It’s an ambitious project that integrates numerous layers of green: Technology, education, history, sustainability and family. The house has been home to four generations.  Now, in these uncertain economic times, the family faces some very difficult decisions.  Do they sell the house knowing almost certainly this will mean the destruction of the home.  Can they afford to fix up the house and stay in it?

From an energy perspective, the house has a few problems. Single pane wood windows, poor insulation, old appliances, lighting and wiring. From an aesthetic point of view, it just looks like hell.  It is sided with cedar shingles that to my knowledge, have never been painted. We put a roof on it several years ago, because the existing shingle version was leaking in at least fifty places. Most people would probably take one look at the house and say it probably isn’t worth saving.

But I have a different perspective.  My grandfather and great grandfather built the house. My mom grew up in the house and still lives there with my dad.  And I grew up in the house too.  Everyone that has ever visited, over the long history of the home, comes away feeling as though the house itself has welcomed them in.

Over the years, as my parents have grown older, we’ve struggled with what to do. We’ve considered a number of possibilities but have never made a final decision.

A little over three years ago, I came up with the idea of using the restoration of the house as focal point of a TV show. We could highlight green materials and systems while at the same time telling the story of the history of the home.  We had the know-how, but had no idea of how we would pay for it.

My interest in energy efficient construction and education, has taken me to a lot of trade shows and seminars.  Sometimes the people you meet at these events call you up and ask you if you want to know more. So one day I got a call from Cathi McDade who works for Owens Corning and she told me about a new insulation system they had.  I told her about my Tankhouse idea.  And she said, she would like to know more.

Cathi came down to Reedley and looked at the project and offered to help. It’s because of her that the idea is now becoming a reality. The goal is not to just restore the house, but to make it “energy net positive,” a house that actually makes more energy than it consumes. The goal is to transform the house from a perfect example of inefficiency into a shining beacon of energy efficiency and comfort. The goal is to save the family house and to do it all while providing solid information about a variety of energy efficient materials and systems.

A lot of people have advised me not to invest so much time and money in this big old house. But for me, it turns out to be one of those things that really is worth saving.

–Mark Alvis

–Mark Alvis

The concept of the event was to entice people to come together to have some fun with “green.” The Ridings have spent the past several years turning their home into a showcase of cost effective, energy efficiency.

At the beginning of the year, we did a major remodel of the kitchen and dining room, plus we turned the third bay of their garage into a “meeting hall” complete with LED and skylighting, and of course, evaporative cooling. The kitchen received new, locally sourced granite counters, new high efficiency bay windows, high efficiency appliances, and LEDs who’s wattage totals less than one of the lights we replaced.

Bob gave a talk about how they did it and about how our history effects who we are.

And then Lance Canales and the Flood took to the Solar Powered Mobile Party Stage.  They were simply fabulous.  If you’ve never heard Lance and the band, go find out where they are playing next. They are a treasure.

Lots of people asked me how it could be a solar powered party when we had it at night?  This is exactly the kind of question I hoped people would ask, it is the reason for holding this series of events: to get people to really think about what we can do with “green.” The Solar Power Mobile Party uses a bank of batteries that are charged by an array of photovoltaic panels.  We can power lights, amps, mixers, and projectors for hours.  Plus, the electricity supplied by the system is very “clean,” and maybe it’s just me, but I think it actually sounds better than when you plug-in.  The lights are all LED so they make plenty of light without draining the batteries. We have a big screen so we can show movies too!

The thermometer on my front porch is hovering around 102 right now and it’s barely noon.

I wonder, if it’s that hot outside, how hot is it up in my attic? To find out, I decided to put the thermometer up in the attic. The access to my attic is via ladder in a hallway closet.  As I was climbing up the ladder I could feel the heat increasing like an angry beast.  I lifted up the access cover and stuck by head into the attic.  It felt like a sauna, quiet and hot.  Some cracks of light poked through the dormer vents. I touched one of the metal ventilation ducts and thought I was going to have a blister.  It felt like I could cook and egg on it.  I laid the thermometer on top of the insulation and could see he red bar rising.

I left it there and started to climb back down with sweat already running off my face.  I glanced at the thermometer as my foot touched the top rung of the ladder. Right then it occurred to me, “what if it’s hotter up here than the thermometer can show?” Sure enough, when I looked at the thermometer again, it had already maxed out 130. I needed another thermometer.

