Newsletter
The Alamo Sierran E-Newsletter - September, 2008NEWSLETTER ARCHIVE |
PRINTABLE newsletter (pdf) |
* GENERAL MEETING * |
September 16, 2008: Border Wall Fight Continues
Cyrus Reed from the Austin Sierra Club Chapter office will present an update on the Border Wall fight in the Courts, in Congress, and on the ground in the Valley Westward up the Rio Grande.
October 21, 2008: New San Antonio Parks
Come hear about our new parks, Voelcker and the linear park program, from Crystal Strong and Brandon Ross of the San Antonio Parks & Recreation department.
In this issue: Some articles may be updated slightly compared to the print newsletter. To view an exact copy click on the printable pdf version above. 
|
A Word From the Chair
We had a good turn out of about 10 people for our August Social get together at La Tuna. It was hot and humid but the cold beers quenched our thirst. My thanks to all who showed up to meet and mingle with their fellow members.
Sometimes we have some important news or announcements that do not make the newsletter, so be sure to visit the website frequently so that you do not miss out on what is happening. I want to thank all those members who have signed up to receive the newsletter by email rather than by postal mail. My thanks for saving a tree and for helping to keep our postal and printing expenses down.
I also want to thank those members who have signed up for our Email Alert List. Again I want to stress how important it is that you inform us whenever your email address changes. I have already gotten a couple of return emails from a couple of members who signed up to receive the newsletter by email. So, if you have signed up for the electronic newsletter, but did not receive your copy by email for August, then please let me know, so that I can follow up why. Remember that you can always go to our website to read the newsletter online.
There is a website on the National Sierra Club that has environmental action alerts similar to our own local community alerts, but more on a national/global scale. I highly recommend that you visit and give your support to these worthwhile appeals. Simply go to our Action Alerts webpage and click on the scrolling "Protect America's lakes and rivers" banner which will take you to National's Sierra Club Action Center. There are a lot of action alert requests, so please take your time to read each one, and then decide which one you want to participate in. I hope you will sign up for as many as you can because your club needs your help and support on these environmental issues.
Loyd Cortez BACK
Friends and Sponsors Still Needed!
It’s not too late to sign up as a Friend or Sponsor of our big 40th Anniversary Celebration. With over 2000+ members in our club, we should have dozens and dozens of event sponsors. If you own a business, consider sponsoring our event as part of your community outreach. If you work for someone else, please ask them to consider being a sponsor.
This is a quick and easy way for general members to help the handful of members who actually do all the work in this club. Go ahead, get involved! Sponsorship includes several advertising opportunities as shown below:
- Platinum $1,000
- Commemorative booklet - outside back or inside back or inside front cover
- Company presenter at Founder’s Ceremony
- Company table for display
- Press release mention
- Back of T-shirt
- Gold $500
- Commemorative booklet – full page ad
- Mention at Founder’s Ceremony
- Press release mention
- Back of T-shirt
- Silver $250
- Commemorative booklet – half page ad
- Back of T-shirt
- Friend $125
- Commemorative booklet – quarter page ad
For more information call or email Paula Stone, Event Chair,
(210) 393-7351.
Paula Stone BACK
Border Wall Fight Continues
On June 23 the U.S. Supreme Court announced that it would not give the Sierra Club and Defenders of Wildlife a chance to argue that the border wall is unconstitutional. The groups contend that because the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security unilaterally waived 36 federal laws to expedite construction of the wall, this violates the Constitution's separation of powers clauses.
The Supreme Court's decision not to hear our challenge is unfortunate because it leaves one man with the extraordinary power to ignore any and all of the laws designed to protect the American people, our lands, and our natural resources.
The government has paid only lip service to public processes and to integrating environmental protection into border security efforts. We remain hopeful that the Court may yet reach and resolve these important constitutional issues in a pending case brought by El Paso County, Texas.
