Go Green: Eco-Friendly Technology on Display

ENVIRONMENT

You’ll be able to find out about organic gardening, check out a hybrid motor vehicle and learn more about solar and wind power for the home April 21.

The fourth annual Sustainable Living Festival 2007 will be held form 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Mary Jeanette Murray Bathhouse on Nantasket Beach in Hull.

"Where else can you go to find all this information in one place?" said Judeth Van Hamm, president of Sustainable South Shore.

This free Earth Day event is sponsored by Sustainable South Shore, an environmental group.

According to Van Hamm and festival coordinator Nancy Kramer, the program includes demonstrations or information displays on topics like solar water heating, rooftop gardening, wind-turbine power, solar hot-air heating and beach restoration/dune-grass planting.

A display will tell how people can help cut emissions of carbon dioxide by 70 percent.

To graphically demonstrate the impact of carbon dioxide emissions, the festival expects to have on display a 27-foot cube structure now being built by some Cohasset High School students, Van Hamm said. The cube represents the volume of one ton of carbon dioxide at standard atmospheric pressure, she said. Yet that single ton is only a fraction of the carbon dioxide emitted yearly by an average American through such functions as heating buildings and driving motor vehicles, she said.

Besides checking out hydrid cars on display, festival-goers will be able to see battery-powered "electric bikes" that Van Hamm says don’t eliminate the need for pedaling but give riders a power assist.

Holly Hill Farm of Cohasset will demonstrate organic gardening.

The topics of videos that are to be shown include the history of Nantasket Beach and how the sea wall changed the state-owned stretch of beach. Another film will show the solar-powered nature center building at the Broadmoor Wildlife Sanctuary in Natick, Van Hamm said.

There will be a noontime story hour for children featuring "The Tin Forest," raffles and disc jockey Sam Kopper providing music. Spring water will be available.

For more information, call 781-925-9066 or visit SustainableSS.org.

(c) 2007 Patriot Ledger, The; Quincy, Mass.. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.