|
|
|
|
Womens Energy Matters organizes energy and energy efficiency strategies
WEM Energy Economy Coalition for ChangeWEM is a nonprofit located in Farifax, California, and provides women-oriented information and encouragement for people who are working to remake the energy system in ways that will better serve and protect our families and communities and the environment. That includes political and industry action such as the California Coalition for Energy Efficiency (CCEE)Proposal for Improving Energy Efficiency in California.WEM stands for action: the prospects for building an environmentally and socially-friendly energy system and are rich with opportunities for personal enjoyment and learning, making new friends and building careers. Women’s Energy Matters (WEM) invites women especially to become involved in this project at any level, and provides assistance for women and men who undertake these efforts. Women's Role in Energy EconomicsWEM starts with the basics — helping women become aware of the many ways we encounter energy in our daily lives and make countless small and large energy decisions as we prepare food, raise children, manage our households, run errands, purchase products, perform outside jobs and maintain our communities.Next, WEM encourages local WEM members to learn more about energy, sponsor discussion groups, workshops and events — and take action on energy issues in their local communities and the wider world. WEM can help with networking and information to support these efforts. WEM also provides historical information on how women have accomplished social change. Energy Education for Conservation, Efficiency, Renewables and SavingsWEM's foundation is based on women's role in this core capability of our everyday lives. Hardly any women were involved in planning, building or operating industrial energy systems such as coal and uranium mines, oil and gas rigs, refineries, giant dams, power plants and transmission lines. Even today, few women are able to break into that club, or have even been tempted to try.On the other hand, women all over the world have long been dealing with the mess the industrial energy system leaves behind. Energy's Role in FoodEnergy even affects the food women take responsibility for providing their families. Many of today's organic farmers are women, and women are actively involved in Farmers Markets as founders, sellers and customers — and direct farm-to-home delivery. Locally based agriculture and marketing will become increasingly important as rising fuel costs reduce the viability of the oil-dependent corporate food system. Industrial agriculture depends on fossil fuel and electricity for big machinery, irrigation and animal confinement, and transporting food across great distances. Pesticides and fertilizer are also based primarily on natural gas.Women's Energy Matters celebrates all the ways women have used their energy to address energy issues and clean up after the old energy system. WEM encourages women to carry on this work. WEM provides education about the centrality of energy in our lives and invites women to take leading roles in designing and building a better system — one based on conservation and non-polluting “renewable” energy such as solar and wind. If more of us concentrate on the central problem of energy, we may be able to solve many other problems which stem from the existing energy system — air and water pollution; nuclear waste; urban sprawl; disconnected families; tasteless food with degraded nutritional value; and loss of jobs as corporations move overseas and ship back foreign-made products and food.
RESOURCE:
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||
ABOUT CALIFORNIA GREEN SOLUTIONS | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
