Circa 2016, Harvard students were protesting the university's investments in fossil fuel companies. At the time, I was curating stories for my then-website on student movements and other events at major research universities in the U.S. Divest Harvard was one of a wave of student organizations and student actions calling for campus disinvestment.

What if Capital Area Greens disinvested from natural gas for household electric power generation? What if Capital Area Greens did so before the General Assembly reconvenes in late September?

Perhaps you have already. If not, and you use a public utility, the following is an excerpt from "Renewable Energy" about my conversion 16 months ago.

In Pennsylvania, you can choose what company supplies your electricity. Unless you choose otherwise, your utility company is your supplier as well. However, you can shop around for a better rate on natural gas (Read/Read/Read the fine print), or switch to renewable energy (solar, wind, blended, etc.). Your utility company doesn't change, so your bill comes from your utility company. That's because the supplier uses the utility company's pipes and other infrastructure to distribute its natural gas or renewable energy.

Think of your utility company as a Walmart, Target, or regional superstore. The superstore (utility company) doesn't change because it stocks different brands of hand sanitizer (supplies/suppliers). Nor does it stop selling its store brand of hand sanitizer (natural gas).

If you're interested in clean electricity, then visit oca.state.pa.us or papowerswitch.com for suppliers. And share your own conversion story with the Green Party of Dauphin County on Facebook, or at the next meeting. See the FB group for details.

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I'm really happy for Wally Funk.

And what's her secret to staying motivated after witnessing a lifetime of historic milestones in space? Was she ever disillusioned since her own journey began six decades ago?
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For 60 years Funk sustained her desire to fly into space. In 1961, she was the youngest volunteer of a cohort training women to become astronauts. That was several years before the first manned mission to space in 1969, when Neil Armstrong became the first person to step foot on the moon.

In the meantime, Funk was a pilot and flight instructor with close to 20,000 flight hours to her credit. She even bought a ticket for Virgin Galactic, which is scheduled to launch the world's first flight in space tourism on July 11.

At the invitation of Jeff Bezos, Funk, 82, will make history before the world as a founding passenger of the space-tourism rival Blue Origin.

Bravo, Wally! See you July 20.

A comment on "Jeff Bezos selects 82-year-old woman who trained to be an astronaut six decades ago to join him in space" (B. Sapienza).

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