I went into the kichen and pulled out a meat thermometer. I took it back up to the attic and set it on rafter.  I don’t know how accurate a meat thermometer is, but after about a minute it read between Tender Ham and Beef rare: Around 145 degrees.

I thought for a moment about cooking steaks in the attic, but decided against it because climbing up a ladder with a plate of meat seemed a bit risky.

This did get me thinking though.  How is it possible, that if is only 102 outside, it can be 145 in the attic? Shouldn’t I be able to at least keep the temperature the same as the ambient air?  How does this effect my AC bill? And what can we do to keep our attics cooler? Looks like I’m going to have to do some research.

–Mark Alvis

As the Solar Powered Mobile Party team was setting up for the 3rd Annual Reedley College Green Summit, they were approach by a disgruntled employee. She didn’t say anything about the music being all powered by the Sun and how very cool that was. In fact,  they hadn’t even turned the system on.  Apparently, she had been waiting for some time to approach the unsuspecting crew, probalby since the first Green Summit when a very raucos blue grass band had taken the stage right outside her classroom windows with their fiddles and banjos.

Never-the-less, she proceeded to complain about the volume stating that she hadn’t been told about the event in enough time to reschedule an exam that her students were taking on precisely the day of the Green Summit.  Assuming that most teachers at Reedley College read neither the memos sent out by their department heads, nor the the gigantic marquis sign out in front of the school that had been advertising the event for months, how can you blame her.  Who is the administration to put on an event that could possibly give some very “green lights” to so many students who may have never had a chance at the types of jobs that will actually make them a decent living.

The incident sparked heated reactions from the cafeteria staff as they came out with aprons on chanting: “Let the music play,” and “Don’t turn it down, turn it up!” The Solar Powered Mobile Party crew offered the head chef the mic, but she had to go back to work. Solar powered staff, sensing the building tension, immediately informed College administration.

As in most cases of difficult decision making, it was the young people who were to resolve the issue. The  students were the ones who saw how silly the whole thing was. The band, as requested, ceased playing until notified the test was complete. But not before the teacher, standing in front of the entire audience while the band was performing, made a huge scene.

It should be noted that adjacent to the Solar Powered Mobile Party stage, also known as the Sun Stage, we’re some incredible examples of what solar power can do for college students.  All during the teacher’s rant, the solar ovens were quietly and cleanly cooking pizza, chicken and cookies. There was even a Stirling engine pumping away. A Stirling engine is a device that converts the Sun’s energy into mechanical energy, something that many of the kids missed that day as they were paying attention to to much more interesting confrontation taking place in front of the Solar Powered Stage.

In all fairness, the teacher had no idea that the music was solar powered and she wasn’t complaining about that. It was simply that the music was too loud. Unfortunately, the incident caused the Sun Stage staff to miss the opportunity to tell the audience that it was indeed powered by the Sun, as they too were caught up in the emotion of the moment and unable to focus on the true focus of the event.

This morning while working for Frances, a client in upcountry Maui, I noticed a cat lying in the sun on a windowsill in the bathroom. It reminded me of the movie class, but not much else.

The house where the cat lives is about twenty years old. Frances had recently purchased the house and I was along to work on some improvements. At the top of the list was dealing with the morning chill. The elevation of the house was high enough to bring on some cool temperatures in the early morning hours, and since most people on Maui do not have heating, it posed a bit of a problem: how do we get the warmth of the morning sun inside the house?

A quick tour of Frances' new house showed us a drastic temperature difference between the porch on the east side of the house and the inside of the house itself. Frances told me that by 10 or 11 a.m., the house warmed up enough to be comfortable. However, Frances was an early riser and that meant being cold for a good five hours. Hence, she asked for advice.

Frances told me there was a pellet stove in the house, but it would take a couple hours after lighting it to do any good. Moreover, she was having trouble even finding the pellets for the stove on the island since hardly anyone needs heat.

The first solution I thought of was a small, forced air system. She already had propane on site for her stove and water heater, and I knew she would not be using the system very much. We called an HVAC guy and he came and looked around. Of course, he thought it was a good idea since that is what he does.

We discussed this idea for a while, but after looking carefully at the options, I still was not positive this was the best solution. I just could not help think about the cat in the window. Why did he pick that window? What was that peculiar look on his face? It was almost like a movie, except this was real. Therefore, I went back to my training and asked, "What is it that we really want?"

