The Dallas Green Zine

Monumental: David Brower’s Fight for Wild America, is the story of the greatest conservationist since John Muir. The film begins with David Brower in his early days, with a small local group of mountaineers called ‘The Sierra Club,’ who enjoyed hiking and rock climbing in Yosemite and other areas. As time passes, Brower becomes more concerned about the protection of the earth’s wild places. 

He also becomes friends with the great photographer, Ansel Adams, and through Adams’ work, he learns the importance of using images in the cause for environmental preservation. This becomes evident throughout the film, as you will see lots of short segments taken from films that Brower put together to draw public awareness to specific issues. 

Brower’s proficiency as a climber also continues to evolve, to such an extent that after he climbs Shiprock in the late 30s, he begins training US mountain ski troops at the 10th Mountain Division Training Camp. He and his battalion are then sent to Italy to fight in WWII.

When he returns from the war, the economic boom in the U.S. contributes to large scale development that begins threatening the wilderness areas. More tourists head to the parks and wilderness, wanting changes made for convenience and recreation. New demands on resources begin making it popular for politicians to want to put dams in the parks. Brower becomes an strong advocate in protecting the parks and he is hired as executive director of the National Sierra Club in 1952.

One of the battles that would have a profound effect on Brower was the fight to protect Dinosaur National Monument. As part of the Colorado River Storage Project, there was an attempt made to place dams at Dinosaur National Monument. The region was largely unknown to the general public. He started doing river trips to draw attention so that people would take the trips, gain an appreciation of the region, and return home to write to their Congressional representatives. At that time, he also put together a film called ‘Two Yosemites’ to draw a connection between Dinosaur National Monument and what had happened in the Hetch Hetchy/Yosemite.

Despite Sierra Club efforts, a Congressional Committee approved the dams. However, Brower was then able to prove deception which resulted in Congress dropping the dam projects in 1956. On the same day, a key proponents of the dams, Interior Secretary Douglas McKay resigned. For the first time in U.S. history, conservationists were able to halt a major governmental development project. As a concession, the Sierra Club agreed not to oppose dam sites outside of national parks, resulting in the destruction of Glen Canyon. This would become a deep regret for Brower who said he had been willing to sacrifice Glen Canyon in order to save Dinosaur Canyon, “simply because I didn’t know what was in Glenn Canyon and that was one of the bitterest lesson I ever had.’

After this experience, Brower took a bolder stance on conservation issues with the view that compromise leads to regret. In 1960, Brower and the Sierra Club set 5 goals–all of which are accomplished by the end of the decade. Among these successes, which the film covers in some detail: the establishing of Redwood National Park, the passing of the Wilderness bill, the establishing of North Cascades National Park, the stopping of 2 dams in the Grand Canyon, and the establishing of Point Reyes National Seashore. In addition, Cape Cod National Seashore was also established. These were very ambitious goals considering that in 1960, most of the American public viewed Earth as little more than a resource, and the film is good at illustrating how these efforts were not only resulting in action, but they were also having an effect on the way people were beginning to look at their environment. There was a growing realization that the Earth’s resources were not limitless.

In the late 1960s, Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) wanted to put a nuclear plant on the south coast of California at Nipono Dunes. In an effort to save Nipono Dunes, the Sierra Club made a deal with PG&E that it would not oppose construction of a nuclear plant at Diablo Canyon. However, Brower refused to accept the compromise, and consequently, he was fired as organization’s Executive Director. He then started Friends of the Earth which became very active in the fight against arctic drilling. After 13 years of service, Brower was fired from Friends of the Earth–once again on issues of compromise.

In 1980, he founded the Earth Island Institute, and in 1983, the Sierra Club elected Brower to board of directors. He served with the Earth Island Institute and the Sierra Club until he died in 2000.

This film is full of still photos and wilderness film footage shot between 1930-1970. Despite the age of some of the film, there are quite a few scenes that are simply striking. 

Overall, this is very a moving film about a remarkable man who was a great champion for our earth and its wild spaces. 

Monumental: David Brower’s Fight for Wild America
USA, 2005
77 Minutes, color
Directors: Kelly Duane  

When experienced green builder, Jim Sargent, spoke at the Dallas Sierra Club in late summer about ways to improve energy efficiency for existing homes, he addressed a topic that was on everyone’s mind: cooling.

