Why Sustainable living?

New research on the motivations to live sustainable lifestyles points to "it's just the right thing to do" as the best rationale, as reported over on Treehugger by Jaymi Heimbuch

"John Vucetich, assistant professor of animal ecology at Michigan Technological University, and Michael Nelson, associate professor of environmental ethics at Michigan State University say that trying to get people to live sustainably by giving them hope for a better future doesn't really work. We're told to stay hopeful, that what we do each day will make our future bright...but what people need to be told is that living sustainably is just plain old the right thing to do."

What is Green Energy?

Here's a link to a interesting primer about green energy over on AltGlobe

I might have spoke too soon about Vilsack

Here's a newsletter post from Rodale regarding Mr. Vilsack,

"Few of his contemporaries expected President Richard M. Nixon to break with Cold War politics and open full diplomatic relations the People’s Republic of China in 1972. Because he was playing against type (a moderate Republican reaching out to a staunchly Communist regime), he had credibility that a more liberal leader could not have mustered. The breathtaking move stunned conservatives, as it largely jettisoned ideology for more pragmatic considerations in U.S.-China relations.

We’re on the cusp of a similarly noteworthy shift in the posture of the USDA under its new secretary, Tom Vilsack of Iowa. Initially dismissed by many progressive food and farming activists as a tool of corporate agribusiness, the new leader is making waves several times a day in what is starting to feel like a tsunami of positive change. Consider these items:

On February 5, Vilsack says he wants to expand farmers' choices to include opportunities in energy—such as wind, solar and geothermal power—and in the growing market for organic and whole foods.

On February 21, Vilsack makes his first visit to a farm group outside Washington, addressing 300 farmers and agriculture professionals at the Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund’s Georgia Farmer’s Conference. He said he wanted to send a message that the USDA is serious about civil rights issues. He admitted that “some folks refer to USDA as’ the last plantation,’ and it has a pretty poor history of taking care of people of color.”

On February 24, Vilsack announces that Kathleen Merrigan will be his deputy secretary, putting the person who drafted Organic Foods Production Act of 1990 into the Department’s number 2 position.

On February 25, Vilsack is “called out” for skipping the 2009 Commodity Classic in Grapevine, Texas—the annual pow-wow of conventional corn, soybean, sorghum and wheat growers and agri-business powers. The official blog of Hoosier Ag Today radio quoted an American Soybean Association officer as saying of Vilsack: “Even though he is from the state of Iowa, he has a tendency not to lean towards truly production and modern agriculture, and we have to work on that.”

On February 26, Vilsack says cuts to U.S. farm commodity payments will be directed at farmers and ranchers with large incomes and big sales, and could affect 3 percent of U.S. farmers.

Do you feel the earth moving yet? Commodity lobbyists are already swarming Capitol Hill to hogtie their Congressional friends, but the horse of food policy change seems to be out of the barn. However, it will be a long, hard run. If you don’t have a trusted group advocating for organic and sustainable agricultural decisions on your behalf, now is the time to engage one.

In this update, written amidst the background of national changes, we look at:

Why Jeff Moyer, farm director at the Rodale Institute, is willing to work at hammering out a sustainability standard for agriculture with industrial ag leaders, when most organic and community food-security groups are not. Read more >>

How a mixture of organic farms in the Northeastern United States looked to a visiting Danish agricultural journalist. Hint: He was impressed with dairy breeding and weed management, but felt that nutrient accounting was quite lax compared to the rules back home. Read more >>

Greg Bowman from the Rodale Institute"

It's a good day at the USDA

Obama has appointed Kathleen Merrigan as #2 at the USDA. This is really good news. After his choice of Tom Vilsack as #1, you'll see him peeking out of Monsanto's pocket, it was clearly necessary to get someone in there who prefers agriculture over agribusiness. Read about it at Scientific American, what do you know about that, a scientist in a position of power in a department dealing with natural science! Will wonders never cease.

Sustainable development in Bermuda?