Frances' house was chilly in the morning even though it was already warm outside from the morning sun.  As I stood in the bathroom looking at the cat, lying in the sun in the window, he looked up at me with that kind of look cats do, and it was if I distinctly heard him say, "Really? You can't figure this out?"

Cats are known lovers of warmth. If you pay attention, they will show you the warm spots in the house at any given time of the day. In the morning, according to kitty, it was obviously the windows on the east side of the house.

Therefore, we knew we would have to figure out how to get some more windows on that side. She had already told me that she wanted to replace the front door; therefore, we picked out one with lots of glass and sidelights to boot. Next, we decided to turn the tub in the master bath so that it was parallel with the wall. This would allow room for a large picture window to go over the tub, letting in lots of glorious morning sun.

I discussed the situation with my brothers Lyle and Marlin, and they both suggested looking into the panels that combine photovoltaics with thermal. Therefore, we are looking into that as well.

I am thinking we are going to be able to heat Frances' house just fine without burning anything at all. Who says cats are worthless creatures that only care about themselves?

I've got two Meyer lemon trees in my back yard.  Every year, they make way more fruit than I can use. So starting in late November I start giving them away.  Inevitably though, I never use them all.  So I always start by picking the lowest hanging lemons.

I first developed this harvesting technique when I was around ten years old picking oranges for my grandfather.  He didn't think much of the method and let me know it. But to me there were more oranges than we could ever pick so why work so hard climbing up a ladder to pick when you could just pick the ones you could reach from the ground?

Forty years later, I'm still pretty lazy. I still can't figure out why someone would chose to take a path that requires more work, or a car that takes more gas, or a house that costs more to heat and cool.

Conservation, energy efficiency, is like picking the lemons on the bottom branches; it take less time and you don't need a ladder.

--Mark Alvis

My new teapot has a base that you set it on, so it isn't doesn't have a cord. You flip up the witch and it starts heating the water. As soon as it's boiling, it shuts itself off.  For some, this is no big deal. But for those of us who start boiling water and come back a couple hours later after the pot has melted to the stove, it's a miracle.

But that isn't the best part. My little red teapot cranks. I haven't actually timed it, but it is definitely faster than the heating on the stove method, and way faster than a coffee maker.  One of the reasons for this, is that it has a window so you can see just how much water is in it. It's marked with number of cups so I only put in the amount of water I need.  If I'm just making a cup or two, it's incredibly fast.

My little red teapot started me thinking about how much energy we use to heat water, not just for making coffee, but for washing clothes, taking showers, heating our homes. I remembered going to a class at Tulare AgTAC where they do seminars about energy efficiency, and they said that heating water was the biggest use of energy in multi-family housing.

At the time I thought, like everyone else, "Why don't they have solar hot water heaters like everyone in China?" But after watching my teapot boil it's small amount of water, I'm wondering if the answer isn't theamount of energy but the amount of the water. Stands to reason that the less water we heat, the less energy we use. If we are heating water that we either don't need or let cool off only to re-heat, this just isn't efficient. And yet, that is exactly what most of our the water heaters in our homes do: They heat up 40 or 50 gallons of water, and then pray that it gets used before it cools off. In addition, the hot water that makes it into the pipes but doesn't make it to the faucet, gets stuck in the pipes and cools off there. The energy it took to heat the water just bleeding off into the atmosphere.

Tank-less water heaters are one way to address this issue as they only heat the water as it is moving through the unit. This is why they are also called "on-demand" water heaters.  This got me thinking: how much of the energy we use is actually used?

After drinking my coffee this morning, I came to the realization that the reason I like my little red tea pot so much, is that it simply does what I need it to do, heat the amount of water I need and no more.

My shiny red teapot is a beacon of energy efficiency.

--Mark Alvis

But most people probably don’t think of Fresno as a “water town.”  We only get 11 or 12 inches of rain a year after all.  We are actually considered a semi-arid desert.   So how can Fresno be a “river city”?

It turns out the the San Joaquin River, the river that gave it’s name to the entire Valley, flows down from the mighty Sierra right past Fresno on its way to the Pacific Ocean. If it were running, it would be the fourth largest river in the state.

But in 1947, or there ’bouts, the river got turned off.  Up until then, you could catch salmon in the San Joaquin River.  After a while, people started to think, “Well, that’s just the way it is.”   The San Joaquin was more useful as a canal than a river, after all, and who’s gonna miss a few fish?”