Sargent said that in this region, when looking at cooling, leaks are more important than R value. The most effective method for finding leaks is to have a Home Energy Rater come to your house and do a blower door test to detect for leaks.

The Attic
 
The first place to look for heat concerns is in the attic. When the sun hits the roof in the summer, it takes the roof to about 185 F. This goes through the shingles and roof decking. Sargent recommends moving the insulation from the attic floor into the roof system so that the attic becomes a conditioned space. He said that although radiant barrier will help, it’s really a half step, because ideally, you should foam the bottom half of the decking. Given the intense heat on the room, putting foam against foil would negate the fuction of the foil. If you put foam in the decking, you do not need to get rid of the insulation, but make sure to use an open-cell foam because a closed cell foam will trap moisture between the roof and the foam.

The West Side of the House

Another potential area of concern is the west side of your house. Sargent suggests that you avoid putting windows or a garage on the west side of the house, and west facing windows can turn the house into a furnace. If the garage is on the west side, make sure its west wall is well insulated. Use trees, vines or an awning to keep the sun off west-facing windows. At 10 am, the sun should be on your east windows, not the west ones.

For south-facing windows, overhangs are best for keeping the sun off the windows. You need to keep the sun outside the house. For this reason, in the summer, insulating drapes don’t help; however, they are very useful in Winter.

AC Systems

In Dallas, AC systems are usually one ton per every 1100 sq ft. However, most AC systems are oversized and turn off and on too frequently. It takes a lot of energy to do this, so much so that you can sometimes see the lights flicker. An oversized AC unit goes on and off repeatedly because it’s so large and therefore cools quickly. ‘Humidity in Dallas is worse than most people think it is.’ said Sargent, It’s 80% humidity in the mornng every month. ‘In our house, we want to get humidity down to 45%.’ Having a steady stream of cooling reduces this. He also suggests that when you replace a system that you replace the ducts. Current ducts average a 35% leak factor.

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Jim Sargent is the designer and builder of the Zero Energy Home in Frisco and is currently developing and building the first ecovillages in north Texas. You can contact him through AndersonSargent Customer Builder at http://www.ascbuilder.com.

For those of us who write a lot on a daily basis and are concerned about conservation, there has always been the questioning of paper margins. If you open a new document in Microsoft Word, the margins are huge: 1.25 on top and bottom, and 1″ on each side. Most of us have discovered that if you reduce these margins to  .75 or .5″ on a 20-page report, you will not only have more room for tables and charts, but it’s suspected that some trees might be saved in the process.

Well, suspicions are now confirmed. A research team doing a report at Mueller Laboratiory at Penn State University, showed how PSU could save 72 acres of forest and over $120,000/year by reducing the default margin settings campus wide. (Click here for report details.)

Because most people don’t consciously change the margins, but use the default, there is now a Change The Margins campaign to get Microsoft to reduce the default margins on its Microsoft Word application.  You can sign the online petition located here. (Note: Make sure that you turn OFF the ‘Get Free Alerts’ checkboxes on the petition page, located on the right side of the petition; otherwise, you will get a lot of alerts.)

Other things you can do…

• Get your business to adopt the practice of using smaller paper margins for reports and templates.
• If you design newsletters or documentation, consider redesigning your templates to have .5 or .75 margins instead.

The Audubon Society through three local chapters–Dallas, Prairie and Timbers (Collin County), and Fort Worth—all offer field trips around North Texas as well as interesting seminars at their monthly meetings. If you join the Audubon Society, regardless of which chapter you join, you can participate in the activities of any of these chapters.

Recent field/current trips include Hagerman Wildlife Refuge, Herman Baker Park, Pickens Lake, Lake Tawakoni State Park, Lake Texoma, Caddo National Grasslands, Arbor Hills Preserve, Spring Creek Preserve, White Rock Lake & Old Fish Hatchery, and Foster Park (Ft. Worth).

Additionally Prairie and Timbers provides birding classes at the Heard Museum, and both the Dallas and Ft. Worth chapters have online forums.