Sustainability

More than thirty years ago Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland, the Prime Minister of Norway, headed up the UN’s World Commission on Global Environmental Development.  In 1987 she presented the Commission’s report at the 96th UN plenary meeting in which she coined the often-quoted definition of sustainable development as development that “meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”

From there sustainability has evolved to the point that raises the question, for application and the opportunity for cooperative efforts, of how it should be defined today.

A while back I conducted research into sustainability for an article.  I started with Brundtland’s definition of Sustainable Development, expanded to include the three elements of sustainability (environment, economics, equity) within the three key communities of Government, Business, and Education. 

As Susan Anderson, then of Portland, Oregon’s Bureau of Planning and Sustainability, pointed out during our interview “…everything’s connected and whatever you do today affects tomorrow.”  I am in full agreement with that and feel that in order to ensure sustainability succeeds we need to promote sustainable innovations that reduce our demands on resources while improving economic performance and meeting social responsibilities.  

My research revealed the importance of incentivizing environmental and economic development by promoting policies that moved sustainability forward.  It also showed that workforces, now and in the future, need to be educated to employ innovation and establish meaningful business strategies that deliver a Return on Investment and for the sustainable programs in all three communities.  Finally, business needs to ensure sustainability is an ongoing process, not a managed one that fades when pressures subside.

In closing that article, I presented this contemporary definition of sustainability:

“Sustainable development is that development which when guided by conceptual and functional truths, incentivized by effective design and policy, and imbedded into long-term strategies allows mankind to globally meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs.”

Though a bit wordy, it covers more ground than Brundtland and helps to focus on the common threads that will unify these communities globally.

As devotees of sustainability we need to drive public and corporate policies to create a level playing field by putting incentives in place that promote innovative behavior, instead of policies that repress bad behavior.  Governments are almost always short term and nationalistic, yet the problems we face are long-term and global.  Sustainability reaches across boarders to solve global problems and meet the needs of generations far into the future.

 

Global Warming: Why are we delaying action?

With 97% (low estimate for some) of environmental scientists and climate specialists committed to the field of climate change and how to reduce the impact...why are we sitting back and not addressing the crisis? 

Ask yourself when you first heard about global warming... climate change...and the impact that 8-Billion humans are having on our natural planet systems.  Me, I can recall hearing about it more than 45 years ago, and I have seen research that predates that time as well.  Our demand for fossil fuels, and our unwillingness to fully engage renewables promises to be our downfall. 

Why are we staying linked to these fuels and who in our society is pushing us to use more, and harvest more oil and coal for our use?  Why? Simple, it’s about profits for corporate giants.  Who?  The extremely wealthy who view wealth as power...so far beyond the point of need that they can’t grasp the failure that they are promoting.  They have anchors in the approximately $3-Trillion a year market that keep them enamored, and with global reserves (economically recoverable resources) in-excess-of $30-Trillion in today’s dollars (source: EIA) they don’t see a reason to change their focus, even if it means that future generations will live in a doomed world.

Two drivers that should be considered here are time and sustainability.  Time is what is driving the corporate exploration because they recognize that if they don’t harvest the resources now, their opportunities will lessen over time because of reduced demand.  Sustainability, on the other hand, argues that by reducing our use of fossil fuels we will promote balanced growth of renewables and extend the resource base for these truly usable fossil resources by centuries into the future. 

I am reminded of the words of  Tom Corbett, the Governor of Pennsylvania when, in 2014, he said that Fracking for natural gas and oil would provide Pennsylvania with revenue for the next hundred years.  One Hundred Years... and then what?  In that pronouncement Corbett defined the short-sighted nature of the American culture.  The damage that coal, oil, and natural gas all produce with their release of complex Green House Gas emissions will last a millennium from the point at which we stop polluting our atmosphere.  

For the Koch brothers, the owners of the largest privately held petro-chemical conglomerate, it's about profits and growth.  So much so that they invest hundreds of millions in campaigns and donations intended to attack the "radical environmentalists" who are fighting against the pollution that their industry yields.  Pollution, we should note, that the US taxpayers pay to clean up because our government has allowed corporations to side step the responsibility of their pollution.

Unprotected fracking pit in California

How are we taxed to cover these expenses, here are a few examples.  Oil and natural gas exploration and recovery operations draw millions of gallons of water a day for each fracking site, but they pay nothing for the water they use.  They then dump that water into retention ponds on site that damage and poison the groundwater, but they are not held accountable for cleaning this toxic waste, nor are their standard for their pit designs.  They aren't even required to divulge what chemicals they put into their fracking mixtures.  Then, when heavy storms run through their regions these ponds overflow, and again nothing is charged back to the corporate citizens that yielded the chemical flow poured into our streams and rivers.  The same can be noted about the atmosphere and how we are poisoning it, as well, with GHGs that take several decades to clear.

