One Person Can Change The World
If you ever met me in real life you would eventually hear me go off on a rant about global warming, climate change, politics, etc. One of the main reasons I created this site was to provide a platform for my views, and the views of other people, who are interested in changing the way the world works. I feel like there is a deep soul crushing dread facing people my age (old enough to know about problems, but young enough to not have been the cause of them). People in their late teens/20’s/early 30’s look out at a world filled with massive, complicated, serious problems.
I don’t know about others, but these problems (global warming, world wide conflict, climate refugees, peak oil, invasive species, species extinction, the list goes on and on) puts a very large “But” into all my future plans. For instance, “I would really like to own a home some day, BUT, if climate change gets really bad I figure I will just have to move to where ever the earth can support me” or “If I started a family it would be great, BUT, if global conflict grows due to peak oil and climate refugees I really don’t want to bring children into a world like that.” or “Wouldn’t it be cool to visit *location*, BUT, can I really justify the carbon footprint of that plane trip.” or “I really like to eat fish, BUT, overfishing and mercury pollution from coal plants may have made my fish supply unhealthy.” You get the idea.
There are also people who deal with these problems by ignoring them. They would rather live in a state of blissful ignorance. The main problem with this strategy is that every day this option is available to fewer and fewer people (mostly the rich, and the inhabitants of rich countries). This option is slowly being removed because people are starting to notice the effects on a personal scale more and more. The spring flowers are coming up earlier and earlier every year, gas prices go up 10 cents a week, your basement flooded for the first time you can remember, the pine trees in your back yard were killed by some invasive beetle species, you can’t afford to feed your family anymore, your beach house was washed away in a storm, your home was destroyed by a winter tornado, your entire city was flooded by a giant hurricane… The list goes on and on. More and more people are waking up to the absolute need to radically change their lives to a sustainable model.
That is why when I got this email yesterday I was truly moved. I often feel like I am “going through the motions” like Cassandra I am screaming about the end and no one is really paying attention. It is good to have your faith restored once in a while.
Ann writes:
A while back, you guys sent me a book “Stop Global Warming Now”.. It sounds corny, but it has helped to change my life. I have used that book to help stop a toll road from going through my subdivision, historic oaks and the Spanish Lake Basin (home to 2,000+ year old cypress trees and bald eagle habitats). I am pretty much taking over my parish’s (aka; county) recycling efforts and working with a coalition of 11 environmental groups to fight a coal fired plant in Baton Rouge, LA. Before, I was just a mom who wanted to use less energy at home. I am well on my way to a new career and I have never been happier. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Thank you Ann! You really made my day and I hope you are having a wonderful time being the kind of person you want to be. Thank you for letting me know that our simple gift made a difference in your life. If you want to share your own story of positive change please do so in the comments, who knows the best ones might just get a present (hint: I still have some cool books laying around someone might want…)
Support AmeriCorps!
I spent a good number of years in various AmeriCorps programs, and let me tell you it was by far one of the best times I have ever had in life. That is why I am pretty excited about this pending legislation. Be sure to contact your local senator/representative and let them know you are all for this great bill.
On Friday, May 16, Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT) will introduce the AmeriCorps Act of 2008, legislation which will:
- Raise the education award to $6,185, the average annual cost of tuition and fees for an instate student at a four year public university;
- Make the education award tax exempt;
- Restore the Corporation’s previous authority to partner with other Federal agencies to use national service as a strategy to carry out Departments’ priorities; and,
- Promote the Corporation for National and Community Service to Cabinet level status.
Ever supports this effort to recognize the importance of service and to promote access to education by increasing the value of the Segal AmeriCorps Education Award. Since inception in 1994, more than 540,000 citizens have served through AmeriCorps to address the unmet needs of our nation. These citizens have given over 700,000,000 hours toward improving the lives of other Americans.
Click here to read the bill language.
You can build support for national service by encouraging your Senators to join as original cosponsors of the bill. Call today; the deadline for cosponsors is Thursday, May 15th at 4:00pm.
