This morning I attended North Shore Community College's free Sustainability Informational Fair -a Green Fair - at the Lynn Campus. A number of organizations and vendors had informational tables, including Health Link and SWIM. There were speaker presentations. I sat in on Fred Hopp's presentation on "The Clean Energy Future." Fred teaches a green initiative class on clean energy at Salem State which I took in February-March. He also looks after the solar energy field at the Beverly High School, which has been around since 1981, one of six built by the federal government under Jimmy Carter and the only one left. Had we continued that effort to find a solution to our energy problem we would have been much further ahead today. For example, Fred talked about Denmark, which was a pioneer in developing commercial wind power during the 1970s and today gets almost 20% of its electricity from this clean energy source. In the U.S., on the other hand, it feels like we are starting from square one, and we have procrastinated to the point that we may not be able to turn things around. Fred provided an enthusiastic overview of the clean energy options.

I also had an opportunity to talk to a few people about Earth Hour. I found out from Emily at SWIM that Nahant is participating. Yeah, Nahant! I hope that even if your town isn't officially involved that you will flip all those light switches off (and televisions, computers, radios, etc.) on Saturday, March 28 at 8:30 pm for one hour. I sent a letter to the editor of the Swampscott Reporter to remind town residents. Please participate. Vote to take action on global warming.

Thoughtful living is sustainable living.