Conservation Matters

Ray Cycle Raps

2012-02-11T07:43:00.001-08:00

CELEBRATE CREATING THE GREEN AWAKENING
CONSERVING UP TO YOU, NO MISTAKING
IS YOUR WORLD WARMING AND BAKING?
ARE YOU NERVOUS, ARE YOU QUAKING?

I’M A UNKNOWN RECYCLED HERO
MISSION IS TO TRANSFORM WASTE TO ZERO
COME ON NOW, DEAL WITH A FULL DECK
KEEP THE JOKER FOR THE BEST EFFECT

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN COMEDY AND TRAGEDY
COMICS GIVE US A LIFE-SAVING STRATEGY.

ARE YOU GOING TO FOLLOW OR LEAD?
CONSERVATION NOW IS A CRITICAL NEED.
WORK TO LESSEN OUR WASTE AND GREED,
CREATING CLEAN ENERGY IS A GREAT DEED

TAKE HEART AND MOVE THE FIRST LETTER,
IT SPELLS EARTH, YOU MAKE IT BETTER

WE’RE ALL TRAGIC UNLESS WE BE COOL
WAKE UP BRAIN IT’S A RECYCLABLE TOOL.
OUR BODIES ACT LIKE THE EARTH
BOTH PRECIOUS FORMS OF DIVINE WORTH

EMPLOY AGAIN THE CHASING ARROW SIGN
REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE YOU’LL FIND
INSIGHT PLANTS HOPE IN MIND
OUT OF SIGHT – DESPAIR AND BLIND

LET’S RE-ADJUST OUR BRAIN SPRAIN.
CHANGE OUR ATTITUDE, APPRECIATE THE GAIN
SEE WHATS RIGHT INSTEAD OF WHATS WRONG
BE THE LIGHT & DANCE TO THIS RE-FRAMED SONG

ERASE THE T IN TERROR
AND NOW IT SPELLS ERROR
MISTAKES CAN BE CORRECTED
YES WE’RE ALL CONNECTED

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN COMEDY AND TRAGEDY
COMICS GIVES US A LIFE-SAVING STRATEGY.
COME ON NOW, DEAL WITH A FULL DECK
KEEP THE JOKER FOR THE BEST EFFECT

CELEBRATE CREATING THE GREEN AWAKENING
EMPLOY CLEAN ENERGY, NO MISTAKING
TAKE HEART AND MOVE THE FIRST LETTER,
IT SPELLS EARTH, YOU CAN MAKE IT BETTER

Ten Years Latter

2011-09-10T17:18:00.000-07:00

September 11 anniversary gives us much to see in hind sight. The attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon killing 2,977 marked an extremely tragic and reactive time in American history. A decade of financial collapse, a horrific decade of warfare, the breakdown of the American political process and increased environmental devastation in all are areas of our planet in this last ten years. Also these acts of terror have created enormous psychic toll.

The cost of retaliation to these terrorist has been enormous. First the longest and costliest two wars we ever have fought. The second has been an erosion of American democratic process and third how the strongest nation was brought to its knees by terrorism. Greater responsibility and less reactivity are the tenor of the times.

Yes, this mass murder of innocent American civilians was terrible; however, our inglorious reaction to these events is more daunting. Months ago on 3/11 the Japanese lost 15,780 citizens and 4,122 are missing from a tsunami and nuclear accident. Besides the loss of lives and enormous human suffer it has been estimated to cost the Japanese around$219 billion dollars. Our 9/11 may have cost us over a trillion dollars and tremendous additional costs due to such threats. However, these incidents both show how fragile we 7 billion humans are.

Greater courage to face our threats can lessen our fears. After 10 years we still import 60% of our energy. Conservation matters greater than ever to become more secure for our next decade.

Agreeing on Our Changing Climate

2011-08-26T22:49:00.000-07:00

Where do we Americans see climate change? In the past it has ranked near the bottom by past voters of being of great concern. Despite the growing scientific reports have increasingly documented the impacts of increased temperature, weather extremes, carbon dioxide emissions and other human caused environmental impacts. Republicans have been quick to see this problem as job killing, tax increasing and regulatory over reach. Back in 2009 House Democrats passed a “cap and trade,” measure, however, such a tax was passed in the Senate since it was not attractive and am efficient pollution control.

Most scientist think climate change is cause by humans and threatens future human health. However there is considerable amount of Americans who either do not see or deny climate change as a problem.

Conservative Republicans question global warming science. Also many new members of Congress dispute that humans have anything to do with climate change. However, we have been burning records amounts of fossil fuels that create CO2. One challenge is that the full impacts of today’s greenhouse gases have a time lag and will not be felt too many decades latter. In a 2010 National Academy Sciences survey of 1372 climate scientists and found that 97.5% agreed that humans are contributing to climate change.

While the global debate is still being debated here in the U.S. the rest of world are in agreement that humans are threatening our natural systems with dangerous amounts of greenhouse gases. The US is far more divided. An October 2010 poll shows in the last 4 years Americans dropped from 79 to 59 percent believing there is solid evidence of climate change. Just 38 percent Republican believed in this environmental challenge.

Instead of what we do not agree on, why do we not work on conserving more and wasting less. What part of being conservative am I missing?

Mrs. Carter's 11th Grade Class Eco-Research

2011-08-14T04:53:00.000-07:00

Thank you Mrs. Carter's 11 Grade Summer Class! Your exploration of ways to "go green" and have fun by conserving are inspiring. Below are their findings of the various ways of helping improve our world. Much appreciation for your research and all wonderful benefits we all share from such conservation!

Dear Mr. Arner,

Greetings from Mrs. Carter's 11th grade science summer class! We came across this page http://www.robarner.com/bottlewater.html while working on our studies about finding ways we can help the environment be it a fun eco-friendly project or something we can do with our families at home to "go green." We found some resources on your page to be a useful contribution for our on-going project. Thank you for providing those sources!

As a class we wanted to offer resources that we found that we have voted as a class that would make a great addition to your page. We all will receive extra credit towards our project grade if you find these sources suitable enough for your site. This was our group class project we had to complete, but this is the last piece of the puzzle we need to finish before we make our presentations.

http://www.crafts4kids.com/projects/1100/notes/1101.htm
http://www.bedroomfurniturespot.com/woodcraft-for-kids
http://www.plu.edu/sustainability/How-can-I-be-involved/Great-Ways-to-go-Green-at-PLU/home.php
http://www.freedrinkingwater.com/resource-guide-to-water-conservation.htm
http://mste.illinois.edu/courses/ci407su01/students/north/kristy/Project/K-DailyActivities-Net.html
http://www.greenerchoices.org/products.cfm?product=ac
http://appliancehelp.com/resources/Energy-Saving-Tips.aspx
http://www.energysavers.gov/your_home/space_heating_cooling/index.cfm/mytopic=12420
http://www.globalgreen.org/
http://www.builtgreen.org/

We hope you find our resources useful and that you will help our class finish our project. This class project is finished at the end of next week, so we hope to hear back from you soon!

Thank you for taking the time to review our resources and we hope we have helped you as you have us!

Thanks again!

Sincerely,
Mrs. Carter's 11th Grade Class

Please No Fracking in the GW Forest!

2011-06-16T19:13:00.000-07:00

The proposed plan for hydraulic fracturing and vertical drilling in the George Washington National Forest poses a serious threat to our drinking water and water supplies. The Forest Service has prepared a 15 year plan which involves drilling for natural gas in 900,000 acres of the 1.l million acres of the forest. Although at first glance the forest service claims to ban the controversial drilling method called fracking there is a loophole in their plan that keeps the door open for fracking if they should need to do it.

We have every reason to be concerned about fracking. First, hydraulic fracturing is exempt from most environmental laws and controls and there is no liability on the part of gas companies if something goes wrong..... and things are going wrong in the extraction of natural gas across the country. There are also an alarming number of reports of water, land and air contamination, illness in people and wildlife in and around fracking wells across the country. Also hydraulic fracturing goes over a mile down into the earth pumping fluid at high pressures causing the rock to crack, simulating mini earthquakes that release natural gas for extraction. In Arkansas for example, there has been a sharp increase in the number of earthquakes in the areas where fracking is occurring.

In addition, fracking involves pumping 596 undisclosed chemicals and the use of 1 to 8 million gallons of water per frack, this creates 80 -300 tons of pressure going into the earth and could seriously deplete water supplies. Gas companies can frack a well up to 12 times. other states are staking strong actions to ban fracking because of the growing number of reports that we are very unaware of the current and future implications of using a drilling method that is both understudied and unregulated.

The GW forest acts as a huge water treatment system purifying our drinking water. For example, water resources in the George Washington National Forest serve an estimated 8,452 residents just within the Shenandoah County impacting our extremely fragile drinking supply. Recently our valley has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in water resource pollution controls. Now the USDA may allow this toxic fracking which is lacking such necessary safeguards. Yearly our GW Forest generated billions of dollars in timber, tourism, and other environmental benefits. We need to seriously evaluate these serious issues with fracking…..we should not put the forest in jeopardy? Please tell the Forest Service to prevent hydraulic fracturing for natural gas to preserve our natural resources. Over 100 years ago we wisely established the GW National Forest to protect our drinking water and today we need your support and input to the to the Forest Service to continue protecting this life sustaining investment.

Fracturing Our Shenandoah Drinking Water?

2011-05-02T12:37:00.000-07:00

Shenandoah Valley residents have every reason to be alarmed about their drinking water. A Texas Gas Company owned by Carrizo Marcellus LLC wants to frack his first well in Bergton in the Marcellus Shale region located at the Headwaters of the Shenandoah River. Already 13,000 acres of land have been leased to gas companies to drill for natural gas. Due to the alarming pattern of water contamination in and around these wells across the county we need to thoroughly examine the evidence and risks before we allow this controversial drilling practice to take place or at all.

When a well is fracked they use a horizontal drilling technique that goes a mile or more down into the earth pumping a fluid at high pressures that cause the rock to crack, sometimes even causing mini earthquakes that release the trapped gas for extraction. The pumping fluid is a mixture of sand, 596 undisclosed chemicals, and several million gallons of water. Currently gas companies refused to disclose those chemicals, but water testing of contaminated sites reveals highly toxic chemicals are being found in the samples.

In February 2010, Rockingham County Board of Supervisors tabled a special use zoning request filed by Mr. Carrizo since highly protective regulations were lacking. The movie Gasland by Josh Fox is a documentary of Josh's cross country journey to find out if the controversial process of hydraulic fracturing is actually safe. Josh himself was approached to lease his own land for hydraulic fracturing. He discovers on his journey that drinking water has been contaminated, that people and animals are getting sick, and that the industry is understudied and poorly regulated. This movie sounds an alarm bell for those of us who live in the Shenandoah Valley that we should thoroughly investigate hydraulic fracturing because the movie reveals serious harmful results from such drilling.

Our valley acts as a huge water treatment system cleaning water for our neighbors downstream. We have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in water resource infrastructure in Rockingham County and other neighboring counties. Much of the Shenandoah water also comes out of the ground: the fundamental water purification system.

Already our valley's water resources are extremely fragile. Spring water has been tested and shown to be only 11 years old. Water in our valleys is trapped--no deep aquifers and poor drainage. Much of the country's hydro-geology is like Swiss cheese and highly sensitive to pollution with its sink holes and caves. Fracking will create future liabilities. There are over 2000 private wells installed in the county since 1990. Ground water is tapped through wells placed in water bearing rock and other materials beneath the earth's surface.

Fracking jeopardizes not only our drinking water, but also the environmental health of the entire Shenandoah Valley including air pollution concerns. There are many unknown chemicals used in fracking combined with what rises to the surface once you drill and bring the gas up.

The connection between ground water and surface water plays a major role in ground water recharge in the Valley and the Ridge, where streams often cross fault zones recharging aquifers. Wells in the fault zones have the greatest yields. Recharge also occurs through surface run off into limestone sinkholes, bypassing filtration through the soil. This can cause serious water quality problems since polluted surface water may be introduced directly into the ground water system.

While the industry claims the process is safe, states like New York for example are issuing a moratorium preventing this kind of high volume hydraulic fracturing until their legislators can reach an informed decision about the risks. Our neighboring state Maryland who sits on one of the largest gas reserves in the world and stands to profit handsomely from natural gas drilling moved to place a moratorium on drilling until the Maryland Department of the Environment completes a two year study to determine whether it endangers drinking water and public health as some environmentalist claim. Maryland legislators stated, "We are not going to be like other states such as Texas, Pennsylvania, and Arkansas for that drilled first and asked questions later

We are very fortunate here in Virginia that we have the opportunity to make an informed decision about hydraulic fracturing for natural gas-our future prosperity depends on this. Nearly 100 year ago we wisely established the George Washington National Forest to protect our drinking water. Now in some of these areas is where they propose to frack.

Also nearly 90 percent of the Washington DC area depends on the Shenandoah River for clean drinking water. Why allow a hydraulic fracturing drill sight where the Shenandoah River begins affecting everyone downstream? The Shenandoah River also generates billions of dollars in agriculture, timber, tourism, and other environmental benefits. To run the risk of contaminating streams and the river could have enormous economic consequence.

Fracking has a poor track record for example look at what happen in Pennsylvania on April 21, 2011. Here, a fracking well blew near the surface spilling thousands and thousands of gallons of frack fluid over the containment walls, through the open fields, farms and homes while the cattle where grazing in the field. Officials report that frack fluid contaminated the Towanda Creek which feeds into the Susquehanna River and 7 families needed to be evacuated from their homes.

While more jobs and a fuel that burns cleaner is attractive to many including residents of economically depressed rural areas in need of money the number of chemicals used in the extraction of fracking raises the questions, how much safer and cleaner is it?

There is significant concern over fracking both here in Virginian and throughout our land. May we better understand the potential threat hydraulic fracturing can cause to our drinking water, water resources, as well as our air. At present the risks of fracking outweigh the rewards since this gas drilling provides no safeguards from polluting our Shenandoah watershed.

Transforming War and Terror- Sustaining Ourselves

2011-04-27T01:55:00.000-07:00

America can no longer afford not to fully look at the real meaning of national security. Our prosperity is directly tied to how we maintain world sustainability. Can we as a people have the courage to truly see that were a greater source of terror may hide?

Two years ago two special Assistants to the Chairman for Strategy to Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Captain Wayne Porter, US Navy, and Colonel Mark “Puck” Mykleby, US Marine Corps wrote A NATIONAL STRATEGIC NARRATIVE By Mr. Y below is a short summary of their perspective (http://onpoint.wbur.org/2011/04/26/pentagon-security)

This Strategic Narrative is intended to frame our National policy decisions regarding investment, security, economic development, the environment, and engagement well into this century. It is built upon the premise that we must sustain our enduring national interests – prosperity and security – within a “strategic ecosystem,” at home and abroad; that in complexity and uncertainty, there are opportunities and hope, as well as challenges, risk, and threat. The primary approach this Strategic Narrative advocates to achieve sustainable prosperity and security, is through the application of credible influence and strength, the pursuit of fair competition, acknowledgement of interdependencies and converging interests, and adaptation to complex, dynamic systems – all bounded by our national values.

Porter and Mykleby cite “America is a country conceived in liberty, founded on hope, and built upon the notion that anything is possible with enough hard work and imagination.”

They further state;
”America’s national strategy in the second half of the last century was anchored in the belief that our global environment is a closed system to be controlled by mankind – through technology, power, and determination – to achieve security and prosperity”. But we failed to recognize that dominance, like fossil fuel, is not a sustainable source of energy. The new century brought with it a reminder that the world, in fact, is a complex, open system – constantly changing. And change brings with it uncertainty. What we really failed to recognize, is that in uncertainty and change, there is opportunity and hope.

Mr Y continues further:

“It is time for America to re-focus our national interests and principles through a long lens on the global environment of tomorrow. It is time to move beyond a strategy of containment to a strategy of sustainment (sustainability); from an emphasis on power and control to an emphasis on strength and influence; from a defensive posture of exclusion, to a proactive posture of engagement. We must recognize that security means more than defense, and sustaining security requires adaptation and evolution, the leverage of converging interests and interdependencies…”

The bottom-line conclusion is that security and sustainability are interdependent. Without one the other does not happen. Let’s get lean and green and solve our problems with mending rather than ending. Otherwise our home will become a nasty war torn battlefield.

Appreciating Our Earth Day Everyday

2011-04-19T08:39:00.000-07:00

When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may
begin to use it with love and respect.
—Aldo Leopold

41 years ago we celebrated our first Earth Day. Ten years later I was a national and DC Earth Day organizer. In 1970, the first Earth Day's message was heard and in the few years that followed, sweeping environmental legislation and a powerful time of reawakening. Today there is a growing realization of our impact on the natural world is a critical circumstance. This Earth Day we need to reflect seriously on the fact that time may really be running out for our planet's life support systems - and for us.

Yes Earth Day is a day of clean-ups, educational activities, tree plantings, speeches, conversations and other green events. However a greater global solidarity is essential so we can best cleanup of our Earth, our seas, and our skies. It is a day to teach simplification, to lessen our consumptive lifestyle, and to highlight the importance of establishing a deep and profound connection to the natural world, the cycles of life, and the rhythms of nature

Earth Day is a day like thanksgiving of having profound appreciation. Increasing our gratitude gives greater my purpose and a richer life. Invoking greater appreciation gives profound sense of joy. An understanding how all things are interconnected. This gratitude is that we are all not separate and our survival is about the greater whole. As we individuals develop greater compassion, courage, and tenacity, we can fully engage in the kind of holistic stewardship that is calling to us now.

A new dimension mind-set understands that trees have rights to be just as do people and all living things. Without one we will not have the other. Deforestation, stripping mountaintops, fracking for gas, and numerous other forms of reckless environmental exploitation may satisfy human needs in the short run. However this greed may rob generations of their future prosperity. Emerging is a new awareness on our how are not separate from our earth. A green awakening is happening to stimulate greater life-affirming and life enhancing choices.

Earth Day is global call to do more with less. Be smart, wise and conserve. Use best the precious resources we have, and teach our children that life sustaining acts plant seeds for future generations. Preserving and protecting our environment are tied to the very notion of environmental of human excellence. Humans can demonstrate their virtue and flourish the human experience by promoting healthier relationships with our planet.

Just a simple act like riding a bicycle serves to better our world. Any actions that directly promote the well-being of the larger ecological community serve to show our gratitude for the earth. Any choice that lessens harm on this planet must be supported. Any way we can better this planet directly betters ourselves. 41 years ago recycling was introduced into our vocabulary. Now we must follow the example of those chasing arrows. Give and you shall get. May you enjoy this day and every other one with a new reverence for this Earth and what is gives you!

Deal With a Full Deck

2011-04-01T05:33:00.000-07:00

Isn’t this the greatest country? Where else in the world could you get dressed up as a fool and bomb (non violently) on the U.S. Capitol steps with bad jokes? 25 years ago, on April Fool’s Day, I visited my Congresswoman, Connie Morella, dressed up in a court jester costume. As Ray Cycle, I stood on the Capitol steps and proclaimed, "You’re not dealing with a full deck when you throw out the joker out! Recycle Our Nation’s Capital." American you are still so fuelish, Why not lessen our gas guzzling ways and proclaim energy efficiency?

For over 30 years, I have coped with working for the environment in a bureaucratic environment through random and deliberate small acts of humor. When I get too serious, I prefer to laugh rather than cry. I see the difference between a comedy and a tragedy as subtle, but significant-- we can learn from comedy rather than perpetuating a tragic fate. This is why I take refuge in our refuse.

Three decades ago while working at the D.C. Energy Office, I came up with the character of Ray Cycle. My plan was to entertain and promote the value of saving, conservation, thrift—simple good housekeeping. What could be more conservative? Some kids had pictures of baseball players as icons when they were growing up; I had a picture of a crying Indian lamenting the rape of the land. Now, I share the trademarked character of Ray Cycle with the State of Connecticut. Their Ray is a Super Hero; my Ray is just your American joker.

You see, Ray Cycle is always going around being "insightful and mindful". If waste becomes "out of sight and of mind" then the insanity of our blindness impacts future generations. After all, one used oil change improperly disposed of impacts the water supply of fifty people over a period of one year. If you dump it you may have to drink it since what goes around comes around.

Today I will observe that I am a comic not tragic person. Arise rather than fall in love. Let’s transform our waste making by saving our cards for future hands. We have a choice between tragic hard work or comic heart work. Let the humor you love be who you are. Please deal with a full deck. There are thousands of ways to bless ourselves and this earth. Our journey begins with a single awakening laugh.

Price vs. Cost of Energy Conservation and Efficiency

2011-03-11T18:59:00.000-08:00

Our lack of coherent energy policy reflects both the price and cost jeopardizing both our national security and future prosperity. Unfortunately energy efficiency has failed to be realized as a national priority. Presently energy inefficiency has a huge hidden price and cost. How we can better generated and consume energy must be adequately addressed.

U.S. energy demand consists of 85% fossil fuels or about 50 million barrels of oil consumed each day in America. As we past $100 per barrel for crude and this price shortly could easily double. Energy imports of oil account for 20% of our total U.S. energy requirements. However the cost for this is a huge burden not just on our balance of payments and on our environment.

Approximately, 61%of energy produced is lost due to factors such as poor insulation, inefficient gas guzzling vehicles and other reasons according to a 2007 National Petroleum Council report to the Department of Energy. This translates to an overall efficiency of 13% for oil that is converted to a usable form. Another way to illustrate this is that only one of three barrels is recovered. How can we afford to allow this to happen?

Currently the U.S. depends on foreign countries to supply us with 66% of the oil we use. It is believed we have passed our peak of oil production in 1970’s or 80’s. Presently our petroleum comes from: USA Petroleum Production-34%; Petroleum Imports from OPEC-27%; Non-OPEC Petroleum Imports-39% (Canada, Mexico, Russia, etc.)

One example is oil wasted in consumption comes from the do-it-yourself consumer. The American who changes their own oil yearly wastes over 400 million gallons of used oil and 500 plus million oil filters. One gallon of used oil improperly disposed can contaminate one million gallons of fresh water or ruin the water supply for 50 people for a year.

There is a price for using oil besides impacting climate change. Exploration, development, production, product treatment, and waste management activities associated with oil and gas production projects can have a variety of costs on our environment and health. Roughly one trillion gallons of oilfield waste we inject into deep wells in addition to the 3 billion tons of oil and gas wastes we generate yearly by our oil and gas exploration and production in the U.S. Unless we place a price and cost on inefficiency we will continue to subsidize this hazardous waste of dollars, resources and health impacts.

For over a century Americans have greatly benefited from oil. Now the question is how we price and cost our dwindling oil resources. Why do create incentives toward energy depletion? Once we make this energy life cycle investment we will celebrate the enormous future benefits of efficiency. The future we reveal the true costs and expense of energy inefficiency unless we wisely act. Let’s profit from preventing waste by fully investing in energy efficiency.

Betting on Climate Change

2011-01-10T15:13:00.000-08:00

Why is it that insurance companies and major corporations know about climate change while many Congressional leaders and Tea Party members think this is a myth? I bet you that anyone who has serious money or manages it is starting to add up the impacts.

This January a leading world insurance company, Munich Re, released a report on the natural disasters of 2010 and concluded that the high number of weather-related natural catastrophes and record temperatures provide further indication that climate change is advancing. According to the report, 2010 had the second highest amount of weather-related catastrophes since 1980, and caused about $130 billion in damages--$37 billion of which was insured. While some of the 950 natural disasters that occurred last year were earthquakes, and not attributable to climate change, nine-tenths of them were weather-related.

Finally, I ask if any person is in doubt look on your own. Yes it is very cold now but last year was one of the hottest on records. Go to any objective source to see if there are major ice melts everywhere in the world. Look at any of the major glaciers and observe what is going on. It is sad that still a significant number Americans are clueless. You bet it is happening just following the money.

Increase Green Efficiency: Improve Our National Security and Economy

2010-11-04T06:02:00.000-07:00

November 2, 2010 election results reinforce that Americans are concerned most with our economy. However how we stimulate new goods and services is multi-trillion dollar question. I propose as we become more efficient we improve our economy.

The best definition of what green is efficiency minus subsidy. The challenge is that in the U.S we have subsidized many things that increase waste and prevents us from profiting from pollution prevention. Just look how we have addressed our national security challenge. Presently, conflicts over water, and other essential resources. Does our U.S. military act as peacekeepers? A majority of experts predict that if our government does not prepare for climate change we will have hell to pay for.

Several years ago a number of retired generals and security experts presented national-security study*. Using the military's risk-assessment practices, 11 retired generals and admirals issued a report* saying that climate change creates massive instability around the world.

"The impacts of climate change will be huge — deserts move north, coastal areas threatened, the dislocation of people," said retired Adm. T. Joseph Lopez, who commanded peacekeeping forces in Bosnia. "I'm a student of instability, and instability is the enemy.”

Is reducing military spending and waste a key to lessening our growing deficit? How we can promote more efficient green ways to stabilize? Let’s go beyond the debate of either “guns” or “butter” to renew our economy by finding news way of getting more using less. As we stopped subsidizing our huge military and trim this wasteful industrial complex then we will stimulate new forms of economic development. Can we champion this new green form goods and services that cultivate peace? Waste and inefficiency is a form of terrorism. Once we concentrate on ways we can become more secure and prosperity will follow creating new green efficient technologies and practices that arise.

* http://securityandclimate.cna.org

Oh Shenandoah Please Enact A Good Rural Plan

2010-10-06T06:52:00.000-07:00

Shenandoah County will benefit from good rural planning. Promoting rural prosperity will happen when we keep new housing near our towns; invest in land conservation; and strengthen our zoning ordinances.

New innovations can be explored once we see these as beginning economic development tools for our county. How we allow our land to be developed can be a win/win situation if we exercise wise best management practices. Otherwise irresponsible development will be passed on to us tax payers. One great example is who is going to be taking care of all the abandoned junk yards in our county? Who is going to clean these up? Citizen’s freedom to do things must be balanced by their responsibility to take care of those things they have.

The more we keep growth near our towns with joint comprehensive plans the cheaper it will be for us to provide public services and improved land use patterns. Already we our towns have invested in hundreds of millions in water and waste water and expansion into rural areas must be properly managed. Just look at our failing septic systems and other failed utilities to see that they do impact our county’s natural resources.

It is not question of “if” but “when” we will need agricultural land since food shortages will shortly be very evident. We need to develop a economic development program for our farms and fund the purchase of development rights (PDR).

Visit West Virginia if you wish to see what happens when you do not have zoning ordinances. Look at what is happening around Winchester. Updating our rural zoning by creating low density measures allowing in A-1 one lot per ten acres this county will benefit if it becomes law. Also one lot per 15 acres in C-1 zoning district will protect us from rapid sprawl. Also rewarding cluster development with “bonus” lots can reward our landowners so using the cluster option is imperative to keep our county rural.

Without integrated comprehensive planning increased Shenandoah County economic development comes into question. You can insure best management opportunities to promote future prosperity for Shenandoah County:

I urge you look at this county’s future from a big picture perspective. Just add together income gained from fisheries, agriculture, industry, and recreation and tourism this county currently enjoys. Supporting rural area plans are investment since document income from recreation and tourism and increased property values. However the most important investment is our county’s quality of life. If this get’s destroyed future generations will not get the same opportunities we have enjoyed. Ben Franklin was correct when he said, “I am not so concern on the return on my investment rather the return of my investment”

Government Waste: A Catch Word

2010-10-06T06:43:00.000-07:00

Government waste is a common used phrase. However, even the many organization’s that are the watchdogs of this costly act have been unable to get to the root of the problem. We love create spend more instead of fully using what we have. Consume seems to be an economic mantra however, it all results in less if we do not show some thrift.

The government wastes money, resources and other precious things because there is an incentive to do so. We, Americans or better yet our Congress, has no reason to save since everyone wants more and more. Look at any area of government support- health care, defense, education, environmental protection, transportation, housing, foreign affairs, intelligence you see billions of dollars lost. The question is how we can create new commerce and prosperity without jeopardizing future generation's quality of life?

Now what incentives does our government give to be frugal or more conservative? You can search for performance based saving measures and you will find few or none. Just look at our national debt and you will see how it grows in trillions in several months.

The fact is that many special interests benefit from government over spending and waste. Watch the movie, “Charlie Wilson’s War” to see that Congress is an addict when it comes to fiscal restraint. Unfortunate like any addiction what will it take for American’s to understand we all pay more when we waste. However, the reality is that no one is going to seriously champion government towards more frugal ways since there are too many disincentives and special interests to result in such a change.

Unless Americans see the future connection if our government continues to waste they transfer this debt to the next generations to pay latter at higher cost. This country will not fully prosper until we have a revolution about how we conduct business. As we evolve to better management practices we also will find a increased sense of well being. Cleaning house is what is "eco" is all about becoming lean and helping to discover the really meaning of "green."

The Washington DC Area Oil Spill

2010-06-04T06:25:00.000-07:00

For over thirty years I have been active preventing oil spills. These come from do-it-yourself motorist. Our country’s worst environmental accident proves that we do not value prevention. Lessening human error and having back-up plans is critical to our very future.

Years ago there was a Pogo cartoon with a picture of an oil tanker in a backyard, and the caption read, “We have met the enemy and it is us.” At George Washington University in 1977 one of my environmental science text books alerted me to oil polluting my local watershed of Little Falls in Bethesda, Maryland that runs into one of the drinking water reservoirs for the nation’s capital. Since then I have promoted the recovery of do-it-yourself automotive fluids from every possible angle. I began this effort in Montgomery County, Maryland and started DC’s used oil recycling efforts. I even helped build the region’s largest used oil recycling facility and recently worked on updating Virginia’s used oil collection program that I have championed for many years.

I have come to the conclusion that we, in America, can better use and conserve our oil. Each year we use 240 billion gallons of the world’s petroleum supplies. We spend more than $200,000 every minute overseas in our yearly consumption of over 7 billion barrels of oil products. Since the USA constitutes 4% of the world’s population, uses over 25 % of the world’s oil, and produces 22% of climate-altering CO2, we have a tremendous opportunity to best save our oil.

On the front end, there is the one trillion gallons of oilfield waste we inject into deep wells in addition to the 3 billion tons of oil and gas wastes we generate yearly by our oil and gas exploration and production in the USA. On the back end, we waste 400 million gallons of used oil and 500 plus million oil filters are lost yearly in the United States. The current sampling method to evaluate the toxicity of oil, Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Procedure (TCLP) is not the best test since it was designed for municipal landfills. I ask you to simply reflect on the fact that one gallon of used oil improperly disposed can contaminate one million gallons of fresh water or ruin the water supply for 50 people for a year.

Closer to home, in the last four years, Washington DC area motorists disposed of 11.2 million gallons of oil. The improper disposal of used oil, oil filters, and antifreeze by those who perform their own automobile maintenance is a ubiquitous environmental concern. Three to 4.5 million gallons of used oil, 4.7 to 5.9 million oil filters, and approximately one million gallons of antifreeze were "lost" in our environment. Washingtonians who change their own oil and antifreeze account for roughly 45% of those owning passenger cars, and only 15-30% of these materials are believed to be recovered. Even the disposal of discarded oil filters and plastic containers reveals a residual amount of oil whose sheer volume is alarming.

Each year, the United States generates approximately 1.351 billion gallons of used oil; only 57 percent of this used oil is accounted for through recycling. The roughly 45 million people who change their own oil, the so-called do-it-yourselfers (DIYs), are a major source of improperly disposed used oil. It is estimated that between 193 to 400 million gallons of used oil are released into the environment each year in this manner. This is not taking into account the loss of home heating oil from old tanks at peoples’ homes.