Action Steps for the AmeriCorps Act of 2008:
1. Call the Capitol operator at (202) 224-3121 to be connected to your Senator.
2. Ask your elected official to be an original cosponsor of the AmeriCorps Act of 2008.
3. To cosponsor, interested offices should contact Mary Ellen McGuire with Senator Dodd’s office by email: MaryEllen_McGuire@help.senate.gov. Deadline for cosponsors is Thursday, May 15th at 4pm.
New Release of AmeriCorps Longitudinal Study
The Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) released the results of a new evaluation that takes a close look at the long-term impacts that a single year of service in AmeriCorps has on its participants. The study tracked members who participated in either the AmeriCorps State and National or the AmeriCorps NCCC program between 1999 and 2000, and the results prove that AmeriCorps has positive effects on its members and helps develop individuals who are high engaged in promoting the public good in their careers and communities. Specific findings.
- AmeriCorps generates civic leaders.
- AmeriCorps is a pipeline to public service careers in government and the nonprofit sector.
- AmeriCorps has an even greater impact on the public service career choices of minority members and those individuals from disadvantaged circumstances.
Please click here to read the full report, “Still Serving: AmeriCorps’ Impact on Alumni Eight Years Later,” and access related fact sheets on the Corporation for National and Community Service website.
AmeriCorps changed my life, it was amazing and I encourage everyone to give a year or more of their lives to service. Please support this legislation by calling your senator and getting them to co-sposor this bill.
The Tools Of Greenwashing: 1. Adverts
Not everything on The Unsuitablog is greenwashing, sometimes it is about organisations that are just being foolish or aren’t informed enough to realise they are being hypocritical; sometimes it is about stuff that is just plain bad, and is featured because it is bad enough that everyone should know about. But the vast majority of stuff here is Greenwash. If you are a regular reader (for which I am very grateful) then you will already know how to spot greenwash. But just spotting it won’t stop it happening; we need to know more about the various tools companies, authorities, NGOs and other areas of life use to pull the leaves over our eyes.
The first one in this small series is Advertising.
The first time most people, including me, come across greenwashing is in the form of an advertisement. Adverts are, by their nature, commercial tools: they exist to encourage people to spend money. Straight away we can see a problem here, because the act of spending money — in the vast majority of cases — is unsustainable, regardless of the product being purchased. If you buy something new (when was the last time you saw an advert for something pre-owned?) then you are almost certain to be using non-renewable materials; and also non-renewable energy that was used to produce, transport, market and retail the item.
There are many different types of advertisement, ranging from press adverts in your local, small-circulation freesheet, national newspaper and magazine adverts, radio and television adverts (again these could be local or national), cinema adverts, billboards and the various forms of moving and placed adverts in a huge number of different items — bus tickets, schoolbooks, taxicabs etc.
In general, the glossier, bigger and larger circulation the advertisement, the more money that has been spent on it — and, therefore, the more money the advertiser is hoping to recoup from the sale of the item. For instance, a full-page adverts in National Geographic, Time or the Washington Post will cost tens of thousands of Dollars / Euros / Pounds etc. A 30 second spot in the middle of a major sporting event can cost millions.
If you see “green” claims in these, high-cost adverts, then you can be sure that you are looking at a piece of clever, slick greenwash.
[Read the rest at The Unsuitablog…]
1 Billion Trees? We Gonna Plant 7 Billion Trees!
A unique worldwide tree planting initiative, aimed at empowering citizens to corporations and people up to presidents to embrace the climate change challenge, has now set its sights on planting seven billion trees (read report here PDF).
It follows the news, also announced today, that the Billion Tree Campaign has in just 18 months catalyzed the planting of two billion trees, double its original target.
The campaign, spearheaded by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF), was unveiled in 2006 as one response to the threat but also the opportunities of global warming, as well as to the wider sustainability challenges from water supplies to biodiversity loss.
To date the initiative, which is under the patronage of Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and Kenyan Green Belt Movement founder Professor Wangari Maathai and His Serene Highness Prince Albert II of Monaco, has broken every target set and has catalyzed tree planting in close to 155 countries.
Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary-General and UNEP Executive Director, said today: “When the Billion Tree Campaign was launched at the Climate Convention meeting in Nairobi in 2006, no one could have imagined it could have flowered so fast and so far. But it has given expression to the frustrations but also the hopes of millions of people around the world”.
