Dawn expressed the view that she hoped the focus would be on the local community, both educating people about how to reduce global warming and creating support for a time when various levels of government might take more aggressive roles in mandating activities which will reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Russ pointed out that we can have an impact on state issues related to global warming now because we will have some standing with state policy makers as a committee of the PCDO.

We discussed those organizations in the area that are already active or potentially active in the area of global warming including the Princeton Environmental Commission and its subcommittee Sustainable Princeton; Princeton University; religious organizations (already expressing some interest are Nassau Presbyterian, Trinity, and the Unitarians); and Princeton Future.

Among the topics discussed were

• Planning a program for a PCDO meeting, perhaps taking advantage of Dana Anne Isherwood’s offer of a slide show. She has been trained by Al Gore’s group as part of a grass roots effort in connection with “An Inconvenient Truth.”
• Does the PSE&G still do energy audits?
• A possible sustainable house tour, something Sustainable Princeton is also considering
• Solar heating and tax breaks for this
• Energy efficient cars
• Putting trees in open spaces

As the meeting ended,

• Anatoliy offered to collect information on contractors who help homeowners with energy-saving improvements and find out more about devices that measure the energy consumption of particular appliances.
• Len offered to look into which kinds of home improvements make an impact as far as global warming is concerned.
• Russ offered to look into organizations in New Jersey that can keep us informed on state-level global warming initiatives.
• Dawn offered to continue looking into what existing organizations in the area are doing related to global warming

We agreed to meet again in September on a Tuesday that does not conflict with a meeting of the Environmental Commission or Sustainable Princeton.