If we return to ‘Time and Sustainability’ we can find some answers, but it will take Governmental constraint and regulations to make a global difference.  If we don’t act soon the future will be much worse for our delay.  CO2 absorption into our lakes, rivers, and oceans is replacing oxygen and increasing acidity.  As a result, sea life is failing, and considering that the seas are the source of more than fifteen percent of animal protein intake for 4.5 Billion or more of mankind.  That is more than half of the population of the world depending on a failing food source, destroyed by our pollution (source: UN Food and Agriculture Organization).

Profits can come from many directions for the world’s corporations and governments.  Consider that if we recovered the floating plastics in our ocean gyres it could be recycled to produce new products, while protecting ocean creatures and returning the seas to a healthier environment.  Or if we reduce the use of fossil fuels, instead redirecting our focus to renewables, we could regain the leadership of this economy and profit for our effort.   

Time and Sustainability... plan globally to reduce pollution in all forms while expanding our use of nonpolluting energy to move us forward and solve the problems we will face due to the past centuries of neglect. 

Who are we, and where are we going?

The world is in its best place ever, we have the ability to solve all of our problems globally, if we would only agree that peace offers power, and that the meek have the same rights as the powerful.

Fat chance, huh.

Then let’s answer this…are humans interested in continuing for millions of years into the future, or are we set on creating short term success and profit for a few, with our world ending in rubble and waste, dying because of our greed and avarice? Ok, time to cut to the chase… Humans are capable of brilliant things, and if we work together we can make the world much more peaceful, and much more successful for all of us. But it will require change and sacrifice for it to work.

And if we don’t, if we follow the angry lead of power seeking administrations…we will fail.

Here are a few ideas that we need to consider, and perhaps take up as our challenge.

1.       Is it more important to solve short term or long term problems?

a.       What is short term?

                                                               i.      Short term is the immediate future…tomorrow out to say…25 years. This is the range that would affect the current generation as they grow to adulthood. It would also include the process of infrastructure renewal. Roads, airports, city centers…maintained and renewed.

b.       What is long term?

                                                               i.      Long term is about future generations. Planting trees to shade those 100 years from now.

                                                             ii.      Long term means creating a plan for the engagement of 100% renewable resources to fuel and drive our planet. Not a foolish plan calling for mysterious new tools, though those will be invented, but strong solution sets for bringing Solar, Wind, and Geothermal online in a way that will meet our needs, while engaging Green-building plans that will reduce our expenditure of energy.

                                                           iii.      It means reclaiming wasted resources from scrap and trash piles the world over, and engaging manpower and technology planet wide in a process that will make a safe and meaningful existence for all.

2.       Do power politics need to exist?

a.       Power and force have been at the heart of our civilizations since we first banded together. Humanistic society is a new thing…but its roots can be found in every religion. We like to say that power is “Human Nature” … but that isn’t the fact…the fact is that social pressure can change the very nature of society…and we can push the power thing back for the betterment of mankind.

b.       Greed is part of this power thing…it is also part of us, but it is also part that we can separate as well. What if we reestablished the concept of tithing? Each of us would give 10% of his or her earnings to the community…a flat tax given willingly to run the nation around us. That would be everyone, all Americans kicking in to make our nation work. And then, on top of that we place state and local taxes to keep those communities running…say a total of 15% for each of us…from the 1%ers on down.

c.       The power and greed would be reduced, those with fortunes would still have fortunes but they would be paying their fair part, and the American Dream would expand to become a Global Dream…with healthy living conditions being realized everywhere, and good jobs…even careers being offered for all to engage in as each modeled their future in their own way.

Do Power Politics need to exist, no…rational politics need to exist…and reasonable regulations and laws need to be approved, engaged, and enforced.  And equality needs to be a part of our future, just as freedom and liberty are promoted today. Liberty, Equality, and Freedom must be made the Standard for us all.

