*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@gmail.com Make Plain the Vision, Habakkuh 2:2 Won't you be my neighbor?