Global Green Solutions: Tribal Renewable Energy in America

I want to talk about global warming. I also want to talk about helping some of the poorest citizens of America keep warm in the winter. I want to talk about how we all can make the world better in a way that is really quite significant.

I plugged this amazing effort a year ago following up on my wife reporting to me a talk from a climatology conference. She had talked to a big name climate scientist who said we shouldn't be waiting for big governments to do what is needed on climate change (though we still need to lobby them big time), but we should ALSO be focused right HERE and NOW on local projects that help local communities while reducing global warming. I have talked about this many times before (with mixed reactions from dKos) but found it even more important after hearing that key climate scientists were agreeing with me regarding this approach to addressing climate change through very local projects. I feel like it is time to plug this particular effort again. When my wife told the speaker about my own efforts to plug particular local projects (in Africa, Nepal, and America, mainly) he was very enthusiastic, saying that we need a lot more of this.

Bottom line is this. We need three levels (at least) of action and each and every one of us need to focus on ALL three levels. The first is personal. Our own food, transportation and energy sources, for example, affect the world. A key example is what you eat. Cut out beef and your carbon footprint goes way down. Just one example.

The second level is supporting local projects. These are small scale, very local projects that help local communities while reducing carbon emissions. This is what my wife heard discussed at that conference a year ago.

The third level are large scale projects funded by big governments and big business. The IKEA effort recently plugged here that has so far covered a third of their emissions by pushing green energy. The recent forest preservation deal worked out in Warsaw. Etc. We need to push our governments and companies we invest in or patronize to do more of this...but it isn't the only thing we need to do. We need the personal and we need to focus on the local.

To follow up one more time on the kind of thing that was actually discussed by scientists at a climate conference last year, follow be below the fold on a renewable energy/solar heating project in Indian Country right here in America that creates jobs, helps Native Americans live comfortable lives, saves people money, and reduces carbon emissions helping ALL of us. More below.

I want to publicize a project I have mentioned before on dKos with some positive feedback which is something of a longer-term way of addressing the heating needs of Native Americans in cold winter areas: a solar heating project through the amazing organization Trees, Water, People. See below for some critical donations you can make to help people survive not just this winter, but many winters to come.

Trees, Water, People is one of the most amazing organizations I know of. I make monthly donations to them...small I have to admit, but every single month. They help build energy efficient stoves in Central America that save not just trees but also the lungs of the women who have to cook over the stoves. They plant trees in the horribly deforested areas of Haiti.  And they are looking into expanding their efforts into Africa.

For an overview of their work (based on their 2011 annual report) check out this video:

But for the purposes of this diary I want to focus on one particular project funded by Trees, Water, People: providing solar heating for poor families in Indian Country right here in America.

Native Americans are one of the most ignored communities in the US. And, as is covered in some of the Native American diaries on dKos, one of the many things Indian Country has to endure is not being able to afford adequate heating during cold winters. Let's be clear on this. People, particularly children and elderly, die because of inadequate heating right here in the United States.

Trees, Water, People is working on a long term solution to this problem, purchasing solar heating for homes in Indian Country, primarily in South Dakota, to provide (once installed!) very cheap, long-term heating.

From Trees, Water, People:

The bitter winters take a terrible toll on many reservation families living in inadequate housing. Where over 60% live below the federal poverty line, electric heat and propane may be financially out of reach. Families can spend up to 70% of their total income to heat their homes. Temperatures can plunge to 40 below zero and ice can form on the inside of walls.

Trees, Water & People's supplemental solar air heating units are an inexpensive, simple to use, and environmentally sound way to bring comfort to reservation families suffering in the winter cold. The units are built on South Dakota's Pine Ridge Reservation by Native-owned and operated Lakota Solar Enterprises (LSE), providing a source of employment and pride...

Since the program began in 2003, more than 760 supplemental solar heating systems have been built at Pine Ridge, Rosebud, and other reservation communities. In 2009, LSE began selling solar heating units to other tribes. Members of these tribes visit the Red Cloud Renewable Energy Center, where they learn about the theory and practice of solar heating. These newly-certified Solar Technicians then return to assemble and install the heating systems for families in their own communities.

And this effort wants to expand this effort to bring alternative energy solutions throughout the poorest part of America's Indian Country:

Help keep families warm in Indian Country while reducing greenhouse emissions and saving those families money by helping Trees, Water, People install solar heating for these families. Click here and designate your donation for the Tribal Renewable Energy Program in the drop down menu under "Program Area."

Remember, this isn't the ONLY thing we should be doing. But my wife tells me when she talks to the top climate scientists in the world about my efforts on behalf of projects like this, they are VERY enthusiastic.