3.       Who should control our nation?

a.       Just as we view it today, our citizens should be the driving force in success of our nation, and that should be a proven model for all nations to strive for…and one day our planet may achieve this type of governance as well.

b.       Money needs to be removed from our politics. The USA needs to be citizen driven, not corporate driven…and the rights of massive international organizations should always be subordinate to those of our citizens…the individual men and women who make up this great society.

c.       All ‘men’ should have an even voice. Oh, I realize that there are those who are smarter, true genius material…and they may see the future with a clearer understanding than most. But they should be allowed to rise to provide public service and to guide our civilization to a better place, not Rule us with their iron will…and crush us with their iron fist. We need leaders who can solve problems, engage in debate, and engage compromise to realize growth.

Our nation should be controlled by women and men who have the ability to see the big picture, and to craft laws that will offer us all meaningful lives within a good, stable society. Our model should set an example for other nations to approve of, and adopt, as it fits their culture and needs. If our compass is true, then others will follow in our steps.

Have we ever solved a global issue without war?

Yes, we have…but we have not done it on a regular basis…and the power and greed that runs rampant in our economic structures today are preventing us from acting to solve the long term issues ahead. 

Globally we addressed a major issue as recently as the 1970s when we discovered a hole in the Ozone Layer above Antarctica. This discovery provoked an unprecedented international response and was the catalyst for the Montreal Protocol (MP), the most successful environmental convention yet held. We were dumping chlorofluorocarbons (CFC) into the atmosphere, along with a host of other pollutants, that were destroying our atmosphere. Global action to stop the release of CFCs was taken and we eliminated this industrial waste in a way that solved the problem.

Had we failed the world would have suffered massive casualties, and our way of life would have been altered...all because man was polluting and the earth was suffering. This modern age plague was all by our hands, and we had to stop using a full range of CFC chemicals to restore health to the ozone layer. And recent research has demonstrated that the fix provided for a global success.

The work of Susan Solomon at MIT has found multiple lines of evidence for the healing of the ozone hole above Antarctica. By collecting data to measure the size and depth of the layer (or lack of one) Solomon’s team has demonstrated that the hole, beginning in August and generally peaking in October is not eclipsing the 12-million-square-kilometer threshold (reference set) until later in the southern spring, which indicates that the September hole is shrinking. In fact, the researchers believe the ozone hole has shrunk by more than 4 million square kilometers. Furthermore, the hole is not as deep as it used to be.

There is a direct correlation here…human pollution damaged the ozone layer and was placing millions of lives in danger. Today we know that our GHG emissions are placing the planet in danger…with hundreds of millions of lives on the line. We have the ability to solve this human made issue…and others, like clean water and air, healthy agricultural programs that will increase our food supply…a supply that could be distributed to feed the world now…not if the future, but now if it were not for power and greed.

If it is our goal, as a planetary society, to continue for millions of years…improving as we go…then we need to put power and greed aside. We need to harness man’s ability to find solutions and to spread the wealth out to all in a truly sustainable way, meeting short term needs through meaningful local programs, but also planning for and implementing long term programs that will heal the planet today and make our world even more amazing for future generations.

The first step… sideline power and greed for the good of all of us. Create governments that properly govern for the people that they serve, not for themselves. Take money out of the government process…by eliminating bribe-based funding and corporate influence.

Saving the Bees Means Saving the Food Supply!

The world population sits at just over 7.6 Billion humans, our impact on the health of the planet ranges from disregard for our personal pollution, to toxic waste released from our mines and wells, to global warming from our excessive carbon release into the atmosphere…and it is only getting worse. With all of this in mind, and an expanding population, you’d think we would want to protect bees…as they provide a great deal of the food needed for our survival.

Today we find our Federal Government, led by Trump …an uninformed, and often caustic science denier, is reversing the positive course established by the past four Administrations…retreating into the pockets of petrochemical and pesticide developers…raising their profits while damaging our nation and the planet. Trump will be long in his grave by the time our global population crests…at about 9.6 Billion in the year 2050, but his disastrous policies will have damaged America beyond our imagined impact…and it will have ended the histories of many other nations.

One of our biggest issues is the loss of pollinators. Bees the world over are suffering the attacks that our corporate producers are throwing at them. Bayer, BASF, Dow Agro, Monsanto, and Syngenta are key among these conglomerates.  And the worlds bee population is being devastated by the broad band pesticides and herbicides that these companies are spraying to protect ornamentals, and crops from other varieties of insects, bugs, and worms.

Unpublished field trials by pesticide manufacturers show their products cause serious harm to honeybees at high levels, leading to calls from senior scientists for the companies to end the secrecy which cloaks much of their research. The research, conducted by Syngenta and Bayer on their neonicotinoid insecticides, were submitted to the US Environmental Protection Agency and obtained by Greenpeace after a freedom of information request. What was reported was alarming.