There are other harmful household chemicals. Each year according to EPA, Americans generate 1.6 million tons of hazardous household waste (HHW) including, paints, cleaners, batteries, and pesticides that contain corrosive, toxic, ignitable and reactive ingredients. Also there are many small businesses and farms generating less than 100 pounds per year of harmful materials that are Conditionally Exempt Small Quantity Generators (CESQG). There is limited information on how many tons of these materials impact our health and natural resources. Presently it is believed that a small percent of this toxic material is recovered, and the cost to do so can be expensive. Improper disposal of this non-point pollution threatens public health and the environment in many ways that must awaken us to this real terror in our homes.

Clearly we can prevent much pollution if we design our products to minimize waste. Today we use close to a billion light-duty oil filters sold in the United States. The average used light-duty oil filter contained on average six to eight ounces of oil, but this amount may be higher since American vehicles are much larger now. One innovative approach would be to promote reusable oil filters that are compatible with engines that use the one-piece sealed spin-on filter. No modifications or tools are required to install these filters on any engine that uses a spin-on filter, and they allow for the recovery of all used motor oil. The assembly housing is reused; only the paper element is replaced, and this can be easily recycled or burned for energy. Widespread adoption of these reusable filter systems would virtually eliminate used oil being trapped in filters and prevent steel filters entering landfills. If produced in volume, this filter could be manufactured for under a dollar. At the point of final sale, the filter would cost somewhat less than the current spin-on filter. Reusable filters were popular up to the early 1960s and are still widely used in the racing industry.

As a huge plume of oil now threatens both the gulf and possibly our East Coast can we make wiser use of our rapidly depleting non-renewable petroleum supplies? We, Americans, are oil addicts and it is time we go into a recovery program. We must make our "oil can" mightier than the sword and as a nation embrace thrifty management of our black gold.

The Gulf Spill: A Rude Crude Awakening

2010-05-29T05:20:00.000-07:00

The recent Gulf oil spill is a rude awakening to humans regarding the price and risk of energy exploration. With now an estimated 23 to 47 million barrels of oil draining into the gulf region we are seeing tremendous alarm why we need to reexamine our American energy policies.

The tragic costs of this accident will be accounted for in years. This includes the lost of marine life, devastated wetlands and economic impacts to the Southeast. Oil extraction results in the destruction or alteration of wildlife habitats, erosion, sedimentation, pollutant loading of groundwater and surface water from product and/or waste leaks and spills, groundwater contamination from communication between production or waste injection zones and underground sources of drinking water, release of hydrocarbons and hydrogen sulfide to the atmosphere, and decreased soil productivity from land spreading and/or releases of reserve/mud pit contents. While oil and gas professionals have developed practices that have reduced the generation of waste to avoid such environmental catastrophes. Also there has been improved economics of drilling and production operations leading to safer operations.

In the United States alone, more than 2 million wells have been drilled in the search for oil and gas since the first few successful wells in the mid 1800s. Of these wells (averaging about 1000 meters in depth but ranging to as much as 8000 meters), only about 1 exploratory well in 10 has found oil in sufficient quantities to justify production; and 1 in 50 has found enough oil to repay its total costs. Increased shortages will force new searches for oil and gas into more remote and hostile environments. Some drilling may not be offset by profits reaped by actual oil and gas discovery. The difficulty of finding oil and gas now is finding it in pores of rocks as a mixture of oil, salty water, and natural gas. The oil clings tightly to the pores of the rock to resist even the most elaborate schemes to get it out.

The cause and effect how we use oil in American reveals both triumph and tragedy. Petroleum has been both a blessing and a curse for America. We comprise less than 5 percent of the world's population, but consume 25 percent of all oil produced or about 20 million barrels or 840 million gallons. Since 1751 when the Industrial Revolution began we used the amount of fossil fuels burned that is equivalent to all plant growth on Earth for the last 13,300 years. We use this black gold there's no end to the stuff, though experts estimate we've got 50-100 years' supply left at current consumption rates.

The world is currently consuming oil at the rate of 30.2 billion barrels per year. Based on the forecasts 50 to 100 years forecast is our global supply. We, Americans consume about 20.6 million barrels of petroleum per day (7.5 billion barrels per year). Currently, about 70% of the petroleum we consume is used for transportation. Light duty vehicles and freight trucks take the largest share while aircraft take less. However, from the standpoint of fuel efficiency, aircraft are the least efficient while light duty vehicles are the most efficient. However, overall fuel consumption increasing by almost 7 million barrels per day with only slight changes in the distribution of use.

The advancement of electric cars and hybrids will significantly effect on petroleum consumption. All-electric vehicles powered by rechargeable batteries can help most to reduce oil consumption, because only 2% of our electricity is generated from oil. Also, there may be some technology improvements in diesel-powered freight trucks,

Even if we drill up north at full production in 2020 or beyond, proposed drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) is estimated to produce 800,000 barrels of oil daily, 0.7 percent of global production. Estimates of undiscovered oil, has been estimated by experts to amount to 39.1 billion barrels including reserves in the Arctic Outer Continental Shelf, the Alaska National Petroleum Reserve, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and the restricted areas of the Lower 48 States. At our present rate of consumption, these reserves would supply our needs for a little over 5 years.

In the U.S. is a good example of what is going to happen to many others in the world. We are currently depending on other countries to supply us with 66% of the oil we need. It is believed we have passed our peak of oil production in 1970’s or 80’s. Presently our petroleum comes from: USA Petroleum Production-34%; Petroleum Imports from OPEC-27%; Non-OPEC Petroleum Imports-39% (Canada, Mexico, Russia, etc.)

Just from the American do-it-yourself consumer, we waste 400 million gallons of used oil and 500 plus million oil filters are lost yearly in the United States (each containing around seven ounces of oil). The current sampling method to evaluate the toxicity of oil, Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Procedure (TCLP) is not the best test since it was designed for municipal landfills. I ask you to simply reflect on the fact that one gallon of used oil improperly disposed can contaminate one million gallons of fresh water or ruin the water supply for 50 people for a year.

There is a price for using oil besides impacting climate change. Exploration, development, production, product treatment, and waste management activities associated with oil and gas production projects can have a variety of impacts on the environment. There is the one trillion gallons of oilfield waste we inject into deep wells in addition to the 3 billion tons of oil and gas wastes we generate yearly by our oil and gas exploration and production in the USA.

For over a century Americans have greatly benefited from oil. Now the question is how we find energy alternatives as we deplete our dwindling oil resources. Also how we make this transition have enormous benefits for our prosperity. The future holds what complexity, expense, and the environmental impact of increased exploratory drilling will result. We will greatly profit from preventing such future pollution. As Americans increasingly learn the full cost of this Gulf spill so must we explore new ways to conserve and preserve this fragile place where we live.

Pedaling to Make Bethesda Greener

2010-05-19T19:30:00.000-07:00

Did you know May is National Bike Month? People will celebrate it with various activities around the nation, including Bike-to-Work Week from May 17-21. Bike-to-Work Day will take place Friday, May 21. (That morning, get breakfast, tune-ups and prizes at the Bethesda pit stop)

Living in Bethesda for over 40 years, I have become an avid cyclist. There is no better way to get around. It is quicker and cheaper, has no parking problems and I enjoy the exercise. Also there are lots of other psychological benefits: I get to slow down, get a feel of the community and lessen my environmental impact. As an expert in used oil recycling, I also believe in another type of “re-cycling”; this is why biking is my thing. Also I have documents showing the numerous water impacts cars have on the Little Falls and other area watersheds.

According to WorldWatch Institute, a short, four-mile round-trip by bicycle keeps about 15 pounds of pollutants out of the air. Also the Nationwide Personal Transportation Survey found that 25 percent of all trips are made within a mile of the home, 40 percent of all trips are within two miles of the home, and 50 percent of the working population commutes five miles or less to work. Yet more than 82 percent of trips five miles or less are made by personal motor vehicle. Sixty percent of the pollution created by automobile emissions happens in the first few minutes of operation, before pollution control devices can work effectively. Since “cold starts” create high levels of emissions, shorter car trips are more polluting on a per-mile basis than longer trips. (Learn more about why you should ride for the environment.)

Commuting by bike reflects the tenor of the times because of its health benefits and low environmental impact. Biking to work or using a bike to run errands prevents pollution, saves you gas or transit money, and benefits us all by reducing oil and gas use. Biking also can be less stressful than hanging out in area traffic. Riding a bike can give you fresh air outside the gym and allow you to see more of the outside world. Also you may consider taking a bike to the subway or to the bus stop.

There are many wonderful ways you can explore neighborhoods and get a sense of our beloved Bethesda community pedaling around. Increase everyone’s quality of life here: Bicycle as much as you can!

Green Spaces Provide Great Economic Potential

2010-04-22T17:34:00.000-07:00

This is a guest column thanks to Jack Lundee - "Taking a more progressive green approach."

Some of the more heavily discussed topics of early 2010 include obesity, green infrastructure, clean water, and more. In particular, the addition and/or substitution of green spaces have been quite controversial as of late. Senior resident of Urban Land Institute Ed T. McMahon states "Green space adds value to property." Not only would these areas of conservation drive economic trends upward, but they also improve the overall health of the surrounding community. For example, substituting things like golf courses with conservation areas would essentially increase surrounding property value while diminishing overpriced maintenance fees. The same holds true for airports and other large acre-eating developments.

Some of these areas are already abandoned or unkempt. For instance, park and recreational areas that were once highly visited have become urban wastelands. In an article from the Salt Lake Tribute, Lindsay Whitehurst discusses how an area that was capped with tennis courts to replace an old reservoir had been empty for some time now. She further explains how the University of Utah received a loan to fill the old reservoir and turn the land into a conservation area. Bob Sperling, manager of the water design team for Salt Lake City public utilities, infers high costs when he mentions challenging structural design. Aside from this, safety was a tremendous issue which was later justified when a large piece of slate gave way. It wasn't soon thereafter that it was noticed by Sperling during a routine inspection.

Much larger metropolitan areas are also playing their role in promoting sustainability by implementing many Green Spaces within the city. In Meg Muckenhoupt's new book Boston's Gardens & Green Spaces, she discusses different green space within the city of Boston. With very low cost maintenance fees and little liability, these areas are perfect for protecting our wildlife and the environment. They also attract further tourism; which would in turn generate revenue from ticket/tour sales.

This aligns with the implications of "economic viability" and long term sustainability, posing the question, "Would the substitution of golf courses and airports in the short term lead to an abrupt economic downfall? It's true that this type of architecture provides undoubtedly high revenue. On the contrary, they both come with ridiculously high expenses and maintenance. Incorporating various elements of green architecture implies things like green roofing, which could in turn drive down electrical/gas costs dramatically.

Larger organizations are already taking a step in the right direction in Haiti. Brainchild behind the CGI (Clinton Global Initiative), Doug Band, has been working closely with organizations like AFH (Architecture for Humanity) to discuss potential means of green restoration. Combined with the additional efforts of many large collaborative units like the USGBC (United States Green Building Council), AFH hopes to shed some light on a terrible situation.

Recent findings have driven people like McMahon and fellow conservationists to investigate further into upgrading and expanding green infrastructure efforts. As earth day 2010 slowly approaches, it's important that we as individuals follow and support these ventures. It's equally important that we adapt greener disciplines to support both our planet and our economy.

Jack Lundee - "Taking a more progressive green approach."

America's First Composter, George Washington

2010-04-03T09:09:00.000-07:00

A knowing farmer, who, Midas like, can convert
everything he touches into manure,
as the first transmutation towards gold.

For 45 years George Washington was the master of Mount Vernon, and he viewed his occupation as farmer very seriously. Beginning as a tobacco planter like his father and older brother before him, Washington devoted himself to producing bounteous crops of the weed for export to England. He realized early on, however, that this plant was ruinous to the fertility of his soil. Therefore, he soon stopped growing tobacco and took up the cultivation of wheat as his primary money maker, complemented by corn and a variety of lesser crops aimed at sustaining his family and slaves. The quest to improve his yields led Washington to explore a wide range of agricultural experiments, including composting as a means of restoring soil nutrients.

In 1794 Washington sadly noted in his diary that, "Unless some practice prevails, my fields will be growing worse every year, until the crops will not defray the expense of the culture of them." Unfortunately for his successors who attempted to farm Mount Vernon after the death of the great man in 1799, this gloomy prediction was all too true. For Mount Vernon's soils were simply too poor to be a good producer no matter what innovative measures were employed. Thin topsoil overlying a dense, impermeable clay foundation was the main culprit, exacerbated by severe erosion caused by the poor practices of the day.

Washington never gave up the challenge to improve his soils, however, and he undertook numerous experiments to find the best form of fertilizer. He subscribed to John Spurrier's The Practical Farmer, which advocated the wise use of agricultural by-products and adding organic matter to improve the soil. Washington revealed an experiment in composting in his diary on April 14, 1760, when he "Mixed my compost in box" with different types in the various apartments. He planted the same number of seeds in each compartment and systematically recorded the results. After many trials, Washington applied manure, river and creek mud, fish heads, and plaster of paris to his fields with some success.

As evidence of George Washington's devotion to composting, he erected a highly unusual building specifically designed to compost "manure" and to facilitate its "curing" into usable fertilizer. Mount Vernon archaeologists have excavated the site of this building, called the "dung repository" or the "stercorary", to gain more insight into Washington's farming activities and to provide the information necessary to reconstruct this interesting structure.
Washington's typically detailed directions for constructing the repository provide several important clues to building details. In a letter to his farm manager in May 1787 he lectured:

When you go about the repository for the compost ... if the bottom should not be of good clay, put the clay there and ram it well before you pave it, to prevent the liquid manure from sinking, and thereby being lost.

*This was co-written with Dennis Pogue, http://www.cityfarmer.org/washington.html

Home Sick or Solastalgia?

2010-01-31T12:03:00.000-08:00

I have been curious why at times I feel anxious, unsettled, despairing, and depressed. In the course of my life I have observed much disconnection, distraction and denial of what we are doing to our planet. Glenn Albrecht has a name for psychological condition.

In a 2004 essay, he coined a term to describe it: “solastalgia,” a combination of the Latin word solacium (comfort) and the Greek root –algia (pain), which he defined as “the pain experienced when there is recognition that the place where one resides and that one loves is under immediate assault . . . a form of homesickness one gets when one is still at ‘home...’

In September, the British trip-hop duo Zero 7 released an instrumental track titled “Solastalgia,” and in 2008 Jukeen, a Slovenian recording artist, used the word as an album title. “Solastalgia” has been used to describe the experiences of Canadian Inuit communities coping with the effects of rising temperatures; Ghanaian subsistence farmers faced with changes in rainfall patterns; and refugees returning to New Orleans after Katrina. 1

Yes, our mind and the health are connected to this earth. So to feel such pain is a normal reaction if we are sensitive to what is happening regarding to our present degradation. From an eco-psychological perspective being numb, overwhelmed or powerless reflects humanity’s current divorced relationship as we diminish our natural eco-systems.

Such mental suffering forces many to explore our collective unconscious so to see how we can best adapt to this tremendous eco-adversity. One course of action is to lessen our consumption and ecological footprint to battle becoming so despondent. Another form of restorative therapy is seeking refuge by going into the woods or other natural surrounding.

Thomas Doherty, a leading ecosychologist as developed a model that which equates mental health with the impulse to “promote connection with nature.” This profound ecological minds-state is one model developed for the American Psychological Association Climate-change Task Force.

As we develop greater consciousness and explore our shadows an organic unification happens. However, difficult or painful such introspection is required to better ourselves and this world. When we separate ourselves from our world, we disconnect from our eco-soul or our earth spirit. Our whole is greater than the sum of many broken parts. Anyway we improve our sense of interconnectedness healing happens. I challenge you to question how or if you are connected to this world? A profound process will follow if you have to courage to venture forth. Otherwise you may become lost in the unconscious violence destroying our larger body's fight to survive.

1 Daniel Smith, “Is There an Ecological Unconscious?” New York Times, 1/27/10 http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/31/magazine/31ecopsych-t.html

Put Out Our Global Blaze

2010-01-03T10:27:00.000-08:00

If your house started to catch fire, what would you do? Well our Earth is catching fire, and many humans are sleeping through the beginning flames. The world’s future is interdependent on our ability to foresee and forestall this global blaze.

Never in human history have we been faced with such a menacing wildfire. Are we, the human species, going to become burn victims? Are we on the verge of bringing on the sixth great Earth extinction event? Reflecting on the fact that ninety-nine percent of the species that have ever lived on this planet are extinct, you may hear your smoke detector start to scream. Can you feel it getting hotter?

Yes there is truth what Smokey the Bear used to say, “Only you can prevent forest fires.” Fires caused by humans are usually the result of carelessness and ignorance. A critical mass of people who are asleep act as small sparks igniting flames throughout our collective home. In order to survive, we must change our mind-set of “independence” into a new “Declaration of Interdependence.” We can’t put out large fires on our own; it requires a group effort.

This ticking time bomb also comports an explosion of human consciousness that is critical for our survival. The facts are clear: the human species is both an endangered and endangering force on this fragile planet. Our exponential consumption of fossil fuels, which took millions of years to form, is being almost thoroughly depleted in just over century. These same fuels are, ironically, capable of quickly transforming civilization into future fossils.

Death of our biosphere and the shutting down of our ecological systems is clearly being documented, and the rates of this destruction are escalating. Every day scientific reports and data reinforce the evidence.

Correspondingly we are witnessing similar collapses in our financial, political, social and psychological systems. For example, the levels of anxiety, stress and mental illness are at their highest recorded levels ever. Other symptoms of social breakdown are everywhere. Just looking at how our leaders have addressed climate change provides ample evidence that any sane individual must do something to remedy things within his or her means, or else one becomes an accessory to the present collective human insanity.

There is a wealth of potential solutions and ways that can contribute to the aversion of destruction. Conservation of our available energy is one key solution. This is the fastest, cheapest and most effective way to reduce carbon emissions: avoid energy loss in the first place. Mindful frugal energy use can have a tremendous effect and create momentum that will quickly diminish the present disaster scenario.

Increased efficiencies in energy use and conservation are bountiful. For example, better light technologies such as compact fluorescents and light emitting diodes (LEDs) can lessen by 25 percent electrical use that lighting taps from our power grid. The list of technologies, both existing and emerging, and innovations are as endless as the magic of human ingenuity and imagination.

Each one us can light a candle to possibility, rather than do nothing and burn our neighborhood down. The creativity, spiritual, artistic, and cultural potential of each of us can help to dampen these climate fires. According to scientists, we have roughly five years to develop the necessary preventative measures to save this planet. We cannot afford to wait.

Each of us must question how we can lessen our global fires. The sooner we get to the flames, the less damage this global blaze will have. As the fire smolders or blazes, we must understand that it is the emissions or smoke that kills first.

As good neighbors we each act as fire fighters, handing along buckets of water in a line to cool down our rapidly overheating planet rather than continue to add to the flames. Only we can prevent global fires.

Climate Change Civil War: Ecological vs. Eco-illogical

2009-12-15T15:57:00.000-08:00

We live in a time where there is battle between two hemispheres - North versus South. As each of our rich and poor nations make it through each day, the melting at the poles increases. Now industrial North does not want to fully shell up the cash to help the South lessen their emerging carbon impact. Those third world Southerners have HIV, malaria, malnutrition, and sanitary daily threats presently diverting them to invest in the future. The Northerners are just coming out of the worst recessions in half a century where jobs and extra money are scarce. Many of these Northerners are skeptical question whether we need to act in the first place and in investing in carbon trading pollution control measures. This is a time to paraphrase Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, “testing whether any nation can long endure.”

In early December, over 60 newspapers each wrote editorials on climate change. Many in the media cite the facts despite the complex science. Humans must act to limit temperature rises to 2C, an aim that will require global emissions to peak and begin falling within the next 5-10 years.

Now in the United States, there is another civil war in decision making divided by the red and blue states. Both Republicans and Democrats work the democratic process to get in the short run the best deals to satisfy their voters. Our climate change clock is ticking down fast and alarming us for long term solutions. Not just is our free world in jeopardy but the fate of our natural world we survive on is in question. What is in jeopardy requires substantial fiscal investment of trillions of dollars to abate this planetary crisis. Our global civil war, is a battle field were ecological and eco-illogical must fight it out. For example just the conflict for food and water is already going from bad to worst.

We have fight wars of "poverty", "drugs" and "terrorism" why not on our country's greenhouse emissions? The United States is still on the fence to showing we are really serious player. We want a good environment however our economy is more important. Also there are many doubts of what is best way to proceed.

The decisions of we the people, our President, Congress and American domestic politics is holding the planet in peril. Thus far in the debate we represent the greatest per person users and polluter. Can we clean up our share? Now the rest of the world looks to us to see how we define need from greed in the use of resources and our investment into a green economy. We are in many levels engaged in various civil wars both here and abroad. The question is will we endure finding ways to resolve our conflicts or will this division result in an ultimate loss of our ecological world by eco-illoggical decisions.

“Copen” or “Hopen” for Climate Change in Denmark?

2009-12-12T14:19:00.000-08:00

World leaders are supposedly considering serious emission control measures to combat climate change. However, translating this rhetoric into reality is something of international concern. Little focus has been made on what are the best management strategies that will lessen our dangerous greenhouse gas emissions. Also how will monitor and enforce such measures given the magnitude of this crisis?

First the “cap” and “trade” will not best address this problem since a “cap” and “tax” is a more effective combating this problem. Many leading economists and financial experts have voiced the flaws with “cap" and "trade". Also how and who will enforce this measures? For example, governments in India and China — which is the world's biggest carbon emitter — have resisted draft proposals that would allow for international verification of data. Just look at USA’s environmental enforcement measures to see why there should be concerned.

Presently the Obama administration is proposing a 17% cut in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 with levels in 2005. China has pushed a target that would allow its carbon dioxide output to continue to grow with its economy, though at a slower pace. Most European countries have offered more ambitious cuts. However, this will cost trillions of dollars in a global market trading system. And we open the doors for massive corruption, greed and fraud without neutral third party monitoring.

Who is going to enforce any international agreements and how is this going to be measured? Ray Weiss, a geochemist at San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography. He studies atmospheric pollution and says the numbers at the core of the debate in Copenhagen are flawed. Specifically, he says the cuts that countries including the USA are proposing in greenhouse gas emissions are difficult to measure and highly susceptible to manipulation by government officials and companies. In a study last year, Weiss and colleagues took air samples and found that levels of nitrogen trifluoride, an industrial gas 17,000 times more potent than carbon dioxide as an atmospheric warming agent, were four times above what industry estimates had suggested. He says that monitoring equipment must be significantly upgraded around the world to prevent similar fudging of data if a deal is reached in Copenhagen1.

Bjorn Lomberg, a Danish economist, says the problems reflect a "failed strategy" in the last two decades of international environmental talks."Conferences like Copenhagen allow the politicians to go back home and say 'We've got a deal!' but then the targets are almost never kept," says Lomberg, who advocates more research and development of clean energy sources to solve environmental problems2.

Copenhagen talks have been called “Hopen”hagen for a reason. Are these the best life saving measures for future generations? Please world leaders go beyond your present half measures to get real. Awaken and create a practical future blueprint. Otherwise I am "hopen" and "copen" humankind is not being lead off a cliff.

1Brian Winter, After climate talks, scientists worry about enforcement, USA Today, 12/10/09, http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2009-12-10-copenhagen_N.htm
2Ibid

Making Green Behavior Happen!

2009-11-23T09:50:00.000-08:00

Last week the American Council for an Energy Economy (http://www.aceee.org/conf/09becc) held a conference exploring the behavior and decision making of individuals and organizations and using that knowledge to accelerate our transition to an energy-efficient and low-carbon future.

Karen Ehrhardt-Martinez, the conference chair, remarked that personal choices have a huge collective impact on the climate crisis. Home energy use and the use of personal vehicles—that is, the way we live—accounts for about 38% of U.S. energy consumption.

” I just want to say that personal choices are probably the largest contributors to climate change and environmental degradation. I don’t know how one would conduct a study and come up with a percentage, but it would make sense that that percentage would be much higher than 38%".

Last Thursday at a Energy and Environment Study Institute briefing after this conference I asked the panelist about model programs. Karen responded the importance of grass roots organizing to foster green personal choices and I referenced one model leader I know named Annette Mills.

Ms. Mills’ transformed her community from a waste reduction rate of 39% in 1991 to a rate exceeding 65%. Because of her leadership, Falls Church had one of the best recovery rates in the country. For seventeen years, Annette lead the way in recycling and environment improvements in Virginia and the DC region. She enlisted the help of more than 130 citizen volunteers or “Recycling Block Captains.” Her grassroots approach to recycling and environmental education resulted in many successes. Annette’s showed that education through personal contact results in success.

She created a “tipping point” by empowering many to serve as their community’s conservation leaders. In her words, “People who are actively involved are far more motivating than media promotion of general environmental messages or ‘gloom and doom’ forecasts. The most effective models are those people who are actively working together to build relationship with each other and the natural environment”. Her approach is simple, work hard and lead by example, and people will follow! To quote one of the City’s council members, “…many of these programs have resulted in little extra cost and in many cases cost reductions.” Ms. Mills embodies frugality from another perspective. Her City’s solid waste management budget was reduced from 1.05 million in 1990 to $630,000 in 1997. The City saved more than $420,000 by implementing a curbside recycling program and providing a once a year.

Annette’s programs were effective because she both modeled the behavior and made it happen. Ms. Mills dedication was infectious. She inspired people in their personal and professional lives to whatever effort they undertook. One council member called the community volunteers “Annette’s Army” because she brings them out in full force for community programs related to environmental education and stewardship.

Annnette changed people's behavior because she made sustainability enjoyable. Ms. Mills integrated various environmental messages together showing how conserving is connected beyond just traditional recycling into all manners of showing reverence for our environment. Annette simply made saving resources attractive and easy whether it is planting a tree, or restoring wildlife habitats.

Revolutions happen because various individuals gather band together toward a common purpose. I challenge you to explore any major green innovation and the behavior change resulted due to the leadership of select group of individuals.

A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.
Margaret Mead

Green AT: Celebrating Green Acts That Better Our World

2009-11-23T09:21:00.000-08:00

Back in April of 1979 I spent several weeks working full time at ACT 79. This was the first and largest national Appropriate Community Technology demonstration held next to the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC. Appropriate Technology (AT) celebrates positive green actions that conserve energy, preserve the environment, and better people’s lives. Highlighting such measures can and promoting what’s right inspiring others to the many ingenious, creative and artistic ways they can transform their home and community. Appropriate technology directly helps others and improves community by transforming local eco-friendly resources. AT is based in the traditional notion of thrift where there is sensible use of resources- human, fiscal and physical.

Alternative technologies are designed to make best use of local resources. Whether it is reducing, reusing, recycling and composting at home, walking/biking instead of driving, weatherization, greenhouses, solar, wind, bio-fuels, preventative health care and education, integrated best management, solar, wind and a wealth of other community actions.

AT uses people or "low tech" means rather than capital intensive or "high tech" measures. Also AT minimizes waste, cultivates renewable resources by “mending” instead of” ending” materials, people and sense of place. Appropriateness may be defined “is that which wastes least?”

Individuals, groups, and communities all over the world have developed appropriate techniques and technologies that profit from energy conservation and pollution prevention. Ingenious ways to provide better environmental management,and promote local community based decision making. These best management practices are founded on grass roots participation where people have the greatest effect on their life.

The term "appropriate technology" was born in 1970’s when E.F. Schumacher wrote, “Small is Beautiful,” Schumacher promoted practices and devices with special consideration to the environmental, ethical, cultural, social and economical aspects of the community it is intended for. AT uses fewer resources, is easier to maintain, and has a lower overall cost and less of an impact on the environment compared to other practices.
AT is not about utopian or futurist ideas yet practical and applicable ways we can become more self-sufficent. Developing community to be both interdependent and self-reliant interacting mutuality and treating people equally is.

AT works in such areas as;

• Land use
• Energy
• Transportation
• Health
• Food and Agriculture
• Recreation and Culture
• Community Economic Development

Today AT green action is the tenor of the time. AT or appropriate technology demonstrates that people, resources and community are all interconnected. AT is green action bettering our world for the enjoyment of all.

Biochar- Black Earth Biotechnology

2009-11-07T18:09:00.000-08:00

It can be described as a handful of charcoal, but Terra Preta (black earth), an ancient Amazonian agricultural practice, is gaining widespread attention. It is called “Biochar” or “Agrichar” these days, and it offers great potential for our planet. It may play a significant role in addressing issues of climate change, lessening erosion, improving crop yields and other environmental benefits.

Biochar is a process where carbon is drawn from the atmosphere. Biochar stores carbon in the ground for hundreds of years and its potential in reducing greenhouse gases (GHGs) is impressive. Biochar diminishes carbon release and reduces the impact from all farming and agricultural waste. Both the burning and natural decomposition of agricultural matter contributes to a vast amount of carbon released into our air. Biochar uses waste as feedstock—products typically mulched, composted or left to rot. Biochar stores carbon in the ground for long periods of time (estimates range from hundreds to thousands of years) and reduces atmospheric GHG levels, including nitrous oxide and methane in addition to CO2. Also there are research that Biochar it increases soil fertility, lessens erosion, increases agricultural productivity and improves water quality.

The third largest carbon pool on the Earth’s surface is the soil. There are various ways we can reduce greenhouse gas emissions such as minimizing tillage, diminishing or eliminating the use of nitrogen fertilizers, and preventing erosion. By enriching our soil with carbon we can store vast amounts of extra carbon when we bury it in the form of Biochar (biomass heated in a low-oxygen environment).

Roughly 30% of greenhouse gases result from land use practices and exceed the combined emissions of the industry and transportation sectors. Advancing agricultural carbon sequestration is critical to offset global fossil fuel used in food production. When natural ecosystems are converted to agricultural land use, most carbon in the soil is simply lost as greenhouse gas. So exploring how we can capture or sequester carbon due to farming, forestry and other land use practices is a pressing necessity. Sequestration of greenhouse gases so that they are not released into the atmosphere already happens naturally through photosynthesis—it is required to grow and sustain all plant life. Exploring how we can best sequester greenhouse gases in other ways so that they are not released into the atmosphere is critical in the reduction of our carbon footprint.

In addition to reducing CO2 released into the atmosphere, Biochar has been found to decrease methane and nitrous oxide emissions from soil, thus further reducing GHG emissions. Nitrous oxide is approximately 300 times stronger than CO2 in terms of global warming potential, and laboratory studies to date show that nitrous oxide emissions were reduced by 80-90% by land application of Biochar.

Biochar provides significant benefits in addition to carbon sequestration. Studies suggest that Biochar sequesters around 30-50% of the carbon available in the feedstock being used. It allows us to manage waste—agricultural, forest, municipal, wastewater, etc.—in a more sustainable manner. It assists the soil food web to build much more recalcitrant organic carbon (living biomass microbes & fungus) in addition to the carbon in the Biochar. It reduces nitrogen leaching and nitrous oxide emissions; it augments nutrient retention and moderates soil acidity; it increases water retention and productivity.

Biochar can retain up to 50% of the feedstock carbon in charcoal under best conditions. A fine-grained, porous charcoal substance is made when Biochar is produced. When this product is used as a soil amendment, it effectively removes carbon dioxide from the air. Biochar provides a habitat for soil organisms, yet is not itself consumed by them. Biochar holds and slowly releases water, minerals and nitrogen to plants. When Biochar is used as a soil amendment along with manure or fertilizer it greatly improves the soil, its productivity, nutrient retention and availability according to several studies.

It has been concluded by some soil experts that biochar keeps nutrients from running off or leaching out of soils allowing for increased plant growth. Since adding charcoal to soils appears to increase crop production. What’s more is reduces acidity and lessens nitrogen leaching while adding potassium. This reduces the amount of fertilizer required and increases water retention.

