WISCASSET – The technology needed to reduce the use of fossil fuels is available today, but the world needs to commit to it if people want to prevent global warming.

That was the message delivered to the more than 100 people who attended the Chewonki Foundation’s eighth annual Conference on Sustainable Energy on Saturday. The conference featured workshops on solar, wind and other renewable energy technologies and attracted climate change activists, energy and efficiency innovators, and supporters of emerging alternative energy technologies.

Keynote speaker Paul Kando told the gathering that the use of fossil fuels was killing the planet and that a shift to alternative sources of energy was critical to saving it. He said governments must move quickly if they want to avert a future catastrophe. Kando said the technologies being developed not only will have the ability to reduce dependence on fossil fuels, they also will result in an economic boom once people begin to accept and rely on them.

“What some see as a looming crisis, others see as the opportunity of a lifetime,” Kando said. “Both views are right, of course. But which of the two will prevail depends on whether we are willing, with a reasoned urgency, to act.”

Kando has spent a lifetime in the renewable energy field since moving to the U.S. from his native Hungary. He worked on one of the country’s first solar energy installations, helped design the solar heating system installed at the White House during the Carter administration, and developed other solar projects for the U.S. Department of Energy.

Founded in 1962, the Chewonki Foundation provides educational experiences that foster an understanding, appreciation and stewardship of the natural world and that emphasize the power of focused, collective effort.

Using photographic slides, charts and graphs, Kando gave a bleak assessment of the health of the planet. He outlined how the melting of glaciers around the globe over the past few decades has coincided with the world’s increased use of fossil fuels. He said the glaciers are the source of water for many of the world’s largest rivers and that as they recede, drought and disease are sure to follow. The rate of glacial melting has doubled in the past year, he said.

Kando attributed the melting to greenhouse gases that are trapped in the planet’s atmosphere. He said much of the source of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide is the use of fossil fuels. The gases trap heat rising from the planet’s surface and increase its temperature. The amount of particles trapped in the atmosphere has tripled in the past 60 years, he said. He noted that the 10 hottest years on record occurred in the past 18 years.

“We have a problem; we have upset nature’s balance,” he said.

As to those who point out that this past winter in Maine appeared to belie the threat of global warming, Kando added that “weather and climate are not the same thing. What we are getting is erratic weather rather than warm weather. … While one place is flooding, another is in drought.”

Kando said evidence of global warming could be found all over the world. He said the permafrost is melting in the Arctic regions and that Greenland and Antarctica are shedding ice at astonishing rates. Melting permafrost releases methane, another greenhouse gas. He said if the ice continues to melt at the current rate, sea levels could rise as much as 40 feet by midcentury. Should that happen, coastal cities that are home to billions of people around the world would be inundated by floods.

“And we thought keeping Wal-Mart at bay would save Damariscotta,” he quipped.

Kando said the one thing that can save the Earth is the sun. He said the sun provides enough solar energy to power the world. Capturing just 3 percent of the sun’s rays striking the American Southwest and converting that to energy would meet the total energy needs of the entire country. He estimated that such a project would cost $420 billion over a 40-year period. He compared that to the $720 billion the Defense Department spent just last year, and the $3 billion a week spent on the war in Iraq.

Kando suggested a program of tariff credits for development of solar energy. He said Germany has taken that approach and that the country has had a boom in solar projects since doing so.

“We can do it, but we can’t do it alone,” Kando said. “Only together can we prevail.”

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