Bermuda has a sustainable development plan commissioned by the Government and published in June 2006. I've just begun to go through it and also to familiarize myself with the primary environmental organization on the island "Greenrock!". A title chosen I assume due to the tendency to refer to Bermuda as "the rock".

So far I am encouraged by my efforts to understand the state of the green movement here. The plan calls for the creation of a governmental body to oversee development and implementation of an energy strategy and just today Greenrock!, who, headed up by Andrew Vaucrosson, support the sustainable development plan, is in the papers calling for the creation of an independent energy authority. See the article in the Royal Gazette.

An independent body would be free of governmental and industry pressure and bias, hopefully, and could steer the energy strategy towards more sustainable and equitable solutions. Currently, energy is a monopoly on the island. BELCO, the company in charge, has recently produced a plan for implementation of renewables, I have yet to locate and review that plan.

"Mr. Vaucrosson said that as new renewable energy suppliers come on board, Belco could ultimately lose revenue. The independent authority however, would also be able to assist the power company in recouping some of its losses. By setting up a multi-source grid, Belco could end up buying back surplus electricity from domestic homes powered by renewables.

"An independent authority can look at how to create a multi-source system to help Belco offset its losses," said Mr. Vaucrosson."

Do the plans call for concentrated solar plants, vehicle to grid automobiles, as well as microgeneration? I'll keep you posted on what I learn.

I have long believed that Bermuda is well positioned to become energy independent. Ample wind and sun, as well as offshore currents represent a huge opportunity. It is exciting to see such efforts as those mentioned above taking root. How deep those roots go I am hoping to discover.

Thanks to the Encyclopaedia of Practical Knowledge for the image.

Local Food in Bermuda

Ironically, I'm eating more local food here in Bermuda, a country that imports almost everything it consumes, than anywhere else I've lived. I'm right in the bustling heart of Hamilton, the biggest town on the island, and every saturday there is a farmers market.

Wadson's Farm is a long standing organic farm and has some of the best lettuce I've ever eaten. They are also harvesting carrots, leeks, cauliflower, and more right now. We've known members of this family for many years as my wife taught some of the girls last time we lived here. It really is wonderful to talk to the farmer, tour his operation, and feel so confident about the food you eat. If you can do it where you live I heartily recommend it.

Yowza! Sounds like science fiction but it isn't

Check out this article over on celsias by Jeanne Roberts. It's starting to feel like a movie starring Kevin Costner.

Antarctic Ice Shelf "Hanging by a Thread", and What it Means to You

Here's an excerpt,

"Now, to make matters worse, geophysicists from the University of Toronto warn that the increasingly unstable West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) could lead to significantly higher sea level rises, and such changes will be highly variable as well, affecting primarily North American and nations in and along the southern Indian Ocean (Indonesia, the Maldives, and Madagascar).

Estimates suggest rises up to 16.5 feet, which is the value of the total volume of water locked up in the WAIS. However, warns study author and geophysicist Jerry X. Mitrovica, the estimate may fall shy because it ignores three significant effects: sea levels fall near a melting ice sheet, but rise progressively at greater distances; earth rebounds when an ice sheet melts, pushing more water into the ocean, and; melting of an ice sheet as large as the WAIS may cause the earth's rotational axis to shift, potentially as much as 1,640 feet from its present location - an alteration in the earth's geophysical plane that could shift water from the southern oceans to the Indian Ocean and northward toward North America."

WWF's Earth Hour 2009

Join the more than 500 cities worldwide and turn off your lights on March 28th for one full hour in a global demand for action on climate change. Governments won't act unless they see consensus in the people.