“Having exceeded every target that has been set for the campaign, we are now calling on individuals, communities, business and industry, civil society organizations and governments to evolve this initiative onto a new and even higher level by the crucial climate change conference in Copenhagen in late 2009,” he said.
“In 2006 we wondered if a billion tree target was too ambitious; it was not. The goal of two billion trees has also proven to be an underestimate. The goal of planting seven billion trees, equivalent to just over a tree per person alive on the planet, must therefore also be do-able given the campaign’s extraordinary track record and the self-evident worldwide support,” he added.
The Billion Tree Campaign has become a practical expression of private and public concern over global warming.
Heads of State including the presidents of Indonesia, the Maldives, Mexico, Turkey and Turkmenistan as well as businesses; cities; faith, youth and community groups have enthusiastically taken part. Individuals have accounted for over half of all participants.
- In a single day in Uttar Pradesh, India, 10.5 million trees were planted.
- 35 million young people in Turkey have been mobilized to plant trees.
- 500,000 schoolchildren in sub-Saharan Africa and the United Kingdom have become engaged.
It has also attracted the support of multilateral organizations including the Convention on Biological Diversity whose new Green Wave initiative was launched in advance of its important conference being held in Bonn, Germany later this month, and which supports the Billion, now Seven Billion, Tree Campaign.
Tree planting remains one of the most cost-effective ways to address climate change. Trees and forests play a vital role in regulating the climate since they absorb carbon dioxide, containing an estimated 50% more carbon than the atmosphere. Deforestation, in turn, accounts for over 20% of the carbon dioxide humans generate, rivaling the emissions from other sources.
Trees also play a crucial role in providing a range of products and services to rural and urban populations, including food, timber, fiber, medicines and energy as well as soil fertility, water and biodiversity conservation.
“The Billion Tree Campaign has not only helped to mobilize millions of people to respond to the challenges of climate change, it has also opened the door, especially for the rural poor, to benefit from the valuable products and services the trees provide,” said Dennis Garrity, Director General of the Nairobi-based World Agroforestry Centre. “Smallholder farmers could also benefit from the rapidly growing global carbon market by planting and nurturing trees,” he said.
The two billionth tree was put into the ground as part of an agroforestry project carried out by the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP). It now planted 60 million trees in 35 countries to improve food security. This news comes as the United Nations calls for resolute action to end the global food crisis which affects an estimated 73 million people in 80 countries around the world.
In announcing the agency’s contribution to the Billion Tree Campaign, WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran said: “WFP is concerned about rising costs of food and fuel which inevitably hit the ‘bottom billion’ hardest. More people will require WFP assistance at a time when WFP’s current programmes are reaching fewer due to the critical funding gap created by rising costs.”
In terms of geographic distribution, Africa is the leading region with over half of all tree plantings. Regional and national governments organized the most massive plantings, with Ethiopia leading the count at 700 million, followed by Turkey (400 million), Mexico (250 million), and Kenya (100 million).
The campaign has also generated significant appeal in post-conflict and post-disaster environments. In acting upon the words of the campaign’s patron Wangari Maathai “when we plant trees, we plant the seeds of peace and seeds of hope,” communities in Afghanistan, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Iraq, Liberia and Somalia contributed to the global effort with over 2 million trees.
Furthermore, mangrove plantings were organized by Planète Urgence in Banda Aceh and other Indonesian provinces recovering from the December 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, while Replant New Orleans initiative in the United States sponsored a planting of fruit-bearing trees to breathe new life into a community struggling in the aftermath of the 2005 Hurricane Katrina.
The private sector pitched in as well, accounting for almost 6% of all trees planted. Multinational corporations including Bayer, Toyota, Yves Rocher, Accor Group of Hotels and Tesco Lotus supported the campaign, as did hundreds of medium and small-sized enterprises the world over.
The Billion Tree Campaign has further highlighted the cultural and spiritual dimension of trees with groups as diverse as the International Olympic Committee, the World Scouting Movement, SOS Sahel Initiative or yet “Geiko and Maiko for Forests”, Japanese geishas from the hometown of the Kyoto Protocol, actively participating in the initiative.