Neonicotinoids are the world’s most widely used insecticides and there is clear scientific evidence that they harm bees at the levels found in fields, though only a little to date showing the pesticides harm the overall performance of colonies. Neonicotinoids were banned from use on flowering crops in the EU in 2013, despite UK opposition.

While flowers are treated by these same broadband insecticides to keep them pretty, flowering crops are their primary target and bees work all these fields. Here are some examples of what bees pollinate:  Cranberry Celery Coffee, Sweet Cherry, Tangerine, Tomato, Watermelon, Broccoli, Blueberry, Avocado, Apple, Strawberry, Sunflower, Carrot, Cucumber, Squash (plant),  Pumpkin, Gourd, Marrow, Zucchini…and the list could go on for rows and rows.

So, if you are hungry …keep in mind that we are destroying the very crops that we cherish by wiping out bees through the profit game that these corporations are engaged in.  Time to ask Trump what he wants on his salad…and force Pruitt to keep the EPA engaged in meaningful anti-pesticide programs nationally, and internationally. It’s a must, and the time for it is now!

The EPA Isn't Just About Air and Water...and Science Isn't Fake-News!

I keep hearing the Trump Administration say that CO2 is not causing Global Warming…science be damned… and that all they really need to do is work with the states to help keep air and water clean. Then, of course, Trump goes and revokes EOs that prevent Coal Empires from “Mountain Topping” and dumping the tailings down the sides of those devastated mountains and into the streams and rivers below…carrying heavy metals and toxic byproducts out to the surface water used by communities. And they reverse regulations on clean water…quietly reducing the cleanliness of our rivers and lakes.

As for their anti-EPA actions, the world’s leader in fighting pollution and recovering our environment from the extremes we have pushed it to…they have placed the EPA on the block, if not gone…tied up by reduced funding, cancelled programs, and blocked access to resources and an intensely interested citizenry.

Most of us don’t agree with Trump. First is the fact that he has close ties with other 1%ers who fight the EPA with their fortunes…like the Koch brothers, members of Trump’s corporate resort Mar-a-Lago in Florida…no wonder Trump doesn’t want to release the log books on who visited with him. Back Room Politics are alive and well in the GOP…and the Trump clan is making a killing on their corporate affiliation with the Donald. And then he insults us by promoting anti-science as the alternative facts of the day.

The idea that we should live for today’s profits and let the government clean up our pollution tomorrow does not sit well with me. EPA isn’t just about water and air…it’s about pollution, and establishing the standards that will keep America safe for time immemorial. Let’s look at one case, one of many thousands of super-fund sites. Love Canal, a winner of awards for their reclaiming of land and conversion of industrial sites into home sites. And, as a result of the chemical waste stored underground by Hooker Chemical, the land was poisoned, the ground water was contaminated, cancer ran rampant, and people died.

Pesticides and herbicides, toxic waste runoff from Coal and coal fired power plants, fracking waste water from oil and gas production sites, Canadian pipelines from Canada to Texas…to feed foreign owned refineries for oil exports that will never profit Americans, but threatens to pollute the Ogallala Aquifer in the heart of the United States, waste dumping in open ocean, a practice that we have reduced…but may come back if Trump has his way, increased acidification of our oceans, reduced controls on over-fertilization for places like Trump Organization (his company) resorts and golf courses…nitrates dumping into our water and killing our harbors …dead zones reaching into the open ocean …

The EPA sets standards to save the planet, and whether Trump and the Kochs like it or not…we are the Global leader in this field and we must fight to ensure that we remain the leader. I don’t live in China, India, or Russia…the nations with the worst pollution…nor do we have polluted harbors and bays the way China and Brazil do…why, the EPA corrected those issues for us several decades ago. Now Trump has signed an executive order that directed the Environmental Protection Agency to limit the scope of what counts as a regulated body of water under the Clean Water Act.

The EPA is a solid part of the Sustainable process that our nation is capable of achieving for America, and for the World…our economy and our history of social equity are the other legs of that important structure. Trump is working to end our leadership in this crucial global program…one that must be won now…or future generations will suffer, even Trump’s grandkids, whether he likes it or not, will suffer…The EPA isn’t just about water and air, it’s about the survival of the planet; it’s about managing tides so that islands remain above the oceans and coastal cities survive as well…Trump’s precious Mar-A-Lago will be under water before Donald Junior can say “hot-damn…I shot the last Lion”… the oceans are rising, and it’s not just because of nature. It’s because man has reached 8.5 billion and we pump out GHGs by the ton, the ice is melting...the reefs are bleaching, and we are killing thousands of species a year...way out of the box.