All my life I’ve heard people put Fresno down, but I don’t think I ever got the connection. I never thought that maybe one of the reasons people didn’t like Fresno was because we turned off a river.  If you think about it, people need water; we’re magnetically drawn to rivers and lakes and oceans. They not only symbolize life, the provide it.  So if you turn off a river, it’s bound to have some negative effects.

A couple weeks ago, a group called “Revive the San Joaquin” held a festival at Lost Lake Park, just north of Fresno.  It was really no surprise that many in attendance had never been to the park, a beautiful spot on the banks of the San Joaquin River.  Why would you go to a river park that didn’t have a river?  It dawned on me that the reason many who had come this day was simple: the water was back.

The decision to return the water to the river may not be popular in the agricultural community. It’s a tricky issue for sure which may be difficult to understand especially in the light of our current economic struggles. I’ve certainly had questions about the wisdom of turning off the pumps to save the little delta smelt.  The agony that it caused seemed out of proportion to the good achieved.

But bringing back the San Joaquin River is akin to creating a national park, only more difficult. Because as humans, we have a very difficult time turning around, even when we know we’re going the wrong direction.

For a long time, we thought we needed to conquer nature as if nature was our enemy. Now we realize we need nature to survive and we need to learn to live in harmony with nature or things may not work out so well for us.  For those who have worked to bring back the San Joaquin, it must have seemed an insurmountable stuggle, and we owe them all, not just for this river, but what the struggle has tought us about the true value of nature.

The San Joaquin River and all rivers, should be cherished and preserved and not seen as merely a resources or highways of commerce.  They are so much more.

–Mark Alvis

I also look for materials that last a very long time; you do not want to have to replace a roof if you can help it.

A couple of weeks ago my Dad told me about a new roofing material that a friend of his was using on his house. He said he thought I would be interested because it was called an "insulated roof tile." We went and saw it and sure enough, it turned out to be a Spanish tile that was made with an expanded polystyrene core. The exterior of the tile was made from some type of stucco-like product. It looked just like the real thing, but it weighed much less than an ordinary tile.

I immediately wanted to try it. I did some quick research, and within a week, we had a contract to use it on a house in Fresno; the first one in the city, it turns out, which is funny because the stuff is made only a few miles north, in Madera. In the process of researching the product, I spoke with a roofer in Maui who had been using it for over a year and said it was great. It has been approved for use in Fresno County, but not within the city of Fresno itself.

Therefore, I spent a couple of days working with the manufacturer, collecting the product's test info, and then had a chat with the city of Fresno's building department at city hall. It turns out that the head inspector for the city was already interested in using the stuff on his house and had a sample of the tile sitting on his desk! I explained that the ICC report was pending, therefore, a one-time use permit was granted, until the report came in.

The installation went much quicker than I expected for a tile roof, owing to its light weight and large size. The roof was all hips, so there was quite a bit of cut off, but even that was easy to handle. The roofing material itself has an R-6 value, which is not huge; however, any R-value for a roof tile is big news. It also has a high emissivity, which means it releases the heat more readily instead of just getting hotter like a piece of metal does.

My co-worker Sean and I are going to build a couple of test "dog houses" for his dogs. On one roof, we are going to use metal, and on the other, we are going to use the new, insulated tile.

It was 102 in Fresno today. We will let you know soon which dog is happier.

--Mark Alvis

It is like trying to “think” in a foreign language; no matter how much I may like the idea of not having a car, the reality sets in pretty quick. I just got back from the grocery store. I rode there on my bike. I did not think much of it; however, milk, pineapple juice, and rice weigh a lot more when you are carrying them on your bike than when they are on the seat next to you.

I have been looking for a new vehicle, but I cannot decide on either a car or truck. There are good arguments for both…the hybrid for long trips, the truck for pulling trailer loads of ICF. Both are ridiculously expensive and I cannot believe I am actually considering paying over $30,000 for a truck. When did we get to the point where it seems fine to pay half as much for a vehicle as you do for a house? Well, OK, a third.

To tell you the truth, I am really quite enjoying my newfound freedom from gas. In the weeks leading up to selling my old Toyota pickup, I spent over $400 in gas driving to places I was absolutely certain I needed to drive to. Now, just a week later, I do not even have a car. Somehow, I have survived.