“The Billion Tree Campaign is UNEP’s call to the nearly 7 billion people sharing our planet today to take simple, positive steps to protect our climate. It is a defining issue of our era that can only be tackled through individual and collective action. I am convinced that the new target will be met ? one tree at a time,” concluded Executive Director Steiner.
Solar Power Surges: Up 51% in 2007
Global production of solar photovoltaic (PV) cells increased 51 percent in 2007, to 3,733 megawatts, according to the latest Vital Signs Update from the Worldwatch Institute, produced in collaboration with the Prometheus Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
More than 2,935 megawatts (MW) of solar modules were installed in 2007, according to early estimates, bringing cumulative global installations of PVs since 1996 to more than 9,740 MW—enough to meet the annual electricity demand of more than 3 million homes in Europe.
“Thanks to strong, smart policies in countries like Germany and Spain, the PV industry is making great strides in efficiency and cost, bringing solar power closer to price parity with fossil fuels,” says Janet Sawin, Worldwatch Senior Researcher and author of the update.
Over the past year, Europe—led by Germany—surpassed Japan to lead the world in solar cell manufacturing, producing an estimated 1,063 MW in 2007. Thanks to government policies that guarantee high payments for solar power fed into the electric grid, Germany remains the world leader in solar PV installations, accounting for almost half the world total in 2007. About 40,000 people are now employed in the PV industry in Germany.
Spain ranked second after Germany for total installations in 2007, but accounts for only an estimated 3 percent of global production. As in Germany, the Spanish market is being driven by a strong guaranteed price for PV electricity.
Despite a dramatic increase in solar cell production in the United States, up 48 percent to 266 MW, the nation’s share of global production and installations continued to fall in 2007.
In contrast, China raced past the United States for PV cell manufacturing in 2006 to place third globally, and it now ranks second only to Japan for national production. Over the past two years, China’s PV production has increased more than sixfold, to 820 MW in 2007. Despite these impressive numbers, the domestic market remains small and most PV cells made in China are exported to Europe.
“With billions of dollars invested in the solar energy technologies in the last 12 months, the PV sector is primed for accelerating its impact in both centralized and distributed generation at increasingly competitive costs,” says Travis Bradford, President of the Prometheus Institute. “As it reaches widespread cost parity in the next few years, demand will flourish in many places around the world simultaneously.”
Solar PV prices declined slightly in 2007, with even greater reductions held back by the hot pace of demand and a continued shortage of polysilicon, an essential ingredient for conventional solar cells. Analysts expect much more dramatic price drops—perhaps as much as 50 percent in the next two years—as more polysilicon becomes available, production and installation are further scaled up, manufacturing efficiencies increase, and more advanced technologies are introduced. As a result, solar electricity could soon be a competitive alternative to conventional retail power in many regions, including California and southern Europe.
According to Sawin, “PV and other renewables offer significant potential to meet global energy needs while addressing climate change, enhancing energy security, and creating jobs. Scaling up renewables is primarily a matter of political will and enacting strong, consistent policies that create demand.”
Living In The Rainforest Without Destroying The Rainforest
There was a time, not too long ago when many people from many places lived in relative harmony with their surroundings. Before modern agriculture came around people often had very different ways of getting food. Ways that didn’t involve cutting everything down, plowing everything under, and planting a oil based fertilizer depended mono-culture of grain.
(Via)
Peace Coffee: Bicycles Make Everything Better
Just remember anything you do, can be made better by adding in bicycles.
More info here.
Brake, And The Children Might Live
There was a news article about clouds last night: it said that there were ongoing discussions about whether climate change would lead to an increase in low level clouds or high level clouds, and that far more work was required to calculate what the impact would be in causing further heating, or perhaps some cooling.
There was a news article about clouds last night: it said that there were ongoing discussions about whether climate change…am I repeating myself here? Did you notice where I stopped?
The climate is changing. Why are we getting so hung up on details? The more emissions are reduced, the better. The less forest we cut down, the better. The less land we cultivate, the better. Three pillars of climate change prevention — simple. But governments, and especially the corporations behind them, love all this fiddling about while the planet burns, because it buys them more time to make money, to attain power, to enjoy the superficial joy that the ownership of stuff provides. Mere life…overrated.