Innovations in agriculture provide the best opportunity to remove carbon from the atmosphere by changing the way we grow our food and use our land. Unfortunately, farming over the last 10,000 years has released roughly two-thirds of our excess greenhouse gases. Various agricultural practices have mined out soil carbon, converting it to carbon dioxide.

However, there are a few environmental groups who question the benefits of this biotechnology. They feel it is “dangerously premature”, that most of the claims made by Biochar advocates are unproven, and these critics argue that it has a high potential for causing harm.

Advancing Biochar technologies have significant implications. As this technology evolves so will Biochar best management practices. Apart of this process we will find how Biochar affects and effects our soil, water, air and climate. Researching and developing biochar offers numerous opportunities and challenges. More trials and tribulation will determine whether this black earth will result in greener rewards.

A Bridge to Saving

2009-09-24T07:48:00.000-07:00

Stephen Moore’s editorial in the WSJ on September 23, “Our $2 trillion Bridge to Nowhere,” addresses a recent Gallup Poll. While American believes that the Feds waste half of our tax dollars. He cites that the government spent nearly $4 trillion dollars this year. However when Mr. Moore compares another recent Gallup poll that American’s believe there is too much government regulation of business and industry as believe as too little (45% to 24%). He goes on to show that today public perception of government waste was lower 30 years ago when Americans thought 40 cents of every dollar was wasted. We Americans are the source and solution to government waste.

Many businesses externalize their waste passing if out to the taxpayer evident by our recent financial crisis. Privatization is another example where sometimes it costs the government more. Both sectors can foster innovation to fully optimize their transfer goods and services with less waste and improved performance. Increasing productivity must become a direct result. Our collective “output and inputs” must balance with increased environmental and social considerations on how the

We must become fully accountable through a new national policy of developing improved performance measurements. These measures must balance flexible environmental partnerships offer, integrated management system and ingenious paperwork processes. Preventing pollution, improving environmental management, and integrating approaches across media will become a new triple bottom line.

We need a middle path where neutral good third-party. Will our financial market not melt down like our environmental concern? American requires close examination of how we can efficiently save. America can champion waste reduction, and so profit from such minimization measures. Such renewal is tied to our nation’s health and safety and public welfare.

Larry Kelly: Silver Lining Specialist

2009-09-17T09:21:00.000-07:00

I first met Larry Kelly back in 1989. November 11, the day the Berlin Wall fell, a truck carrying an international cross section of laundry workers from a Southampton New York laundry crossed the road, and hit me head on at 50 miles per hour. There seemed to be no insurance, and my physical therapist recommended an out of the box thinking trial attorney with a local reputation. Larry used Virginia and Maryland law to create new law in New York State, making a silk purse out of what appeared to everyone else as a sow's ear. The law is only a tool, he would say, a tool to find justice.

For many years, Larry would tackle the unpopular cases. He embraced the challenge. His work on behalf of civil rights plaintiffs against law enforcement so impressed law enforcement officers that they retained him to challenge what they saw as the unfair exclusion of cognitive grading on police entry and promotional exams. On 9/11, Larry volunteered to lead the High Income Lead cases for the Cantor Fitzgerald claims before Special Master Feinberg. His work for Trial Lawyers Care led to an initial $5.3 million award for one family, and the acceptance of the program by most of the Cantor families. After his nephew S/Sgt Ryan Kelly was seriously wounded in Iraq in 2003, he created TSGLI, a lump sum disability benefit which has now paid out over $200 million to seriously wounded service members. Larry is a transformer. He assesses a bad situation, and then moves on to finding what good he can bring out of it. Just before he left for Iraq, he introduced the concept of First Contact, a diversion program for military veterans coming into contact with the criminal justice system. After he consulted with their office, most of the New York area District Attorneys adopted the program.

Larry thought there was no reason his 23 year old nephew's work in Iraq should go unfinished while his 53 year old uncle had a chance to make a difference. Just six months ago, Larry visited me in Washington DC as he trained to volunteer to restore Iraq's legal system as part of a State Department Provincial Reconstruction Team. This kind of mid career opportunity to do national service in the international arena allows out of the box thinking to transform other regions.

When I last checked, he was introducing literacy programs, reopening libraries, introducing case processing systems to the courts, and improving prison conditions one day at a time. He also spent part of a day convincing the visiting Texas Governor Rick Perry that the Estate of one of the Sergeants in the Team's protective detail was entitled to Texas State Crime and Terror Benefits. Because even in Iraq, there's nothing Larry likes better than finding a way to fashion the law into doing justice.

Manage Health Care/Promote Wellness

2009-07-30T01:46:00.000-07:00

Manage health care becomes a contradiction in terms when we do not create preventative measures. This is true is so many areas of American culture. Look how me manage our environmental resources? We invested little in preventing pollution however, latter waste billions attempting to clean things up. America will prosper when we fully invest in wellness.

Certainly we do not manage our health care system. Health care premiums have shot up more than 90 percent from 2000-2007. Government involvement is important to regulate need from greed. In the last decade, profits from the largest 10 health care insurers has increased 428 percent.

Besides preventing the escalting costs and increasing competition to make such insurance affordable we must create incentives to conserve. Critical to the health care reform is providing choice. Choice is a key issue for Americans not whether it is private or public insurance. For example, in the early 90's our indemnity insurance vanished. We lost this choice. At the same time take overs, mergers and insuranace consolidations have taken many of our choices away - less competition, less options, higher insurance premium costs

Like many things today in our country we the taxpayers must pay for market failure when either capitalism fails or the government fails to best serve the public. Our Congress now has to walk the razors edge. Yes we must reform health care however do so without substantially change it. Each one us has to become more responsible and be rewarded for our efforts. Prevention will not happen until we stimulate ways that cure.

One idea is to give me greater incentives for maintaing my wellness. While today I get some reduce rates on my insurance these benefits are modest. If I do not drink, smoke and keep my weight down then lessen my premium.

One perfect example is medical cost of treating obsesity-related diseases may soar as high as $147 billion in 2008, according the Center for Disease Control. In 1998 these same cost were estimatd at $74 billion. Obesity rose 37% between 1998 and 2006
and medical cost rose about 9.1%. Obese people spend 42% more than people of normal weight, a difference of $1429. The Wall Street Journal on July 28th documents in the "Cost of Treating Obesity Soars," D3 by Betsy Mckay, that the average American is 23 pounds overweight.

Health care reform will not happen unless there are carrots and sticks. If we do not get people to eat right, exercise then our health cost will continue to bankrupt us. Government and private sector programs must connect the dots and promote wellness if we are serious about caring for our future.

The Real Terror: Greenhouse Gases and Politics

2009-07-12T15:51:00.000-07:00

There are two sources of dangerous air emissions threatening this planet: the first consists of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse contributory emissions; the second is the gas generated by politicians. Yes, we are truly in the danger zone when it comes to the first category, but even more alarming, is that public ignorance, apathy, and fear is failing to provoke action on the part of our elected officials.

Rarely has the scientific community been more in accord than on the imminence of global warming and our role in bringing it about, but at the same time, our political response has been dismal as evidenced by the tenor of public debate on these issues or by the lack of any debate at all. You would be forgiven for thinking that economic development, energy issues, climate change, national security and health care issues are inextricably interlinked, and you would be right in thinking that, but you would be in the minority. We are masters at failing to connect the dots. Right now as carbon dioxide is being pumped at ever-increasing rates into our air basin—some ten of thousands of times faster than nature can deal with it—the earth’s own refrigeration processes are dying. So are tens of thousands of living things on this fragile plant of ours.

Elizabeth Kolbert writes in her article “The Castrophist” in the June 29, 2009 issue of the New Yorker:

There's no precise term for the level of C02 that will assure a climate disaster, the best that scientists and policy makers have come up is the phrase "dangerous anthropogenic interference or D.A.I...In scientific circles, worries about D.A.I. are widespread. During the past few years, researchers around the world have noticed a disturbing trend: the planet is changing faster than had been anticipated. pg 42

James Hansen, NASA's leading climate expert disagrees with officials that the D.A.I. levels are around four hundred and fifty parts per million:

The bad news is that it's become clear that the dangerous amount of carbon dioxide is not more than three hundred and fifty parts per million.

Presently we are at three hundred and eighty five parts per million, and at current emissions we will reach four hundred fifty parts per million by 2035. Interestingly whatever the D.A.I. levels are, it is a problem, and the political and public response is skeptical and lacking. Just look at our largely failed efforts in the U.S. toward conservation--the most effective and efficient first step is evidence of our public neglect.

With today's economic woes “business-as-usual” is the norm. It seems people care about their future from the perspective of next week or next month-hardly in a few years from now.

Most scientists agree that coal is the most serious threat today, and some are advocating for "no new coal-fired plants," The current challenge is that 50 percent of our energy comes from coal! The recent "American Clean Energy and Security Act" passed by the House of Representatives allows for new coal-fired plants while its stated aim is to cut the country's carbon emissions by seventeen percent in 2020.

Interestingly, the article " The Castrophist," states (p.45):

Hansen argues that politicians willfully misunderstand climate science; it could be argue that Hansen just as willfully misunderstands politics. In order to stabilize carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere, annual global emissions would have to be cut by something on the order of three-quarters. In order to draw them down, agriculture and forestry practices would have to change dramatically as well. So far, at least, there is no evidence that any nation is willing to taking anything approaching the necessary steps. On the contrary, almost all trend lines point in the opposite direction. Just because the world desperately needs a solution that satisfies both scientific and the political constraint doesn’t mean one necessarily exists...

(Hansen) As long as we let politicians and the people supporting them continue to set the rules, such that "business-as-usual' continues, or small tweets to ‘business-as-usual' then it is unrealistic. So we have to change the rules.

You would think if one of the leading climate expert is worried about our earth's future more of us should be also quite concerned.

Finally, Jerome Glenn, director of the Millennium Project, recently remarked how we can best deal with our climate crisis;

There are answers to our global challenges, but decisions are still not being made on the scale necessary to address them.

The times call for people of all walks to be the solution to our collective eco-problems. If we have any hope of addressing our ecological ills; politicians, scientists, business men and women, intellectuals, teachers, doctors and nurses, your neighborhood mechanic and that man walking his dog in your street--in short you, me and all of us--must become aware of the interdependence of all aspects of life and the true environmental costs of our human activities on our precious and threatened earth. By addressing what is head on, we can perhaps avert the worst case scenarios and begin to insure our future on this fragile planet.

Never Too Late

2009-06-28T13:12:00.000-07:00

I recently read that some experts think that it is too late for us to alter climate change: we’ve done too little too late.

It is never too late. At least, it is never too late to change our thinking, to come to a realization of the fragility of the world around us. An abundance of knowledge coupled with limited wisdom and the propensity of our species for belly button gazing and escalating hopelessness simply feeds more despair. Our way of thinking can cripple us.

In the early days of the American Revolution, the odds against its success were overwhelming, and yet a new nation, one based on democratic principles, was born and has inspired positive change everywhere for the past 250 years despite all the obstacles.

We now number nearly seven billion on this small planet. We, as a species, differ from the other species we share this little dot in the universe with in that we have awareness of our mortality, and never have we been more aware of the possible extinction of our species as we are at this time. We have changed this earth beyond recognition and depleted its resources with alarming and ever-accelerating speed. This realization compels us to ask what we, as a species and as individuals, can do to sustain the delicate balance and reverse the devastating consequences of our own actions.

Only three years ago Al Gore’s seminal film, An Inconvenient Truth, brought international attention to the perils of climate change. As Congress debates today the form of legislation to address this problem, the situation is growing worse minute-by-minute. Rising sea levels, melting glaciers, increasing carbon emissions are the indisputable results of what we perceive to be minor changes in human lifestyle while population, and its inevitable needs and wants, continues to grow.

At the present time, we breathe more carbon dioxide, methane and other greenhouse gases than we have in the last four hundred thousand years. Fifty years from now, babies born today will have to subsist on air containing more greenhouse gases that at any time in the past three million years.

Global warming has altered the very chemistry of our oceans. The drop in ocean pH levels in the last fifty years may well exceed anything that has occurred during the previous 50 million years. Currently, nearly a third of the ocean’s corals and amphibian species, along with a quarter of all mammals, and an eighth of all bird species are threatened with extinction. And that is without counting the millions of species that are already extinct: it is impossible to quantify the disappearance of life forms already lost to collapsing ecosystems.

Not only has our population more than doubled in the last fifty years, but also our global economy has doubled every 10 years for the past few years. Between 2003 and 2007, average income worldwide grew at a faster rate than ever recorded in history. Our global economy has grown from $31 trillion in 1999 to $62 trillion in 2008. All you have to do is look at our run-away use of coal and oil—natural resources that required millions of years to form—supplies in the last century to get an idea of the rapidity with which we are killing our planet.

We are barely recovering from a worldwide financial meltdown caused by unbridled human greed. This economic disaster is distracting us from the ominous ecological disaster before us. The shallowness and lack of public debate and dialogue with regard to cap and trade vs. carbon emissions taxation clearly illustrates the general disregard for these fundamental, and infinitely more critical, issues.

In addition to the current economic worries, Americans are faced with a broken healthcare system. This too is an issue of enormous societal implications that diverts our attention from any debate or actions concerning climate change even though, ironically, our health is directly related to our environment.

Yes we live in very complex, stressful and desperate times. Nevertheless, each of us does have a choice as to how we deal with these challenges. A feeble ray of hope perhaps: people of all walks of life everywhere around the world are awakening to our interconnectivity to one another and to every aspect of life on this planet—a fine thread to which our very survival is attached.

It seems at times that our species should be called “bozo sapiens” to reflect our monumental egocentricity and ability to delude ourselves. We are truly on the edge of a precipice. Can we make the right choices? Can we act responsibly and with respect for all? Can we ensure a world for future generations? Or will we doggedly continue to self-destruct? This is our greatest challenge, and each of us must unblinkingly face it with purpose as well as with humility.

Hope While Our Climate Worsens

2009-06-17T10:19:00.000-07:00

The Associate Press today reported today of the harmful effects from global warming are already here and worsening. This marks first climate report from Barack Obama's presidency in the strongest language on climate change ever to come out of the White House. According to the document released June 16th by the White House science adviser and other top officials global warming has already caused more heavy downpours, the rise of temperatures and sea levels, rapidly retreating glaciers and altered river flows,

The White House document presents a comprehensive and darker picture of global warming in the United States than previous studies and brief updates during the Bush years.

Weeks ago Thomas Berry passed away. This visionary left us with a legacy of earth wisdom. Thomas wrote in “The New Story" from his book The Dream of the Earth, “The basic mood of the future might well be one of confidence in the continuing revelation that takes place in and through the Earth.

This year Paul Hawken provided profound insights in his commencement address to the University of Portland Class of 2009. He inspired the graduates by saying:

“YOU ARE BRILLIANT, AND THE EARTH IS HIRING. The earth couldn’t afford to send any recruiters or limos to your school. It sent you rain, sunsets, ripe cherries, night blooming jasmine, and that unbelievably cute person you are dating. Take the hint. And here’s the deal: Forget that this task of planet-saving is not possible in the time required. Don’t be put off by people who know what is not possible. Do what needs to be done, and check to see if it was impossible only after you are done…
When asked if I am pessimistic or optimistic about the future, my answer is always the same: If you look at the science about what is happening on earth and aren’t pessimistic, you don’t understand data. But if you meet the people who are working to restore this earth and the lives of the poor, and you aren’t optimistic, you haven’t got a pulse. What I see everywhere in the world are ordinary people willing to confront despair, power, and incalculable odds in order to restore some semblance of grace, justice, and beauty to this world.

Paul urges that the youth connect instead of control and act in a type of Mercy Corps behind the scenes to heal this wounded planet. Hopefully we can form a global movement to defend the rights of yet born. As we plant seeds for the future we can transform our economy. New enterprises will sprout based on healing for our future instead of stealing it. Mr. Hawkins comments that we can either create assets for the future or take its assets: restore instead of exploit. By working for the earth it is a way to be rich not a way to get rich.

Paul’s May 3rd, 2009 final lines in his speech says it all.
Hopefulness only makes sense when it doesn’t make sense to be hopeful. This is your century. Take it and run as if your life depends on it.
Let’s pray that all of us can awaken and feel so inspired!

Changing the Climate of People’s Minds

2009-05-03T08:49:00.000-07:00

Over the past thirty years of my life, I have been amazed at how poorly the U.S. has addressed environmental and energy concerns, especially when it comes to how we invest in our future health and welfare.

America’s top priorities are jobs and the economy, followed by health care, terrorism, budget deficit reduction and energy, while at the bottom of this list comes climate change and environmental concerns.

This reminds of me of the study by social researchers on low income and poverty in the 60s. People were offered three dollars; most opted to get a dollar now rather than wait a day to get two dollars. It appears people have little future orientation when it comes to seriously investing in the long-term.

Over the years there has been a great deal of research addressing the implications of our choices regarding consumer goods and health, and how we spend our dollars. A recent New York Times Magazine article, “Why isn’t the Brain Green”, discusses behavior regarding climate change.

A question occurs to me. If there is a widespread consensus that climate change is the result of human activity, then will people change their behavior to attempt to cool our planet? Changing consumer behavior to lessen greenhouse emissions may become a national security issue as carbon emissions continue to climb even in this recession.

Remember when President Jimmy Carter was laughed out of office for asking Americans to turn their thermostats down? At the other extreme what about Reagan and Bush Jr. preaching to Americans to consume even more? Will Americans today make certain life style changes now, such as expend less carbon in exchange for uncertain climate benefits far off in the future?

One thing is for certain, American environmental communications have been inadequate. Improved environmental messages that engage the public to act are lacking, especially when we educate ourselves about the costs and benefits of what we do. Just take a look at how obesity is being addressed. How we react to danger is interesting if it is the result terrorist activity, but if it is a result of an irresponsible life style then this is another matter.

We prefer immediate gratification to long-term benefits. Maybe this is why McDonalds is doing so well. It is cheap, easy and fast, and in this brutal recession, the fact that it tastes good outweighs what it is doing to our health.

We want what we want now, no matter the future outcome. This represents what, in the 60s, social science termed the “culture of poverty”. If we had the choice to take $100 now to, say $200 in six months from now, most would opt for the immediate $100. Perhaps the human ancestral practice of leaving our world better for future generations may soon become extinct along with the loss of millions of our plant and animal species. Or are we likely to make lifestyle changes in order to invest in the possibility for a safer future climate?

Many of our decisions involve risk assessment. Our county is divided over two key questions: are environmental problems caused by human activity, and can we do anything about it? The majority of Americans underestimate the danger of the melting arctic ice or epic water shortages. When it comes to changing weather that we have never experienced, we have nothing to compare this with.

Certain social researchers think that there is only so much worry we can tolerate. Our loss of financial confidence coupled with increased societal pressures to live well, work hard and enjoy life all take a toll on what people can actually do and focus on. We live in overwhelming and complex times where there are just too many worries to deal with.

Also we live in times where distressing emotional circumstances are constantly being reported by the mass media. Living in a hyper-information society we are continually over stimulated with questionable information, and so, many have grown indifferent and estranged.

Biking, recycling, composting, improving insulation or purchasing more energy-efficient products are all good measures to minimize our generation of carbon. However, many are skeptical since it seems that it may not matter anyway--especially when compared with predicted future carbon emissions for China and India. Cynical?

Doubt is everywhere despite the evidence. You hear from more skeptics as to climate change than from articulate scientists. And how many politicians are willing or able to address issues of long-term change? Media focuses more on the unknown than what we know, and more on what is wrong than what is of benefit. We are becoming characters in the fictional Brave New World where “ending is better then mending”.

At Columbia University, research on group decision making focused on four key variables: uncertainty, time, potential gains, and potential losses. Researchers there are seeking to better understand how group dynamics shape decisions. Various experiments have established the ease of getting random individuals to cooperate.

Community action is activated when there is a significant shared crisis. When local support is solicited, the community itself becomes the decision-making unit. The subjects’ analytical and emotional methods of risk assessment are most interesting in these experiments. One finding was that groups could demonstrate more patience than individuals when considering delayed benefits. Group involvement can change the decision-making process and its results.

America is clearly in its adolescence with regard to understanding the dynamics of human interaction and relationship with the environment. Presently 2 percent of federal financing goes to “human dimensions” research. This is mainly for studies on how individuals and groups interact with the environment. Human-dimensions work has three categories: 1) human activities creating environmental change, 2) impacts of environmental change on people and the earth, and 3) public responses to these impacts.

98 percent of federal financing for climate-change research goes to the physical and natural sciences; this is clearly a metaphor for our present crisis—we are not emotionally comfortable with this subject. Perhaps this represents another tipping point in the acceleration of global warming.

Just how smart is it to spend billions on physical and natural scientific research, while we ignore the human dimensions of decision-making processes? What is tragic is that many Americans consider climate change to be a vastly distant problem. Do we need a 9/11-type environmental shock to realize that it is happening now? How many studies must be commissioned and carried out before we act?

I live part of the time in rural Virginia. Any awareness of the urgency of climate-change issues is rare in rural Virginia because most people see no reason whatsoever to change their behavior—they prefer the immediate gratification of doing things the way they want to do them, or at the least, as they’ve always done them. Yes, it’s the Bible Belt here, and I find it ironic that even familiarity with Genesis 2:15 does not warrant greater environmental responsibility.

It is essential to communicate, effectively and constantly, the feasible and cost-effectives benefits of lessening climate change, but in order to do so, we must become much more skilled in identifying relevant information, useful tools, innovative and responsible products, and sound policy initiatives. Even the use of language itself is critical in this endeavor. Just consider your own gut reaction to the use of the term “carbon tax” when compared to “carbon offset”—even though they both signify measures to finance cleaner energy. A simple shift in semantics can influence views even before any consideration of costs vs. benefits is brought to the table. At any rate, increased debate and dialogue are necessary in garnering public support and active engagement in the effort to address climate change. Open forums, reliable information resources, responsible media and local, regional and national leadership can guide us in the quest to meet the carbon challenge. The challenge is to encourage people to do what they believe is right without feeling they are being manipulated. We must effect a cultural revolution and encourage and enhance communal solidarity in the goal of saving our planet and leaving the world a better place for those who come after us.

There are huge psychological benefits to this: by doing the right thing, we can reduce despair, and indifference and share in a new vibrancy and sense of purpose in life. By reducing our carbon footprint through open dialogue and communal effort, we are ensuring democracy and the very future of freedom. No one can afford to wait another minute, each of us must begin to do what we can now to alleviate our carbon load and diminish climate change.

Dealing with Our Excrement

2009-04-27T09:54:00.000-07:00

A recent article "Sludge Happens: Recycling sewage into fertilizer might be making us sick. Why doesn't the EPA give a crap," in Mother Jones Magazine (http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2009/05/sludge-happens) came up on my radar. This article is one of many that raises questions regarding the impacts of land application of biosolids.

Land application is the most economical avenue for getting rid of this sludge. Some experts claim that sludge is not good fertilizer and there are numerous health concerns with land application. Added to this problem is that after we invest hundreds of billions to increased biological nutrient reduction pollution controls placed on tens of thousands of wastewater plants, we greatly increase the volumes of biosolids.

EPA should explore greater pollution prevention controls to best address the land application of biosolids. This is warranted since improper sludge application has caused problems throughout the world.

Promoting best management controls for the land application of biosolids is important. Developing greater public dialogue and exploring greater best management responsibilities for safe land application of biosolids can translate into improved health and water quality.

Today over 16,000 sewage treatment facilities serve nearly 190 million Americans (the 72 percent of the U.S. population who are served by sewers not counting those with decentralized septic and wastewater systems). In addition, these facilities serve thousands of industrial and commercial establishments to treat their wastewaters. Roughly eight million dry metric tons of biosolids are produced annually or about 58 pounds per person per year. About 54 percent of the biosolids are land applied as a fertilizer or as a soil conditioner.

Sludge, or biosolids range from 70 percent to greater than 98 percent water. The dry matter in biosolids is mostly inert minerals (i.e., sand and silica) or biological materials comprised of fat, protein, fiber and carbohydrates. Biosolids also have trace amounts of heavy metals and organic chemicals. And, biosolids contain varying levels of pathogenic organisms, vector (e.g., insects and rodents) attractants and odor causing substances. These metals, organic chemicals and pathogens pose a threat to human health unless the biosolids are sufficiently processed and properly placed in the environment.

Part 503 Biosolid Rule allows land application (spreading) of sewage sludge (also known as sludge) needs to be updated. Today there are three main options (each with limitations) to dispose of sludge: landfilling, incineration, and land-spreading. Incineration requires high capital investment, and is limited because of potential air pollution and the production of toxic ash. The science for land applying biosolids is many decades olds when in 1993, the EPA published the 503 Sludge Rule setting standards for the use or disposal of sewage.

EPA’s standards have generated controversy in the scientific and agricultural communities, as well as with the general public. Although the 503 Sludge Rule establishes minimum quality standards for biosolids to be land applied many citizens question the adequacy of these standards. Land applying sludge requires more stringent standards, additional source separation and greater pretreatment of contaminants. Scientists and citizens have expressed concerns about the effects on humans from contaminants concentrated in the sludge during treatment.

Several years ago the EPA Inspector General found: “EPA does not have an effective program for ensuring compliance with the land application requirements of the 503 rules. …While EPA promotes land application, they cannot ensure the public that current land application practices are protective of human health and the environment.”

The National Academies of Sciences in 2002 released a paper called, “Biosolids Applied to Land: Advancing Standards and Practices." They cited their uncertainty about the potential adverse human health effects from exposure to biosolids. Essentially, there is a need to update the scientific basis of the 503 rule so to review the current. exposure and health information on exposed populations. Also the risk-assessment methods need to be updated as does the outdated characterization of sewage sludges.

Educational tools are needed to assist local citizens and local officials with the various implications of land application. This would allow users to identify environmental concerns and to give field assistance to the analysis, maintenance and accounting of sludge land applications.

Finally, what I have observed are the inadequate programs to ensure compliance with biosolids regulation and lack of resources devoted to EPA’s biosolids program. We need innovation to overcome the institutional barriers often imposed by land applying biosolids. There are many challenges including jurisdictional, political, and governmental boundaries when dealing with the hydrogeological and geographical facets of dealing with sludge. In closing I have watched in the Shenandoah Valley hundreds of millions of dollars invested in water quality improvements and very little expended to address the safe management of biosolids. It time we Americans deal with our excrement or pay for the consequences.

Change the Climate Before It Changes Us

2009-04-16T06:55:00.000-07:00

Are we supposedly responsible for destroying the planet with our high standard of living? What are the real truths about climate change and energy rationing agendas? Everyone from the Competitive Enterprise Institute to the United Nations have a different perspective. The challenge is that climate change can be caused by natural events on this fragile planet. While there are 30 different greenhouse gases including water vapor. Eighty percent comes from carbon dioxide. Before industrialization carbon levels were about 225 parts per million while today carbon levels are at 385 ppm. CO2 comes from the burning of fossil fuels, forest fires, transportation, deforestation and other human activities.

While most scientists agree that large amounts of man-made carbon dioxide is causing problems while many Americans question are skeptical. The situation of grave concern is between what science observes and what the public perceives. We have two sides; the alarmist hard left environmental lobby opposing growth and capitalism and; the hard right preaching anti-regulation and stimulating new free markets.

According to the American Geophysical Union, 80 percent of the increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere since 1700’s has occurred in the 20th and 21st centuries. Also the Pew Center on Global Climate Change cited that the 1990s were the hottest decade in the last 150 years.

In 2006, Winds of Change, Eugene Linden charts how public and scientific opinion diverged from 1988 to 2005. Scientific community view has gone from indifference to alarm with a general consensus while the public view has been indifferent except for a brief alarm in the late 1980’s. In a Pew Research poll in 2006 only 41 percent said this was due to human activity. In a University of California 2005 study Dr. Naomi Oreske did a random sampling of 928 peer-reviewed journal articles on global warming revealed that 100 percent agreed with the view that humans affect climate change.

Now various economist estimate costs to contain present emissions, the Pew Center for Global Climate Change determined the benefits to prevent the doubling of greenhouse gaseous between $55 billion and $140 billion dollars and that US greenhouse gas emission increased 12 percent between 1990 and 2001. In 2006, the Stern Review on the Economic Effects of Climate Change estimates stabilizing these emission would cost about half a trillion dollars.

In my life, science has documented how this earth has rapidly increased in temperature while human population has doubled in size. I have witnessed many forms of humans ecological destruction. The debate will continue whether humanity is causing some form of climate catastrophe as we Americans argue for some official policy on climate change. When will we imposed mandatory carbon standards on American emissions? Can we afford to further speculate?

The Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, John Stevens, commented on April 2, 2007 in Massachusetts v. Environmental Protection Agency;

A well documented rise is global temperatures has coincided with a significant increase in the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Respected scientists believe the two trends are related.

Recent 2009 scientific studies indicate that climate change is increasing due what is called positive tipping points accelerating arctic ice loss and other warming effects. However, many Americans still oppose the ideas we are responsible for this and our global economic crisis has delayed immediate consideration of this concern.
Alternative energy is controversial, costly and takes time to be developed.

We have spent roughly a trillion on terrorism and tens of trillions of dollars on our financial crisis. Can we ignore investing in our earth’s balance? Hopefully debating climate change will make us more energy efficient and Americans rally for our international security. Are we wise enough to invest in lessening our greenhouse emissions? Future generations will be our ultimate judges whether our actions today made their life better. If we do not leave a legacy for our children then how can we look at ourselves truthfully in the mirror?

Beyond the Paradox of Thrift

2009-04-16T06:54:00.000-07:00

Is it not ironic that more we individually saved we decreased economic growth? You would think be thrifty would make things more prosperous. America is the individual largest consumer and thus the leading polluter. As we spew increasingly amount of carbon dioxide we need to face the fact that we can no longer make excuses why we can not lessen our climate changing activity. Otherwise we must accept that we are each responsible for destroying future life.

Our environmental and financial problems are linked by choice between need and greed. Unfortunately we have not evolved to the developed skillful boundaries that when we allow for certain economic activity it also impacts our future on this fragile planet.

In the last hundred years humans have pressed the pedal to the metal in the use of our fossil fuels. What has taken tens of thousands of years to become, oil, coal and natural gas. The consequences for lightening use and depletion of these natural resources upon our eco-systems are evident. We have tripled our population and caused massive lots of species and natural habitat. If the earth is an organism then we must address the various forms of cancer if we wish to survive.

The thing is that we have not valued things that matter most. Water, energy and eco-systems are all vital if we wish to have a healthy future. By allowing these vitals to become inexpensive we have borrowed against the equity on our future since this is truly our homes.

As the arctic ice melts at accelerated rates and polar bears perish we have to face the music. We spent trillions of dollars to battle terrorism and tens of trillions evaporated over financial blunders what have we invested in lessening our greenhouse gases. Just because now we have more efficient homes and cars increase use or more people create another paradox of thrift. I have seen this first hand in increasing agricultural conservation measures. We created such things as alternative watering so that cows would not drink from creeks and then farmer crowd more on limited land.

We require tough love so when we succeed in conserving it does nothing from people developing other ways to impact our earth even more. Our global recession has lessen carbon output, however if we truly are going to prosper learn to develop market based and other measures to prevent greed and promote need. A national dialogue is required if we wish to become greener. Americans are still too shortsighted and unable to face the piper.

There is a form of terror that threatens our country and world. It is a form of self delusion and culture of entitlement. Shortly we must address the most serious crisis facing us since if we can not foresee or forestall our carbon footprint we may suffer the same fate as the dinosaurs. There is much in balance and much to despair if we do not honesty address what is happening. We all will feel better once we fully explore how we can prosper from lessening climate change. Let’s transcend any paradox of thrift to deal our present of paradox of life.