Congressman Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.) has introduced a bill in the House of Representatives that would secure America's border with Mexico while reducing the negative impact of border security operations on local communities and resources. The Borderlands Security and Conservation Act of 2007 (H.R. 2593) would provide the Department of Homeland Security flexibility to choose its border security strategies-rather than mandating an ineffective border wall-while also ensuring protections for wildlife, local communities and federally protected lands.
The Sierra Club supports Congressman Grijalva's legislation and calls on Congress to correct the unconstitutional authority that the Bush Administration has flagrantly abused. In doing so, it would ensure protection of our borderlands, wildlife and communities at risk from this ineffective and destructive wall. The bill is gaining co-sponsors all the time, and we are hopeful that Congress will address it.
Here in Texas, we know that the border wall fight will be a long one. The construction of the wall has moved from West to East because of the challenges from local residents and property owner that the federal government predicted in the Lone Star State. A vocal coalition including landowners, environmentalists, ecotourism business owners, and public officials has made it clear that they oppose the border wall. Individual civil lawsuits against the border wall are pending in the Lower Rio Grande Valley and elsewhere in the state.
Beyond that, the logistical challenges to the Department of Homeland Security are enormous. While the border wall in Arizona has been built in largely unpopulated desert areas, the Texas sections often go through university campuses, wildlife refuges and private property. Large waterfront sections of Texas property might end up on the Southern side of the wall under the current map, and Texans are organizing to prevent that from happening.
The Sierra Club has been actively involved for decades in helping to establish the wildlife refuges and protected areas of Texas. The border wall is the worst thing that the federal government could do to the borderlands regions. The Sierra Club takes its obligation to border communities and to border wildlife seriously and will continue in this challenge. We all have a stake in advancing human rights, fair trade, and environmentally sustainable development around the world.
Background information on the potential impacts of the proposed border wall on wildlife and wildlife habitat may be found on the Sierra Club's Lone Star Chapter website.
BACK
How Do You Save Energy at Home?
The Alamo Group would like to hear how you have been saving energy at your home or business. We believe that local examples of successful demand reduction can be used as important tools in our campaign to promote energy efficiency as one of the alternatives to new nuclear power plants. If you need help in writing up your activities for our local newsletter or for our website, Contact Jerry Morrisey by email or phone (382-2614).
Would you like to help reduce the energy consumption that results from attending our general meetings? Would you like to have some time to make new friends or visit with old friends? If the answer is yes, consider carpooling. If you need assistance giving or receiving a ride, leave a message at least a day prior to the meeting for Jerry Morrisey at 210-382-2614.
Jerry Morrissey BACK
|
The Sierra Club is all about citizen action on critical issues. Quick citizen input often spells the difference between victory and defeat for important measures at the local and state levels. Sign up now to receive our local e-mail Conservation Action Alerts and let your voice be heard. Contact Loyd Cortez at 674-9489 or by
and we'll add your name to our growing list of environmental activists. |
Recent Solar Breakthroughs
You wouldn’t know it by listening to or reading conventional news media, but a third industrial revolution is taking place in the area of alternative energy, and much of the revolution centers around solar power.
To give an idea of what is happening, on what seems to be an almost-daily basis, here are three recent discoveries in solar technology that greatly enhance its practicality, bringing closer the day when solar could be the dominant means of electrical generation in this country and the world.
In May it was announced that a group of Australian and Chinese researchers used nanotechnology to make solar more cost effective and more easily produced. The team grew the world’s first titanium oxide single crystals with large numbers of reactive surfaces, a feat that had previously been considered nearly impossible. The researchers said the highly efficient miniature crystals they created would be useful not only in solar technology but would be “fantastic” for air and water purification. The technology is expected to be commercially available within five to ten years.
A second major breakthrough was announced in mid-July by a team of MIT engineers who have designed windows that have solar cells that transform sunlight into electricity. The windows would replace expensive rooftop solar cells, giving a clear view and illuminating rooms while collecting solar energy around their edges. Because the technology is simple to manufacture, the MIT team expects it to be marketable within three years, and it can be added to existing solar panels to increase efficiency by 50 percent.The MIT researchers are so confident of their find they have started a company, Covalent Solar, to develop and market their product.
