<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large"><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center;margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><b><span style="font-size:14pt">Birthday Thoughts: My Solar Hero</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt">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.</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt">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.</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt">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.</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt">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.</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt">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.</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt">As Richard Kirya reported on Uganda
solar work:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">“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 </span><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">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.”</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">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’.</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Dick
Alton, Greenrise Community member, entering 82 and working to be the church.
Became religious and a theologian in 1968.</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt"> </span></p></div><div><br></div><span class="gmail_signature_prefix">-- </span><br><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div>Richard H. T. Alton</div><div>ICA Global Fund</div><div>The Last Chapter</div><div>Methodist Net Zero</div><div>T: 773.344.7172</div><div><a href="mailto:richard.alton@gmail.com" target="_blank">richard.alton@gmail.com</a></div><div>Make Plain the Vision, Habakkuh 2:2<br></div><div><font size="2">Won't you be my neighbor?</font></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>