3098 Global Warming 101

Speakers: Dr. Sharon Roberts, Lara Hoke, Jeff Barrie

Prepared for UUA.org by: Kok Heong McNaughton, Reporter; Margy Levine Young, Editor

This program is sponsored by the UU Seventh Principle Project, which, as of Friday, has been renamed "UU Ministry for Earth." (Their web site, www.uuaspp.org , will remain accessible under that domain name for another year.) Two of the Board of Directors of the UU Ministry for Earth, Dr. Sharon Roberts (UU Fellowship of Auburn, AL ) and Lara Hoke (UU Church of Worcester, MA ), introduced the topic of global warming from the scientific and the religious angles respectively.

Participants were invited to sign a petition to join UUA President, the Rev. Dr. William Sinkford, in his cyber march against global warming .

The handout, "FAQs About the Science of Global Warming," [will be posted by mid-July] provides answers to most of the questions one has about global warming as well as solutions to combat climate changes. A second handout, "Religion and the Environment," [will be posted by mid-July] gives a list of Internet resources as well as faith-based eco-quotations.

The greater part of the workshop was a screening of the documentary Kilowatt Ours , produced by Jeff Barrie, a UU filmmaker from the First UU Church of Nashville, TN . Barrie drew attention to a recent article in USA Today entitled "The debate's over: Globe is warming" .

Barrie's journey began after hearing U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney declare that the country's need for energy necessitates the construction of 1,900 new power plants in the next twenty years. His search for solutions to the most serious environmental problems of our day – mountain top removal (a coal-mining technique), global warming, prevalence of asthma in children and mercury contamination of our drinking water and fish population – led to the creation of this forty-minute documentary.

The film began with gloom and doom stories but has a happy ending as he and his wife Heather demonstrate how they conserve energy, save the environment and save money at the same time. One solution is by changing all the light bulbs in their house from iridescent to small florescent bulbs, which reduces energy consumption by 60%. Other solutions include investing in energy-efficient household appliances, purchasing blocks of green power, installing geothermal systems that use the earth as a heat source to provide heating, cooling and hot water for homes, and putting up solar panels.

The documentary can be ordered online at www.kilowattours.org . A companion documentary film which focuses on similar energy-saving measures for churches will be available in the near future.

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