Earth Hour

“Earth Hour is an opportunity for every man, woman and child from all corners of the globe to come together with a united voice and make a loud and powerful statement on the issue of climate change,”- Archbishop Desmond Tutu

“The C40 Climate Leadership Group is about cities working together to drive down greenhouse gas emissions and that is why as Chair of the C40, I support Earth Hour. It's crucial that cities and the public come together to take action against climate change and Earth Hour provides a great platform to do that."- Mr David Miller, Mayor of Toronto and chair of the C40 Large Cities Climate Leadership Group

Recommended gardening website

If you are a gardener, interested in growing your own food, I highly recommend Emma Coopers website. Her podcast is excellent, her voice is pleasant and the production is simple and elegant not to mention to the point and useful. Check her out at;

http://coopette.com/

Geoengineering, Sequestering Crops, Another Bad Idea

It may come down to geoengineering, essentially what we've been doing for the last 150 years of industrial despoilment, but it scares me and I hope and pray we can come to our senses in time enough to avoid it. We have proven our lack of skill when it comes to modifying the natural world. Check it out over on Celsias
Geoengineering, Sequestering Crops, Another Bad Idea

James Hansen: The Sword of Damocles from Celsias.com

Dr. James Hansen speaking plainly again.
Here's an excerpt;

"Coal is not only the largest fossil fuel reservoir of carbon dioxide, it is the dirtiest fuel. Coal is polluting the world’s oceans and streams with mercury, arsenic and other dangerous chemicals.

The dirtiest trick that governments play on their citizens is the pretense that they are working on “clean coal” or that they will build power plants that are “capture ready” in case technology is ever developed to capture all pollutants.

The trains carrying coal to power plants are death trains. Coal-fired power plants are factories of death. When I testified against the proposed Kingsnorth power plant, I estimated that in its lifetime it would be responsible for extermination of about 400 species – its proportionate contribution to the number that would be committed to extinction if carbon dioxide rose another 100 ppm. ... On a per capita basis, the three countries most responsible for fossil fuel carbon dioxide in the air today are the United Kingdom, the United States, and Germany, in that order. Politicians in Britain have asked me: why am I speaking to them — the United States must lead? But coal interests have great power in the United States – the essential moratorium and phase-out of coal likely requires a growing public demand and a political will yet to be demonstrated."

James Hansen: The Sword of Damocles

Posted using ShareThis

GM crops increase pesticide use

From Organic Consumers Association

"According to a recent (December 2008) global summary report from the Worldwatch Institute:

1) The U.S. leads the world, by far, in genetically engineered crop production and consumption.

2) The widespread planting of crops genetically engineered to resist specific pesticides (which allows farmers to apply more pesticides to their
crops) has created 15 new species of plants known as "superweeds" that are resistant to commonly used pesticides. In 2008, these superweeds were discovered on hundreds of thousands of acres of U.S. farmland.

3) Due to the presence of these new superweeds, GM crop production has already led to a $60 million annual increase in pesticide use in the U.S.
Most of that money goes to the same companies that developed the GM crops that were supposed to reduce pesticide use in the first place."

Learn more

Good news for a change

EU continues to see the light and listen to reason


See Organic Consumers Association



" Although more than 70% of the non-organic food in American supermarkets contains genetically engineered ingredients, massive opposition to GMO crops in Europe has basically kept them off the market (except for imported animal feed). According to the majority the EU, biotech crops pose unacceptable risks to human health and the environment-- despite industry, U.S. Government, and many trade officials' insistence that they are perfectly safe. This week, France's Environment Minister Jean-Louis Borloo announced that his country, along with several other European nations, would be renewing its ban on all genetically engineered (GE) crops, including Monsanto's GE corn (MON 810), which is the only biotech crop allowed for human consumption in the EU. According to Borloo, "The basis of the safeguard clause, which tackles open-field cultivation of the Monsanto 810 maize, is on risks considered as severe for the environment..."

UK Commitment to Efficiency

The UK labour government is trying get a spending package to improve efficiency standards in existing homes. Let's hope it goes through. This has been a long time coming while the talk was all about Eco towns which no-one can afford anymore, much less get financing for. The gains available through efficiency improvements are huge. I wonder if they will go far enough and endorse external cladding? Anyone know if there are any concrete plans to address this in the US? Seems like a major step towards resiliency to me.
http://www.davidkidney.com/plans_for_energy_efficiency

When it comes to power generation-Small is Beautiful

Amory Lovins, chief scientist at Rocky Mountain Institute, negawatt guru and all around energy expert, has written a piece in the NY Times freakonomics blog regarding big power plants compared to small distributed generation power systems. It's fascinating stuff and the way forward. Yet another nail in the coffin of dirty coal.