Allocating for Climate Change is a Future Investment

2009-01-16T05:56:00.000-08:00

For over thirty years I have worked on various environmental endeavors always in conflict with short run economic thinking. Environmental groups such as the Environmental Defense Fund and National Wildlife Fund must be "mindful" that they are walking in a economic "minefield."

In mid January the U.S. Climate Partnership announced their plan for a cap-and-trade system for a 42 percent cut emissions by 2030. However many economists and executives are skeptical with me included. Exxon CEO, Rex Tillerson called this a “stealth tax” cap-and-trade system endorsing a tax on carbon emissions that are more transparent and predictable. While there is widespread support for a cap-and-trade system, however, such measures create enormous volatility in the price of permits and ways for gaming the system according to financial experts.

This national carbon tax bill would be phased-in and revenue-neutral. Leading economists have recommended for enactment of a carbon tax as the simplest, easiest to administer and most transparent approach to carbon pricing, despite the conventional wisdom that a "cap and trade" regime is key to a political consensus. Indeed, there have been numerous cap and trade bills introduced in the Congress, including the Boxer-Lieberman-Warner bill that was brought to the Senate floor for a vote late last spring.

This raises the question for me, “is environmentalism failing”? The polluter has really never paid in our country for their pollution. So it is hard to profit from this prevention until we as nation wake up and smell the coffee. We the people are all guilty since we as a society have hidden some of these costs. An alarm clock of safe carbon emissions is crying out loud, “Tomorrow is today”. Simple, we can not afford to procrastinate any longer.

We are now at 385 ppm past the maximum 350 ppm. Of vital concern is how America is addressing a national climate change program. Many towns, cities, counties and states are dealing with how we develop a sustainable energy future however what Congress does is fundamental.

Ironically, how in American we have allowed massive financial market failure alter our way life and how our government is responding is case in point. Can we as a nation get practical and real in reducing greenhouse gas emissions? I challenge you to survey the existing science of today that documents how serious our world is in peril.

The key question is that if our government continues to be wasteful or boastful it will be disaster. Change can only happen by looking at the facts of this crisis and not deny that transformative action is required. We have to avert future collapse by forming new alliances, democratic processes and technologies. If this is a race not to the moon but “from a form of doom” we have to reinvent capitalism where market failure is not covered by the taxpayers but factored in as the cost of business.

We have spent trillions on a “war on terror” and now we must prevent even a great terror, future despair. Investment, innovation and entrepreneurship creating new economic prosperity for sustainable and sufficiency. Discovering how to regenerate natural capital is just another opportunity. For example resource productivity can happen once we redefined how we can profit from pollution prevention in our 60 trillion dollar ouput economy. Currently we are suffering from the trillions of dollars of toxic financial paper and derivative type instruments impacting us worldwide.

On the other extreme corporate pressure on policy makers has allowed for lax regulation, standards, and poor enforcement with little oversight. Economic growth would prevail at the expense of environmental pollution. In 2003, the Congressional Research Service estimated that U.S energy subsidies were between thirty-seven billion and sixty-four billion dollars and increased by two to three billion dollars annually by the provisions of the Energy Policy Act of 2003.

Look at lobbying in Washington DC. Thirty years ago there were less than a thousand lobbyists. Today there over 35,000. Political action (PAC) spending has in this time gone from $15 million to over $250 million today. The largest is the US Chamber of Commerce, followed by trade associations and 92 corporations. To get some idea of corporate might just look at ExxonMobil which is larger than 180 nations.

Further debate and examination of by all Americas is critical to address climate change. If we wish to make bold investments in a clean energy economy wise dialogue is a vital investment for future generations.

Energy Co-ops: People Sharing, Prospering and Conserving

2008-12-18T18:20:00.000-08:00

When Franklin Roosevelt 75 years ago signed into law the Civilian Conservation Corps in my hometown he was challenged by his critics. FDR responded that when the unemployed started to plant trees and become vested in other environmental improvements in their communities they become shareholders in saving their land. Energy co-ops are not only saving their land, they are also creating a necessary, new paradigm for investing in local economies at a scale that functions to revitalize other aspects of community.

Fostering energy co-ops creates many, complementary economic and environmental benefits. Shareholders lessen their energy bill by investing in small-scale energy production and conservation. This, in turn, incrementally lessons our nation’s dependence on imported foreign oil and our overall carbon footprint. By investing in and lending to small, local businesses, they also contribute to the creation of new “green” jobs and re-circulate money within the community, which has been shown to benefit the local economy by a factor of 3x. When the co-op works their share goes up in value, jobs are created, energy is produced and saved and joyful human interaction result. This county will not lessen its dependence on foreign oil until this nation harnesses citizen’s involvement. We can not afford to wait to develop green infrastructure in neighborhoods, towns and region without engaging Americans of all walks. Energy co-ops also develop positive feedback loops by transforming the homeowners into more self reliant energy conservers. People who buy co-op shares become motivated to get the best return on their collective efforts by promoting the businesses they own a shares.

Today I am a member and helped start several co-ops as both my grandfathers done during the depression. With our present financial crisis I feel most secure in investing in an energy co-op.

The Environmental and Energy Study Institute (“EESI”) states the most important jobs for the new Congress in January will be to pass an economic stimulus bill to jump start the economy, create jobs, and revitalize American industry – a tall order, which could cost between $500 billion and $1 trillion [1]. It will be vital to includes in any new legislation innovative projects creating jobs and economic activity such as Energy Co-op(s). Energy Co-ops will strengthen our long-term economic security, and address the reality of climate change. Since the fall of Wall Street we must take strengths of private sector and integrate them with non-profit enterprises. Shareholders can be great decision makers and wise managers.

There are many efforts in the works to expand Energy Co-ops. One good example is Co-op Power (www. cooppower.coop). Co-op Power operates in the New England area as a consumer-owned cooperative to maintain an economically, environmentally and socially sustainable energy future.

Over 48,000 co-ops already operate in the United States and 120 million Americans are co-op members. Roughly 10,000 credit unions (with the total assets of over $600 billion) supply financial services to 83 million members. 36 million Americans purchase their electricity from rural electric co-ops. $80 billion of Community Health Care Providers are owned by their policy holders; and approximately 30 percent of Americas farm products are marketed through cooperatives. [2]”

The tenor of the time is to explore and experiment with new ways energy co-ops can give us local environmental and economic relief. Co-ops can plant seeds to stimulate both energy conservation and community economic development. What better way in getting people to both buy shares and reap the benefits as shareholders? Let’s share it and cooperate together to form American energy co-ops and collectively profit. Cooperation both in nature as in human life is crucial. Energy co-op equate to numerous happy returns or one triple bottom line where people share, prosper and conserve together. Energy co-ops are investments in many ways we can help preserve ourselves, our communities and our earth.

Profiting from Less Government Waste

2008-11-28T08:08:00.000-08:00

Never have we faced a more complex financial crisis. Lessening government waste offers pathways how we can best resolve our situation. Government must clean up their own house if they wish others do to the same.

We as a nation must become conservers not consumers. Never has an American generation used so much and invested so little for future generations. We have incentives to spend however not to save that wastes instead of conserves.

The American government must create a new form of saving based decision making. A more effective American requires close examination as to what exactly what, how, why and where America loses, discards or throws away numerous forms of its resources. Preventing further market failure will only happen when we embrace both full cost accounting and integrate environmental management thinking into all aspects of public decision making. If we as nation wish to maintain our precarious world leader status role we must readdress investing in our country in a less wasteful manner.

Just one example of mismanagement is our nation's capital. The Washington DC area not only produces more carbon dioxide than Sweden, Denmark and Finland but our government stimulates the most significant global loss of resources. For example, the District of Columbia and other government's budgets are based on the principle of "use it or loose it." Government must shift from this behavior of consuming more to understanding performance is measured by output over input.

American can explore new management techniques that are effectively developed offering various regulatory approaches preventing market failure that drastically cost taxpayers more in the future dollars. How can private markets be stimulated while trustworthy performance systems mandated to make the market- and federalism-based systems work effectively? Critical to this national policy shift is how everyone-governments, companies, and citizens, in the United States and around the world-must come into partnership profiting from government waste reduction. How will these partnerships be created and sustained?

Today we face a new policy arena of massive financial experimentation, uncertain results, complex relationships, and an inescapable mandate for improvement. It is clear that neither the public nor the private sector can stay where they are. Both sectors have created ways that do not fully optimize their executive of goods and services since wasteful practices of this process are self-serving. Increasing productivity can result when a new equation is reached. Our output and inputs must balance with increased environmental and social considerations on how the general welfare is impacted on the way we do business. We can no longer dump on our earth and its inhabitants.

Yes our hardest task to be held fully accountable to national policy of new performance measurements. These measures must balance flexible environmental partnerships offer, integrated management system and ingenious paperwork processes. Preventing pollution, improving environmental performance, and integrating approaches across media have lagged behind. The performance-based process must evolve through trials and tribulations into proven practices.

Our money will never reside fully in our bank account. Our saving resides in how we better invest in how the American government works. We are all shareholders in the United States government. First are countless ways to vulnerable to fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement in our political system. There are diverse ways we drain resources that could otherwise go to Americans as the beneficiaries.

All Americans are resource managers. We can learn to be more skillful and ingenious or the opposite. Both we and the Feds must better educate to ways to improve the economy, efficiency, and effectiveness of federal functions, programs, and policies. Remember how we tax is a core reason why we revolted from the English. To become more competitive in the international marketplace we must explore opportunities exist to streamline, target, and consolidate programs to improve their delivery. We have the opportunity to better weed out programs that are outdated, ineffective, unsustainable, or simply a lower priority than they used to be.

A national dialogue is required of our federal mission to prioritize our national goals. By deploying a variety of tools and, stimulating participation of many organizations, such a reprioritization of what the federal government does, how it does it, and in some cases, which does the government's business, is required to better budget on our fiscal future.

Important as safeguarding funds from fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement is to pursue widespread opportunities to improve the economy, efficiency, and effectiveness of existing federal goals and program commitments. The basic goals of many federal programs-both mandatory and discretionary-enjoy broad support. That support only makes it more important for us to pay attention to the substantial opportunities to improve cost effectiveness and the delivery of services and activities.

In conclusion good oversight is essential. We must lessen duplication and or even working at cross purposes. Is the program financially sustainable and are there opportunities for instituting appropriate cost sharing and recovery from nonfederal parties including private entities that benefit from federal activities? Can the program be made more efficient through reengineering or streamlining processes or restructuring organizational roles and responsibilities? We will prosper once our nation formulates greater government waste reduction measures. Will will both get a return on and of our investments.

Allow Conservation to Work!

2008-10-03T18:09:00.000-07:00

Seventy five years ago my hometown, Edinburg, Virginia was the site of the first Civilian Conservation Corp camp. For the last four years I have failed to get full time work in promoting conservation. Over half my life I have help advance the recycling oil, preserving our drinking water and other endeavors to create a more healthy climate.

Now, we can create new prosperity that not only saves our nation but but creates a new green commerce. Conservation work can offer a tremendous economic opportunity – but only if we take advantage of this huge potential enterprise.

Today, these conservation industries generate 8.5 million jobs and nearly $1 trillion in annual revenue in the United States, and they contain some of the fastest growing sectors in the economy. If America fails to invest in renewable energy and energy efficiency, it runs the risk of losing ground to global competitors. Other countries like Germany, Denmark, and China will take the lead and reap the economic benefits.

Let's create millions of new green jobs that America desperately needs. Jobs that can’t be outsourced and use the skills of today’s workers. Green jobs aren’t just the jobs of the future – they will revitalize our economy and our well being. In recovery, Americans will discover millions of new ways to reduce, reuse and recycle resources for our future.

Can We Afford Not to Act?

2008-08-29T08:57:00.000-07:00

In the last several years I have observed some most disturbing developments. The threat of potential global destruction due to climate change, unending wars, spiral American deficit, exponential corruption, human rights violation, the validation of American torture, extraordinary corporate greed, numerous human rights and constitutional violations, lack of governmental and corporate accountability and host of other worrisome circumstances. One thing is most pressing is that we must carefully act to insure our future.

It is the consensus of hundreds of eminent climate scientists who recently won the Nobel Peace Prize that we must act now. The head of this Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, R.K. Pachauri urged that how we develop in the next seven years will determine or climate by mid-century. He remarked, “We have to act now to price carbon and create incentives to change the way we use energy and spread technology and thereby avert nothing less than an essential threat to civilization.”

In my view these events have corroded American democracy and accelerated worldwide despair. Our current President and his colleagues has misled, and maligned by his misguided self-righteous fervor. His arrogance has jeopardized our American ideals of truth, honesty and decency. Most alarming is the Bush has ignored acting on climate change. I believe history will show this as the most dangerous precedent by our reckless President. The repercussions of Bush’s presidency will haunt our country for many decades unless we revitalize our nation.

We are facing the decline of our well being if we do not have the courage to face that we must make immediate decisions about all facets of our life. It is time to for us to do things out compassion not out of fear. We must change our way of business and this is going to be painful one way or another. Comfort is a tough thing to challenge. American is no longer an island. Everything today is global and our small actions here affect people all over the world. It is time America not just be one part but united to the greater whole this world.

Anyway I can exercise more wholesome ways to better the world. In view of what is happening how can I best go forth? I do not wish to be an accessory to American Dream that has become a nightmare. Constantly, I remind myself to find the eye of this hurricane of events so to be motivated to by inspiration not Yes there can find more comfort by a life style using less not more. I volunteer whenever I can and serve whenever I am asked if feel this is still not enough. I ask you for greater wisdom and guidance. . With sense of alertness may I pay be of greater service. May I be blessed with this purpose and find the energy to daily exercise this vow to best serve my world and myself.

Our Expanding National Debt Crisis

2008-08-26T16:00:00.000-07:00

It is imperative that we start to save instead of consume. Americans have over $14 trillion worth personal debt. We must not pass these costs to our next generations. Back in the mid 1960’s we were a nation that was in the black that in last few decades declined seriously into the red. 80 percent of our debt has occurred since 1990.

The Chinese now finance our war. Today Our American economy is 70 percent dependent on consumerism reflected by our $17 trillion dollar personal debt. A new documentary, “I.O.U.S.A.” presents why our debt is of serious concern. 66 percent of the gross national product stands at more than $9.6 trillion or 37 percent of GDP. David Walker, former U.S. comptroller general has been outspoken regarding the potential disaster of our total $53 trillion dollar total unfunded liabilities such as Medicaid, Social Security and Medicare. This equates to roughly $175,154 per man, woman and child.

To put this in perspective the debt in 1957 was $693 billion - or about $4,000 per capita. Today’s debt is 76 times higher from over 50 years ago. The economy is 2-3 times more debt-dependent - with at least $29 Trillion DEBT EXCESS - - compared to the 1950-1970s.

Americans must begin to save a few percentage of their income similar to New Zealand and Australia. It is imperative that both taxpayers and the U.S. government awaken to this crisis and prevent the peril of our debt. As Ben Franklin once said, “I am not so concerned on the return on investment as the return of my investment.”

Environmental Deform or Reform?

2008-06-07T17:58:00.000-07:00

Neal Peirce wrote on June 8th in the Washington Post, “ENVIRONMENTAL MOVEMENT NEEDS AN ADRENALIN SHOT.’ From my experience I totally agree. Widespread environmental action is now critical. The recently defeated global warming bill authored by Senators Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and John Warner (R-Virg.) bill to cut greenhouse gases and address climate change is another example of environmental stalemate and partisan bickering. Also this may show Americans are too self absorbed to address this planet-threatening crisis that everyone else in the world is worried about.

Mr. Pierce cites James Gustave “Gus” Speth, the dean of environmental studies at Yale but an outstanding leader in this profession. In his new book, “The Bridge at the End of the World” (Yale University Press) a long list of concerns. Americans suffer from major contamination of the majority of our water bodies, polluted living conditions in over three-fifths of our nation’s counties. Two-thirds of Americans live in counties that register pollution levels over EPA’s fairly basic standard. In the last forty years our miles of paved roads are up 53 percent, vehicle miles traveled up 177 percent.

In addition there is widespread soil erosion, loss of vegetation-and depletion of many other natural resources. Not only are the planet’s species disappearing at about 1,000 times the normal rates just look at our vanishing coral reefs due to climate change. One example is that the increased burning of fossil fuels is causing the loss of tens of millions of acres of forest in the U.S.

Speth references the culprit of environment on our United States, and wealthy, industrial countries consumer economies. Also he references the 63,000 multinational firms with 91 million employees. Simply our nation’s corporate world allows America’s future generations to pick up the tap because they promote consumer addiction. Yes, we will have to pay big time latter evident by the escalating price of oil.

Speth documents that global businesses get $850 billion of public subsidies yearly for their activities in agriculture, energy, transportation and more -- about 2.5 percent of the global economy. Increased profits are short changing addressing essential environmental needs.

Just look at the average size of American homes has increased 50 percent, electricity consumption per person 70 percent, municipal wastes per person 33 percent since our first Earth Day 38 years ago. More, more, more will result in less and less in our future unless we save now!

The question Speth raises is how do we encourage consumers by suggesting “greener” lifestyle choices. People of all walks and at all levels must lessen their consumption. We have to change the bottom-line and invest in the well being for countless generations. Programs that stimulate conservation in every setting of our country can spark a new American “Green Revolution.” Otherwise our earth’s future health will be jeopardized by our consumer addiction. Can American’s everywhere awaken to this monkey on our back? Let’s reactivate the American Spirit so to save our country from ruin!

The Full Cost of Oil in America

2008-05-27T07:47:00.000-07:00

The cause and effect how we use oil in American reveals both triumph and tragedy. Petroleum has been both a blessing and a curse for America. We comprise less than 5 percent of the world's population, but consume 25 percent of all oil produced or about 20 million barrels or 840 million gallons. Since 1751 when the Industrial Revolution began we used the amount of fossil fuels burned that is equivalent to all plant growth on Earth for the last 13,300 years. We use this black gold there's no end to the stuff, though experts estimate we've got 50-100 years' supply left at current consumption rates.

The world is currently consuming oil at the rate of 30.2 billion barrels per year. Based on the forecasts 50 to 100 years forecast is our global supply. We, Americans consume about 20.6 million barrels of petroleum per day (7.5 billion barrels per year). Currently, about 70% of the petroleum we consume is used for transportation. Light duty vehicles and freight trucks take the largest share while aircraft take less. However, from the standpoint of fuel efficiency, aircraft are the least efficient while light duty vehicles are the most efficient. However, overall fuel consumption increasing by almost 7 million barrels per day with only slight changes in the distribution of use.

The advancement of electric cars and hybrids will significantly effect on petroleum consumption. All-electric vehicles powered by rechargeable batteries can help most to reduce oil consumption, because only 2% of our electricity is generated from oil. Also, there may be some technology improvements in diesel-powered freight trucks,

Some Americans believe it is time for us to drill up north. However, even at full production in 2020 or beyond, proposed drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) is estimated to produce 800,000 barrels of oil daily, 0.7 percent of global production. Estimates of undiscovered oil, has been estimated by experts to amount to 39.1 billion barrels including reserves in the Arctic Outer Continental Shelf, the Alaska National Petroleum Reserve, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and the restricted areas of the Lower 48 States. At our present rate of consumption, these reserves would supply our needs for a little over 5 years.

In the U.S. is a good example of what is going to happen to many others in the world. We are currently depending on other countries to supply us with 66% of the oil we need. It is believed we have passed our peak of oil production in 1970’s or 80’s. Presently our petroleum comes from: USA Petroleum Production-34%; Petroleum Imports from OPEC-27% ; Non-OPEC Petroleum Imports-39% (Canada, Mexico, Russia, etc.)

There is a price for using oil besides impacting climate change. Exploration, development, production, product treatment, and waste management activities associated with oil and gas production projects can have a variety of impacts on the environment. There is the one trillion gallons of oilfield waste we inject into deep wells in addition to the 3 billion tons of oil and gas wastes we generate yearly by our oil and gas exploration and production in the USA.

Oil extraction results in the destruction or alteration of wildlife habitats, erosion, sedimentation, pollutant loading of groundwater and surface water from product and/or waste leaks and spills, groundwater contamination from communication between production or waste injection zones and underground sources of drinking water, release of hydrocarbons and hydrogen sulfide to the atmosphere, and decreased soil productivity from land spreading and/or releases of reserve/mud pit contents. While oil and gas professionals have developed practices that have reduced the generation of waste to avoid such environmental catastrophes. Also there has been improved economics of drilling and production operations leading to safer operations.

In the United States alone, more than 2 million wells have been drilled in the search for oil and gas since the first few successful wells in the mid 1800s. Of these wells (averaging about 1000 meters in depth but ranging to as much as 8000 meters), only about 1 exploratory well in 10 has found oil in sufficient quantities to justify production; and 1 in 50 has found enough oil to repay its total costs. Increased shortages will force new searches for oil and gas into more remote and hostile environments. Some drilling may not be offset by profits reaped by actual oil and gas discovery. The difficulty of finding oil and gas now is finding it in pores of rocks as a mixture of oil, salty water, and natural gas. The oil clings tightly to the pores of the rock to resist even the most elaborate schemes to get it out.

Just from the American consumer, we waste 400 million gallons of used oil and 500 plus million oil filters are lost yearly in the United States (each containing around seven ounces of oil). The current sampling method to evaluate the toxicity of oil, Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Procedure (TCLP) is not the best test since it was designed for municipal landfills. I ask you to simply reflect on the fact that one gallon of used oil improperly disposed can contaminate one million gallons of fresh water or ruin the water supply for 50 people for a year.

For over a century Americans have greatly benefited from oil. Now the question is how we find alternative from this dwindling natural resource and how will this transition impact our economy. The future holds what complexity, expense, and the environmental impact of increased exploratory drilling will result. Americans we will be increasingly learn of the full cost of oil to our country.

America- Green Is Lean

2008-05-12T11:49:00.000-07:00

"The economy is a wholly owned subsidiary of the environment." Senator Gaylord Nelson

As oil peaks, food prices rise and our dollar falls, Americans now must reinvent themselves. Jared Diamond writes about in his book, “Collapse” the fragile legacy we are leaving our future generations. America is awakening that environmental work is not just a global priority, however, a necessity for the well being for future generations. Lessening global warming is just one example of America’s responsibility to address our ecological crisis. This is a wake-up call for a new relationship of renewal for Americans of all walks to become lean and green.

First, to renew ourselves we understand the price of most things and now we must show a greater spirit to demonstrate how we value all things. We are so tied to others in the world in thousands of ways. Second when we show our appreciation to our greater interconnections new opportunities become born. Such wise inquiry awakens to citizen in the priority of basic needs over personal desires.

Our American culture is at a crossroads where its very disposability symbolizes a form of terror. This is about limits and a new form of tough love called thrift. The very high maintenance of our material world has a price tag. A revolution is happening now in our nation. It is about the renewal of the American spirit. Do we just address human needs or question the very greed that threatens our future environment? Consumerism is dying since our debt both personal and government has spiraled out of control. Responsibility and freedom comes down to a simple economic term called savings. This idea of saving is all about investing in a healthy, safe, and sustainable future.

It is not can but we must excel a new democracy that nurtures and protects our ecological life support systems. Both private and public sectors have made enormous gains yet there are looming tremendous losses if we do not change our destructive patterns. Now we face our greatest global challenge in our history. It comes down to question the very foundation of governing.

Governing must intend to nurture, protect, or defend individuals, our nation and the world as a whole. If we, the American people, do not start to plan, think and invest in the long term conservation then we will suffer from our political short term failings.

Such a shift will include exploring clean renewable energy, efficient transportation and agriculture, and the non-toxic production and protection of our forests, oceans, grasslands and wetlands. A more sustainable path will liberate us.

The new American Revolution is a global paradigm shift to define what economy truly means. Our Founders from our first American Revolution brought forth a vision to pursue happiness that is tied to helping our “general welfare". Now we must continue this revolutionary concept to the next level. Not just our rights and freedom are at stake but maintaining our existing quality of life. We have to focus on the bigger picture not just our individual selves. We as a society must become fully responsible and invest in many enterprises that foster hope for the next generation. Renewal comes when we less waste less thus stimulating future prosperity. “ECOnomics” is what is all about, saving, renewing and preventing waste. America- green means becoming lean.

Dreaming of A Green Bethesda

2008-04-29T08:09:00.000-07:00

Dreaming of A Green Bethesda
Waste less equals sustaining more.

When you say Bethesda, Maryland the first thing that comes to mind is the President’s hospital and the home of National Institute of Health. However, seeds for our future prosperity are now being planted here. My vision of Green Bethesda is an organic merging of the arts with the sciences to celebrate a richer quality of life. This effort can emulate nature so to mimic and embodies the wealth of diversity and inter-relationships

Health, economy and environmental management are all interconnected and related. Now, Bethesda, Maryland is one setting transforming this vision into reality. A sound body comes only by conserving at home and celebrating the heartfelt psychic benefit of exploring wiser ways to conserve. In recovery not only there is discovery, yet innovative new technologies and ways to enjoy a better life.

Green Bethesda is investing in increased environmental wellness affecting our entire community. For example, if we in this area can reduce our carbon footprint by becoming more energy efficient. Up to forty percent of those reductions would pay for themselves. Promoting and attracting like-minded people, businesses and cultivating future green enterprises is the tenor of the times. Green Bethesda symbolizes a change accelerating not just increased energy efficient technologies but founding new carbon neutral enterprises.

Green Bethesda is about stimulating people to better manage our natural resources. As America ventures into new marketplaces to trade carbon, water and biodiversity, Green Bethesda offers new form of eco-park near our nation’s capital. Trillions of dollars are going to be invested and millions of green jobs created in the upcoming years developing livability endeavors.

Green Bethesda is about changing our culture from consumers to conservers. Green Bethesda can demonstrate when we better take care of the world; we better everything including ourselves.

Green Bethesda shows the vital connection between increased well-being, health and improved environmental management. Best resource management and other environmental community actions will benefit Bethesda in exponential ways. Bethesda will profit from not just pollution prevention since becoming more green directly result in increased commerce, freedom, and joy. Green Bethesda is a celebration of life since it acts to sustain livability in all its forms!

If you wish to become involved go to
www.bethesdagreen.org

U.S. Materials Flows Accounting Report

2008-04-24T12:12:00.000-07:00

A recent World Resources Materials Flow report* tracks the ebb and flow of how stuff goes through our economy and out into the environment . For example of these 169 materials are toxic substances— such as arsenic, cadmium, lead, mercury, and others—whose life cycle, reflect the strengths and weaknesses in our national regulatory policies and procedures.

According this study the U.S. showed more efficient use of fossil fuels, metals and minerals, and renewable resources. However, the trend in per capita consumption of material (a coincident indicator) is increasing, with a rise of some 23 percent over the study period. If the U.S. economy were solidly on a path to sustainability, this indicator would be declining.

The total consumption of materials (a lagging indicator) grew 57 percent over the study period, to 6.5 billion metric tons in 2000. If the United States had been a sustainable economy during this period, we would have avoided the creation of 25 billion tons of waste (and its subsequent disposal into our air and water and onto our land).

This report documents the challenges of our time is improved resource management and to shift to environmentally preferable materials. Meeting this challenge will require new processes and increasingly complex, far-reaching partnerships among government, business, and civil society. Material flows accounting can provide the common scorecard that all the parties need to facilitate these collaborations and make them in the fure more successful.

This is the third report, focuses on the United States and accounts of material flows from 1975 to 2000. It presents the accounts in aggregate and by economic sector, examines specific flows of environmental or economic importance, and recommends next steps.

FINDINGS
1. Consumption. In absolute terms, total material consumption increased from 1975 to 2000 by 57 percent to 6.5 billion metric tons in 2000. Per capita consumption increased by 23 percent. The majority of growth can be explained by an 83 percent increase in built infrastructure of materials associated with industrial development.

This report documents a national increase of 52 percent in the number of housing units and a greater intensity of material use per housing according to U.S. Census Bureau findings from 1975 to 2000.

2. Material Efficiency. While both total and per capita consumption of materials increased between 1975 and 2000, consumption declined relative to GDP by 31 percent. This gain in efficiency is attributable to a general dematerialization in the U.S. economy: 84 percent of the absolute growth in GDP during the study period was in the services sector.

3. Material Outputs. Nearly 2.7 billion metric tons of materials were returned to the environment as waste (outputs) in 2000. Total outputs have increased by 26 percent since 1975, and the most environmentally harmful outputs—synthetic and persistent organic chemicals, radioactive compounds, and heavy metals—have increased by 24 percent to 16 million metric tons. While many policies to control point-source and industrial pollution levels have curbed hazardous releases into the environment, toxic releases from diffuse sources such as imported consumer electronics have increased. For example, more than 60 percent of the cadmium consumed in 2000 was contained in imported batteries. Only 32 percent of all cadmium was recycled in 2000.

4. International Comparisons. Per capita material consumption in the United States is more than 50 percent higher than the average of 15 European Union countries. This difference could be due either to the presence of more extensive extractive
industries (e.g., mining and forestry) here.

RECOMMENDATIONS
Developing a system of national material accounts could enable more effective policymaking in both the public and private sectors. The establishment of a central organization—a Center for Material Flows—to manage the collection, analysis, and dissemination of material flows accounts in the United States. Also established a materials accounting framework to fully capture the physical and chemical changes observed in materials and expand and synthesize core data across the life cycle of a material. Finally integrate such material flows analysis into environmental and economic decision-making. Because material flows accounts track the movement of goods into and out of the economy, they can be used as early warning indicators of potential threats to human health and undesirable changes in natural resources.

Certainly the U.S. will prosper by improved material flow accounting to track where everything comes from and where it goes!

* DONALD ROGICH, AMY CASSARA, IDDO WERNICK, MARTA MIRANDA, MATERIAL FLOWS IN THE UNITED STATES, 2008,WRI:ISBN 978-1-56973-682-1 http://materials.wri.org.

Green Gardening

2008-04-18T05:35:00.000-07:00

Green garden is about being mindful of being gentle with the earth. The less you waste the more you and the land benefits. Protecting resources is the key focus. For example, our Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the United States. However since it is one of the most productive in the world, its continual decline due to nutrient over-enrichment is of concern. Over thirty years of research illustrated that the main concerns of the Bay were nutrient over-enrichment, dwindling Bay grasses, and toxic pollution. Invasive plants are just another environmental challenge destroying fragile ecosystems. Land can be used and developed in ways that minimize impact on water quality improve water quality and allow aquatic life to flourish.

Also, climate change is creating all sorts of other concerns. Increased rainfall and drought and a host of other concerns; refer to arborday.org and refer to Hardiness zone map.

The EPA estimates that 54 million Americans work on their lawn and do landscaping each weekend burning 800 million gallons of gasoline with their lawn mowers, leaf blowers and weed eaters. Unfortunately the emissions from these devices are much worst than our late model cars.

A tremendous area of concern is non-point source pollution from the 5 million lawns in the Bay since excessive lawn fertilizing is a significant source of nutrient pollution. So developing and implementing home nutrient reduction strategies is critical. Better managed lawns would reduce the amount of excess nutrients entering the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries, thus improving water quality.

Nationwide we spend annually $350 million on grass seed and manage over 30 million acres of lawn. Each year Americans apply 100 million tons of fertilizer and over 80 million pounds pesticides to their yards.

Another source of nitrogen pollution comes from air emissions mowing and collecting these clippings. Roughly, 40 hours per year the average homeowner spends behind his power mower using 10 gallons of gas emitting ten times more hydrocarbons then a typical car. Grass clippings consume a large part of landfill space during the growing season requiring further cost to transport and dispose of this valuable material.

Finally, 30 percent of the water on the East Coast goes to watering lawns. A 10,000 square feet of turf uses 10,000 gallons of water per summer.