I sold my truck to a very happy young man in Richmond, California. I drove it up to him on a Sunday because he needed a truck. However, how was I going to get back home to Fresno? OMG! No truck! Nevertheless, not having a car gave me the chance to ride the Amtrak for the first time in my life. It was fabulous and much faster than I expected. I was able to read, sleep, and see parts of California I had never seen.

I am thinking that everyone in America should give it a try…one week without a car.

Really…try it.

–Mark Alvis

We had “bouldered” over to the edge of the ocean on the rocks at Halawa Bay on Molokai. Behind us were 2,000 ft. cliffs with a 500 ft. waterfall right where it was supposed to be. There were very few people around. We sat on top of a couple of the smooth, black rocks that separated the two beaches. A couple of boys were body surfing in the waves, which came in sets of four and five.

Patches of violently green plants made a statement of defiance amongst the boulders. The clouds had translucence at their edges and the sky seemed 3-D. However, that did not make sense. The horizon was vividly defined; a line between the purple-blue ocean and the clouds above and it stretched from one edge of the bay to the other and was very discernibly humped in the middle.

Halawa does this to people. It surrounds you with life. You feel the earth, with its intense colors, the constant motion of the waves, and the ocean’s incessant sound. You see things you usually do not see, things you are not sure you are actually seeing. It is almost overwhelming, as if there is just too much going on. However, if you take some time, slowly, it starts to happen.

I have had similar feelings, but never so intense or so clear. This place talks to you. You have to be listening of course, but it is not as if Halawa is whispering. It is talking so loud it is almost deafening. I thought about it for a while, while we were sitting on the black boulders in the middle of this unabashed exhibition of life. I thought of what it reminded me.

It was Canyon de Chelly in Arizona, where I felt a connection to the land. I remember doing almost the same thing, looking out over the canyon, and feeling the people who had been there before. Though very different, in both cases, my understanding had come through interpreters, which in this case were Hawaiians, while it was the Anasazi in Arizona. In both cases, no one said anything directly to me, but instead, like the land itself, maintained a patient persistence that slowly led me to see how we are surrounded by and are part of nature, and that we need to take care of it as it takes care of us. They both know that this is not something that you can be taught, but something you have to find out for yourself.

Even though Molokai is called “The Friendly Isle,” I had found that the people on Molokai were not very friendly. I wondered why. Halawa helped me understand. The connection that I felt to the earth in the brief time we spent sitting on the rocks on the shore of Halawa Bay was exhilarating, but nothing compared to what the Hawaiians must feel for this place.

It is excruciating. To have this deep knowledge and yet have to watch as such a place as Hawaii, such a place as Earth, slowly succumbs.

There is a bumper sticker on Molokai that says, “Don’t change Molokai. Let Molokai change you.”

It changed me.

One of the first things I saw when I arrived on Molokai was a big, hand painted sign of a wind turbine with a slash through it.

In comparison to the other Hawaiian Islands, Molokai is sparsely populated, with fewer than 8,000 permanent residents. I had heard that they were a lot of very forward thinking people on the island, really into solar power and sustainability and against things like GMOs. So when I saw these signs that said “NO TO WIND POWER”, I was confused.

I did a little research and learned that since Molokai is so small, they don’t have the demand for power like the neighboring island of Oahu. But Oahu, being an island, doesn’t have a lot of room for the wind turbines. So, the idea is to put them on Molokai which is much more sparsely populated. Kind of like the farmers in the Midwest who have put up wind machines on their ranches and are turning a tidy profit.

I’m not sure if this “anti-wind turbine” sentiment on Molokai is based on aesthetics, which I could see. Or if it is simply some type of isolationist thing. I’ve only been here a week, but I would certainly understand why people who live here would want to keep the rest of the world’s craziness out. Out of all the places I’ve been in the world, including several other Hawaiian Islands, Molokai is the most down to Earth.

And that’s the sad part. We all want places like Molokai to stay just the way they are. But Molokai is part of the rest of the world too. We all have have to deal with issues like global warming, ocean acidification, over population, etc. No one gets to opt out.

Sometimes the issues are island specific. Right now, people on Molokai have been told they cannot throw any metals into the land fill, because since the price of recycled metal is so low, there is no one interested in recycling. This has happened in the past and the result was people just pushed their old dead refrigerators and rusting cars into a convenient gulch. Nothing too aesthetic about that.

I see Molokai’s refuse problem as a microcosm of the rest of the world: We are all running out of places to dump our trash.

