Sunday, May 30, 2010

Sustainable Humanity and Energy Policy

There is more than one price to pay for our energy choices. The most obvious prices are listed on utility bills and legislative budgets. Less obvious is the price people pay for living near mining operations and power plants with deficient environmental management. Less told is the story of people who live with toxic air, poisoned water and contaminated soil.

On a road tour dubbed "Cleaning the Air," a group of concerned individuals set out on a ten-day, nine-city tour around Earth Day 2010 to explore this untold story and set the record straight. The tour was an intiative of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the Little Village Environmental Organization and the Envirnonmental Justice and Climate Change Initiative. The tour precedes a report ranking the nation's coal power plants based on their emissions of air pollutants (nitrogen oxide and sulfur oxide) in proximity to low income communities of color.

Read more about the climate justice initiative on the NAACP website here, http://www.bvblackspin.com/2010/04/22/naacp-honors-earth-day-with-climate-justice-initiative-videos/. To follow the tour from your computer, check out Jacqui Patterson's blog and interviews here, https://climatejusticeinitiative.wordpress.com/.

The Cleaning the Air Road Tour raises key questions of equity and human rights. It names the price people have paid, and should mobilize action toward cleaner, healthier, more equitable energy policies.

Sunday, May 23, 2010

Sustainable Humanity

There is more to sustainability than cutting back on waste and making efficient energy choices. Look behind all of our agencies, departments and institutions, and you find regular people. You and me. This week’s Sustainable C focuses on just that – sustainable people, sustainable humankind. For me, the sustainability of people – of humankind – rests on respect for and improvement of human rights.

In this entry, I proudly share a letter from my mom to the editor of the newspaper she reads every day. I am moved by the sustainable humanity of her purpose.

“I was very saddened to read in your newspaper on May 21, 2010, that a gay couple in Malawi was sentenced to 14 years of hard labor. It is important that you have brought this to the public’s attention, and it is important that we speak out against such abuse of human rights.

As a mother of a lesbian daughter, I am speaking out. My daughter cannot live in Oregon with her partner because her partner is from Sweden. They cannot be married in Oregon making residency for her partner impossible unless she finds a job in her field. As a couple, they have chosen to live in Sweden where same-sex marriage is officially recognized along with all the benefits of marriage.

Amnesty International said of Governor Patterson’s support for same-sex marriage in New York, ‘Marriage equality is a basic human rights issue. Until same-sex couples are able to marry, they will continue to face discrimination in housing, health care and on other critical matters directly tied to familial rights.’ So many gay people face discrimination in one form or another in many places around the world. It is deplorable and it limits our ability to move forward as productive societies. It is a shame that our society is among those that has such limits.

As human beings, our most important job is to be loving toward our family and others. When we see abuse of basic human rights, it is also our job to speak out. One voice does matter, especially in today’s world of technology where words are transported electronically with ease. Be loving, be generous and please speak out against abuse of human rights such as those taken from Tiwonge Chimbalanga and Steven Monjeza in Malawi who were sentenced to 14 years of hard labor simply for celebrating their engagement. Join me as I speak out for equal rights here at home, as well.”

Sunday, May 16, 2010

Is the Generation of Nuclear Energy Sustainable?

From all accounts I have read, the world is nearing an energy crisis. Oil supply has peaked, compelling oil companies to last-resort, environmentally-disastrous measures, such as steam blasting bitumen out of the Canadian oil sands. Water supply is of increasing concern. National Geographic’s April 2010 edition focused on dwindling sources of clean water, and The Economist is poised to follow suit next week with a special report on water…”finite, vital, much wanted, little understood.” http://www.economist.com (print edition for week of May 15th-21st 2010). Despite its toxic profile, nuclear energy is increasingly at the top of many countries’ energy agendas.



But is it sustainable?

The trouble with nuclear is that every step in its production chain is severely toxic to wildlife and human life. From the uranium fuels nuclear generators to the water-intensive cooling towers used at the power plant, and from the disposal of spent uranium to the ultimate decommissioning of the plant, nuclear business is deadly business.

This is a topic worth exploring in detail. As a starting point, let’s take the first step in the process of nuclear fuel cycle – uranium mining. Uranium is a radioactive material that fuels nuclear power plants. Uranium mines operate in 70 different countries, with a majority of operations in developing countries, where hazardous waste regulations are relatively lax. http://www-nfcis.iaea.org/UDEPO (registration required).

The uranium mining process unsheathes high concentrations of radioactive elements and other elements that can wreak havoc on people’s health near the mines. These elements include uranium decay products such as radon, thorium-230 and radium-226, as well as heavy metals (copper, manganese and cadmium) and poisons including arsenic. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, exposure to these materials has been linked to cancer, leukemia, birth defects and genetic mutations. www.epa.gov/rpdweb00/understand/health_effects.html.

One detailed example of how a uranium mine has poisoned human habitat is featured in Greenpeace’s recent report titled, “Left in the dust: AREVA’s radioactive legacy in the desert towns of Niger.” www.greenpeace.org/international/en/publications/reports/Left-in-the-dust/. This report leaves the reader begging the question, “Why? Why nuclear?” For those of us who engage our elected officials on the topic of energy, and certainly for our elected officials, this report should be recommended reading.

More of the nuclear fuel cycle could be explored, but the basic point is this. Before we choose nuclear—whose fuel cycle is proven to be disastrous to human health—it is vital that we exhaust all other options. The ongoing health and sustainability of humankind depends on such well-reasoned policy choices.

Sunday, May 9, 2010

BP Oil Spill and Our Energy Choices

On April 20, 2010, two days shy of the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, an offshore oil rig exploded off the Louisianna coast, killing 11 workers on site and erupting thousands to millions of gallons of oil into the tender Gulf waters. The severity of the incident and its consequences raise a number of questions about our energy choices.