Green Garden Maintenance Practices

1) Use water wisely
2) Reduce toxins (pesticides and fertilizers) and run-off
3) Lessen erosion
4) Integrated plant and pest management
5) Yardcycle and compost
6) Cultivate more natural ways
7) Protect and preserve ecosystem

The art of gardening is simple process. You get what you put into it. If you fail to plan you will plan to fail and impact others living things. Be skillfull and enjoy emulating nature where you waste little and harvest a wonderful organic experience!

Green Work

2008-04-18T05:31:00.000-07:00

On April 17, seventy five years ago in my home town of Edinburg, Virginia the first Civilian Conservation Corps began. Today the need for green jobs can offer the economic opportunity of the century – but only if we take advantage of this huge opportunity.

Today, these industries generate 8.5 million jobs and nearly $1 trillion in annual revenue in the United States, and they contain some of the fastest growing sectors in the economy. Among the study’s findings are: if the country fails to invest in renewable energy and energy efficiency, it runs the risk of losing ground to global competitors. If policy and regulatory barriers to the sustained development of the industry are not addressed now, other countries like Germany, Denmark, and China will take the lead and reap the economic benefits. However, this new report also illustrates the tremendous opportunity for the United States to harvest these green collar jobs and how these industries, with the correct support, are poised to be economic powerhouses for the 21st century .

A new report from the nonprofit American Solar Energy Society shows that as many as 1 out of 4 workers in the U.S. will be working in the renewable energy or energy efficiency industries by 2030.

This is the nation’s first comprehensive report on the size and growth of the renewable energy and energy efficiency industries – and the numbers are great news for American workers. This green collar job report shows that these industries already generate 8.5 million jobs in the U.S., and with appropriate public policy, could grow to as many as 40 million jobs by 2030.

“The green collar job boom is here,” said Neal Lurie, Director of Marketing of the American Solar Energy Society. “Renewable energy and energy efficiency are economic powerhouses.” This new report is called Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency: Economic Drivers for the 21st Century. It is available for free download at: www.ases.org

Key findings of the report include:
· By the year 2030, the renewable energy and energy efficiency industries could generate up to $4.5 trillion in revenue in the U.S., but only with the appropriate public policy, including a renewable portfolio standard, renewable energy incentives, public education, and R&D
· The 40 million jobs that could be created in renewable energy and energy efficiency by 2030 are not just engineering-related, but also include millions of new jobs in manufacturing, construction, accounting, and management
· Renewable energy and energy efficiency industries today generate nearly $1 trillion in revenue in the U.S. contributing more than $150 billion in tax revenue at the federal, state, and local levels
· Revenue from the energy efficiency sector -- including from energy efficient windows, appliances, insulation, and recycling -- is currently larger than revenue from renewable energy, but the renewable energy industry is growing much more quickly. Solar, wind, ethanol, and fuel cells are likely to be some of the hottest areas of growth.

The Shenandoah is Not A Sewer

2008-03-03T04:31:00.000-08:00

Over the last four years, eighty percent of the small-mouthed bass and sunfish population have died in the Shenandoah River. The Shenandoah is now one of the top five most endangered American rivers. Unfortunately in the last 20 years, both public and private enterprises have been allowed to impair the Shenandoah with sewage. We started with a faulty Broadway plant, then came a failed private firm called Sheaffer International, and today the Town of Broadway has taken over this bankrupt polluter with the same plant manager. This is not the blueprint for success. At this time, Virginia regulators have granted the Town of Broadway permission to dump part of their sewage back into the Shenandoah.

In the fall of 2007, Virginia’s Department of Environmental Quality’s (DEQ) gave just such a permit to the Town of Broadway. This “Consent Decree” sets “interim limits” on river discharges from operations at the bankrupt Sheaffer Plant. These “interim limits” stretch out to January 2011 allowing “permitted” pollution to the North Fork of the Shenandoah River. Even the Decree’s author, DEQ Regional Director Amy Owens, admits, “On its face, the Decree recognizes that Broadway will be in violation of the Permit for about three years.”

Interestingly, Sheaffer plant has had 67 state and numerous EPA violations since it began operating. The Town of Broadway now is the new owner and operating with similar waste loads. It is reasonable to expect more of the same.

The improperly designed Sheaffer system replaced four old, faltering treatment systems: two in the towns of Timberville and Broadway, and two at local poultry plants. These four had been discharging 1.6 million gallons of wastewater a day into the North Fork. They were dumping some 200,000 pounds of unwanted, damaging nutrients into the river annually. Permit violations were a common occurrence. State water revolving funds reward town plants that do poorly and punish ones that try to do the proper thing.

Environmental laws must address just that ¾ not be merely useless pieces of paper. Such lax state enforcement is not isolated as just over in Page County, DEQ allowed a landfill to violate its permit for many years by over two thousand tons of trash per day.

Oh Shenandoah is Not a Sewer
The Shenandoah Valley acts as a major water filter for the Chesapeake Bay. And, the Shenandoah River is the major tributary downstream into the Potomac River where 90 percent of the Washington DC metro drinking water flows.

Poultry is the leading agricultural activity in the Shenandoah Valley. Livestock in Rockingham County generates roughly one-half billion dollars in yearly revenue. This county is first in Virginia producing turkeys and chickens for meat, and second in both categories among all 982 counties in the nation. For decades poultry waste has been linked with water impairment here, according to many scientific studies.

History of Pollution
In 2000, the Virginia Water Control Broad put up more than $2.5 million in technical assistance grants to help start Sheaffer International. Virginia also capitalized the project in 1999 by issuing $8.5 million in tax-free state industrial development bonds.

Ironically, the Sheaffer plant was not designed to treat water for any kind of release into waterways. It simply breaks down waste so that it can be land applied in irrigation. Unfortunately, they did not have a back-up system for seasonally reduced irrigation demands. What’s more, Sheaffer did not factor in moisture limits due to nitrogen pollution already in the groundwater. Bottom-line, their sewage goes downstream.

This faulty plant consists of two cells: the first treats up to 34.6 million gallons for 3 weeks; the second cell treats up to 23 million gallons for 2 weeks. The holding pond can handle 230 million gallons. Storage capacity matters since irrigation is necessarily seasonal. The original idea was that nearly all discharge would end up in the fields. That any engineer could design such a flawed operation is criminal.

The Sheaffer plant had some 67 river discharge violations recorded in the DEQ file, including discharges many times over permit limits reported by the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality since it began in 2000. The first overflow of untreated wastewater into the North Fork occurred two months after startup, in October 2000. There were 13 more at the same Timberville pump station by 2006.
Environmental Gridlock in the Courts
The Sheaffer plant, once seen as a solution for the entire Chesapeake Watershed, now turned into an obsolete sewer system. December 2, 2005, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) initiated administrative action against Sheaffer, citing “gross violations” of its river discharge permit. Remember this action occurred in EPA’s lowest point of environmental enforcement; is this Commonwealth? Since then, there have been a series of lawsuits and injunctions.
Eight months after EPA issued its Compliance Order, three clean water advocacy groups (Shenandoah Riverkeeper, Potomac Riverkeeper and Waterkeepers Alliance) sued Sheaffer for violating its river discharge permit on August 11, 2006. The concerns of Riverkeepers about the health of the North Fork were intensified in 2004 when a devastating fish kill reached upstream as far as Timberville and Broadway – 20 miles from the stream’s headwaters. This generated a lot of publicity. It gave urgency to the idea that something needed to be done about pollution and polluters.
At the end of the waiting period for the Riverkeepers’ suit, on October 12, 2006, Virginia’s Attorney General (AG) stepped in. The AG claimed Sheaffer exceeded permitted river discharge limits for nitrogen and total phosphorus by more than 800 percent in 2005, and more than 200 percent in 2004. Excess chlorine, ammonia and fecal coliform were also cited. And the Sheaffer Plant was accused of discharging raw and partially treated sewage into the North Fork.
What the Future Holds
The design flow for this Broadway/Sheaffer plant is 2 million gallons a day. Pilgrim’s Pride operations average daily discharges of 1 million gallons. In 2000, the other daily flows were: Broadway, 310,000 gallons; Timberville, 140,000; and Cargill (private poultry plant) 144,000. The design allowed for a 21% increase in daily discharges, which in 2000 averaged 1,594,000 gallons each day. In addition, the Town of New Market with its extra wastewater is exploring the feasibility of using this facility.
Pilgrim’s Pride and Cargill in Timberville discharge nearly 1.2 million gallons of pollutant-laden wastewater every day. This is 75% of what’s sent to the Treatment Plant -- and 90% of the nutrient load it could not handle.
Interesting that the EPA’s Comments on the Decree are as critical as those of Riverkeepers. It too says, “interim pre-treatment measures” should be set immediately for the industrial users, and that PPC and Cargill “should be made parties to the Consent Decree.” EPA says its violations were “attributable in large part to the pollutant loading from the…two industrial users.” In particular, EPA cites their high biochemical oxygen demand loading, total suspended solids, and phosphorous.
Riverkeepers continue to press forth. There are two ways to protect the Shenandoah River. Either sue the Town of Broadway in lieu of its current permit, or strictly monitor private sector waste entering the town’s facility. Hopefully in the future any polluter will pay. Also present laws must be enforced to protect public health and our environment.
Conclusion
Pure water is critical for the Valley and so is enforcing the current laws. Virginia must develop market-based punitive measures so that the polluter pays. If there are greater-than-permitted volumes of untreated private poultry waste and chemical discharges, then the polluter should pay their fair share when it goes into the Broadway operation so that the public is not unfairly burdened.

Many small towns (7-9,000 people) in the Valley are spending $30 million dollars each to upgrade their wastewater plants to meet new stringent pollution controls. Broadway and Timberville also have defective collection systems allowing storm water into their sewage streams. Timberville’s problem created spikes that the treatment plant’s pumps and intake pipes were not able to handle. Such spikes, during hard rains, caused the overflow of raw sewage, thus increasing total toxic waste.

Virginia deserves equitable pollution controls. We must stimulate economic development and tourism by preventing this sewage to enter the Shenandoah River. Virginians will both profit from pollution prevention and find a better way to do business if we act now.

32 Times More Equals Collapse

2008-01-12T07:58:00.000-08:00

Jared Diamond in the beginning of the New Year wrote in the New York Times that the average rates at which people consume resources like oil and metals, and produce wastes like plastics and greenhouse gases, are about 32 times higher in North America, Western Europe, Japan and Australia than they are in the developing world.

Now we are at 6.5 billion people on this planet, and that number may grow to around 3 billion within several decades. Presently 5.5 billion people of the developing world are growing in numbers while we in the industrialized countries consume 32 times more than the rest of the world.

How many more people can the world sustain? Our developing countries make an increase in living standards a primary political goal to become industrialized. How can we in the rich countries lessen our material consumption since the poor wish to enjoy the American Dream of a high-consumption lifestyle? As millions of people in the developing world wish enjoy the first-world lifestyle how much carrying capacity can this planet take unless we humans use less? There is not enough pie to go around now to if humans are going to survive here.

Just look at China as the leading developing country seeking to increase per capita consumption rates at home. China is the world’s fastest growing economy with 1.3 billion Chinese, or four times the United States population. Yes, our world is already running out of resources rapidly since China is quickly reaching American level consumption rates.

Presently the per capita consumption rates in China are still about 11 times below ours. If they rise to our level and nothing else happens to increase world consumption (no other country increases its consumption, all national populations -including China’s remain unchanged and immigration ceases) just alone China’s would roughly double world consumption rates. Look at the markets for oil and metals to as evidence. Oil consumption would go up by 106 percent, and world metal consumption would increase by 94 percent.

Now if India as well as China were to reach our US rate, world consumption would triple. Finally, if the whole developing world were suddenly to catch up to the US rate it would be as if the world population ballooned to 72 billion people or world rates would increase elevenfold.

We do not have a choice to but everyone on this Earth has to produce, and use less. Otherwise we will suffer major global consequences.

*Jared Diamond is a Professor of geography at the University of California, Los Angeles, is the author of “Collapse” and “Guns, Germs and Steel.”
His article is at http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/02/opinion/02diamond.html

Respecting Our World Results In Greater Self Respect

2007-12-25T09:09:00.000-08:00

When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect.—Aldo Leopold

What is true to live in America today? We are a nation of $18 trillion dollars of personal debt. In the last few years we have accumulated an additional $260 billion dollars of foreign deficit to the $1.5 trillion dollars already owed. We continue to sink further into this black hole. We live in a land where our government has subcontracted (outsourced) energy, environmental, labor, health and even our voting machines to private interests. Inequality, injustice, and inhumanity seem to be the by-products of a nation that generates 18 billion tons of materials each, but we are unable to measure how regrettable our nation's greed impacts on those less fortunate—especially the land and its creatures. We are facing an inner form of poverty by the denial implicit in our actions.

Our very democracy is in question since our quality of life reflects are country's inability to be fully honest with itself. Our addiction to material things has created a culture of denial. As an alcoholic who bottoms out, we must undergo some form of intervention and rehabilitation. We must get past our "affluence and effluence." We need to undergo a moral balance sheet to undergo a national inventory, and also acknowledge there must be a bottom line to our consumer driven insanity.

Recovery = Discovery: All I have control over are my own self-choices. Creating sacred relationship gives me both greater purpose and a richer life. When I remember my interconnection with the earth, I feel a profound sense of joy. All indigenous beliefs do not separate themselves from their surroundings. Understanding my link with all things provides me with a sense of harmony and well being. When I expand my consciousness and am aware of my interdependency with everyone and everything in this world, I am liberated from my ego self. Can we deny our dependency upon this world to survive? Simply, the world is a greater extension of ourselves. Can we possibly deny this link? If we separate ourselves from our world, then we disconnect our soul from our own very nature.

We come from the land; we must breathe, eat, drink, and eventually return to this earth. Modern life has created many illusions that contradict our true relationship by placing us indoors most of the time. We are hardly ever in nature. Any interaction with our natural environment represents our coming back to our first home.

Shakespeare said, action is eloquence. Our decision-making process allows us the possibility for new freedom. Any action that defends our environment is similar to a mother protecting her child. Harmony in this world is not about sacrifice but demonstrating appreciation for our Gaia who encompasses us. As we make the shift from being consumers to becoming true citizens, we can excel to a higher level of democracy, particularly by motivating others to take action. As each one of us develops greater compassion, wonder, sensitivity, respectfulness, courage, love, appreciation, tenacity, and gratitude, we can fully engage in the kind of stewardship that is calling to us now.

A new dimension of our environmental mindset sees that trees have equal standing with people. Without the one there can not be the other. Deforestation, stripping mountaintops, land filling wetlands, and numerous other forms of reckless environmental exploitation may satisfy human needs in the short run, but will rob future generations of life. An emerging spirit intent on improving our environment will stimulate life-affirming and life enhancing choices.

Our surroundings provide us with both our physical needs (drinking water, garden soil and air to breath) as well as aesthetic and recreational benefits. It benefits us, therefore, to preserve these benefits; it so obviously makes moral sense. Such a natural relationship is so meaningful that, for many individuals, it borders on worship and divinity.

Conserving, preserving and protecting our environment is tied to the very notion of human excellence. Humans can demonstrate their virtue and cause the human experience to flourish by promoting a healthier relationship with our planet. Just a simple act like riding a bicycle instead of driving a car serves to better our world. Any action that directly promotes the well being of the larger ecological community serves to show our gratitude for the earth. Any choices we make that will lessen, for example, the threat of further habitation fragmentation and biodiversity loss, represent investments in resources for the future. Any way we can better this planet directly betters ourselves.

We all act as environmental role models when we choose to become sustainable in our everyday lives. By engaging in a greater environmental ethic, we can feel certain we are doing the right thing, and for the right reasons. Moreover, environmental virtue provides the sensitivity and wisdom necessary for incorporating action-guiding rules and principles to concrete situations. Developing sensitivity is a requirement in determining which rules or principles are applicable to a specific situation. And out of this sensitivity, we will know which course of action is recommended given the nature of any crisis that will arise. Juggling between conflicting moral dilemmas, we must value a more wholesome lifestyle if we are going to prosper in these very stressful times. The more we show respect for our surroundings, the greater self-respect we will behold!

Freedom Is a Green Diet

2007-12-25T09:07:00.000-08:00

What life choices we make is linked to our very freedom. We Americans must become lean and green. A green liberation movement will show us how we can become more responsible, and how we can grow our ability to be ecologically responsive. Simply, if we engage in wholesome action that is beneficial to all, we become less imprisoned by our harmful habits. We must shift from being consumers to becoming conservers. We must embrace a green diet, lessening both our waste and waists.

Yes, we must eat more GREENS! This is rabbit food not rabid food to lessen our country's chances of HEART ATTACK. An ethic of obesity must now change to a more wholesome diet for the sake of the planet. When we take care of the world, we help ourselves. Since what goes around, comes around, our individual actions directly have consequences that reflect back on us. Over-consuming on our planet creates lots of personal and global suffering besides breaking the collective heart.

The results of human overindulgence are clear. Excessive overeating can lead not only to obesity, but also to all other health dangers that result from obesity—a fact well documented. Four of our leading causes of death in America are related to overweight, poor diet and lack of exercise. These include the three leading closely related causes of death—heart disease, cancer, stroke and diabetes. Nature deficit syndrome is another health issue. As we become more disconnected from our ecosystems we participate less often in various enjoyable physical activities. Less physical activity results in less energy, and a vicious cycle of declining physical activity and health occurs.

As a responsible society, we must prevent a double-standard where we say one thing but act differently. To proclaim that we support a reduction of global warming, and then to purchase a car that is energy inefficient, is hypocritical. We waste our good drinking water to make our lawns greener. We buy bottle water, thereby creating billions of plastic bottles. To be truly free, our deeds must be consistent with our words. If we give our best to the world, we will enjoy many happy returns!

Today's culture provides us many opportunities to reduce waste by simply reducing our consumption. Less can become best! Using less food, water, paper, plastic, oil and any other natural resource just requires an awakening that all things are valuable. Walking, using public transportation, or riding a bicycle can result in a greater sense of belonging to our community. We must not reinforce consumerism, but realize the psychic benefits of sustainable citizenship. Can we develop new environmental behavior based on supporting biological needs, instead of reinforcing greed and apathy?

The fundament human challenge is how we perceive our environment. Are we are separate from or a part of our planet? A tangle of pathology happens because we keep thinking we need more material things to feed our anxiety, and because we feel threatened by our natural world. Many environmentally minded individuals are raising America's consciousness to address climate change and other ecological concerns. We can become reconnected with life, and less anxious.

America's very pursuit of happiness is in question. We the people are the precious agents; only we can preserve our land and our spirit. The United States cannot afford to create more CO2, as well as all the other pollutants impacting not only our well being but life itself. We can lead others by example, so that India, China and others may collectively prosper by a reduced carbon path. Such preservation is vital to our sanity, our peace, and the possibility of a promising future.

In our collective pursuit of happiness, we must understand how we create global suffering. There are very serious human consequences when we engage in destructive habits whose roots are greed, arrogance and indifference. We need to see beyond the price of things, we need to value of nature's intrinsic worth—a worth that may be expressed more in aesthetic or spiritual terms.

Our consciousness must evolve to the point where we see ecological persuasions that make sense to our human self-interest. Then a connection can be made wherein we know that human health is a part of our ecosphere. We can see our world as a greater extension of ourselves when we become deeply in touch with nature and life. Our human survival depends on a healthy environment that preserves the native flora and fauna. To flourish in our physical environment humans must create healthy boundaries. This need is a moral concern since any self-interest that does not take into account the larger world, has serious ethical questions.

As we lessen our desire to consume, we find a new liberation. As we curb our obsessive hunger, a new form of prosperity will unfold. Our waste of oil, coal, water, metals, and other resources threatens America's democracy. It is both self destructive and globally reckless to over-consume.

There is a strong connection between increased well being, happiness and our national security. Thrift, generosity, sharing and other wholesome measures promote freedom. Wasteful consumption violates the very values this nation was founded on. We have a choice to become free. Our spiritual survival is dependent on our understanding of our connection with the earth and our appropriate responses. Such action is an act of kindness that benefits all things. Courage becomes evident only when we quiet our minds and listen to our hearts. Once we show a reverence for conserving can we then begin to celebrate. Let's take the H from the end of eartH and place in front spelling Heart, since they are one and the same!

Saving American Oil: Beknighted States of Hysteria

2007-12-25T09:02:00.000-08:00

On December 10th, former Vice President, Al Gore said in his acceptance speech for his Nobel Peace Prize, “So today, we dumped another 70 million tons of global-warming pollution into the thin shell of atmosphere surrounding our planet, as if it were an open sewer.” In The United States, we can certainly better use and conserve our oil. Each year we use hundreds of billion gallons of the world’s petroleum supplies. Yearly, Americans use over 7 billion barrels of oil products. Since the USA constitutes 4% of the world’s population, uses over 25 % of the world’s oil, and produces 22% of climate-altering CO2, surely we must assume responsibility for the use and conservation of this precious, and finite, resource.

Just five days earlier, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee passed a bill (S.2191) to address climate change establishing a national cap-and-trade system to limit the amount of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to 70 percent of 2005 levels by 2050, thanks to the leadership of one lone Republican, Senator, JohnWarner who is retiring from my home state. He commented, “The United States simply has to lead on this issue. We are the superpower in the world, and we've got to use our status.”

Now in this same week, you would hope the Democrats, who have a majority in Congress, would pass better fuel efficiency standards: knowing Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards (called CAFÉ) is a no-brainer. There are many reasons why CAFÉ standards have failed in the past. Both auto manufacturers and unions have opposed attempts to impose higher fuel-efficiency standards because they insist that this conservation measure would cut manufacturing jobs. Do we know today how many American jobs serve to conserve oil instead of wasting it?

The powerful Washington lobby currently offset their low mileage trucks and SUVs with cars that sell for far less but get better mileage. So automakers do not want a provision to separate cars and trucks from this 35-mpg requirement and changing their present fleet-wide average, a practice that the Senate bill would stop. Carmakers also have an advocate, Chairman John Dingell of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. His district is home to Ford Motors. Dingell advocates that trucks and cars must continue to be treated differently when considering fuel efficiency for economic reasons.

We can do better. A recent report released by Citi's Equity & Debt Research group1 explored the five-year earnings impacts of changes to the CAFE program. This report found that stricter fuel efficiency standards would result in most automakers' earnings largely unaffected by the CAFE standards in the 2012 time horizon. Also some companies, like GM, could gain as much as $0.25 per share. Finally such CAFÉ standards can be implemented "with modest additions of existing technologies" and will likely be "most beneficial to GM and least beneficial to Chrysler."

I am ashamed at how we in the USA continue wasting our black gold. Remember the oil crisis in the late 70’s? Back, in 1981 I helped build a used oil recycling plant that now has recycled over a hundred million gallons of old crankcase oil into new oil. Back then I bought my first new car--a Toyota Starlet that got 42 miles per gallon on the highway. It seemed the right thing to do.

Yes I am upset! On average, every man, woman and child in the United States uses three gallons of oil every day. As a nation, we daily consume 20 million barrels of oil or 840 million gallons. One trillion gallons of oilfield waste we inject into deep wells, in addition to the 3 billion tons of oil and gas wastes we generate yearly by our oil and gas exploration and production in the USA. One-sixth of the world's oil production is used for transportation purposes in the United States. Transportation accounts for two out of three of those gallons. Almost 300 million barrels of oil could be saved each year by raising U.S. auto-efficiency standards by 2.75 miles per gallon. If the tires of all cars on U.S. roads were properly inflated, it would save an estimated 2 billion gallons of gas each year. [2]

Just look at a simple thing like traffic congestion that wastes over 2 billion gallons of fuel each year. Just in Northern Virginia, we collectively drive 42 million miles each day. In 1980, 64.4 percent of us drove to work alone; in 2000 it was 75.7 percent. Carpooling dipped from 19.7 percent to 12.2 percent in the same years. Transit use went from 6.2 percent to 4.6 percent, while walking dropped from 5.6 percent to 2.9 percent. Today over 60 percent our oil is imported from OPEC, while in 1980, it was 37 percent showing another alarming trend [3].

We may face another 100 million American residents in the next 35 years. Such growth is frightening. Now let’s see what becomes of Senate and House CAFE legislation. Can we boost vehicle mileage standards by 40 percent to 35 miles per gallon by 2020 or maybe earlier? CAFÉ also calls for the standards to be progressively implemented starting with the 2011 model year. How much oil Americans can conserve depends only on when enough citizens become outraged and demand action, or we run dry. If India and China follow our example then watch out.

Senator Dirksen, whom one of the senate buildings is named after, once said, “The oil can is mightier than the sword.” Now we Americans face a deadly world neighborhood. We have to play a game of kick the can, but now with an oil drum. Yes, we are red, white and blue petro-addicts. We need serious treatment with “Oil Anonymous” meetings everywhere to work on our denial, inventory and salvation. We certainly need help from a higher power. I pray we recover and do better than we did since our first oil crisis 30 years ago. It took 125 years to consume the first trillion barrels of oil. It's estimated that the next trillion will be used up in just 30 years. Isn’t it healthy if we became honest with ourselves and discover what economy truly means?

Benefit of the Doubt

2007-11-26T19:39:00.001-08:00

Since 9/11 the United States has spent half a trillion dollars combating terrorism to safeguard our nation. Now a greater crisis presents itself: the destruction of our planet. The recent United Nation's International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fourth Report released on November 17th urges immediate action. "The Synthesis Report" is the final IPCC report after five years of study concluding that global warming is "unequivocal," temperatures have risen 1.3 F in the last 100 years, and that human activity is largely responsible for warming.

More alarming is that we must act immediately. "If there's no action before 2012, that's too late," said Rajendra Pachauri, head IPCC scientist and economist. "What we do in the next two to three years will determine our future. This is the defining moment."

Why should we quickly respond? This report documents the following: about 20 percent to 30 percent of all plant and animal species face the risk of extinction if temperatures increase 2.7 °F; by 2020. Seventy-five (75) million to 250 million people in Africa will suffer water shortages. Residents of Asia's large cities will be at great risk of river and coastal flooding. Europeans can expect extensive species loss. And North Americans will experience longer and hotter heat waves and greater competition for water. More GHG emissions could bring "abrupt and irreversible" changes, such as the loss of ice sheets in the poles, and a corresponding rise in sea levels by several yards.

Most Americans do not understand what is happening. A tipping point is occurring regarding climate change. This means conditions are getting worse then first reported. Some scientists have stated that even this IPCC report could be out of date as new data continues to come in. There is an alarming amount of new evidence coming from science. For example, there has been a faster than expected increase in industrial development in China and India. Economic growth has stimulated more coal burning than was assumed when this study was first done. Global emissions, largely human based, have grown 70 percent from 1970 to 2004. Eleven of the last 12 years have been the warmest since 1850.

The IPCC chairman, Rajendra Pachauri, said that since the IPCC began work on its current report five years ago, scientists have recorded "much stronger trends in climate change," like a recent melting of polar ice that had not been predicted. "That means you better start with intervention much earlier."

Given this information can we give the benefit of the doubt to this issue of climate change? Is this crisis the most pressing one facing us? It is safe to assume that we determine the fate of our very future. Let's not err!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/17/AR2007111700566.html

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gmt_msqRmih_gwehG7Ri8KGvMe3wD8SVLOQ8

Food- Thoughtless or For Thought

2007-11-24T06:46:00.000-08:00

Today there is a cost for our rich harvest of food. We enjoy foods from the four quarters of the world, yet we have little understanding of the impact from this daily Thanksgiving. When things are out of season, we can go to the other half of the globe to supply us. Also for this abundance of fruits, vegetables, diary products, grains, fish and meats we expand enormous amount of energy and waste. Because of this bounty we are robbing Peter to pay Paul.

A revolution in social consciousness is happening among tens of millions of Americans. Buying organic food is just one of the signs. The average American spends several thousands of dollars on food consumption, which is roughly 9 percent of our gross national product amounting to almost $900 billion dollars. With this astronomical cost in mind, it is important that the United States become more efficient with its processing, packaging, and transporting of food.

And, there are other forms of enormous waste in how we handle our food consumption. One third of all solid waste consists of food packaging. A typical family discards 10 to 15 percent of their food purchases in the form of packaging. Food travels on the average of 1,400 miles before reaching those eating it. Just think of the carbon price we pay to send our food this far?

Meat is a perfect case in point. Not only the amount of water to raise grains in order to feed animals, but an additional millions and millions of gallons of water are polluted by these farm animals that are raised to be dinner. Added to these problems in producing meat products for human consumption are the antibiotics and hormones used to protect the animals from disease (thereby protecting humans as well) and to quicken the process of animal growth.

Another problem caused by the way we make our food production comes from the use of chemicals, additives, preservatives, pesticides, and herbicides intended to kill weeds, insects and other pests. All these measures have dire impact on human health and the health of our environment. The cumulative affect is difficult to calculate. One example alone: Pesticides cost US farmers $4 billion annually to use, are estimated to cause $2-4 billion in health and environmental damages, including an estimated 20,000 cases annually of cancer caused by pesticides.

Some Americans are responding to this crisis by buying food locally and in season. Also, people are buying food in bulk. Citizens are demanding more organic food. Organic farming has become an $8 billion dollar a year industry with sales growing 20-25 percent per year.

We are seeing here in the Shenandoah Valley an emergence of this kind of change. Growing local, more organic food is greatly expanding. The future of how Americans become more conscious of their connection to food means the quicker we are going to help our earth. Americans spend roughly 15 percent of their disposable income on food while compared with Europeans who spend 24 percent of their money.

One web site cites the following
(http://www.foodcarbon.co.uk/carbon_emissions.html):

"In terms of global emissions, agriculture is believed to be responsible for 25% of CO2, 65% of methane and 90% of nitrous oxide emitted. Modern processes such as use of machinery over man and animal power, global trading and increased use of fertilizers and other so called "agro-chemicals" has already made agriculture an energy intensive process in the developed world and is still in the process of doing the same thing in the developing world."

Thousands of scientists say we have to reduce our carbon emissions in the next several decades up to 80 percent. If the U.S. can accomplish this level of reduction, we may well become an example of such frugality to China and India, two countries that are quickly becoming leading users of carbon and food. Our agricultural systems are tied closely to our energy and transportation systems and integrated with the overall food-processing industry. We have to quickly make ingenious plans on how we can best do more with less.

We as a nation can make a difference in changing our agricultural production if we explore our agrarian roots and then find the right context to plant for our future. Time, resources, oil prices and climate change will all play their part.

Another key factor will be how well we can work together, and not separately — a critical issue for our future agricultural prosperity. Success can only happen if we create the proper vision. We have to omit certain luxuries we had in the past. We have to get real and be truthful if we are to pass on an agricultural legacy that will sustain an otherwise growing population of hungry people. Skillful choices will have to made, and much effort will be required so that we can face up to what we will have collectively identified as right choices for the good of all.

We have a crisis on our hands, and we have to generate new ideas about food intake and healthy diet patterns. We have to eat less, plan more, and be ingenious. This kind of awareness is not just food for thought; it is as much about being aware of how thoughtless we may be about our future food.

Hope with Less vs. Hopeless

2007-11-23T12:39:00.000-08:00

To sustain ourselves each day we may plant seeds of hope. Doing so, offers us the power to refresh ourselves from the mental despair we daily have to endure. There are many threats to our world. There are many ways we can be destroyed. Whether it is widespread avian virus killing billions, or an asteroid destroying us, there are numerous possibilities threatening our demise. Whatever the future brings, we have one profound choice regarding ourselves. Either we can be self destructive, or we can be constructive. We are at a crossroads of fostering either hope or despair. If we are to perish as a species, we can face our demise with either grace or cowardice. Believing that we are here for a limited time can be fundamental to how we can lead a happier life. I believe if we can decide to use less, make less, and be more harmless, then, even when we do exit this earth we can leave as guests who gave this place more love then what was here when we came.

