July 2008

Monthly Archive

July 30, 2008

Plan B 3.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization

Posted by Lawrence Newton under Renewable Energy | Tags: , , , |
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This is one of the most direct and succinct articles on Climate Change anywhere. It is written by Lester Brown of the Earth Policy Institute. He has a lot of years looking at these types of issues, and calls them for what they are. If I were to start anywhere, and read a quick synopsis of what is wrong with the world today and what needs to be done, I would start here. – LN.

PRESS RELEASE

“In late summer 2007, reports of ice melting were coming at a frenetic pace. Experts were ‘stunned’ when an area of Arctic sea ice almost twice the size of Britain disappeared in a single week,” writes Lester R. Brown in his new book, Plan B 3.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization (W.W. Norton & Company).
“Nearby, the Greenland ice sheet was melting so fast that huge chunks of ice weighing several billion tons were breaking off and sliding into the sea, triggering minor earthquakes,” notes Brown, President and Founder of the Earth Policy Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based independent environmental research organization.
These recent developments are alarming scientists. If we cannot stop this melting of the Greenland ice sheet, sea level will eventually rise 23 feet, inundating many of the world’s coastal cities and the rice-growing river deltas of Asia. It will force several hundred million people from their homes, generating an unimaginable flood of rising-sea refugees.
 “We need not go beyond ice melting to see that civilization is in trouble. Business-as-usual is no longer a viable option. It is time for Plan B,” Brown says in Plan B 3.0, which was produced with major funding from the Farview, Lannan, Summit, and Wallace Genetic foundations, the U.N. Population Fund, Fred and Alice Stanback, and Andrew Stevenson.
“Plan B 3.0 is a comprehensive plan for reversing the trends that are fast undermining our future. Its four overriding goals are to stabilize climate, stabilize population, eradicate poverty, and restore the earth’s damaged ecosystems,” says Brown. “Failure to reach any one of these goals will likely mean failure to reach the others as well.”   
  

To read the rest of this article, go to:     http://www.earthpolicy.org/Books/PB3/index.htm    

 

       

 

July 29, 2008

10 Things We Can Do: Rebuilding Civil Society

Posted by Lawrence Newton under Green Living | Tags: , , , , |
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Originally written and Posted by David Roberts at 11:37 PM on 13 Sep 2007
 
It’s not that individuals can’t do anything about climate — they just can’t do it by themselves. I’ve been thinking about this debate over voluntary individual action and its place in the larger fight for sustainability. It’s missing something. 
 
A huge gulf has developed in America between public and private life. This has put green activism — all of progressivism, actually — on the horns of a dilemma. On the one hand, private life has become all but coextensive with consumerism – what we choose to buy. Shifting consumer dollars around isn’t a sufficient solution to any substantial problem. On the other hand, the levers that control the state are out of reach of the average citizen, even in a democracy. Most people are no longer accustomed to being actively involved in self-government. 
 
To tackle environmental problems, we know we need governments to make big changes, but it’s difficult to tell individuals what they should do about that. (Call their representatives? Vote? Then what?) We know individual changes will never add up to the societal shift we need, yet individual changes tend to be the ones that motivate, you know, individuals. We’re reduced to hoping that small, ultimately ineffectual personal changes will open hearts and minds, leading to … something.
  
Neither position is satisfying. What’s missing is the middle ground, the space that used to mediate between private individuals and states. I’m talking about civil society: church groups, NGOs, professional associations, unions, affinity groups, etc.
  
It is in civil society that action can be personal but not private. It can leverage large numbers of people but still be individually meaningful.
  
Civil society has declined in America. Historically it’s two pillars were unionsand churches. Unions have been under sustained attack since Reagan, and American churches from evangelical to liberal have turned their focus to individual fulfillment. Americans have been isolated from one another by ubiquitous, overbearing commercial culture, atomized into their individual strip malls, cars, and suburban houses. Where there was once a vibrant and enduring network of voluntary associations, there is now mostly TV.
  
Psychologically speaking, it is important to offer people ways of engaging and taking action that are tangible. But telling people to buy better lightbulbs, cars, and clothes is a wan response to the magnitude of our peril.
  
What we need is for people to become active citizens. We need them to return to churches and union halls, but also to create new civil institutions that can leverage collective action into real change. We need to rebuild civil society in America.
  
Getting involved in civil society is something “you can do.” Hell, I’d put it right there at the top of my “10 things you can do.” It may mean exercising muscles many Americans have allowed to atrophy, but rebuilding civil  society will not only move the needle on climate change, it will make our culture more resilient against coming stresses. Time we all rediscovered our neighbors.  

Ten things we can do. Got a better ring to it, no? 

 

 

July 28, 2008

When Is It Real Money???

Posted by Lawrence Newton under Renewable Energy | Tags: , , |
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When Is It Real Money???

