Greetings Olympia community!

My name is Dani Madrone, I am the student coordinator of the Clean Energy Committee at the Evergreen State College. In 2005, students at Evergreen voted on the Clean Energy Initiative, which led to a self-imposed fee of $1 per credit for renewable energy purchase, research, education and installation. Since then, the students have been purchasing renewable energy credits to offset 100% of the electricity consumed by the college. They have also funded renewable energy projects on campus, including electric vehicles, the student-run Biodiesel Project, the solar cell array on top of the library, and the soon-to-begin Bike Share Program. Last the year student voted to expand the scope of the Clean Energy Committee to include resource conservation. Since then we have funded an edible forest garden, an efficient dishwasher for the student-run cafe, a food sovereignty film series, and Synergy: Evergreen's annual sustainable living conference.

I've had the opportunity to talk with the student who spearheaded the Clean Energy Campaign five years ago. Brad Bishop shared with me that his vision for the Clean Energy Committee was to increase Evergreen's academic role in generating its own clean energy and research in this field. Recently, Evergreen took a bold step in that direction when the students funded a third of the cost of research for biomass gasification at Evergreen. Currently, the school is asking tough questions and pooling the knowledge and concerns from the students, staff, faculty and surrounding community. The idea is to gather waste wood from a sustainable forestry practice and utilize the process of gasification to generate heat and hot water on campus. There are many concerns and doubts about the use of biomass as a source of heat or energy, which is why it is so valuable that Evergreen does this research. The school may find a way to dramatically reduce its carbon footprint without causing further detriment to the environment, or it will find that there is no sustainable method for using biomass to replace natural gas on campus. No decision will be made without considerable input form the community. Though this is a hotly debated topic, I do not wish to spend too much time talking about it this evening.

Instead, I would like to refer to David Pinchbeck's statement early in the film about how depressing it was to try to share the message of sustainability. I'm sure that everyone on this panel has, at one time or another, felt that their contributions to future generations are negligible. It's hard to remain positive and motivated when the challenge is so immense that even major progress seems insignificant. A system that has us so dependent on fossil fuels is perpetuating the state we are in. For every edible forest garden planted, every natural building erected, every opportunity to barter handmade goods within our community, there is land being cleared for the construction of a WalMart next door. For all of the land we have remediated, restored, and reclaimed, there are over one hundred million gallons of crude oil in the Gulf of Mexico. Indeed, this is an intricate and oppressive challenge we face.

This is a system we will not depend on forever. That is why I applaud each and every person contributing to future generations. When this system collapses and we need to reorganize as a community, as a society, and start all over again, we will have the skills we need to set ourselves on the right track. We will know how to grow and preserve food, to build and repair structures, to holistically treat illness and injury, to process human waste, to upgrade our mountains of trash into useful products, to inspire our friends and neighbors through art and music. We will know how to organize as a community to work collectively, in solidarity, as we move into an age of reawakening of the human spirit and heal the land.

Lately I have sensed a lot of unrest in our community. Human beings are a passionate species, with such a fantastic diversity of backgrounds and beliefs that it is impossible for us to agree on every issue. That does not mean we cannot remain friendly neighbors and work out our differences in peaceful and considerate ways. I say this because there is major skill that will be required of all of us to reorganize as a successful community. If there is one thing we can commonly contribute to the sustainability movement, it is the skill of communication. I hope we can use these times to open the lines of communication, because it is going to require the compassion of each and every one of use to face the challenges that threaten us all. And I can tell you that we are capable of facing these challenges, because right now we have nothing better to do.