I empathize with the people on Molokai. They live in paradise and do not want to see it destroyed. But I think the time has finally come where we all realize that the entire Earth is a paradise and we all must share in the the task of saving her.

–Mark Alvis

I had the honor and pleasure to be the featured presenter at the 7th annual Reedley Peace Center Retreat. We watched the short video "The Beer That Saved the World", which sparked a lively discussion about running a sustainable business, and whether or not capitalism requires continual growth. If it does, is it ultimately sustainable?

I did a two-hour presentation where I introduced the concept of "The Connecto-sphere," which is my idea of how everything is connected to everything else. Initially, I focused on energy-efficient building and conservation. We talked about the importance of education, and about today's youth having fewer opportunities to connect with nature. Young people are constantly bombarded by advertising, TV, movies, text messages, and the Internet. Unfortunately, this seems to be where our consumer-driven society wants them.

There were some success stories, like that of a youngster who reluctantly went on a camping trip only to have it change his life.

The retreat gave me the confidence to continue to work on the things for which I care. I have been advised often to focus on one thing, that I am too fragmented, and trying to do too much. I have always struggled with this, because I think we have to see the big picture to see how it all works. I finally realized this weekend that, it is all one thing and that we all need to keep on learning about how it can all fit together, we are, after all, part of nature too.

--Mark Alvis

In the movie, “Batman Begins,” Bruce Wayne goes to a remote part of China to try and deal with the death of his parents which he blames on himself. There’s a scene where Liam Neeson’s character is giving Bruce Wayne a jujitsu lesson on a frozen lake.During the session, Neeson tells Bruce that his parent’s death was not his fault, and then says:

“It was your father’s.”

Wayne responds by attacking Neeson with his jujitsu stick.

Fighting him off Neeson continues: “Anger does not change the fact that your father failed to act.”

They fight furiously for a few moments until it appears Wayne has the advantage and he angrily commands:
“Yield!”

Neeson, seemingly defeated flatly responds: “You have not beaten me.” Then he strikes the ice under Bruce’s feat with his jujitsu stick. The ice cracks and Wayne falls into the freezing water. “You have given up sure footing for a death blow.Always heed your surroundings.”

You might not think that we could learn about sustainability from a Batman movie, but together these two lessons are indispensable.

When we possess knowledge that requires us to act to stay alive, inaction is an unnatural response and may result in our demise. Similarly, when we fail to pay attention to what’s going on around us, we risk the same fate.

By observing our environment, we not only gain knowledge of the past, but of the future. As we have learned more and more about how things connect and affect each other, we have been able to design and build some incredible machines.

We’ve know for a long time how to make electricity without using any fuel.

Forty years ago, we flew to the moon in a vehicle that used fuels cells to make electricity.A little later, we figured out how to make cars that can go 100 miles on a gallon of gas. And now, we know how to build homes that produce as much electricity as they consume. More, in fact.

Sometimes it seems like we make inexplicable leaps forward in our understanding of science with a “stroke of genius.” In reality, we haven’t done these things on our own or by ignoring nature. Consciously, or subconsciously, we have done it by paying very close attention to the way the natural world works.

The students who are in high school now are going to be faced with unprecedented problems in the areas of energy and the environment. So the concept behind Buchanan Energy Center in Clovis, California, is to give students the tools to learn how the natural world works. By first building a strong foundation in the sciences, such as physics, chemistry and biology, they can better understand how we can fit into nature without causing it harm.

The design, materials and systems of the Center are all “teaching tools.” With a focus on energy efficiency and renewable energy, the buildings themselves will inspire students to look at the world in an interactive way, not just to learn how someone else has done it.

The Center has a shop area where students will be able to not only learn about photovoltaics and wind turbines, thermal mass and R-values, but have the chance to try out their own ideas. Maybe one of them will come up with a way to sequester CO2 directly out of the atmosphere by turning it into a building material. Or maybe one of them will figure out how to grow food with out using petroleum.

Today, energy affects nearly all aspects of our lives as it will in the future. But the Buchanan Energy Center is notjust a view into the futurebut a place where students can see what we can do right now if the"pay attention to their surroundings." It has been estimated that energy efficiency alone can reduce the United States energy use by 53%. Add to that clean energy such as wind, solar and geothermal and hydro-electric and we can have a carbon freegrid, and from that, carbon free transportation.