2500 United Nation scientists warn that carbon emissions must end in seven years to avoid killing as many as a quarter of the planet's species as a result global warming. This Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that won the 2007 Nobel Prize along with Al Gore, cites that a 3 to 4 degree increase in temperature on our planet represents a matter of life and death to humans and as well as most other living things. These scientific findings are terrifying. They are real possibilities pointing to vast and significant devastation of a wide variety of communities on Earth. Now the question is, can we humans rework our industrial, agricultural, transportation and human processes to cool things down?

We are now in our second planetary climate change era. We know the earth is unstable, and we may experience again what happened 55 million years ago when the planet had its first climatic crisis. Our planet has experienced mass extinction before and it is happening again. We are now realizing that we have met the enemy, and it is us. We need to make concerted global actions, and change the way we as individuals live. The most powerful thing each of us can do is to change our lifestyle and become more graceful.

There is no question that our planet is warming, and as our population explodes, so will our problems. If we can learn to do more with less,we will begin to adapt. Less is the mantra. Less stuff, less worries, less hurry. We are just at the tip of a melting iceberg impacting human souls for a long time. Billions of us are attempting to survive on a few dollars a day. Over a billion people do not have potable water. Yes our past history has been filled with tremendous adversity and unstable weather patterns and events.

Technological solutions will only work if they are complemented by human action in slowing down carbon emissions. We lose the war on waste when we grow out of control. We have to grow up and learn that we can only win the battle by conserving.

What is involved is a shift in perspective that some people find very difficult to do. You can argue that our exploding human population might be considered a positive thing, that with more minds we have a greater possibility of solving our problems. But this is a fallacious argument. A mind set of fighting fire with fire is only rarely successful. It usually just produces more flames. We need to understand there are no simple solutions. More with less is about addressing the issues of population planning. Promoting worldwide birth control addresses a fundamental question, "when is enough too much?"

Creating hope with less is about focusing into the cause of our problems. Developing a solution is complex and difficult because we have to change our culture and our personal habits in many different ways.

Why are these solutions so difficult and complex? First our culture is based on more, not less. Also, we have created an almost invisible addiction to consumption. The way we live is has become ingrained in our brains. We have become habitual in the way we consume. Changing ourselves will inevitably cause us to feel uneasy and uncomfortable. Resistance will be formidable.

Cultural change is something that does not occur easily. Why? Altering personal beliefs and behaviors just does not happen overnight. We are hard wired animals, and to adopt new behaviors requires practice that does not quickly happen. So to change our way of living in accordance with new understandings requires many alterations to be inplace and aligned. Deep change is what is required before such a shift can happen. Individuals with radical ideas are the instruments that revolutionize civilizations.

What is also frightening is the reality that most people tend to rely on others to do what is needed doing in crisis. Relying on the government, elected officials, corporations, and the rich to rescue us, is a perspective beginning to be questioned. And there is a prevailing naïve view that anything man made can also be easily undone. Just as believing that technology will solve our problems so too is this perspective that our salvation will come from our leaders, without much individual struggle and effort on our part a naïve idea.

Some Christian's view the "rapture" as a prospect for saving the "good people," thus removing our troubles is also a notion that must be questioned as perhaps a too simple and easy response. Also, the New Age movement suffers a similar fallacy, believing that some Future Being will show up and give us the answer. One thing is if for sure, if we do not each attempt to save ourselves by using less no one else will.

Hope Comes from Asking the Right Questions and Becoming a Change Agent

The challenge for changing our culture comes most exacerbated by the American Dream mentality, the "American Way of Life." Strong societal pressure defines a way of life. Our democracy has become a"deadocracy" because "we" the people have become "they" the people. Freedom is lacking because Americans have fallen asleep to the concept of responsibility.

We must begin to live with less in order to practice a more sustainable way of life. This is not an especially new idea. People have been doing it since ancient times. Such earth-based wisdom is what we need to return to. And we are better equipped today in understanding how we are all interconnected, a part of a greater web of life in which all things as sacred.

Can we awaken to ways that are nurturing and healing, rather than controlling and punishing? Are not humans and the natural systems inter-penetrated and interdependent, and not separate? Can we develop a synergistic lifestyle combining cultural, religious, and economic systems into a sustaining of abundance in our natural environment?Failing to protect this world for future generations and all of life,we will go insane, falling into a state of permanent hopelessness that will destroy us as if we were infected by a psychological virus. But if we can grow the new thinking to the point of a critical mass of people filled with hope and determination, we can achieve the new way of viewing the world, and thereby maintain a future for human populations well into the future.

Hope is powerful idea. Without our new world-view, everything deteriorates. Each one of us acting in concert can alter our culture. Our governments or our corporations cannot accomplish this. A grass roots prescription is our only real hope. Less is more. Ingenuity and creativity are seeds for our future. We have to get out of this book of "status quo" and experiment with many solutions in innovative ways beyond what we know.

We must shift from a culture of "information" to one of "wisdom." The wisdom we apply to the issues of practice and sustainability will come about when we act out of the inspired idea of the sacredness of all things.

We have a choice. We can give up, and believe our situation is hopeless, or we can exercise hope and practice living with less. No matter the outcome the only thing that matters is what each one of us does with our life. We have the ability to create our own heaven or hell depending on how we relate to all things. We use them either in a sacrilegious or sacred way.

Uniting Heart and Mind

2007-11-02T14:29:00.001-07:00

Let us celebrate a new stage in our journey Oneness. We are at the point of merging our creative and rational aspects. Our very spiritual survival is at stake. As we become more intimate with our surroundings and ourselves we can experience a richer level of wisdom. Integrating the intuitive with the logical self is a life-long challenge.

There are many times when how I feel and what I think are in conflict within me. Sometimes I get far too deeply into my head, and forget to have my feet touching the ground. Bridging the right brain with the left brain is a balancing act.

Recently a friend posed a challenging question to me: "How do you market clean water to the public in some tangible way?" This inquiry raised many insights for me. How do you take something that appears to be no more than an idea and reframe it into a physical act? People may not be inclined to save water until they run out of it. Waiting to the last second to do something, is being reactive. To be proactive we must constantly reexamine our relationship to our world. The mysterious puzzle we call life, is about seeing all the intricate connections and the ways we all can re-connect.

It is remarkable to observe the emotional issues of what water means to different people. How do we reconcile our feelings about clean water with our rational side? For example, the situation of four consistent years of fish-kills here on the Shenandoah River where I live, upsets me at deep level.

At such times, simply for the sake of self-protection, I am apt to divorce my emotions from affecting my rational mind. But when I bury my feelings, it hurts later. Our minds are tricky. Think about how we rationalize and intellectualize out of a very complicated defense system. We have spent years protecting and fortifying our egos.

Making our dreams become reality is difficult when our heart is in one place and our mind is in another. In Eastern cultures, heart and mind are one. The very root definition of courage comes from this union. A true awakening into the nature of our mind is the only way for us to become liberated from our manipulating ego-response mechanism. This is a huge challenge, which sooner or later, before we die, we must confront. The thought of death, with its matching emotions, can do much to get us to the bottom-line of what is truly important. Facing the issue of death is such a humbling and purifying experience. Attempting a deeper examination in regard to our mortality, helps to transform personal attitudes.

We are a society filled with information; but this does not necessarily translate into much of a vision. Yes, we have also sorts of knowledge; but this does not mean we are wiser, just better educated. For me, nothing substitutes life experience. At the present I believe the people of this country are awakening to how they feel, and are attempting to integrate their feelings with their minds.

Venturing into our psyche requires an extraordinary effort. It takes courage to explore below the surface of things and go deeper into areas were the average person might not feel comfortable. A shift in this journey comes when we can awaken from our fears and allow a sense of compassion to come forward that will lead us to greater self-actualization. Once we feel whole instead of feeling separate, we know then that our brain and our heart have aligned.

Today, it seems our society is moving faster and faster. Increased population and more technological development; has caused overwhelming pressures. Many things from economic pressures to simple daily challenges are overwhelming people. Also, we have become a heady society, spending most of our time in our minds and less time feeling what is going on in our bodies. This shift is a source of much of our suffering and self-destructive tendencies. When we lose sight of out true self, not only do we become blind but we delude our very soul. Such delusion can cause serious mental breakdown and disease.

Where or when does the surf meet the turf when it comes to balancing our intuition with our rational mind? We have become a society addicted to facts and science in one sense, but in another how we feel truly rules us. If we begin to foster great insight we will find a treasure chest of new ways to view our world and how we can relate to it. Such exploration—better observing what is going on—can lead us to a harmonious understanding of how everything is interconnected, not disconnected.

We are at the threshold of new possibilities when we can find new approaches to merging our hearts with our minds. This holistic process brings us unity allowing us more balance and greater peace of mind/body. Keeping our creative and rational selves separated from each other causes much suffering. See for yourself whether this is true. Check within and sense if things are disconnected and have no relationship with each other. This is the ultimate inquiry.

Why unite our hearts with our minds? All of us want to belong and we long for ways to become more intimate. Does not everyone want to feel alive? Merging together our creative and our rational sides makes us whole, not fragmented or compartmented. Everything in life is interdependent and connected in some way, shape or form. Simply, this venture comes down to loving oneself and knowing that all things are one and the same. Finding the One in all things instead of the sum of the parts takes practice. We live in a culture that promotes individuality, independence, and many concepts that divide instead of join.

It takes boundless heart to make this journey of integration. And it requires one to be vulnerable, allowing one to tamper with one's defense shield. However, if we can find the inspiration and intention of our passion, we can shed light on the darkness that haunts us. As Shakespeare said, "Cowards die many times." I say, "It is time to remove ourselves from fear of death. It is time to fully live life!" Some would say two brains are better then one. This notion brings to mind a phrase from E.E. Cummings, which I choose to paraphrase – "benighted states of hysteria."

May you become more intimate discovering your integrated self and celebrate the joy of this journey. Courage becomes evident only when we quiet our mind and listen to our heart. Let us connect the "h" from the end of the word earth with the "h" in front of the word heart—"eartheart"—since they are one and the same!

Peace Now

2007-10-28T13:42:00.000-07:00

The most important thing I struggle with in my life is to become peaceful with myself. War in our world begins at home. For me, I must welcome unconditional surrender, and lessen how I create my own suffering. When I embrace my shadows, and cultivate inner kindness, inner peace becomes more possible. I find that I must accept, not resist, what is true. Showing up and dealing with my issues works much better for me then avoiding them. However, knowing when it is a good time to address my inner demons is something that takes skill. Being kind with myself is a work in constant progress. Just because I feel uncomfortable does not mean I must run from things. Sometimes my cowardice comes back to haunt me. Nurturing a deeper soulful relation with myself, I will be able to become whole and happy. I can find more pleasure with my life when I find how to perform a careful examination of what truly causes me discomfort and how to best address it. This critical development is all about healing, praying, spending time in nature and finding friends to support me.

Such an inner transformation has profound implications for the outer physical work we must constantly be reminded to do. Violence and war in our outer work is so prevalent. Even though we may be in a serene setting such things as the way we drive our cars, talk to one another or even run around conveys bellicose acts.

After much searching and exploring the source of my despair I have realized one thing. All I can do is cultivate my own peace and lead by example . Without some understanding of myself my problems and the world's problems will not go away. I write this struggling with my own life and future. My self education is not just about becoming better at what I do but to address my most fundamental challenge, what I fear most in myself. I cannot find peace if I do not go into myself and see or become more intimate with my soul. What truly is intimacy? Intimacy means to me that I must trust myself and come closer to what is true. Such familiarity calls for many forms of spiritual practice.

The more I can embrace my stress and anxiety as well as the world's, the more harmonious I live. Without my individual awakening to the separation between myself and the world, only suffering occurs, and I sense that our own fears will haunt us until we address them. Only then can the possibility of peace begin.

To find my peace in the world, I must remember to constantly practice inner peace. Developing this mental calm comes through accumulating both understanding and knowledge to keep myself strong in the face of dissatisfaction, stress, or anxiety. Being "at peace" keeps me in better health, and without being "at peace" the opposite happens, and I experience unhealthy stress and anxiety.

There are many forms of violence from which to learn. One of the greatest terrors is how we disconnect ourselves from our world. We humans are part of, not separate from, the other 30 million diverse species on this planet. Can we acknowledge that ultimately the land owns us; we do not own it? The more we all can search our souls to live in harmony the greater we counter the hysteria of terror. We now are at the crossroads to either respect or disregard our delicate world. Just the simple act of caring or showing kindness has a tremendous ripple effect. Each one of us must cultivate more compassionate relationships because we all share the same future. Can we as a people have the courage to find deeper truths and explore what is calling for attention?

We must invest in non-violence and more sustainable ways so to support the cultivation not the devastation of land, cultures, indigenous people, species, and ecosystems. Can we shift our culture that depletes to one that replenishes? Finally, non-violence must be also promoted in our media since the press must be careful not to reinforce further violence.

Our prosperity on this tiny planet will only continue when we develop a renewed respect for what we have here and now. Certainly we must show tough love and protect ourselves from those wishing to harm us. Non-violent action will happen when together we pray, meditate and work towards future life. If we can shift from a society that supports violence to one that fosters peace then we may develop a new sense of hope over the despair and alienation many of us feel.

We will continue to be tormented until we come together with kinder acts that benefit all things on this fragile Earth. We are no longer separate individuals but a part of a greater whole. We must now act with grace to behold what we have been blessed with. Our freedom will only flourish when we evolve from our own personal interests to a global effort to insure our survival. This earth and we are both one and the same. Suffering is no fun. I must remember ways to listen, have faith, relax, show grace and celebrate my boundless heart. By accepting what is, and changing what I can, I liberate myself and enter a peaceful place.

"Each one has to find his peace from within. And peace to be real must be unaffected by outside circumstances." - Mahatma Gandhi

There are countless ways for us to discover how to be at peace. The following are several examples:

1. Cultivate thoughts and actions that respect's life with reverent reflection and mindful action.

2. Learn new ways to cherish, not destroy things. Explore the self-concept of less "me" and act as more of a holistic "we".

3. Remember to observe my relationships instead of judging them.

4. Learning to apply an attitude of being "with" instead of "against" in the appropriate settings. Learn that in death we embrace life's new possibility.

5. Enjoying each moment with wonder and care.

6. Appreciating life's harmony and interrelationships.

7. Accepting blessings curses, loss, adversity and success as the same.

8. To love all things including oneself with divine reverence.

9. "Praying together" instead of "preying on others" by learning to build bridges instead of walls and speak to what can be of mutual benefit.

10. Awaken in my meditation by breathing in compassion and exhaling pain, frustration, exhaustion, anger, or disappointment.

11. Focus and accept the "right now" with what is right, not what is wrong.

12. Practice showing my love for all things, sharing my joy and seeing that life is balanced by the positive and the negative.

Why Conservation Matters

2007-10-26T09:15:00.000-07:00

Why does conserving make a difference? If our nation is to become greener we also most become leaner. Simply put, if we wish to prosper we need to become ingenious and waste less. Every time we become thrifty we celebrate a new American Revolution. Not only are we emulating Paul Revere, the silver recycler, and George Washington, the composter, we are showing respect for all our relations as do our Native Americans. Conservation matters because new Natives now wish to renew this value, namely, that saving our land is paramount to everything we believe in.

It is time we defined what tough love is, and start to insure that we take care of ourselves by being tough with ourselves. The question is, can we change our destructive consumerist patterns? Can Americans awaken to the idea that economics is about saving, not wasting things? Is it possible for conservatives and liberals to work together to lessen, not increase our waste? I believe the answer is yes. However we must go through a form of emotional recovery to discover why we indulge in this present insane culture of consumption.

It is all about ecology and economy. "Eco" comes from the Greek meaning house and it is time to do some serious cleaning both inside and out. A new prosperous frontier awaits America if we can revolt and become thrifty, and not just be consumers.

I have been fortunate to be a participant in several conservation tipping points, and I have observed that Americans can change self-destructive habits. Ironically, we have the hardware and the physical ability to change our habits, but somehow our mental software is impaired. Our conditioned habits rule us without regard for our larger body, the earth.

It is evident that both government and capitalism are addicted to consuming. In order for us to begin the process of recovery, we must develop some market-based controls for wasteful greed. We must provide incentive to save. The Federal government must be the first to change this "use it or lose it" way of going about its fiscal business, before we go out of business. For example, Congressman Waxman cited on February 7, 2007, " Who in their right mind would send 363 tons of cash into a war zone." Another instance of mismanagement is the case in which our $1 billion contract to train Iraqi police has little or no oversight in the form of receipts for work done. We must champion best management practices and create cost controls and good asset accounting.

Maybe we should label ourselves anxious consumers, and start an Anxiety Anonymous program modeled after other successful treatment programs of addiction. I am a 50-year old white American male committed to recovery. I have spent most of my life in the Washington DC area, and have observed that this region is the universal champion of waste. Our nation's capitol shows a regional carbon footprint that uses more materials than the whole nation of Sweden whose population is 23% larger. We have a "design to waste" governmental policy of spending wastefully known by insiders as "use it or lose it."

No other society has ever wasted more, and has affected our environment so much by rapacious acts of consumption. Our challenge now is how do we become better accountable, how do we manage our dwindling supplies of resources. We have created impending disaster by not becoming natural capitalists.

For more than fifty years, we have been mindless consumers, but now we are offered the choice to be more mindful conservers. In the last half century our population has doubled. The harmful use and disposal of our resources needs to be called into question, especially by our federal government. Why is this so important? Our consumerist driven society has created serious consequences affecting future generations, and the fate of other living creatures and plant life. We must awaken to the curse human impact has wrought upon the earth. We must come to see life and the earth that nourishes life as a blessing and not an object to exploit. Recognizing these blessings, we are able to experience the great harmony that exists in the intricate web of life.

One perfect example of how we must become more accountable is how we can best manage the by-products of energy. For example, America must improve all aspects of how we use and dispose of oil. Americans use 20,730,000 barrels per day¹ One trillion gallons of oilfield waste are injected into deep wells each year in the U.S. As auto consumers, we yearly throw away 400 million gallons of used oil and 300 million oil filters in the United States. We comprise less than 5 percent of the world's population, but consume 25 percent of all oil produced. Our present usage of fossil fuels makes us appear more like fossil fools.

America has become the prime example throughout the globe of wasteful behavior. Our excessive consumption has created a tidal wave of environmental destruction, transcending our borders and directly impacting the health and prosperity of people of all over this planet. Only when we can address the issues of human needs and environmental needs by integrating them into a natural symbiosis can we achieve political and economic stability. Once we walk our talk, we can once again win the diplomatic respect of the global community, at last showing that American democracy works.

I estimate Americans use, discard and recycle more than 17 billion tons of waste, not including nuclear and hazardous waste. There is an "out of sight, out of mind" violence happening in our "waste mentality" culture. This "out of sight" attitude threatens our very well being, a form of waste that hides itself in many ways. We must detect the consequences by tracking waste more completely and responsibly. Yes, more people recycle than vote in the U.S., but we still tend to value "ending" over "mending." I am not just talking about appliances, but people, places and things. Our very freedom is in question until we awaken from the nightmarish myth that we have a limitless supply of goods, and the right to do whatever we wish, which ultimately brings harm to others—for the most part outside of our awareness.

Yankee ingenuity must be reborn. There are millions of kind acts we can do that show we care for this land. We can bike or walk instead of drive. We can fill up the empty spaces in our refrigerators with bottles of water thereby reducing our electricity requirements—and our electricity bill as well. Water from our roofs can be captured in rain barrels for watering our plants. Promoting sustainable economic growth by transforming waste is an investment in our happiness. What we do affects our planet, and also impacts our very spirit.

Can we see that our natural resources are not separate from us but interconnected with human life? Without one we will not have the other. Yes conservation matters, and so does the America spirit. We are innovators who can improve our environment thus stimulate life-affirming and life- enhancing choices.

Conserving, preserving and protecting our environment is tied to the very notion of human excellence. Americans can demonstrate their virtue and make our human experience flourish by promoting a healthier relationship with our planet. Just the simple act of riding a bicycle instead of driving a car serves to better our world. Any choice that can lessen the threat of further habitation fragmentation and biodiversity loss is an investment in the future of our resources. Therefore, any way we can better this planet directly betters ourselves.

In this exciting time we can both give by conserving and receive by consuming. However, we must show respect for what we use, and if we pollute we must directly pay. Bury now pay latter is wrong. Our actions must show a new eloquence in our use resources for the sake of our future. We must connect and create wholesome feedback loops not to just change our behavior but to plant seeds rather than casting despair.

Our very freedom is in question until we awaken from the myth that we have a limitless supply of goods. Presently, the total wealth of the United States amounts to $70 trillion dollars. Congressman Ron Paul cites the impossibility of funding Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and prescription drug insurance, in total amounting to $71 trillion dollars. We must awaken from the error of spending what we do not have. This mismanagement takes many forms.

Let's show we respect our community and manage our resources more safely and thereby give hope to our world. In return we find such leadership gives us greater freedom and a peace of mind. Responsible action equates to greater possibilities. Creating sustainable business is a critical democratic challenge demonstrating that conservation matters.

Please question our culture of "effluent affluence" and take responsibility for your actions. We, the people, will only prosper if we become truly conservative and economical. A rich life does not necessarily translate into a richer life if we spoil future opportunities without better and more frugal management. Let's enjoy our life and profit from conserving so as to pass on a wonderful legacy for future generations.

Notes from Natural Capitalism
Hawken, Lovins, & Lovins 1999 Little,Brown

Natural capitalism as if living systems mattered (p 9)
* Environment is not minor factor of production.
* Economic development depends on natural capital to continue life-supporting services.
* Badly designed business systems, population growth and wasteful patterns of consumption are primary causes of loss of natural capital.
* Economic progress and sustainable economy relies on all forms of capital fully valued.
* Key to benefit people, money and environment is radical increases in resource productivity.
* Human welfare is best served by improving the quality and flow of desired services delivered.
* Economic and environmental sustainability depends on redressing global inequities of income and material well being.
* The best long-term environment for commerce is provided by true democratic systems of governance that are based on the needs of people rather than business.
Four central strategies of natural capitalism: 1) radical resource productivity; 2) biomimicry; 3) service and flow economy; and 4) investing in natural capital (pg 10)

¹CIA World Factbook, June 14, 2007

Why I Cultivate Gratitude

2007-10-22T10:51:00.000-07:00

Appreciation allows me to walk a path of tremendous love and respect. Counting my blessings becomes a gift that keeps on sustaining me. Nothing can be more rejuvenating for me than expressing gratefulness for all the ways this life has been kind to me. Just maintaining a state of gratefulness re-energizes me, and moves me to shift my attitude so that I look for the silver lining in every cloud. Instead of looking at things as a curse, I can see them as the blessing they truly are.

The power of gratitude leads me to a greater sense of purpose, and a richer life. Invoking appreciation gives me a profound sense of joy, and links me with all things, filling me with a sense of harmony and well being.

This harmonious connection with life awakens in me the understanding that everything in my world is only alive in the present moment. As I empty myself of ego preoccupations with the past, and concerns over the future, I am truly awake to the moment, and in such times, I find in myself a feeling of greater compassion for my fellows. The act of compassionate gratitude is a form of stewardship that allows me to be more sensitive and respectful of people and nature. I become mindful and deal with all things in a sacred way. Cultivating this kind of relationship with life fosters a sense of devotion and divinity.

Appreciation creates for me a more wholesome mindset that reconnects me to the things I value most. Living this way creates a greater sense of possibility and freedom. My feeling of gratitude expands when I reflect on how all things must be respected. And I feel more humble as I observe the mysterious spirit of this world.

Exercising my gratitude is a wake-up call for me to remember what matters most. We live in a critical time, and how we can best deal with it comes into question. Awakening to how we can see each moment with a clear mind, as a new event, is an action I would define as "the attitude of gratitude." This approach not only liberates us from suffering, we become more mindful of the possibility of being truly open to all possibilities.

What do I appreciate right now? Can I hear the birds singing outside? Can I simply enjoy hearing my own heartbeat? How grateful am I to all those things life on this planet has given me? Do I cherish the food, shelter and other gifts? Let's say I have just moments to live, would I count my blessings? What would I wish to do to give my thanks? The very nature of my entire life and my liberation comes down to embracing these questions.

It seems much of my life has been enslaved by my unconscious acts. When I am only partially aware of my actions, I am truly as if asleep, and thus in some way imprisoned. My mind does one thing while my emotions feel conflicted because my decisions come from fear rather than from love. Where can I find the courage to change and allow my soul to become liberated? How can I learn to keep in mind that all things will pass, and to let go of my material world? To remember such a simple thing like coming home to the appreciation of life here and now, is the art I wish to cultivate. Today's world makes it so easy to fall into darkness. Why is that I am unconsciously afraid of allowing the greater light in? Am I paying attention to my senses? Or I am held captive by a self-destructive story of shame and loathing? Can I remember to listen not just to my own body but that greater one that connects all things? Reverence for this earth opens the door to my happiness and freedom.

To be free, I must change my various behaviors and attitudes that imprison me with negative and unwholesome consequences. Sticken thinken and paralysis analysis are the various ways I have recycled my past to curse my future. Only in the present moment I can pause and take a new course down a road toward light instead of journey off a cliff.

Next by relaxing and enjoying this changing process of becoming, seeing it as a labor of love, I can open myself to boundless potentials. Trusting in this PRO (Pause, Relax and Open) process, there is the emerging belief I will give birth to many magical possibilities, and not fall back to the same old I-am-the-victim, or the poor-me mindset. Just becoming enlightened enough to stop "should-ing" myself can be a wonderful first step.

I have the freedom to fully appreciate my life when I practice loving friendliness. This comes about only if I am mindful and exercise right intention to transform an abiding gratitude into action. How I train my mind to greet all beings and events with loving kindness, provides me with the opportunity of changing a curse into a blessing. First by identifying the various ways I create ill will, anger and judgment, and doing something positive about making a change in my attitude—only then do I have the chance to liberate myself. This is a form of action I call radical acceptance, and it can only happen when I constantly observe what is of benefit to all. By awakening to wholesome mind states, I can best go forth. And more, I will require patience to mindfully change some old habits and patterns. Finally, I have to show more tender loving care and forgiveness to my self as I engage in this transformational process.

So I return again to appreciation, and I count my blessings and take note of what I have in my life to be grateful for. When I awaken and show reverence through these actions, I prosper. Gratitude for me is about cultivating four skillful things:

*Showing up in the present moment.
*Paying attention to what has heart and meaning!
*Giving a positive voice to what I see!
*Remaining open to all possibilities while being unattached to outcome!

Appreciation is both a loving and a kind method of being with profound affects and effects. Developing my appreciation purifies me and offers me a sense of greater peace, and freedom. It's amazing how gratitude spreads when you're just grateful.

Coming Home to Nature

2007-10-12T06:21:00.000-07:00

We live in a time in which we must find greater ways to mend our souls. Healing occurs for me when I become more intimate with nature. Feeling the soft earth beneath my feet renews my soul. When I venture outside and discover the wonder of the universe, I feel more whole. Such visits into the wild both refreshes and rejuvenates my spirit. A journey into a forest under a canopy of trees or to a local watershed provides me with a growing sense of well being.

Insights come to me from many non-ordinary experiences when I am in nature. I transcend ordinary perceptual boundaries. Being in nature connects me to the spirit of being. Otherwise, I am lost in a culture of affluence and effluence. In nature, I find comfort from sensing how my ancestors lived long ago. Just the simple act of digging into the ground and doing yard work while surrounded by the woods around my home does much to lessen my anxiety.

Another way I find refuge in the mystery of the wild is to listen to the subtle sounds of the woods. Whether it is the wind going through the trees, or the birds chirping—these and many other reminders awaken me to magical moments of being here on the earth. Nature is my ultimate teacher. I am a part of nature; it is truly who I am. I am not separate, but rather a part of this world in which all things are tied together by air, water, soil and flesh.

My pilgrimage is to seek silence and stillness. I know it is hard work to quiet my mind. However, aligning myself to the invisible world does much to allow me some quiet sanity. Civilization can burden my soul, but I can remedy this by forgiving, and purifying.

My mind grows quiet in tranquil woods. I am comforted by its mystery. Yes, I am constantly challenged seeing the earth's destruction and despair. Yet, when I embrace the maladies of the world as being just a part of my own impermanent life, I gain a sense of inner renewal. And how I face the prospect of death allows me a sense of greater life because of how nature teaches me. Balance comes to me when I go beyond my thinking mind, and venture into the universe of my heart. For whatever happens in the future, I can make the best out of the present by appreciating all that this life shares with me now.

Meaning in my life comes from nature. If I wish to have a meaningful life I must observe everything that is connected with nature. Time spent outside is like an electric plug that recharges my spiritual battery. Consciousness arises all around me and within me, allowing me to experience the web of life, and to see how all that I relate to is so closely interconnected. As I breathe in and out, I know that this Universal Life Force, which ties all things together just as a spider weaves its web, interconnects all things.

This expanded awareness awakens in me the question of how I can skillfully respect the sacredness of nature and its "wilderness." Sacred observing provides me with grace, and a feeling of harmony. Simply put, the woods provide me with a portal to boundless healing.

At any moment I am susceptible to inattentiveness—and then at such time, something great is lost from my world. But if I listen deeply, I can hear my soul calling. It invites me to visit a forest, or walk along a sandy shore—find a place of calm in the wild. When I remember that I am not a separate being, that indeed I am part of the interconnectedness of life, then my feverishness subsides.

John Muir once said, "By going outward, I am going in." All beings have a sacred link to our green world. Going outside begins the most sacred ritual. As I become more intimate with my earth, I return to my beloved home.

Saving Not Wasting Our Nation's Capital

2007-10-03T09:50:00.000-07:00

It is safe to assume Washington D.C. region now creates greater waste then anywhere in the history of our planet. Last Sunday’s Washington Post article in the Metro section, “D.C Area Outpaces Nations in Pollution,” was more than coincidental. The federal budget cycle for 2006 that day just ended and Americans have no idea to all the different ways we stimulate discarding.

The Washington area not only produces more carbon dioxide than Sweden, Denmark and Finland but our government stimulates the most significant global loss of resources. For example, the District of Columbia and other government’s budgets are based on the principle of “use it or loose it.” Government must shift from this behavior of consuming more to understanding performance is measured by output over input.

The fed’s are the largest consumer of goods and services in the world producing a buying power yearly exceeding 25 European Union nations. Just look at one department protecting us. The Congressional Budget office cited that funding in homeland security have more than doubled in the first two years after the attacks from $20-$40 billion dollars. Contrast this with the fact we invest a fraction of one percent money on how we conserve resources. Wise economy and world security is all about the path of discovery around recovery.

There are no exact figures or comprehensive methods of determining of how much our region wastes. Each year Americans use, discard and recycle more than 17 billion tons of waste. This does not include how we create tens of thousands of incentives to waste. Improved feedback in how we can reutilize our discards may stimulate a frontier of economic development. Developing market mechanisms to conserve is just one avenue minimize our carbon footprint.

The good news is that more Washingtonians are recognizing that becoming more environmentally efficient improves our well-being. Now that the insurance industry predicts climate change is caused by people, citizens went to feel better about their impact by using less stuff. Also, as we prevent pollution, we also reward ourselves and profit our country. Saving our land, air and water has many implications besides just peace of mind for our future generations. Better managing and accounting for our nation’s eco-capital must become “tenor” not the “terror” of our time. Let's recover our nation's capital by saving things instead of ending them.