Could the explosion have been avoided? Yes, it could. Starting in July 2007, the US Department of Interior (DOI) had data featuring a history of accidents, fires and even deaths at offshore drilling sites. http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/news/gulf-oil-spill See, for example, DOI's performance data and analysis 2007. http://www.doi.gov/pfm/par/par2007/par07_2c_resource_use.pdf (scroll to "composite accident severity ratio," p. 135). One must question whether BP used the best available technology, and whether DOI's offshore oil drilling regulations were sufficiently stringent in light of data it had on previous accidents, fires and deaths.

Could the offshore drilling itself have been avoided? Yes, it could. The US is a country known as much for its affluence as for its ability to devise innovative solutions. What is so crazy about the energy questions the US faces at this juncture is that the most obvious solution is also the simplest. Energy efficiency.

This point is appreciated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which recently formed a Climate Change Work Group to take a closer look at greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions under the Clean Air Act. In a recent presentation to the EPA, the Climate Change Work Group underscored the importance of one particular best practice: energy efficiency. http://www.epa.gov/air/caaac/climate/2010_02_PresentationtoCAAAC.pdf (see recommendations on last page of presentation)

As a result of the drilling, and the explosion and massive leakage of oil into the Gulf waters, wildlife, human health and livelihoods are at risk. http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/04/28/us/20100428-spill-map.html Even in this week's issue of The Economist magazine, the bottom-line focused editorial team steps outside its usual business focus to detail the environmental distress: "Dead jellyfish and turtles are now washing up on the beaches, and fish are suffocating. When the oil starts to wash up in quantity, the greatest environmental threat will be to the Louisiana Wetlands." http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=16059982

So long as we can still do more to increase energy efficiency, we can and should resist drilling in areas vital to wildlife and human life. Examples of other energy choices are abundant. Consider, for example, this suggestion from the non-profit organization Environmental Working Group: "The best way to control energy prices and foreign dependence is by reducing demand with immediate, major and mandatory investments in conservation measures such as mass transit, higher mileage cars, improved building codes, tougher efficiency standards for appliances and lighting, and through the promotion and development of available alternative energy sources like solar and wind." http://www.ewg.org/reports/comingupdry (scroll to article, "Despite Increased Drilling in the West, Gasoline and Natural Gas Prices Have Soared").

Two days shy of Earth Day 2010, this event should raise serious concern about our energy choices: our individual choices, as well as the choices we condone through our elected representatives.

* * *

For more information on the spill and to track day to day developments, see the NY Times' interactive map. http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/04/28/us/20100428-spill-map.html Greenpeace also offers historical and contemporary coverage from the perspective of our environment. http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/news/gulf-oil-spill Information on one part of the US government response can be found on the first page of the Department of Interior website. http://www.doi.gov/

Saturday, May 1, 2010

Framework for Sustainability: The Natural Step


Methodologies for planning and implementing a more sustainable way of doing business abound. However, some methodologies are the topic of more water cooler conversations than others. A good example of one methodology that has received raving endorsements is The Natural Step.

The Natural Step provides a framework for businesses, organizations and agencies to brainstorm, plan and implement more sustainable practices. It works like this.

Take, for example, Municipality ABC. It's the 1990s, and ABC faces severe economic downtown, job loss, brain drain and low morale. Its policymakers decide that the solution lies in creating a sustainable environment for businesses and residents. ABC policymakers meet at a retreat to brainstorm their options for economic development using The Natural Step's four guiding objectives:

1) Reduce our community's contribution to fossil fuel dependence and to wasteful use of scarce metals and minerals.
2) Reduce our community's contribution to dependence on persistent chemicals and wasteful use of synthetic substances.
3) Reduce our community's contribution to encroachment upon nature (e.g., land, water, wildlife, forests, soil, ecosystems).
4) Meet human needs fairly and efficiently.

Using these guidelines to help spark their brainstorming, ABC policymakers develop plans for sustainable practices in the following areas. Examples of their plans, marked according to the guideline that inspired them, include the following:

- selectively develop public transportation (including public transportation, pedestrian walkways, bike trails and schemes for vehicle sharing) (1,3,4)
- improve commercial and residential building function and design to use passive solar energy, to incorporate renewable energy for heating and cooling, and to eliminate toxic building materials (1,2,3,4)
- improve agricultural methods to eliminate the use of pesticides and herbicides (1,2,3,4)
- update municipal purchasing guidelines to reflect new sustainable practices and policies (1,2,3,4)
- revise urban planning regulations to support preservation of open space, forests, natural waterways, and habitat (1,2,3,4)
- update sewage treatment techniques to reuse greywater and treat blackwater (3)
- affordable housing (4)

ABC policymakers develop and implement new practices and policies in ABC municipality that boost morale while creating new jobs and cultivating a more desirable living environment. The municipality becomes a model for a new way of life and doing business.

This is the story of some Swedish businesses, municipalities and organizations in the 1990s. New methodologies abound, of course, but the old methodologies, including The Natural Step, deserve thoughtful reflection. My own reflection on this particular approach to sustainability is that more than a few businesses and municipalities that have benefited from The Natural Step continue to thrive.

* * *

Most of the information in this entry of Sustainable C derives from the book, The Natural Step for Communities: How CIties and Towns can Change to Sustainable Practices (ISBN 978-0-86571-491-5).

More information on The Natural Step today can be found by running a web search of "The Natural Step" or "Det Naturliga Steget."

An entertaining two-minute video on The Natural Step can be found here, courtesy of Youtube: