I know that the State and regional differences do make any effort to establish a national organization different, but there are so many commonalities as well. MN and WI have huge outdoor events with huge crowds, and as I recall have had such events since the late 70's. Our 2007 OSN conference had about 500 attendees at the National Weather Service facility in Norman, OK, was indoors and costs too much for this venue to be a "retail" type event. One track at the conference dealt with energy - conventional and unconventional (manufactured fuels), but the rest could and should have been an environment like the MN and WI events. (I refer to them because I am aware of their size, and know that IL and other states have huge efforts as well, I just don't know any of the details.)

I do appreciate the forum which TOD - Local does and will provide, but the enthusiasm which we can generate from face time cannot be replaced on the net. Passion can run high in any venue, but real excitement, and despair, can be best conveyed in person, and the opportunity for group action could be enhanced with a national organization.

The OSN faithful have started to pay much closer attention and encourage people to speak out, as in our Mercury emissions campaign. Out of about a dozen speakers on Clean Air Mercury rules for OK, seven had ties to one or more of the nine chapters from across the State, but we had no organized effort to get people to the meeting, just let them know when and where. Likewise, I think that the Kansas ruling stopping two (?) coal fired plants on the grounds that CO2 is a pollutant also gives me great hope on the environmental front(Drumbeat, Oct 20).

I really became motivated to action after hearing OU's Dr. David Karoly's presentation on the IPCC report at the OSN conference. In answering one question, he turned the answer to one point I hadn't been aware of, specifically that feedbacks are not considered in the IPCC report findings - hence, the response from Dr. Hansen, which I couldn't understand at the time, of something like "Do we not know enough to say more?" Hansen knew that we did, but it couldn't be covered by the IPCC report since it hadn't occurred and couldn't be "proven". Had it not been for Dr. Karoly's presentation, I wouldn't be consistently ruining the mood at social gatherings, etc. with a sobering attitude on CC.

I'd just like to hear any suggestions expanding on the general public knowledge leading to actual public change vs. each of us faithful doing our personal best to try to improve the planet, or maybe a few doing that, and the rest just needing something to read, what with the high price of books these days.