Let’s close on a high note. Donald Trump does not acknowledge Global Warming in the US…but he openly promotes national funding for protective barriers in Great Britain where his golf courses are threatened by higher tides than ever before…Telling the British Government that he needs their funding to protect his properties from the rising seas. Maybe Trump will bring this idea home…as he strives to make his vision of America great…but don’t hold your breath. This man isn’t about the truth…he is all for one and one for the Trump Organization.

Trump vs Global Warming

So here we are...a new year and a danger of carbon growth in America...quite near to our horizon!

Donald Trump has become our President and he has moved Billionaires into his Cabinet, and will be guided by his 35 year old son-in-law on matters of national and international concern.

You have to wonder why Trump denies the science of climate change...blames it on the Chinese as a diversion to sap America's economic strength. He also wants to push hard to have fossil fuels elevated again to the primary focus of the DOE. Why...well, he is personally invested in many gas and oil projects, and he is unwilling to divest his holdings nor place them into blind trusts.

Claiming that his sons and daughters are worthy of both running his global businesses and advising him at the same time on international policy...seems a little shaky, don't you think?

A balanced Republican Government would offer some improvements to our economy, but a trump-tilted government...with its focus on older white men and the elimination of rights for the press, and for all Non-Trump Supporting Americans...well, that is really not a balanced union...not by any measure.

What can you do...Stand Up...Make your voice heard. Call your Senators and your Representatives...call your district State Congressmen and your Governors....They are supposed to work for us...and they are accountable if we hold them accountable.

The Clean Air Act needs to be protected, Department of Energy needs to continue to focus on all energy types and sources. The alternative energy industry needs to be supported by government subsidies and it is time to begin to reduce the subsidies that are still being provided to the oil and gas industries...which are way larger than those provided to Solar and Wind initiatives.

Trump's Presidency is Sad...as he would say...sad. But countering the negative impact it will have on our nation and on the world around us is our task at hand. Protecting the EPA and the Clean Air Act is important and we all need to stand up and make our voices heard.

This is not the time to sit back quietly, this is when your opinion counts and you can make a difference.

Should we wait...or should we go? Some thoughts on energy in 2066

One of the fundamental questions raised during discussions of Global Warming, though really just about never discussed at all, is that of how our use and abuse of resources today will impact the planet down the road...say 250 years from now...a quarter millennial or so, and what we need to do to ensure that energy needs are met along the way.

The United States uses 25% of the world's resources, amazing right? We use it and abuse it all. That isn't in any way a sustainable effort. When it comes to fossil fuels...coal, oil, natural gas...we burn more than anyone, and we therefore add to the global dispersion of GHGs at an alarming per capita rate.

So, what will our energy outlook for the year 2266 look like? Well, our use of fracking technologies and oil-sands recovery is creating a surplus of oil and natural gas today, all of which can be sent to market at alarmingly low rates ($). We seem to want to extract it faster than we could ever use it. But profit today...that's the goal...so frack away.

At our production pace today we have about 100 years of low cost natural gas and perhaps the same for oil. On the same scale, however, we find that we have coal supplies in the United States that, if we could clean it up, might produce electricity for as long as 250 years. So about 100 years out we will probably find that coal, on the decline now, may have a resurgence, especially if our government finds a way to employ Clean-Coal technologies that would reduce the emissions of GHGs, capture most of those, and then sequester them.

What is Sequester? you ask. Well, that means create filtration and separation systems that will capture the GHGs and the toxic particulate (poisons and radionuclides) and then inject them into storage, perhaps deep underground (miles deep) so that they are held sequestered there forever...or so we hope.

250 years from now the planet will be out of natural gas and oil (oh, some remains, but not enough to run the world), we will be closing in on the end of our coal deposits, and we will be relying heavily on alternatives...like solar, wind, thermal, and perhaps manipulated hydro power as well...if we can figure out how to engage deep ocean currents and coastal tides.

So, why not move forward now? Afterall, we don't have any clean coal technologies in place, sequestration is being experimented with, but it is way to expensive...and oil and NG both emit carbon, so they are not perfect either. Other technologies are in the mix as well...and we will surely need them in the centuries to come. What we don't need is more Global Warming...and we need to make a stand on creating sustainable programs that will deliver energy and, through it, prosperity to future generations.

Hey, just a thought...or we could just lob off the top of say another 100 mountains and burn that coal to keep us warm...in more ways than one.