It isn’t a lack of technology that is preventing this from happening,it'seconomics and fear. We think fossil fuels are cheaper because we don't include all the costs. We are frightened into maintianing the status quo by those who profit from it. The equation that this leaves us with is complicated as it pits the economy and our standard of living against the environment. “Do we continue on with business as usual even though we know the consequences?”This isn’t a technological barrier but a social and political one. In the real world, science isn't seperated from politics, it isconfused by it. The students will learn about this as well.

I don’t know all the people involved in making the Buchanan Energy Center a reality but I do know that they have something we all desperately need:

The will to act.

--Mark Alvis

Still, some people (usually in the fossil fuel business) claim that there are not enough renewable resources available. Last week, the DOE released new estimates for wind power generation in the contiguous 48 states, which was huge...three times bigger than was previously believed. 

To put it in perspective, the total U.S. generation was 4 million gigawatts hours in 2009. The new estimate for wind potential is 37 million gigawatts hours per year. The reason for the huge increase is the technological improvements over the past ten years. 

We are now building wind turbine towers that are 80 feet tall instead of 50. Since wind speeds are usually higher in higher elevations, the taller towers can capture more wind, and hence, generate more electricity. 

Knowing that the "fuel" for wind power is abundant and free, it makes the most sense to use wind for power before anything else. Why would we choose fuels that are monetarily and environmentally expensive, over something that is neither? 

Moreover, this is not just for buildings. One Stanford study shows that an electric car's electricity that was generated by wind is the most efficient and clean method of automobile transport. Unlike a big power plant, wind turbines are "instantly on," they are producing power as soon as you hook them up, unlike big power plants, which take years to get through the planning stage, and even longer for nuclear plants. 

This huge lag time is very expensive, as no power is being generated during the construction phase, and yet a lot of money is being spent. To think that the potential for wind generation in this country is over nine times what we need, it seems ludicrous that we are not developing it as fast as we can. 

It seems even crazier to still be mining and burning coal when we have such a better alternative. --Mark Alvis

The Detroit auto show was a couple weeks ago and Toyota, once again, showed why it leads when it comes to high-mileage, low-emission vehicles.

Toyota showed off the FT-CH (the CH stands for compact hybrid), which gets better mileage than the Prius. The FT-CH is smaller and geared more towards younger people. In addition, it will be more affordable than the Prius.

However, the thing that really impressed me was what Jim Lentz of Toyota Motor Sales said at the show. Lentz said that within 20 to 30 years, we will reach peak oil and enter a period where demand for oil will be higher than supply. This means the price of oil will skyrocket. Lentz says we need to “re-invent” the automobile to one that “eliminates or greatly reduces the use of conventional petroleum fuels.”

People have different opinions about when we will reach “peak oil.” Some say we already have. Nevertheless, the critical issue here is that big car companies see the change coming and are now pouring money into hybrid and electric technologies. They want to be prepared when the price of gas rockets up again, because this time, it may not come back down.

Actually, we cannot wait for oil prices to force us to start using these newer, cleaner technologies. That is putting economics in front of the environment, and that is something that simply cannot continue, as we now know.

–Mark Alvis

I thought that maybe the conference in Copenhagen would be like the Olympics, where all the countries in the world would get together and have a big energy party. Maybe it would be like a huge teach-in and be covered by all the media, as they did for the Olympics in China. That was something. I am thinking that the fate of the world is at least as important as the pommel horse.

Imagine all the countries learning from one another ways to stop global warming. Denmark could show off its wind turbines. Germany could teach everyone about solar tech, and Japan could show off their hybrid cars. There are houses now, called net-zero houses, that make as much power as they use. What if everyone had one of those?

It was known going in that it would be a struggle to get 192 countries to agree on something as complex as what to do about global warming, but at least it was happening, and all of the countries attending know something has to change, and soon. The countries that make up the Organization of Small Island States were there to plea for the very existence of their land, as rising sea levels will have them underwater very soon.

I thought that bringing people together from all over the world might help the various cultures understand each other better, from rich countries that have only begun to feel the effects, to poor countries who have been feeling the effects of global warming for a long time as their water supplies dry up and their villages flood. I think we are all now feeling the pain of the Earth.

I thought the Copenhagen Conference was going to be a good chance for unity.

However, as it progressed, none of this seemed to be happening. It was as if they were waiting for a leader that never showed up. For the first time, I realized that while we have world leaders, we do not have a leader of the world. Our leaders are not leading the world at all; they are only leading their own countries.

