Phil von Hake's entry for the Colorado Renewable Energy Blog:
"The SOLAR 2006 Tipping Point"

June 2006

http://www.cres-energy.org/blogs/blogs_vonhake06june.html

The SOLAR 2006 Tipping Point
by Phil von Hake
phone: 303-762-8547;
email: phil@pvhccc.com

We’ve heard the term “tipping point” thrown around a great deal lately. Malcolm Gladwell wrote a best selling book with this title, and the term is now as popular as “podcast,” “blog,” and “truthiness” in our national conversation. The latest research on climate change, however, shows that we are nearing a more ominous tipping point of environmental factors that could send us on an irreversible path of climate degradation.

Right Time to Tip

I suggest we face another tipping point this July, when the American Solar Energy Society’s (ASES) SOLAR 2006 conference comes to Denver. The theme of this year’s conference is “Renewable Energy: Key to Climate Recovery,” and will be held at the Adam’s Mark Hotel on the 16th Street Mall in Downtown Denver July 7 – 13. The tipping point I refer to is one that could move people from skepticism to certainty about climate change, and from hopelessness to action that promotes greater use of renewable energy.

There is now an overwhelming consensus in the scientific community that climate change is happening, and that it is caused primarily by fossil fuel emissions. The new book and film by former VP Al Gore, “An Inconvenient Truth,” is already starting to drive this point home to a more diverse audience. A dizzying array of other climate change campaigns are also gaining mainstream acceptance.

Along comes SOLAR 2006 at the height of all this focus on climate change to show how an increased use of renewable energy can pull us back from the brink of environmental catastrophe.

• Internationally recognized leaders in climate change research like James Hansen of NASA and Warren Washington of NCAR will present at our conference.
  
  
• Leaders in renewable energy like NREL’s Dan Arvizu and RMI’s Amory Lovins will also speak.
  
  
• Political leaders like former U.S. Senator Tim Wirth, Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, and several others will speak and attend.

Add to that an Exhibit Hall that’s moving into its fifth overflow area, participation by Denver TV meteorologists Mike Nelson (KMGH - Channel 7) and Dave Aguilera (KCNC - Channel 4), a staggering number & variety of forums, workshops, technical sessions, tours, and other events, and we have the potential to reach an unprecedented audience!

Colorado Pitches In

SOLAR 2006 is the biggest & best opportunity we’ve had to promote renewable energy in Colorado since the Amendment 37 campaign. And I believe this is an even bigger opportunity, since that campaign, while successful, still had to compete for attention with all the other election campaigns going on at the same time. With the world’s best and brightest in climate change and Renewable Energy converging on Denver this summer – and an event like EcoArts (www.ecoartsonline.org) driving home the same point from an artistic and cultural perspective – we have an opportunity to spread our message to a larger and more diverse audience than ever before.

That’s where you come in. The SOLAR 2006 Local Organizing Committee has been working tirelessly for months to make this not only the best, but also the best-attended, ASES conference ever. Each of you can have an equally significant impact on this effort. While we continue to preach to the choir of ASES & CRES members, fellow energy and environmental groups, and so on about the need to promote and attend this conference, we also have to reach far beyond the choir in order to achieve this tipping point of awareness and resolve to action about climate change.

Spread the word about SOLAR 2006 in places where you don’t normally talk energy. Download and print out the SOLAR 2006 flyer for Colorado, make as many copies of it as you can, and pass them around in your daily travels. Tell your office colleagues, your workout partners, your softball or bowling team, your poker-night buddies, your church, your neighbors, your friends, your enemies(!), and anybody & everybody else who could be the slightest bit receptive to this message. Tell them all to bring their kids, too! Like the old commercial used to say: “You tell two friends, and they’ll tell two friends … and so on … AND SO ON … [etc.]”

We don’t expect everyone to register for the full-blown conference, but we are working on generating a massive turnout for Sunday July 9, when the Exhibit Hall at the Adam’s Mark is free and open to the public from 10 am – 5 pm. There will be workshops and open forums running all day, and there will be fun and educational activities for the kids. There will be plenty of other SOLAR 2006 and EcoArts related events happening all over the Denver Metro Area throughout the entire week of the conference.

Solar 2006 Flyer (PDF)

Be sure to visit www.solar2006.org for complete information about the conference, and www.ecoartsonline.org for more information on the related art & cultural activities.

Imagine Our Potential Reach

If every CRES member brought just one other person “from outside the choir” to this event, imagine how much further we can spread our message of “Renewable Energy as the Key to Climate Recovery.” One of those kids who marvel at the spinning model wind turbines could grow up to be the next top researcher. That kid’s parents could then sign up for green tags to cover their home electricity use. That family’s community could commit itself to compliance with the Kyoto Protocol. And that community’s leaders could come up with even more innovative ways to make climate recovery a reality for them and their neighbors.

As you can see, I firmly believe that SOLAR 2006 is both a tipping point and a teaching moment for the future of Colorado. We get it, leaders like Mayor Hickenlooper, Congressman Udall, and Senator Salazar get it, and everybody who’s already signed up for SOLAR 2006 gets it. What will truly make this event a success, though, is for EVERYONE to finally get it. Spread the word far and wide about this conference, print, copy, and pass out flyers, bring yourself and anybody else you can bring to the Public Day on Sunday July 9, and show the largest percentage of Coloradoans we’ve ever been able to reach that Renewable Energy is indeed the key to climate recovery!

Solar 2006 Flyer (PDF)

If you’ve read this far, then thank you, and let me know if you’d like a stack of SOLAR 2006 postcards and/or conference programs to pass around your various circles of family, friends, and colleagues. I can run them over to anybody in the Denver Metro Area, or send them A.S.A.P to anybody else. For what it’s worth, I’ll be spending most of the month of June blanketing every library, bookstore, coffee house, billboard, or other public place in the Metro Area that I can think of with this information. I may even venture out to the “green Wal-Mart” in Aurora to spread the word there!

Thank you once again for reading all of this, and thanks even more for spreading the word about SOLAR 2006. Let’s make this conference the tipping point that it’s shaping up to be!