The third breakthrough involves storage of solar energy, previously considered to be problematic. Again, MIT researchers were responsible, this time for a simple, low-cost, and efficient process for solar energy storage. Inspired by the natural process of photosynthesis, these researchers developed a means of splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen, using solar power, to later recombine the two elements inside a fuel cell to create clean electricity for buildings and electric cars, at any hour of the day or night.
More work is needed on this research to integrate it into existing photovoltaic systems, but the team is confident their discovery will eventually transform energy supply systems around the world.
Loretta Van Coppenolle BACK
Arjun Makhijani Efficiency Study
Preliminary data from a study on San Antonio’s energy efficiency potential were released at a press conference and luncheon August 11 by energy expert Arjun Makhijani. The Alamo Group and Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club helped fund the study.
Makhijani says, “The overall affordable economic potential for San Antonio is about 2,000 MW if all buildings could be retrofitted or built for efficiency. With vigorous and visionary leadership, about half of this potential can be achieved by 2020.“
The 2000 MW figure greatly exceeds what CPS Energy would gain with investment in two new units of the South Texas Nuclear Project, at up to a $3 billion saving. New homes can achieve up to 50 percent energy use reduction at almost no cost with bottom-up site-specific design, said Makhijani, adding that very efficient homes can now be built for under $100 a square foot.
Makhijani also emphasized the need for larger investment in solar technology to further decrease energy demand from conventional sources. He cited the need for concentrating solar power plants, onsite solar (photovoltaics and water heating), and solar from parking lots. In the last scenario, solar collectors would be placed above cars in parking lots, of which San Antonio has an abundance, shading the cars and drawing energy that would be fed into the power grid. The advantages of solar, according to Makhijani, are that it supplies power especially during summer peak hours and that heat storage for concentrating solar, now becoming commercial, can meet 90 percent of peak demand in a sunny place like San Antonio.
An aide of Councilwoman Mary Alice Cisneros read a statement in support of efficiency at the press conference. Architect Tenna Florian, representing the San Antonio Green Building Council, also spoke, giving examples of efficiency in building design. In attendance at the luncheon were several prominent San Antonians, representatives of CPS Energy, and members of the business community.
Loretta Van Coppenolle BACK
Plant Exchange
We will have a Plant Exchange at our 40th anniversary celebration October 19, and all are welcome to participate. Bring a plant in a 4", 6", or one gallon pot and get tickets for your plants. Use the tickets to "buy" other people's plants. Just be sure plants you bring are healthy and well-rooted. Call Loretta at 210-492-4620 for more info.
BACK
2008 Sierra Club Calendars
We will be selling our beautiful calendars again this year. This year, to facilitate handling the money to make change, we decided to sell either calendar for the same price of $15. Plan now to fill 2009 with beautiful photos of our natural heritage, while contributing to the preservation of our local environment. Don't forget, these lovely calendars make great gifts.
BACK
Ellen does her best to ignore Bill at Green Vegetarian Restaurant
Sierra Club Social Events
meet and greet your Sierra Club friends
If you haven't joined us on one of these adventures lately, well, that's just too long. View our social calendar for all the latest.
BACK
Outings
For a complete list of all our upcoming outings, click here.
NOTE: No dogs [unless the specified outing will allow dogs on the trip], radios, recreational drugs, or unescorted children are allowed on Sierra Club outings. Public consumption of alcohol is prohibited during scheduled activities. Outings are usually suitable for the whole family; check with the leaders about details and to verify dates. All fees or donations will go fully to offset trip and administrative costs. Participants will be asked to sign a liability waiver.
Government Canyon State Natural Area
For information about programs and activities at Government Canyon State Natural Area go to the Friends of Government Canyon website or the TX Parks & Wildlife Calendar for Government Canyon SNA.
BACK