidentally we had a conversation with someone at our church over the weekend whose daughter is involved with the Haiti Solar Oven Project.  We talked about the simplicity of making your own with aluminum foil as the reflective material (this seems like something I should have learned at Girl Scout camp), which led to my googling and finding an amazing variety of plans online.

I may now have to conduct some experiments of my own.