   To paraphrase the late Everett Dirkson, “A Billion here, a Billion there and pretty soon it adds up to real money.” So how about $750 Billion? Is that real money? You would think so. After all that is the amount we pay out every year for oil to foreign countries like Saudi Arabia, Iran, Russia, and Venezuela.

   Maybe, because we send it out of the country, we lose track of it – like we never had it to begin with. But just suppose we could keep it here in the USA. What could we do with it in just one year?

     a)    Install 40,000,000 roof top Photovoltaic Collectors at 3KW each. With net metering and proper insulation, each of these homes would be nearly energy independent.

b)    Retrofit 75 million residential homes (avg. cost of $10,000 each) to reduce their energy usage by at least 25%.

c)    Invest in wind farms for electrical energy on the scale of T. Boone Pickens. Using his investment figures as a guide, $750 Billion would:

1)    Install 200,000 Wind Turbines at 1.5 Megawatts each, and built in the USA.

2)    Produce 300,000 Megawatts of electricity

3)    Provide to power 90,000,000 homes

   When seen in this light, it seems like pretty real money producing some real benefits. And none of these suggestions is impossible. The technology is already in place, and it’s not rocket science. Granted, it might take 10 years to implement and we might only be able to devote $375 Billion (half the amount), but think of the benefits:

a)    Each individual component can be put in place quickly.

b)    It is clean, renewable energy, and it continues to “give” year after year

c)    It’s good for our economy, producing millions of good paying jobs that stay here in America

d)    It also benefits the environment by reducing Green House Gas Emissions.

 

   The only thing missing is the political will to move forward. Congress needs prodding, and lots of it. After all, there is real money on the table.

 

 

 

 

 

July 27, 2008

Green Building….So Where’s the Beef???

Posted by Lawrence Newton under Green Building | Tags: , , , |
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    Today, with gasoline prices still hovering around $4.oo/gallon, the talk is “drill, drill, drill” – anywhere for oil. Never mind that delivery might be 10 years in the future, or the amount might be relatively small compared to demand, or it might be a lot more expensive. At least something is being done, a perhaps psychologically soothing thought.  But the real low lying fruit is not in the ground. It is immediately at hand. It is simply providing a better insulation envelope around the buildings already constructed (both commercial and residential), and for those still in the planning stages.  A 35% to 50% reduction in heating and cooling cost could be realized. And best of all, the opportunity is huge. Using the LEEDs Green Building Guidelines as a baseline, only 2% of all commercial buildings and 0.3% of residential homes currently meet these standards. Not only is energy savings (and related green house gas reduction) a gift that never stops giving, it is also renewable. Each year further reductions are possible as even more new technologies come to market.

    So where’s the Beef??? It’s not in the drilling, that’s for sure. The word “drilling” may offer some sizzle, but drilling only replaces today’s high priced energy with more of the same. The “Beef” is in energy conservation. It is good for the pocketbook and the environment. As individuals, utilities and governments grapple for answers, one of the best and simplest answers is immediately at hand. And no new technologies are needed. Just do it. Our public officials need to realize that is where the Beef is.

 

July 18, 2008

July 4th – Independence Day 2008

Posted by Lawrence Newton under Green Living | Tags: , , , , |
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As firecrackers go off with a staccato burst of sound, and aerial fireworks explode with a cascading shower of color, it is not hard to imagine the early celebrations which marked the successful conclusion to our War of Independence. These celebrations also marked the end of a King’s devastating colonial rule and his ruinous taxation policies. In its place, a promising future was at hand. Everywhere were great expanses of land, timber and minerals, just waiting to be claimed.

 

Today, some 200 years later, we find ourselves in the midst of another conflict. The issues are multiple. Overseas our military is engaged in a war against ideals contrary to our own. At home we are faced with economic uncertainty brought on by an adverse combination of financial and market forces. And our future is challenged by diminishing sources of affordable energy. Again the conflict has multiple fronts – oil, coal, natural gas, and nuclear (representing fossil and traditional fuels) and wind, solar, biomass, tidal and geothermal (representing renewable sources).  The wild card is Climate Change and its impact on everything around us. What should we do???

 

In a changing world, each of these conflicts is another challenge to our independence. Our military can only assure our independence when the nations we are supporting can establish a respectful independence of their own. Our “Free Markets” (financial and economic) must respect the values of the society they serve, and function independently of irresponsible monetary gain. And our future energy sources must have a benign impact on our environment, and remain independent of vested interests with their significant financial influence. Again we are at a turning point. A promising future may very well be at hand. The choices we make today are the very cornerstone of that future.

 

In the weeks and months ahead we will explore the claims, issues, promises and problems with all our energy options. Regardless of the source, the real question is: “How well do these energy sources play out against Climate Change?”

 

In the midst of all this is the significance of Green Building – why do it, what can it accomplish, where is it headed??? For that matter, how will these scenarios play out against our traditional Real Estate market??? Will this market need to adapt to a changing field as well. Stay tuned. It is an evolving and exciting story.