Green Tennis

2007-06-21T06:38:00.000-07:00

Tennis and revolutions have a long history. Taken on a tennis court near the Palace of Versailles during the French Revolution, "The Tennis Court Oath"(serment du jeu de paume) was a solemn collective vow by French deputies to continue to meet despite a royal prohibition to do so until a constitution had been written. Today an even more violent revolution is happening-seemingly irreversible and dramatic climate change impacts due to the human footprint upon this planet. Perhaps a newer version of "Tennis Court Oath" needs to be taken-"We swear never to separate ourselves from our connection with nature, and to reassemble whenever circumstances require, until responsible environmental best practices are enacted in the realm of tennis and fixed upon solid foundations." Our many diversions and games offer us all a playful and entertaining manner in which to respond to these challenges those future generations and we must endure. Play is an essential component of our innate humaneness. Conservation is an essential component our collective survival. People who enjoy tennis can all lessen their impact through three key "R" actions:

"Reduction" of pollutants
"Reusing" resources
"Recycling" of waste
Environmental initiatives such as energy and water conservation and renewable energy sourcing can take numerous creative forms. Since environmental issues are becoming more apparent, the potential for the game of tennis to become greener is expanding. The "tennis industry" can only diminish its carbon footprint through a sustainable game plan that leads by example. What's more there are considerable public relations benefits to attract more people to the game if tennis can demonstrate that it champions conservation.

Some assume that tennis's environmental impact is not significant compared to other sports. Did you know that most tennis balls are made out of recycled rubber and that asphalt is the leading recycled product in the U.S. with an impressive 80% recycling rate? Golf, seemingly the greenest of sports, has been linked to pesticides issues, habitat destruction and water shortages on a large scale. The various golf associations and stakeholders have addressed these issues through several dedicated environmental organizations and technical developments. It's hard being green--every sport has some environmental implications. However, there are simple conservation measures and best management practices that enhance sustainability. There are ways to become more mindful and to lessen ecological impacts. There are many examples simply in new lighting products that both prevent pollution as well as diminishing the cost to the consumer.

So as global resources dwindle and government regulations increase, the tennis industry can certainly benefit by implementing measures that support more sustainable and renewable energy, minimize the use of raw materials, and reduce ecological damage. Tennis is played for many reasons, among them for better health: if the players benefit from improved health, they can also help to improve the health of our environment.

There are modest financial incentives to encourage more environmentally responsible behavior. Current environmental trends are pressuring the public to become more and more aware about the uses of energy and other resources. As in tennis there will be "winners" and "losers" depending on what current practices in the industry are adopted.

There are emerging sectors (e.g. green building) that provide rating systems of how they may become carbon neutral. It is not unimaginable that there may be some sort of ingenious 'green scoring' criteria developed in the future to provide useful feedback and to encourage responsible environmental management.

Energy

Tennis infrastructures such as clubs and stadiums can undertake simple energy audits to better protect and insulate these structures. Modest investments, with short- or long-term ROI, can be explored. Long-term investments that require more money, such as solar panels, wind turbines, or other renewable energy technologies may be also evaluated depending upon the needs and interests of facility managers and owners, as well as users. Let's simply focus on the area of lighting. Lighting consumes up to 20% of our home energy use and up to 30% of our workplace electricity expenditure. Nevertheless changing to more efficient lighting must be addressed in a comprehensive manner. For example, mercury is an essential ingredient in energy-efficient lighting and long-lasting light bulbs. Computer monitors and lamps, when thrown away, can discharge mercury and other toxins into the environment. Fluorescent and high-intensity discharge (HID) lamps also contain mercury. We know mercury is a potent nerve toxin that damages the brain, liver, and kidneys and causes developmental disorders in children. Lamp manufacturers have reduced the use of mercury over the years. One hundred fluorescent lamps contain approximately 4 grams of mercury. If improperly handled or disposed of, mercury lamps contribute significantly to mercury emissions.

Light-emitting diode (LED) is a 45-year-old technology that delivers no heat output and delivers an average of 32 lumens of light, and LED bulbs burn about 50 times as long as the average incandescent bulb. Recent university research and other technical advancements are expected to contribute to LEDs replacing incandescent light bulbs in the next five to seven years.

Reducing, Reusing and Recycling Waste

Innovative procurement of environmentally friendly products can lessen waste by bulk purchase of products made from recycled materials or reused and refurbished goods. While making recycling easier by collecting all recyclables in one receptacle can increase participation, it can also increase contamination. There are many types of successful recycling programs all over the US that have demonstrated they can be simple as well as cost-effective.

Many tennis facilities recycle beverage containers and paper. Expanding these enterprises to concentrate on greater tonnage materials and disposal of toxins (e.g. paints, cleaners, etc.) is a great next step. Event recycling initiatives have proven to be successful depending upon the size and location of a tournament. However, truly green events require support by both the staff and public. It is essential to put the horse before the cart-concentrate on reduction and then on reuse. Creating attractive opportunities to recycle in an uncomplicated manner can be also explored. Proper design, planning, and implementation require good materials and skilful communications in order to muster public support. Reuse is in action in all four major tennis tournaments since they have permanent restaurants that use china, glass and silverware-not paper and plastic.

A number of tour events have a waste collection system involving more than one bin, so recyclable items are separated by the user. Many of these are in western European countries where environmental awareness has been prevalent for a couple of decades, and where the city authorities have established the rules.

Lawn Care

Lawn management design makes a huge difference because collectively our lawns-home, business, or sporting venues--impact significantly on water bodies. If you rely on a lawn service to maintain your lawns or use a landscaper, please request them to become more mindful of good conservation practices and help them become better stewards. In proper lawn management, grass clippings do not need to be removed from the lawn (this is termed "grass cycling"). However if grass clippings are collected and composted, they should be mixed with other yard waste to provide bulk and a proper ratio of two important plant nutrients, carbon and nitrogen (C/N). Otherwise, the clippings may compact and restrict airflow in the compost pile and cause unpleasant odors as well as noxious bacteria. Improper lawn maintenance can result in excessive lawn fertilization and is a significant source of nutrient pollution to our water bodies. So developing and implementing home nutrient-reduction strategies is critical. Better-managed lawns would reduce the amount of excess nutrients entering our water bodies and improve water quality.

Landscape Design

Take steps to replace under-utilized lawn areas or areas where grass does not grow well with other vegetation, mulch or even rocks. Savvy tree planting with good environmental planning can help reduce runoff and save on cooling costs to your home or workplace. Xerescaping or designing gardens that minimize water use is another option.

Other Opportunities

Water conservation is becoming essential in more arid locations and facilities are exploring new low-water consumption technologies. Such emerging technologies include underground watering for soft courts, waterless urinals, and water flow restrictors on showerheads and taps. Also water reuse is becoming popular where recycled water is used for lawn irrigation or water barrels used to collect roof rainwater.

Going Forth

There are many other ways to conserve and be green tennis players. The above just gives you some ideas to begin with. Developing greater incentives to be green is critical just as keeping score in tennis is critical too.

As climate change takes hold and it gets warmer, it would be wise for the tennis community to become greener and less brown. There are a number of actions that can be taken now at club/facility level, regional level, and national level and globally. The more tennis players who awake to become lean and green the healthier our game will grow. May you enjoy the many "happy returns" of taking care of yourself and our planet both on and off the courts!

* The writer and broadcaster Chris Bowers is currently working on tennis's first formal research into the sport's environmental impact, and will be reporting his results at the International Tennis Federation's third Tennis Science and Technology congress in September.

A Cool Idea to Plant Trees

2007-06-21T06:28:00.000-07:00

Our country is at its greatest when we see that people are in trouble and we respond by giving a hand making our world a better place. Today we Americans are in environmental trouble and need help ourselves The time is perfect to engage in Americans of all walks to plant trees. Whether citizens wish to lessen global warming or to beautify a neighborhood, people long to show they care. What better way to bring our community together then attract people from the city, suburbs and the countryside united in planting trees for our future. Also such a campaign (i.e. Be Cool, Plant Trees) can join groups, organizations, governments, businesses of all facets to come together celebrating that by planting trees. The results is we both enriched people an experience in saving our land and investing in our psychic well being.

What better way to make this dream become real then to plant a tree. If every citizen can be offered the privilege to help the land what possibility can America demonstrate their love for this country. There is no better time or need then to challenge America of all walks to get their shovel out and plant trees. Global warming, water pollution control, involving youth in civilian conservation and other benefit can be experience if we can create the opportunity to make this a reality.

Planting trees conserve energy, reduce stormwater run-off, beautify surroundings, and create additional community and socio-economic benefits. There are other invaluable resources developed ─ our youth and the link that preserving our land helps our collective well-being.

Let’s learn from history and activate American youth to preserve their outdoors and plant new life. Children planting trees directly invests them to importance of future conservation work and the importance of public service.

To celebrate the 75^th Anniversary of the creation of the CCC, The Corps Network and the CCC Legacy Foundation will launch a campaign to raise awareness of the CCC, modern Corps and the benefits of planting trees to society and the environment. This campaign will include an event on CCC Day, March 31^st, 2008, and will conclude on Public Lands Day in September of 2008. Throughout the campaign Service and Conservation Corps and other partners will complete a variety of tree planting projects and hold local media events that bring together CCC alumni with the Corps members of today. This campaign will also be linked to The Corps Network’s federal policy efforts to engage more young people, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds, on public lands.

In the process of our efforts we may also invite other organizations into a nation-wide tree planting campaign concentrating on children and others to pay tribute by a challenge, “two billion trees planting in the next five years to help reforest America of trees because of the formation of the CCC. Exploring additional efforts can further promote our mission is to get children involved in conservation activities so to benefit from this rich legacy of direct experience in showing respect for our natural resources.

The CCC served as a catalyst to develop the very tenants of modern conservation. By investigating dynamic partnerships with diverse organizations our efforts maybe can further promote this tree planting campaign. For example uniting all together tree planting activities in American today can be as simple as developing an umbrella interactive web site networking all the efforts into one national and promotional outreach program.

Similar to Johnny Appleseed, Franklin Delano Roosevelt when he first became elected established the CCC, the single greatest conservation movement in history. His love for trees and getting the young outdoors to save the land, FDR commented was getting them to become shareholders in our country’s future.

In closing, by developing this Be Cool, Plant Trees campaign we can tap inspirational leaders to champion this endeavor. History teaches us the power of once again motivating citizens results in an wildfire effect. However instead of destroying our forests we will be creating new ones. Finally, tree samplings, shovels, dirt and human hands can bond together an American celebration benefiting our collective hearts, minds and souls. Let’s pass the shovel now for this legacy only will continue if we may learn from

A Green Dream for Shenandoah Valley

2007-06-21T06:17:00.000-07:00

Nearly 90 percent of the Washington DC metro region depends on the Potomac and its major tributary, the Shenandoah for clean drinking water. Also the Shenandoah valley supplies billions dollars in agriculture, timber, tourism and other environmental benefits. One hundred years ago we wisely established the George Washington National Forest to help preserve this watershed.

According to the Chesapeake Bay clean-up estimates, well over $2 billion is needed to restore the Shenandoah River to meet clean water goals. To do this we must develop new jobs and outreach programs to meet these needs. More than 1,300 miles of rivers and streams in the Shenandoah watershed fail to meet Federal clean water standard because of excess nutrients, sediment, and other pollutants. To meet this challenge we must change our very attitude on how we do business from short term to long term profits and also account for how much we are willing to invest in the value of this watershed.

We must look how we can grow in an organic not inorganic fashion. Rapid growth leads to more roads, parking lots and roofs. These hard surfaces prevent rain from soaking into the ground naturally and result in significant increases in runoff with such things as automobile oil, lawn fertilizer and other pollutants.

We need to act now since there have been many fish kills of small mouth bass and red breasted sunfish populations in the last few years on the Shenandoah River.

How we develop in the Shenandoah Valley will impact our water, air and land.

Promoting improved technologies and programs can result in increased economic benefits through emerging “green” infrastructure requirements (e.g reduced runoff volumes and nutrient export from a site).

New innovations must be explored as we see these as beginning economic development tools for our valley since how we allow our land to be developed can be a win/win situation if we exercise prudence. How we respect our valley raises fundamental questions about what new jobs we can provide for future generations. Now nearly 75 years ago 2 billion trees were planted by Civilian Conservation Corps. Since the first camp began right in the middle of the valley, training the youth in conservation has historic implications.

New Advancements = New Jobs

The valley can become an advocate for new eco-employment opportunities and stimulated new businesses to come to this region to support this demand for green industry.

Design “With” Nature

Similar to how water runs down our roof down spouts it can be cleaned when plants absorb and recycle this spoiled water. Everyone has an opportunity to design a rain type garden to prevent pollution and water our plants and lawns since waste lots of money on watering and flushing with valuable drinking water instead of water reuse.

Such improved site design can also reduce the need to clear and grade the area increasing erosion control practices and can result in significant cost savings to builders. Much of the reduction in capital costs can be attributed to a reduction in impervious cover.

Non Point Pollution Prevention Measures

The greatest challenge in the environmental protection today is getting individuals to not do such things as litter, conserve water and energy, improperly throw away their toxic household by-products, fertilize their lawn, reduce their waste, and other sustainable measures. These directly or indirectly impact the Shenandoah Valley watershed is and such behaviors must be targeted and changed since this is the largest source of pollution, our collective selves.

Wastewater and Water Reuse Pollution Prevention Measures

How our well, spring, cistern, septic, alternative or municipal water/wastewater system operates and is managed plays a critical role on keeping our water clean. Failing systems, source water pollution and other problems all impact the watershed. Measures to address this infra-structure and development management tools are critical. Water reuse is going to be another key technology to develop.

Improved Best Management Practices, Pollution Controls, Training and Social Marketing

American’s need to realize we face another form of serious terror, how we foul our environment. Just a simple act of throwing a can out of a car has an environmental impact. Collectively, how people change their car oil, or clean-up their animal waste or fertilize their lawn impact the Shenandoah River. People cause pollution and the source to control it. Without collective behavior change and improved good housekeeping measures the greatest source of our water impairment.

Air/Land/Water Impacts = More Pollution

The more we pollute or over regulate one medium without creating economic or incentives to change may result increasing environmental pollution to another area. This history of environmental regulation is good proof. Without integrated comprehensive planning numerous environmental conservations measures can be done in vain. If you improve conservation but allow for increased use it may be like bottle water situation of today. You have increased its package but not necessarily improved the product and created more plastic and cost. Expand Interstate 81 without alternative rail or greenway structures and it will be seen in 30 years as a major infrastructure blunder and it will cost future generations to rebuild.

Reduce First, Reuse Second and Recycle Last

More people recycle today then vote resulting in both a blessing and a curse. Reuse and reduction are far more favorable ways to better our environment then picking up grass and glass bottles at the curb. Maybe a better investment can be made in composting new top soil and creating reusable oil filters as best use of limited resources and dollars

Below is an entire summary of possible best management opportunities to promote future prosperity for Shenandoah Valley:

1) Integrated Watershed Green Technology into Agenda for Action – research and develop key employment training, technology, water quality improvement measures together into one economic development plan. Pull together income from fisheries, agriculture, industry, and recreation and tourism. Also show indirect drinking water treatment costs, health care costs, and other environmental economic benefits. Show prevention saving and document income from recreation and tourism and increased property values and show the natural capitalism from reduction in energy costs, health care costs, flood control and stormwater quality and pollution treatment costs.

a) Wastewater

b) Employment Opportunites – work with colleges and develop specific training
programs

c) Better Site Design – cluster development, impervious cover limits

d) Erosion and Sediment Control – improve channel protection, clearing and grading,
and other pollution/sediment contols *

e) Stormwater regulations, floodplain protection –

2) Wastewater and Water Reuse Pollution Prevention Measures

How our well, spring, cistern, septic, alternative or municipal water/wastewater system operates and is managed plays a critical role on keeping our water clean.

3) Improved Best Management Practices, Pollution Controls, Training and Social Marketing People cause pollution and the source to control it. Without collective behavior change and improved good housekeeping measures the greatest source

4) Reduce First, Reuse Second and Recycle Last

Freedom Is a Green Diet

2007-03-21T19:16:00.000-07:00

What life choices we make is linked to our very freedom. We, Americans must become lean and green. A green liberation movement will show us both how we must become more responsible and our ability to ecologically respond. Simply, if we engage in wholesome action that benefits all we become less imprison by our harmful habits. We now must shift from consumers to conservers entering into a green diet of lessening both our waste and waists. Yes, we must eat more GREENS! This is rabbit food not rabid food to lessen our country’s chances of HEART ATTACK. An ethic of obesity must now change to more wholesome diet for the planet. When we take care of the world we help ourselves. Since what goes around, comes around, our individual actions directly have consequences on us. Over consuming on our planet creates lots of personal and global suffering besides breaking collective heart.

The results of humans overindulgence are clear. Excessive overeating can leads not just to obesity yet other health dangers of obesity are well documented. Four of our leading causes of death in America are related to overweight, poor diet and lack of exercise. These include the three leading proximate causes of death—heart disease, cancer, stroke and diabetes. Nature deficit syndrome is another mental health issue. As we become more disconnected with our ecosystems we participate less often in various enjoyable physical activities. Less physical activity results in less energy, and a vicious cycle of declining physical activity and health occurs.

As a responsible society we must prevent a double-standard where we say one thing but differently act. Proclaiming we support reducing global warming, then purchase an energy inefficient car is hypocritical. We waste our good drinking water to make our lawns greener or buy bottle water creating billions of plastic bottles. To truly be free our words must be consistent with our deeds. If we give the best to the world we will enjoy many happy returns!

Today’s culture provides us many opportunities to reduce waste choices by simply reducing our consumption. Less can become best! Using less food, water, paper, plastic, oil and any natural resource just requires awakening that all things are valuable. Walking, using public transportation or riding your bicycle can also result in greater belonging with your community. We must not reinforce consumerism but realize the psychic benefits of sustainable citizenship. Can we develop new environmental behavior based on supporting biological needs instead of reinforcing greed and apathy?

The fundament human challenge is how perceive our environment? Are we are separate or apart of our planet? A tangle of pathology happens because we keep thinking we need more material things to feed our anxiousness because we feel threaten by our natural world. Many environmentally minded individuals are raising what America’s consciousness to address climate change and other ecological concerns to become reconnected or less anxious.

America’s very pursuit of happiness is in question. We the people are the precious agents to preserve our land and our spirit. The United States can not afford to create more CO2 and other things impacting our not only our well being but life itself. We can lead by example so maybe India, China and others can collectively prosper by a reduced carbon path. Such protection is vital to any sanity or peace for the possibility of a promising future.

Our collective pursuit of happiness comes from understanding how we create global suffering. There are very serious human consequences when we engage in destructive habits whose roots are greedy, arrogant and indifferent. Once we see beyond the price of things and value of nature’s intrinsic worth—a worth that may be expressed more in aesthetic or spiritual reasons.

As our consciousness evolves to see ecological’ arguments appeal to human self-interest then a connection can be made that our human health is apart of our ecosphere. Can we see our world as just a greater extension of ourselves if we can become deeply in touch. Our human survival depends on healthy environment that preserve the native flora and fauna. To flourish in our physical environments humans must create healthy boundaries. This need is a moral concern since such self-interest that does not take in account the larger world has serious ethical questions.

As we lessen our desire to consume we find a new liberation. As we curb our obsessive hunger a new form of prosperity will unfold. America’s democracy becomes threatened by our waste of oil, coal, water, metals, and other resources. It is both self destructive and globally reckless to over-consume.

There is a strong connection between increased well-being, happiness and our national security. Thrift, generosity, sharing and other wholesome measures promote freedom. Wasteful consumption violates the very values this nation was founded on. We have a choice to become free. Our spiritual survival depends that we understand our connection with the earth and appropriately respond. Such action is both kind and will benefit all things. Courage becomes evident only when we quiet our minds and listen to our heart. Once we show such reverence in conserving then we can celebrate. Let’s take the H from the end of eartH and place in front spelling Heart, since they are one and the same!

Bottled vs. Tap Water

2007-03-21T19:02:00.000-07:00

Bottle water costs as much as 15,000 times more than tap water.[1] In a report by the Beverage Recycling Institute, “Water, Water Everywhere: the Growth of Non-Carbonated Beverages in the US” notes that sales of plastic bottle water 1 liter and less increased more than 100 percent from 2002 to 2005[2]. The bottle water segment in the worldwide beverage industry is bottled water. This universal solvent will exceed sales of milk and coffee becoming the second most consumed beverage next to soft drinks by 2004. However, this product may contain impurities and may not live up to many of the brand labels pristine sounding names. Many bottlers just use reprocessed water from municipal water supplies.

Bottled water is big business. In 2002 worldwide sales of bottled water were $35 billion dollars. In 2002 the United States sold 7.7 billion dollars worth of bottled water showing an increase in sales of 11 percent from 2001.

While the people think this water is better than tap water this is not the case. While the names on the bottles may sound wonderful they can be misleading. According to Coop America 40 percent of bottled water comes from the tap. Also, this water may or may not be further purified depending upon the independent bottler. In 1997, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization stated that bottled water does not have greater nutritional value than tap water.

Ironically, municipal water system do a much more extensive job in testing water for contaminants mandated by the Environmental Protection Agency or state regulatory agencies. However, bottle water is regulated by the Food and Drug Administration and has very relaxed regulations if any. Such industry standards, monitoring and even enforcement for bottled water is largely self-regulated. This radically differs with controls placed on tap water requirements. For example if bottled water is sold within the same state it is produced then FDA does not regulate it. Most bottled water brand are sold in a single state operation and the majority states have very modest if any enforcement activity. Also testing of bottle water is significantly less than tap water. There are exceptions to this rule since states like California, New York and Texas have mandatory programs for disinfection standards to reduce possible contaminants. The Kansas Department of Health and Environment tested 80 bottled water samples from manufacturers and stores. They found that all 80 samples had detectable levels of chlorine, fluoride and sodium. 78 contained some nitrates which in large concentrations can cause blue baby syndrome. In another type of test done by a private firm, Idaho Pure Health Solutions, found that certain bacteria will grow in bottled waters after several weeks.

Another concern is that bottled water generates a lot of plastic waste. Each year 1.5 million tons of plastic are used in bottled water according to the World Wildlife Fund. It is estimated only ten percent of these plastic bottles are recycled in the US. The Container Recycling Institute estimates that American water bottles yearly consume 1.5 million barrels of oil, or enough to generate electricity to a quarter million homes for a year. Worldwide some 22 million tons of bottled water is transported from country to country impacting our air. The Container Recycling Institute cites that the overall recovery rate for drink containers was 34% in 2004, it was only 15% for custom PET bottles which includes bottled water. As sales of bottled water spirals up the amount of PET bottles being disposed of also increases.

Public drinking water supply advocates wish to address the challenges confronted by existing aged tap water infrastructure. United States EPA has accounted that 527 small water systems exist today serving 25 to 3,300 people. It estimates that the price tag to maintain these systems will cost $ 138 billion by 2014. Also it was estimated by EPA that 46,500 small systems serve only 10% of the population but will cost in the next 20 years per household $3,300. This cost is due to deferred maintenance, failure to replace or upgrade failing systems, lack of planning and insufficient rate structures to set aside funds to improve infrastructure

Some environmental advocates say the government must focus their limited resources on protecting groundwater and watersheds. However, most consumers are unaware about the quality of the expensive bottled water they purchased compared to the cost and quality of their tap water.

* Information from this paper came from “Why Bottle Water?”, Brian Howard, E Magazine, September/October 2003 pg 27-39

[1] Jen Boulden and Heather Stephenson, “Kicking the Bottle,” page 16, Plenty, August 2006 www.plentymag.com

[2] www.container-recycling.org

Respecting Our World Results In Greater Self Respect

2007-01-11T13:14:00.000-08:00

When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect.—Aldo Leopold

What is true to live in America today? We are a nation of $18 trillion dollars of personal debt. In the last few years we have amounted $260 billion dollar deficit that to $1.5 trillion dollars. Also we continue to sink down further into this black hole. We live in a land where our government has subcontracted out energy, environmental, labor, health and even our voting machines to private interests. Inequality, injustice, and inhumanity seem to be the by-products of a nation that generates 18 billion tons of materials each but we are unable to measure how regrettable our nation’s greed impacts those less fortuned especially the land and its creatures. We are facing an inner form of poverty but the denial of our actions.

Our very democracy is in question since our quality of life reflects are country’s inability to be fully honest with our self. Our addiction to material things has created a culture of denial. As an alcoholic who bottoms out we must undergo some form intervention and rehabilitation of beyond our “affluence and effluence.” We need to undergo a moral trial balance to not only undergo a national inventory but see that there is a bottom line to our consumer driven insanity.

Recovery = Discovery All I have control with is my own self choices. Creating sacred relationship gives me both greater purpose and a richer life. When I remember my interconnection with the earth I feel a profound sense of joy. All indigenous beliefs do not separate themselves from their surroundings. Understanding my link with all things provides me with a sense of harmony and well being.

When I expanding my consciousness to see I am interdependent I become liberated from my ego self. Can we deny that we dependent upon this world to survive? Simply it is a greater extension of us. Can we possibly deny this link? If we separate ourselves from our world then we disconnect our soul from our very nature. Simply we come from the land we must breathe, eat, drink, and eventually return to this planet. Modern life has created many illusions that contradict this relationship by placing us indoors most of our time. While interacting with the natural environment is represents us coming back to our first home.

Shakespeare once said action is eloquence. Our decision-making process allows us the possibility for new freedom. Any action that defends of our environment is similar to a mother protecting their child. Harmony in this world is not about sacrifice but demonstrating ones appreciation for our Gaia surrounding. As we shift from consumers to citizens we can excel to higher level of democracy through motivating others to take action? As we individuals develop greater compassion, wonder, sensitivity, respectfulness, courage, love, appreciation, tenacity, and gratitude then we can fully engage in the kind of stewardship that is calling to us now.
A new dimension of environmental mind set is sees that trees have standing as do people. Without one you will not have the other. Deforestation, stripping mountaintops, landfilling wetlands, and numerous other forms of reckless environmental exploitation is may satisfy human needs in the short run will rob generations of future life. Emerging is a new spirit to improve our environment thus stimulate life-affirming and life enhancing choices.

Our surroundings provides us both physical things (drinking water, garden soil and air to breath) and aesthetic, recreational and numerous other benefits. It benefits us so obviously then to preserve these opportunities and goods makes moral sense. This natural relationship is so meaningful that for many individuals it borders on worship and divinity.

Conserving, preserving and protecting our environment is tied to the very notion of environmental of human excellence. Humans can demonstrate their virtue and flourish the human experience by promoting healthier relationships with our planet. Just a simple act like riding a bicycle instead of driving a car serves to better our world. Any actions that directly promote the well-being of the larger ecological community serve to show our gratitude for the earth. Any choice that for example that lessen the threat for further habitation fragmentation and biodiversity loss invests in resources for the future. So any way we can better this planet directly betters ourselves.

We all act as environmental role models when we act to become sustainable in our everyday lives. As we engage in a greater environmental ethic act to do the right thing and to do it for the right reasons.

Moreover, environmental virtue might provide the sensitivity or wisdom necessary if we incorporate action-guiding rules and principles to concrete situations. Developing sensitivity is required to determine which rules or principles are applicablegiven the specific situation. Also what course of action is recommended given any whatever the nature of the crisis. Juggling between conflicting moral dilemmas we must value a more wholesome lifestyle if we are going to prosper in these very stressful times.

Simply, the more we show respect for our surroundings the greater self respect we behold!

Exploring a Ethic for Our Earth

2007-01-11T13:10:00.000-08:00

We may be approaching a crossroads today in the emergence of the human spirit. Those aware may question if our future is ecologically more endangered each day. Given the exponential growth of our human footprints our world’s survival depends upon sustaining life. As we become more sensitive to how delicate the carrying capacity of our eco-systems we can see a direct connection to our very soul. This is reflected by diverse spiritual and religious leaders appeal to one common universal concern- the fate of our beloved planet earth.

Simply we depend on our environment to live. Everyday you see increased evidence of how people of all walks are sensitive whether our distant generations are left a legacy. Without investing in our future a pandemic of despair may erupt among the young and cause unprecedented societal problems.

Developing more sustainable ways of living are becoming critical. For example European agricultural subsidies now are economically encouraging farmers to become better land stewards. In other parts of the world two-thirds of water goes to irrigation sparking an enormous debate on what make the best overall sense. Quickly, we are finding how important our environment is with everything we do instead of isolating this as just another societal concern. The canary in the coal mine is looking for air.

Increased attention by all religious organizations is awakening humans to the divinity of our ecological interrelationships. This is a powerful force to shape new lifestyle and attitudes regarding the ills of over consumption of natural resources. Spiritual leadership also is supported by increased scientific findings that the earth is requiring not just increased care but such mending is essential to preventing global destruction.

The real question is can interfaith alliances work together to converge people to unified efforts toward conservation and preservation. Many misperceptions and divergent worldviews require not only dialogue but religious involvement to overcome the barriers for the human species to act. Also there are numerous success stories such as the Sri Lanka- Sarvodaya movement to moderate consumption.

One striking fact is that in religious institutions are responsible for 34 percent of the United States volunteerism. This human capital is focused on how they can best serve to better society. What better way to show our ecological gratitude. One potential showcase is the almost 300,000 American houses of worship ( 5 percent of the commercial building floor space) shifting to more energy efficient upgrades reducing 6 million tons of CO2 saving these sacred locations roughly a half a billion dollars.

However, there has not been a rocky marriage between conservation/ environmental groups and religious organizations in speaking a common language to develop such partnerships. Even though similar values may be shared these two groups in many instances are not singing to the same sheet of music.

The Dali Lama in the last few decades has stressed environmental protection as a central theme starting with the Earth Summit in 1992. Also of note is that the late Harvard Scientist and world expert, Stephen Jay Gould remarked that this battle to save the environment requires… forging an emotional/spiritual bond between nature and ourselves”

David Orr cites that what is missing is love to engage the many polarized organizations to champion a relationship emulating the compassion of Greek God of nature, Pan. Our ultimate question is when and how will religious and spiritual groups going to awaken a significant amount of humans toward collective action. Can we as human invest in making our tomorrow more promising? Finally we will need to pray together not on each other and ask for divine forgiveness since we may have trespassed upon something more grave then our final resting place.

"We join with the earth and with each other
To bring new life to the land
To restore the waters
To refresh the air
We join with the earth and with each other
To renew the forests
To care for the plants
To protect the creatures
We join with the earth and with each other
To celebrate the seas
To rejoice in the sunlight
To sing the songs of the stars
We join with the earth and with each other
To recreate the human community
To promote justice and peace
To remember our children
We join with the earth and with each other
We join together as many and diverse expressions of one loving memory: for the healing of the earthand the renewal of all life."

- U.N. Environmental Sabbath Program

LED Lights Are Lean and Green

2007-01-11T13:08:00.000-08:00

Time for Green Lights! The journey of energy independence begins with proper lighting management

It is time we go look beyond just jokes about how many people it takes to change a light bulb. Lighting consumes up to 20% of our home energy and up to 30% our work electricity.

Light-emitting diode (LED) is a 45 year old technology that delivers n heat output and deliver an average of 32 lumens of light, and they burn about 50 times as long as the average incandescent bulb. The Department of Energy estimates that LED lighting could reduce U.S. energy consumption by 29% by 2025, slicing $125 billion off our national energy bill in the process. Recent university research and other advancements have help LEDs to replace incandescent light bulbs in the next five to seven years. Over the last few years there has been advancements increasing the light output per chip. Once you get more light out of the chip, then the cost goes down in terms of how much light it produces.

