[Dialogue] Birthday Witness

[Richard Alton]

*Birthday Thoughts: My Solar Hero*

I was struck by Terry Bergdall’s Thanksgiving report from Litibu about his
solar cooking for his community dinner. What a great image of our future.



Actually, this is the second time Terry has brought solar to the community.
Not long ago, Terry was the Executive Director of ICA USA and started a
social investment program to fund Kemper’s (Greenrise) own solar system.
You invest in the solar system and then from the savings in electricity the
Institute would pay you back in cash (50%) and the other half in tax
deductions. Absolutely brilliant (somebody told me the real thinker was the
late Board member and financier Bob Rafos) but Terry put it into action
which was the huge task. Bless him.  Solar now covers 25% of our energy use
in the Greenrise building.



I have become fascinate with solar; after Sally and I invested in the ICA
solar project, we did a solar system on our church, which helped reduce our
energy cost dramatically. We not only did solar on the roof but also
community solar where you buy solar panels in a solar field, which puts
solar energy in the system to match your energy used. You could argue you
were Net Zero. All our energy was renewable energy.



Bless the Methodist Church: they just committed to be Net Zero by 2050. Our
Methodist Conference’s Bishop came out with a Net Zero Task Force that is
making solar a huge focus. Reminds me of H. Richard paper on the Church as
Social Pioneer. The church is being the church when it is the first to
repent for the sins of a society, turns its back on it and leads society in
the social act of repentance.



And then there is the ICA USA Africa Fund which has found an amazing amount
of interest in village solar. Zimbabwe has combined solar with their Self
Help Groups saving to rotate getting a home solar system. Women groups in
Zambia are using solar to keep their chicks warm at night. Ghana has used
solar to bring lights to the community. Kenya has just started Self Help
Groups to save for family solar kits. Uganda has over 2,000 families in
Self Help Groups saving for solar.



As Richard Kirya reported on Uganda solar work:

“More than 90% of the 230,000 people living in Budaka District of Uganda
live without reliable access to electricity. There are reports where young
school going children ten to fifteen-year-old have been badly burned in
kerosene accidents in the countryside and urban slum communities. The
families and children rely on kerosene lamps for lighting their homes;
these are very smoky and blacken their home and clothes with soot. The
school going children rely on kerosene to study, which is dangerous and
produces poor-quality lighting. They cannot study longer, and efficiently.
Some homes have experienced total burn of their entire homes causing loss
of life long achieved properties.”



The world is in a precipitance state. As global leaders gathered in Dubai
for the United Nations climate talks known as COP28 this month, we must
acknowledge that the fossil fuel age is out of gas- that its end is
inevitable, we must ramp up renewables and phase out fossil fuels. Our
future is helping communities become Climate Change Ready. Not only with
solar energy but, most importantly, coming together to build communities
moving together… recognizing we do not stand a chance alone. My survival
depends on you. Niebuhr saw this tragedy of ‘individual overemphasis’ and
not recognizing how ‘self and society are bound together’.



Dick Alton, Greenrise Community member, entering 82 and working to be the
church. Became religious and a theologian in 1968.



















-- 
Richard H. T. Alton
ICA Global Fund
The Last Chapter
Methodist Net Zero
T: 773.344.7172
richard.alton at gmail.com
Make Plain the Vision, Habakkuh 2:2
Won't you be my neighbor?
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