What needs to happen is already happening: the people of the world will have to unite, create the changes needed to survive, despite what their governments are doing. There will be countries that take leadership roles, some have already committed to being carbon-neutral by 2020. We need to look to them for inspiration and examples of how it can be done, instead of pointing fingers at the other countries.

The issue of global warming is overwhelming. However, ignoring the issue will only make things worse.

I suggest we have the Energy Olympics in the same spirit as the regular Olympics. Each country brings their energy-efficient technologies, ideas, and plans. Then, they go in front of the judges to make sure they are viable. Instead of giving out medals, new technologies are given to the countries that need them. And for the countries that have the technologies, the rest of the world can teach them the value of a healthy Earth.

We are not going to solve global warming until we all pitch in to save our common home.

–Mark Alvis

When you're in a particular industry, you get to know the language, whether it's medicine, education, plumbing or computers. You learn to speak this particular language partly out of convenience, but also with a bit of "I'm in the club" kind of feel to it.

While I am not certain of the intent, the effect of this "club building" is to keep outsiders out. You do not get to use "lawyer speak" if you are not a lawyer. But who would want to anyway?

This arrangement has pretty much worked for us for a long time. Most of us are really quite content with only having to deal with our own stuff. We have not had the need to talk much about where electricity comes from or what by-products its manufacturing creates. All we needed to know was that it was there and what it cost. We did not need to know the language of energy.

Now, we see that this language is one we all need to learn, because it connects us all in ways we cannot imagine. We have put energy on a pedestal higher than air and water, higher than food, and often, higher than human life. At best, this seems counter intuitive. After all, we started using fossil fuels to make our lives easier, not to have it rule them.

It seems to me there are three things we can all do: learn the language of energy, learn to use less energy, and learn how to make renewable energy. After all, we are all a part of the "energy club" whether we signed up or not.

--Mark Alvis

I do not think there is anything more effective at transforming a house than natural light. It seems obvious, but for some reason, many homes have hallways, bathrooms, and even kitchens that are dark in the middle of the day. I call them "light-locked" because for one reason or another, they were built without access to sunlight.

A kitchen may have a small, sink window, but often all the walls are used for cabinets. Therefore, in an area where you really need lots of light, there is often not enough. Therefore, we put skylights in kitchens a lot.

Depending on the roof, the light shaft can be very interesting itself, even sculptural. We have also put skylights in showers, pantries, offices and, of course, garages. I put one in the upstairs bathroom at my parent's and the glow it gives to the room brings life back into the eighty-year-old house.

Yesterday, we installed a tube-type skylight over a vanity, which was "light-locked." The new source of light really made the new granite vanity top look great.

On Tuesday, we installed two skylights in a large kitchen here in Fresno. They were dual pane and clear so you can look up and see the sky and the birch leaves turning yellow in the fall. While I am certain that natural light is much healthier than artificial light, I think it is because you can look up at heaven while you are making your morning coffee that makes a skylight in your kitchen so special.

--Mark Alvis

I had the pleasure of listening to a talk by Mas Masumoto last night in Reedley. Mas is a farmer in Del Rey, in California’s San Joaquin Valley. Mas is also a very successful writer as has written numerous books about life on a family farm. He tells stories about working with his father for many years, growing peaches and nectarines and grapes.

He also talked about the day his father had a stroke.

At one point during his presentation, Mas asked how many people in the audience had grown up or worked on a farm. I turned around and looked while nearly the entire audience raised their hands.

Farming puts you in direct contact with the Earth. You learn to adapt. When things go wrong, you figure out ways to deal with it. Farming is hard work. When you work closely with the Earth you understand in a very direct way how intimately connected we are to it. Mas talked about this and also the connections of generations. In talking about his father, Mas spoke about the hard work farming demands and how its challenges teach us about the transitions of life.

In listening to Mas talk, I thought a lot about what we are trying to do on this website, and I think one of the most important things is to get people to feel these connections, both to the Earth and to each other. If we loose sight of where our food comes from and the work it takes to make,we risk loosing this sense of connection.

City folks, as Mas might say, may find these connections difficult to comprehend, while farmers have an innate understanding how nature works, how good soil, clean water and clean air are essential to grow a good tasty peach.

Mas celebrates the life of the small family farmer and with his books he allows the rest of us to celebrate too.

Thank-you Mas.

--Mark Alvis