There are three major types of lights, incandescent, fluorescent and LED. LED is to fluorescent or mercury bulbs as incandescent are to fluorescents in energy savings, duration and cost. Light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are not a new technology (1970s). LEDs offer benefits such as small size, long lamp life, low heat output, energy savings and durability. They also allow extraordinary design flexibility in color changing, dimming and distribution by combining these small units into desired shapes, colors, sizes and lumen packages. LEDs have advanced from use as indicator lights and in numeric displays to a range of innovative and new applications, including accent lights, task lights, traffic lights, signage, outdoor lighting and down-lighting.
LEDs have many useful applications, are on the threshold to revolutionize many new light sources. The advent of great visible/white light LED has awakened lighting industries to new savings, reducing heating costs and minimized maintenance possibilities with this light source. White light LEDs, currently may produce enough lumen output to make them competitive with many general light sources.

LEDs are solid state semiconductor devices and their LED illumination happens when a semiconductor crystal is stimulated so producing visible light. When an LED unit is electrified, a power supply converts AC voltage into sufficient DC voltage, illuminating the diode semiconductor crystal. The LED is sealed in a clear or diffuse plastic lens that can provide a range of angular distributions of the light.

Efficient LEDs are low-voltage, low-current devices and efficient light sources. Phillips Lighting cites, “In 1993 an array of 200 LEDs was required whereas only 18 LEDs achieve the same performance today, with prediction of further reduction to only 10.” Progress continues. Efficacies as high as 100 LPW have already been achieved in laboratory conditions. According to Steve Johnson, group leader of lighting research for the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, “It is not unrealistic to expect the efficacy of solid-state sources to achieve 150-200 lumens per watt in the coming decades.”

Several manufacturers currently offer a range of LED fixtures for replacing MR16 lamps, display lighting, cove lighting, underwater lighting, architectural details and other applications. Designers should carefully consider requisite lumen packages, source brightness, viewing angles and color rendering when considering use of this technology.

LEDs are becoming extremely attractive. As the demand for these lights to conserve more of energy so will the need for greater supply to keep us out of the dark.

The Climate is Changing and So We Must Too!

2007-01-11T13:05:00.000-08:00

Never in human history have we faced a planetary crisis of this magnitude. Climate change is our world’s greatest form of global terrorism. Over 150,000 people each year die due to climate change events according to the World Health Organization. The National Academy of Science report on climate changes confirmed this last decade hotter than any other time in 400 years or more. Scientists are now the prophets of seriousness of climate sensitivity rising-- likely greater than 2 degree Celsius, could be as much as 5 or 6 degrees.

A October 2006 British 700 page report cites if no action is taken, rising sea levels, heavier floods, and more intense droughts could displace 200 million people by the middle of this century. The report estimates that climate change will cost the equivalent of 5 to 20 percent of the global domestic product each year. Acting now to cut greenhouses gas emissions would cost about 1 percent GDP per year but only with U.S. and China’s cooperation. This report also indicates that economic growth and environmentalism can go hand and hand in reducing global warming

Our leaders must not act like a doctor waiting for certainty in diagnosis as the patient rapidly perishes. Our manmade particulates in atmosphere, largely as a result of burning coals, other fossils fuels are prime culprit. Arctic sea-ice retreat documented by our satellites show a 5 percent or more per year loss. This has lead to increased emissions of CO2 and methane. Soil and vegetation that absorbed CO2 are shifting and expelling it. Increased heat and widespread fires are just another effect. Changes in air and sea circulations are also caused. As huge ice covers (more of land area of US) of Arctic and Antarctic contract, less reflection of solar radiation back into atmosphere, more oceanic absorption of warmth. 3 percent per decade diminution of winter ocean cover in Arctic.

Sea ice cover in Arctic - 3 percent loss a decade, in Antarctic 1 percent an increase (following major losses in ‘70-- decreased overall since the 70s). We are seeing not just Arctic and Antarctica melting but increases of Category 5 hurricanes.
These weather changes are highly correlated with temperature rises. All these factors are connected. Global warming is leading to increased biomass factors that adds to more melting of ice changing surface of ocean impacting major circulation patterns

The rapid rate of climate change threatens not just our energy and food but our very quality of life. We need local, state, national and world-wide action to buffer against global warming. We know enough to act now, to put us on a path to slow, and if science permits, stop global warming. However, we lack an American will to agree that climate change is a serious and long-term crisis with potential to affect every part of the globe.

First we must recognize the program, second working out possible solutions, and three to take the necessary steps. President Bush has already cited US dependence on fossil fuels. Independent states and cities are taking action however the US government has made little investment in industries to reduce carbon emissions. The fact is that are still rising in this country. Potential Presidential candidates’, Senator John McCain and Hilary Clinton, have visited the Norwegian Islands on the Arctic Circle to see for themselves the rapid rate of ice melting. We are now at the “tipping point” where reduction of climate change may be not enough on its own.

8,000 years ago- humans’ first impacted this planet with great deforestation. European heat wave used to be 1 in every 500 year event, now there is the potential for this to happen every other year.

Our entire world culture must adapt its ways to survive. First, human population growth must be moderated. Our entire consumption society must shift to one of conservation. We can adapt ourselves as a well rounded society without extremes of poverty, and wealth. Also we can find prosperity when we juggle the shortages of water, accumulation of wastes and the damage to biodiversity to show respect for all things in this world.

In order to survive we must change our attitude of denial. Also required is both a bottom-up as well as top-down approach to “reduce, reuse and recycle”

Happy Returns in Falls Church

2006-09-17T18:17:00.001-07:00

Annette Mills embodies the gift of thrift. Ms. Mills’ transformed her community from a waste reduction rate of 39% in 1991 to a rate exceeding 65%. Because of her leadership, Falls Church has one of the best recovery rates in the country and a leading state recycling rate of 46%. For seventeen years, Annette has been a trail blazer for various environment improvements in the DC region.

Annette ingeniously enlisted the help of more than 130 citizen volunteers or “Recycling
Block Captain Program” resulting in many successes. Annette’s believes that education through personal contact is paramount to their success. She has created a “tipping point” by empowering many to serve as their community’s conservation leaders. In her words, “The most effective models are those people who are actively working together to build relationship with each other and the natural environment”.

Ms. Mills leads by example. Attending lunches, outside events or meetings, she brings her own reusable glass, plate, utensils, and napkin. Also, Annette’s programs are fiscally conservative. To quote one of the City’s council members, “…many of these programs have resulted in little extra cost and in many cases cost reductions.” Ms. Mills demonstrates frugality from another perspective. Her City’s solid waste management budget was reduced from $1.05 million in 1990 to $630,000 in 1997.

Annette helped initiate curbside collection of 14 types of recyclable materials and including various types of yard debris. The City saved more than $420,000 by implementing their curbside recycling program. Also, yearly she holds “Recycling Extravaganza” where residents drop off a range of specialty recycling items, including eye glasses, hearing aids, clothing and textiles, bicycles, printer cartridges, and electronics.

Annette makes it happen. One council member calls the community volunteers “Annette’s Army” because she brings them out in full force for community programs related to environmental education and stewardship. Ms. Mills has interconnected various positive environmental messages together. She has made saving resources attractive and easy whether it is planting a tree, composting at home or restoring wildlife habitats. Annette has initiated many successful public awareness programs welcoming citizens to show greater reverence for our earth. Annette not only walks her talk but has recruited numerous others to benefit with her. On your departure, Annette thanks for the many happy returns you have blessed both Falls Church and this region!

2006 Used Oil Recycling Update in America

2006-09-17T18:12:00.000-07:00

Background

In July 2006, the U.S. Department of Energy Used Oil Re-refining Study[1] indicates that the United States consumes about 25 percent of the total worldwide demand for lube oils. Congress mandated this inquiry under the Energy Policy Act of 2005, Section 1839. Most European countries are more advanced in reduction, reusing and recycling used oil. For example Europe has three times more re-refining capacity or the ability of making used oil back into a lube oils.

Millions Sources of Pollution

A key issue is the non point source of used oil pollution by oil changers. Presently DOE estimates that 80% of the Do-it-Yourself (DIY) used oil is improperly disposed into our environment. Also this study concludes that the annual volume of disposed oil has decreased from 426 million gallons in 1996 to 348 million gallons of an estimated million gallons in 2004.

This is an interesting finding since that amount of vehicle miles driven in the US and the number of automobiles has increased. While miles driven in the last few years has increased 8-9 percent this has been matched by oil change interval increases since now people do not change their oil at 3,000 miles rather every 5,000 miles.

Current Consumer Market

Total US motor oil sales have been flat several years now despite these increases. For the DIY portion, there has been little info in trade journals on DIY portion. DIY decline has been estimated is estimated at around.40% and or Do-it-For-Me changes are at 60%. It is important to recognize that this is the volume of oil sold to DIYers, and likely does not represent the number of DIYers. What is not clear if the DIY are driving many more miles between changes now or their numbers are dropping?

Oil Filters

Another curious finding by this study is that oil filters have a 50 percent recycling rate according to the Filter Manufacturer Council. While this may be true in California and some other states the economics to recover these filters make this claim suspect. A Florida study only showed a 22% recycling rate and a Virginia study showed only a 10% rate of recycling.

One good indicator to track actual oil changes instead of folks who buy motor oil to “top-off’ the engine is to follow oil filter sales. In 1998 there were 450 million light-duty oil filters sold in the United States, while 778 million light-duty filters were purchased in 2002.

Reusable Oil Filters

An average used light-duty oil filter contains on the average eight ounces of oil. Widespread adoption of reusable filter systems could virtually eliminate used oil being trapped in filters and prevent steel filters entering landfills.

There are reusable oil filters that are compatible with engines that use the one-piece sealed spin-on filter. No modifications or tools are required to install these filters on any engine that uses a spin-on filter, and they allow for the recovery of all used motor oil. The assembly housing is reused; only the paper element is replaced, and this can be easily recycled or burned for energy. If produced in volume, this filter could be manufactured for under a dollar per unit. At the point of final sale, the replacement filter element would cost somewhat less than the current spin-on filter. Reusable filters were popular up to the early 1960s and are still widely used in the racing industry.

Used Oil Burned vs. Reused

DOE estimates, 780 million recycled gallons of used oil each year, 83 percent is burned, while 17 percent is re-refined into new lubricating oil. It was found that re-refining used oils saved 8.1 percent of the energy content of the used oil compared to combusting the oil for heating purposes. Transforming all used oil that is currently combusted into lube oil products would save 63 million gallons of fuel oil equivalent per year; a savings of $63 million annually at current fuel prices.

Presently most used oil is burned for fuel in America and little is re-refined. Serious environmental and energy questions have been raised by the combustion of used motor oils in space heaters. This report cites that small burners do not provide levels of pollution reduction found in large scale industrial combustion processes since asphalt/ cement plants and steel mills have flue gas treatment technologies.

Policy Options

This study recommends a national workshop of state used oil management officials to exchange to stimulate active recycling programs to benefit from the experiences of those that have well established and successful programs. Also, encourage those states that have not yet passed used oil legislation to take action. This conference would seek to identify the best practices and guidelines for states to follow including funding mechanisms.

Also another need was cited was to assist rural and farming communities since urban areas appear to have more effective recycling programs in place due to closer proximity to recycling centers. DIY consumers in the rural and farming communities offer the highest growth potential for recovering additional volumes of used oils. Thus, increasing the recovery of DIY oil is an important factor in making substantial progress in

used oil recycling.

Targeting cost conscious DIY consumers with effective public awareness and education programs can communicate the benefits of recycling used oils. Also targeting non English oil changers, should also be given to the needs to communicate in a

foreign languages are dominant in specific areas.

South Carolina, A Example of Good Used Oil Management

South Carolina's statewide used oil recycling program targeting do-it-yourselfers (DIYers) continues to flourish. Through a combination of technical assistance and grant funding for local governments, the Office has helped develop one of the nation’s most comprehensive used oil recycling programs targeting DIYers.

For numerous years more than 1 million gallons of used oil was collected in 2003. DIYers recycled 1,124,199 gallons of used motor oil at more than 700 sites across South Carolina. Since the used oil recycling program began in 1990, DIYers have recycled more over 13 million gallons.

In addition, DIYers recycled hundreds of tons of used oil filters and more than 100 tons of oil bottles. Precise recycling efforts are not measurable as many counties now collect and market used oil filters and oil bottles with other metals and plastics, respectively. With this being the case, not all filters and bottles that are being recycled are being counted directly. Currently, more than 40 of the state's 46 counties accept used oil filters for recycling with most of those counties also collecting oil bottles for recycling.

To assist farmers with the proper management of used oil generated on the farm, DHEC continues to encourage local governments to establish oil recycling sites for farmers. Agricultural oil tanks typically hold 600 gallons of used oil and are fitted with a pump and hose in an effort to make it easier for farmers to deliver up to 55 gallons of used oil at one time. Such tanks are currently available at 24 sites in 21 counties.

South Carolina continues to expand its used oil recycling program by adding oil/gasoline mixture collection sites to the county programs. The oil/gasoline mixture tanks are typically 500 gallons and are designed to accept oil, gasoline and oil/gasoline mixtures from lawn equipment and recreational vehicles. Oil/gasoline mixture collection sites have been established at 25 sites in 22 counties.

The Office continues to provide local governments with oil bottle drain racks. Draining the oil bottles often makes them more marketable. Drained bottles can normally be mixed with other HDPE (#2) plastics. Just in California, quart bottles generate roughly one millions gallons of clean motor oil.

DOE Findings

DOE recommends accelerated tax depreciation allowances to expedite re-refining

and to expand re-refined lube base oil production capacity. Such financial incentives can be offered manufacturers to expand production capacity for a base oil end product that is suitable for blending either new motor oil and or industrial oil products. This incentive is not recommended for combustion end users. Finally, require automobile manufacturers to proactively state in owner manuals that re-refined oils are acceptable as a blending component in motor oils as long as they meet the API certification requirements.

Also this study encourages that federal agencies make additional volumes of used oils available for sale for the purpose of being regenerated to re-refined base oil. Furthermore, the government could explore entering into potential joint venture operation with private industry to re-refine those oils and produce products that can be supplied back to federal government agencies.

DOE suggests that the fed’s conduct an extensive study of used oil recycling programs to update what progress has been achieved. Also support initiatives such as programs for extended drain intervals (i.e. every 5000 miles), and enhanced oil filtering systems, and other energy conservation and environmental protection.

Conclusion

In closing the DOE study addresses how to minimize improper disposal of used oil in landfills, on the ground or waterways, and increase re-refining capacity and production volumes recognizing that re-refining maximizes the energy resource preservation with minimal impact on the environment.

U.S. Department of Energy Used Oil Study and Recommendations to Address Energy Policy Act of 2005, Section 1838 Office of Oil and Natural Gas Office of Fossil Energy

U.S. Department of Energy

[1] http://www.fossil.energy.gov/epact/used_oil_report2.pdf, Used Oil Re-refining Study to Address Energy Policy Act of 2005 Section 1839

Can We Afford to Wait?

2006-06-12T08:32:00.000-07:00

The debate over global warming raises a question: can we afford to wait? Even if you think this planet is not in any peril, despite the current scientific evidence, is it wise to wait and simply see what happens? What do we do if-- in 10 years our actions result in a “tipping point”: a point where our destruction of the earth becomes irreversible? What is your life experience with what you have seen thus far with your own surroundings? Are you being honest to both yourself and your children to believe global warming is not happening?

Whether you agree or disagree that the burning of fossil fuels, increases in population and other factors are creating life threatening greenhouse effects the greater question is—are the facts gathered by experts alarming enough to act?

Are the facts below in the documentary, “An Inconvenient Truth” just convenient lies?

Out of 925 recent articles in peer-review scientific journals about global warming, there was zero (no) disagreement.
10 of the warmest years in history were in the last 14 years.
Core samplings of polar ice show that CO2 is much, much higher than ever before in a quarter of a million years.
57% of people question the fact of global warming, while 43% of people are support the evidence.

Now many in this country believe what Senator Inhofe, has said, “Global warming is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people.” Let’s demand objective information regarding our future over the next decade. We can not afford to guess about global warming. Did you know that 12% of Americans surveyed believe Joan of Arc was married to Noah? Let’s get the facts now or later we may be losing our lives and our world as a result of “horrific science fiction.”

If You Can’t Measure It, You Can’t Manage It

2006-05-11T08:48:00.000-07:00

Deliberate waste directly depletes our earth’s resources. It eventually results in many forms of loss through a degradation of our planet. Improved inventories of what we discard will stimulate a greater understanding of how we can best manage waste. There is a critical connection between waste and prosperity. Our living standards have provoked increased consumption. However, such resource mismanagement taps our limited energy and materials. Better tracking of the entire material generation cycle and material use flows can provide us with a more holistic approach to “best use” of our scarce resources.

Over six billion people now live on this earth. In the next 30 years, another 2.5 billion people are estimated to increase our ranks, making the world’s population estimate in 2030 around 8.5 billion. How we determine to best measure, manage and sustain our current resources has crucial future implications.

Each year Americans use, discard and recycle more than 17.3 billion tons of waste including non-sewage wastewater[1]. The total volume of non-waste water is 4.9 billion tons per year[2]. Just in America’s households, we generate 1.6 million tons of hazardous waste including, paints, cleaners, oils, batteries, and pesticides that contain corrosive, toxic, ignitable and reactive ingredients. Improved feedback as to just what we discard can stimulate a greater understanding as to how we can either minimize and/or recover this waste. We have made great progress with municipal waste but not with the larger and potentially more dangerous waste streams.

For example, the recent U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) report tracked the amount of toxic chemicals released into the environment for facilities operating during the 2004 calendar year. Roughly 23,600 industrial and government facilities account for 4.24 billion pounds of some 90,000 chemical forms. While this inventory showed a four percent decrease in chemicals released compared to 2003, the EPA has changed the rules for reporting releases that distinctly favor industry. The Public Interest Research Group stated that toxic releases to U.S. waterways increased by 10 percent between 2003 and 2004.[3]

Waste generators in the U.S. include: special waste (mining, oil and gas et at 2.3 billion tons per year): nuclear waste (1.2 billion tons per year); agricultural (789 million tons per year); construction and demolition (350 million tons per year): forestry (280 million tons per year;) and what most people think is ordinary waste-municipal waste is estimated at 232 million tons per year[4][4]. Industrial non-hazardous, hazardous, used oil and medical waste combine to add another 226 million tons per year.[5] Wastewater generation is huge at over 12.5 billions tons per year.[6]

Our increased standard of living results in accelerated resource consumption and triggers two serious questions: Can our environment absorb the continued waste stream from our energy- and material-intensive lifestyles? Does the earth have the capacity to sustain this over-exploitation while these resources are dwindling? Better tracking of the entire material cycle can provide us with a more holistic approach to management of our limited resources.

Upfront pollution prevention is critical and yet a challenge, since our waste may be transformed into other forms such as solid, liquid and gas. Even though we have made major advances in cleaning up our air, water and land, we must refine our focus to concentrate on material flows in all areas of the environment. Some of the key issues facing us are:

· How to lessen global warming. We are 5% of the world’s population producing 22% of the climate altering CO2 (carbon dioxide) added to the atmosphere. EPA recently estimated that greenhouse gases increased 1.7 percent in 2004.[7] Roughly 1.54 billion pounds are US emissions (7 billion is the global number.)

· How to sustain water quantity. Americans use three times more water each day than Europeans, and that’s not for purposes of cleanliness. Each day we use 137 billion gallons of water for irrigation. On the east coast in the summer months, one-third of our water goes to watering our lawns. Agriculture has been cited as the largest water user worldwide. U.S. Power plants consume 131 billion gallons of water each day. Industry demands another 25 billion gallons per day. In addition the U.S. withdraws 339 billion gallons of each day from both underground and river sources. EPA estimates that roughly 40% of our nation’s streams are impaired. This includes over 20,000 individual river segments; 300,000 river and shoreline miles; and five million acres of lakes. According to the U.S. National Research Council, initial clean-up of contaminated groundwater at 300,000 sites in the United States could cost up to $1 trillion over the next 30 years.

· How to safely dispose of our radioactive waste. Each year in the United States, 2,000 tons of spent fuel is generated by the nation’s 103 operating nuclear power plants that provide 20% of America’s electricity. Roughly 40,000 tons of waste has been generated by America’s commercial nuclear plants. Re-use of radioactive waste and final disposal is a challenging matter. Some estimates put the cost to reprocess spent fuel waste by separating the highly radioactive components from the low-level components using chemical processes as high as $400 billion. The cost to decommission the plutonium-manufacturing plant in Hanford, Washington is estimated to be $40 billion. Used plutonium lasts for 250,000 years, and the contaminated nickel in the core of nuclear reactors lasts 3 million years. Finally, providing adequate security for this type of waste presents additional problems for the world population. Only two pounds of plutonium is required to make a nuclear weapon.

· How to manage used oil and gas wastes. Each year 3 billion tons of oil and gas wastes are generated by oil and gas exploration and production in America. However this data is old and was supplied by the American Petroleum Institute We consume more than 250 billion gallons of oil on an annual basis. On the back-end consumers waste hundreds of millions of gallons of used oil and anti-freeze along with hundreds millions of used oil filters that are improperly disposed of by millions of Americans who change their own oil (do-it-yourselfers). In addition to this, we use 2.2 billion pounds of pesticides in the U.S. per year.

· How to better manage our natural resources including our forests, minerals, water, and land. Building and road construction has a significant impact on the environment, accounting for one of sixth of the world’s freshwater withdrawal, one-quarter of its wood harvest, and two-fifths of its materials and energy flow. Each year we lose 136 million tons of construction and demolition (C&D) waste from building and 200 million tons for roads (about 50% if concrete is recycled). Estimates for building and roads is 300 million tons per year[8]. Buildings consume 40% of the raw stone, gravel and sand used globally each year. Each year 2 billion tons of topsoil is lost through erosion, and this in part due to new construction. An average of nearly 17 tons of soil is lost per acre of cropland per year. There are estimates that cropland, pasture and rangeland contribute more than 50% of the sediments discharged to surface water.

· How to improve the manner in which we dispose of municipal solid waste. Each year millions of tons of garbage is going into landfills, some of which may be recovered and reused. Landfills are one of the largest sources of methane released in the United States, and this can be converted into useable energy. Roughly one-half of our solid waste is organic. Besides paper, yard and vegetative waste, over 96 billion pounds of food a year-- or one quarter of America’s food-- is lost. Compost both generates new soil, improves existing soil and controls erosion

· How we can compost and better manage our excrement. More than 16,000 sewage treatment facilities serving 190 million Americans generate biosolids or sludge. These facilities also serve thousands of industrial and commercial establishments. Approximately eight million dry metric tons of biosolids are produced annually--that's about 70 pounds per person per year. About 54% of these biosolids are land applied. Another 500 million tons of manure is produced yearly by agricultural animals.

· How to reform our regulatory process to stimulate environmental improvements rather then increase litigation and/or questionable studies. Each year we spend tens of billions of dollars on various programs at 54 regulatory agencies. We are just beginning to collaborate and understand the effects of these complicated rules and laws, especially since state governments are currently in the worst shape since World War II, and local governments have to act as gate-keepers. Does this expenditure effectively translate into the protection of public health and environment while creating new forms of commerce?

The challenge for the United States is to determine how all facets of materials flow-- waste generation; reduction, reuse, recycling, composting, energy recovery, treatment, storage, and disposal-- interact and affect our lives. Source reduction, improved land use planning, better product design and manufacturing, green purchasing, and numerous types of re-use and recycling can be used to reduce our waste inventory and provide a better system to manage our resources. New ventures such as “green building”, re-use of landfill methane and the recovery of electronics, mercury-bearing products and oil, are various ventures blazing a trail towards conservation and better resource management at the individual level. Just the simple act of leaving your grass cutting on your lawn makes a difference.

We have another type of homeland security challenge, to understand the impact of our consumption and disposal. Protecting all Americans from the by-products we produce can lessen potential exposure caused by possible releases. Fundamental to this process is how we engage people to become part of the solution instead of part of the problem. There are millions of environmental acts of terror that Americans foolishly commit. How can we use our wealth to improve our environment rather than diminish it?

We must take better inventory of our entire waste cycle and material flows to become more efficient and productive in using and conserving our dwindling resources. Such an effort can better identify important factors such as energy, economic and environmental impacts so that we can better set aside resources for the world’s future generations.

Without comprehensive environmental management and integrated planning of the entire materials-flow and by-products cycle, we will be ineffective in transforming our liabilities into assets. Such new ventures can chart a course of action and conservation. Fundamental to this process is a need to engage people to become part of the solution instead of part of the problem. We have an essential challenge: we must seek answers to clearly understand the impact of our consumption. Let’s re-examine how we can make our world better by using less. Can we as a nation afford to waste? If we cannot measure what we discard, we will be in the dark as to how we best manage the impacts of this waste.

[1]David Cozzie,”Waste Generation in the US*, Office of Solid Waste, June 4, 2003, pg 23
[2] Ibid
[3] Bruce Geiselman, “Toxic Drop,” Waste News, 4/24/06, p 23
[4] David Cozzie, ”Waste Generation in the US*, Office of Solid Waste, June 4, 2003, pg 12
[5] Ibid
[6] Ibid pg 11
[7] www.epa.gov/global-warming/publications/emissions.
[8] Ibid pg 22

Exploring Our Oil By-products

2006-05-11T08:38:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I was talking with a friend who had hired me 25 years ago to build and manage a used oil recycling facility in the Washington DC region. My friend commented how remarkable it is that we have made such few improvements. Interestingly, in the early 1990’s, this friend and his partner in the oil recycling company founded another company that revolutionized the golf industry. Their company, Softspikes Golf Cleats, created a tipping point when they championed a ban on metal spikes, thus forever preserving golf greens around the world. You would think we could show similar innovation with used oil. Tragically, Americans have learned little regarding the price for our vast wasteful consumption of petroleum. We need a car fluid recovery tipping point!

How we can collectively better manage oil has global significance. Years ago there was a Pogo cartoon with a picture of an oil tanker in a backyard, and the caption read, “We have met the enemy and it is us.” At George Washington University in 1977 one of my environmental science text books alerted me to oil polluting my local watershed of Little Falls in Bethesda, Maryland, which ends into a major drinking water reservoir for the nation’s capital. Since then I have promoted the recovery of do-it-yourself automotive fluids from every possible angle. I began this effort in Montgomery County, Maryland and started DC’s used oil recycling efforts. In the last few years I have twice updated Virginia’s consumer used oil collection program.

Each year we use hundreds of billion of gallons of the world’s petroleum supplies. We spend more than $200,000 every minute overseas in our yearly consumption of over 7 billion barrels of oil products. Since the USA constitutes 5% of the world’s population, uses over 25 % of the world’s oil, and produces 22% of climate-altering CO2, we have a tremendous responsibility to better conserve our oil.

On the front end, there is the one trillion gallons of oil-field waste we inject into deep wells in addition to the 3 billion tons of oil and gas wastes we generate yearly by our oil and gas exploration and production in the USA. This does not even account for the price of foreign oil to come to us. Closer to home, Washington DC area motorists dispose of 11.2 million gallons of oil, equivalent to the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill, every few years. The improper disposal of used oil, oil filters, oil bottles and antifreeze by those who perform their own automobile maintenance is a ubiquitous environmental concern. These do-it-yourself motorists who change their own oil and antifreeze account for roughly 45% of those owning passenger cars, and conservatively less than a third of used oil is believed to be recovered (and the figure is much lower for other materials.) Even the disposal of discarded oil filters, plastic containers and antifreeze reveals an amount of toxins that is alarming.

The current sampling method to evaluate the toxicity of oil, Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Procedure (TCLP) is not the best test since it was designed for municipal landfills. I ask you to simply reflect on the fact that one gallon of used oil improperly disposed of can contaminate one million gallons of fresh water or ruin the water supply for 50 people for a year.Each year, the United States generates approximately 1.351 billion gallons of used oil; only 57 percent of this used oil is accounted for through recycling. The roughly 45 million people who change their own oil, the so-called do-it-yourselfers (DIYs), are a major source of improperly disposed used oil. Upwards of 300 million gallons of used oil are released into the environment each year in this manner. This does not include the loss of home heating oil from leaking from old tanks at peoples’ homes.

There are other harmful household chemicals. Each year according to EPA, Americans generate 1.6 million tons of hazardous household waste (HHW) including paints, cleaners, batteries, and pesticides. Also there are many small businesses and farms generating hazardous waste and exempt from managing their stuff if it is less than 100 pounds per year of harmful materials. There is limited information on how many tons of these materials impact our health and natural resources. Presently it is believed that a small percent of this toxic material is recovered, and the cost to do so can be expensive. Improper disposal of this non-point pollution threatens public health and the environment in many ways that must awaken us to this real terror in our homes.

We use numerous types of harmful petroleum-based chemicals that are dangerous in their disposition. An EPA study documents that many petroleum-derived products pose an elevated cancer risk to two-thirds of Americans. Roughly 200 million people are regularly exposed to some 32 toxic chemicals. We the people are fighting a different type of war on terrorism—one in which we are our own worst enemy. We must exercise both prudence and wise purchasing decisions so that we do not poison ourselves.
Did you know that roughly in every 16 oil filters there is one gallon of used oil?
Clearly we can minimize pollution by design. One innovative approach would be to promote reusable oil filters that are compatible with engines that use the one-piece sealed spin-on filter. No modifications or tools are required to install these filters on any engine that uses a spin-on filter, and they allow for the recovery of all used motor oil. The assembly housing is reused; only the paper element is replaced, and this can be easily recycled or burned for energy. Widespread adoption of these reusable filter systems would virtually eliminate used oil being trapped in filters and prevent steel filters entering landfills. If produced in volume, this filter could be manufactured for under a dollar per unit. At the point of final sale, the filter would cost somewhat less than the current spin-on filter. Reusable filters were popular up to the early 1960s and are still widely used in the racing industry.

In 1998 there were 450 million light-duty oil filters sold in the United States, while 778 million filters were purchased in 2002. You can estimate by this that possibly over a billion oil filters for cars will be sold this year. Seven years ago an average used light-duty oil filter contained on average six to eight ounces of oil, but this amount may be higher since American vehicles are much larger now

Another automotive fluid lost is antifreeze--a clear, colorless, sweet-tasting liquid that is attractive to small children and pets. This is the same material we make water bottles out of. If swallowed, it will cause depression, followed by respiratory and cardiac failure, and finally renal and brain damage. Annually, 200 million gallons of antifreeze are sold in the USA. It is not known how much of this is recovered. Various paths may be used for the recycling and disposal of antifreeze. Some major collectors may take antifreeze to be disposed of in approved water treatment plants. The end-user market for antifreeze is twofold. Antifreeze may be either recycled on-site for reuse in vehicles or taken off-site where it is recycled and sold as new antifreeze.
Finally, another residual product of the car repair sector is oil bottles. It has been estimated that every year we generate between 2 to 3.5 billion used motor oil bottles, each containing 1 to 1.25 ounces of oil: taken together roughly the equivalent of 1.5 to 3.5 times the amount generated by the Exxon Valdez oil spill.

The good news is in the last quarter century the number of consumers recycling their used oil has more than doubled, however the vast majority is still lost in our environment. Also if these oil products go to an energy recovery facility or new landfill there is an increased comfort level.

We as consumers of harmful petroleum products must safeguard the health of our families and communities. There is no more critical timeframe to begin to protect our earth and ensure future hope. We are the source of the problem and the solution. We must create a culture where we reduce, reuse and recycle not just petroleum-based products but all our resources. We must become trail blazers and make the "oil can" mightier than the sword. We will profit from preventing pollution. Our country’s freedom warrants us to safely manage our black gold since it is interconnected to our future prosperity. Can you create a tipping point by exploring where your auto fluids go and ensure that they become a valuable resource instead of a hazardous waste?