Except I love life — it’s everything to me.
Do you have children, or do you know any children you really care about? Suppose one of those children was crossing the road, and a car turned the corner. The vehicle is approaching quickly; out of the corner of his eye, the driver has just seen the child. The driver starts to make calculations — how fast is he travelling; how much distance is there between his vehicle and the child; how long will it take him to stop; how much damage will…
The child is thrown across the road by the impact of the vehicle.
Her heart stopped beating in the ambulance. Her parents never understood why the driver didn’t stop?
There are some situations where you don’t have time to work out the details — you just do what is right. You slam on the brakes because the sooner you do it, the better the chance that you will avoid hitting the child in front of you. You stop producing greenhouse gases and destroying the fabric of nature because the sooner you do it, the better the chance that the Earth will be able to recover from the changes that are taking place.
You don’t think about the details: you act immediately.
Recycled Homes
More info here
Why It Pays To Build Efficiently
One of the things I hear a lot in my new position is that people want to build their new homes energy efficiently but think that they cannot afford to. Whenever I hear this I always say without hesitation “You can’t afford NOT to build you home energy efficiently!”. There are huge misconceptions out there about the costs, methods and effectiveness of building new homes efficiently. Most new home builders do not help the situation and will tell prospective customers that adding more insulation to their house, installing a geothermal or solar heating system or building to take advantage of passive solar gains will add an unreasonable amount of cost and time delay to the building process.
Fortunately there are free resources out there for anyone to dispel these myths. A free software package from Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) can be downloaded called HOT2000 and it allows anyone to do energy modeling on their home and actually forecast what various changes will do to the energy consumption of there homes! It has a fairly shallow learning curve, with a windows interface, drop down menus and check boxes, and comes with a good help file and example files to build on.
Based on three common home plans (a 1600sf rancher, a 2400sf two story executive and a 1500sf split entry) I modelled what the difference was in energy consumption between standard construction (2×6 walls w/ fibreglass batts, blown-in attic insulation to 9″ and uninsulated basements) and minimal energy efficient upgrades (addition 1-1/2″ rigid foam to walls, 5 more inches of attic insulation and 2″ rigid foam to foundation walls and slabs) and found that in almost all cases the additional costs of the upgrades to the mortgage payment was offset by almost double in monthly energy savings! The bottom line was the cost of ownership (mortgage AND energy bills) was always lower with the energy efficient home over the standard construction home. It broke down like this:
2 Story executive style home:
$1355 in energy savings per year or $112 per month
$6983 added to mortgage or $45 per month
1 Story ranch style home:
$1327 in energy savings per year or $110 per month
$8110 added to mortgage or $52 per month
Split entry home:
$700 in energy savings per year or $58 per month
$6875 added to mortgage or $45 per month
*savings are using Hot2000 with PEI energy costs per April 1, 2008; mortgage costs are estimates.
This makes sense intuitively as split entries are fundamentally a more efficient style home and thus the savings, while still worth while, aren’t as great as the bigger less efficient plans. I also ran the numbers using a standard slab on grade (outside perimeter of slab only insulated) for the rancher and executive homes and going to a fully insulated slab on grade and the savings are still substantial. We are in the process of running numbers on the costs and savings of super insulated buildings and on alternative forms of building but the message seems to be consistant:
INSULATION IS ONE OF THE BEST METHOD OF SAVING ENERGY!!!
Related and perhaps more important is the correlation between home size and energy costs. For every cubic foot you reduce the size of your home you lower your mortgage AND reduce you energy costs!
These savings are all BEFORE you look at heating/cooling/ventilation equipment. It’s important to eliminate the waste before looking at efficiency of equipment. If you can make your home as well insulated and tight as possible you may be able to go with a smaller capacity heating system which adds another level of energy savings to the mix before you even look at the efficiency rating!
If you are building a new home soon or are considering renovationg your existing home to make it more efficient, I hope you consider insulation home size as much or more than efficient appliances and equipment, it really is the right place to start.
Read more tips at greenspree.ca or http://thesietch.org/mysietch/greenspree
RSS XML Feed