Does a Big Economy Need Big Power Plants?

Here's an excerpt,

"Big thermal plants’ disappointing cost, efficiency, risk, and reliability were leading their orders to collapse even before restructuring began to create new market entrants, unbundled prices, and increased opportunities for competition at all scales. By now, the world is shifting decisively to “micropower” — The Economist’s term for cogeneration (making electricity and useful heat together in factories or buildings) plus renewables (except big hydroelectric dams).

The U.S. lags with only about 6 percent micropower: its special rules favor incumbents and gigantism. Yet micropower provides from one-sixth to more than half of all electricity in a dozen other industrial countries. Micropower in 2006 (the last full data available) delivered a sixth of the world’s total electricity (more than nuclear power) and a third of the world’s new electricity. Micropower plus “negawatts” — electricity saved by more efficient or timely use — now provide upwards of half the world’s new electrical services. The supposedly indispensable central thermal plants provide only the minority, because they cost too much and bear too much financial risk to win much private investment, whereas distributed renewables got $91 billion of new private capital in 2007 alone. Collapsed capital markets now make giant projects even more unfinanceable, favoring lower-financial-risk granular projects even more....

Global competition between big and small plants is turning into a rout. In 2006, nuclear power worldwide added 1.44 billion watts (about one big reactor’s worth) of capacity — more than all of it from uprating old units, since retirements exceeded additions. But that was less capacity than photovoltaics (solar cells) added in 2006, or a tenth what windpower added, or 2.5 percent to 3 percent of what micropower added. China’s nuclear program, the world’s most ambitious, achieved one-seventh the capacity of its distributed renewable capacity and grew one-seventh as fast. In 2007, the U.S., Spain, and China each added more wind capacity than the world added nuclear capacity, and the U.S. added more wind capacity than it added coal-fired capacity during 2003 to 2007 inclusive."

While away the hours looking into the future

This is a projection, in red, of a 1 meter sea level rise on the coastal area I grew up in. The horseshoe shaped area just under and to the right of "Georgia" is where my family home is, though we no longer own it thankfully. I fully expect to see this amount of sea level rise in my lifetime.

I produced this at The University of Arizona Department of GeoSciences Environmental Studies Laboratory website. It is an interactive map with which you can see the effects of varying levels of sea level rise on coastal regions of the world. Find your favorite sea side vacation spot and watch it go under! Hmmm... now where will all those people go?

"Results indicate that the earth will be warm enough in less than 150 years (assuming no reduction in greenhouse gas emissions) to significantly melt the Greenland Ice Cap. This change could also lead to four to six meters of sea level rise at rates of up to two to five centimeters per year... 1 meter = 3.28 feet, 6 meters = 19.68 feet " - Architecture 2030

Scientists to speak out

Scientists will meet next month to urge governments to get off their backsides and do something. NOW!

Check out the Guardian for more. Here's an excerpt, straight to the point.

"Bob Watson, a former head of the IPCC and chief scientist in the environment department warned .... nations should prepare for an average rise of 4C. The IPCC said temperatures could soar by up to 6C by 2100 if current rates of carbon pollution continue."

Are you ready for that!?

The Crimes of Monsanto

Monsanto contaminates our food supply with experimental psuedo food, contaminated poor neighborhoods of Anniston Alabama for 40 years with PCB's, and when they lose control of their frankencrops, contaminating and destroying years of sustainable agricultural practice they have the effrontery to sue those contaminated farmers whose livelihoods they've ruined. Join in the campaign to put a stop to the worst of industrial agricultural practices. Boycott GM Foods! Read more at the Organic Consumers Association.

an excerpt,

"Percy Schmeiser is a farmer from Saskatchewan Canada, whose Canola fields were contaminated with Monsanto's genetically engineered Round-Up Ready Canola by pollen from a nearby farm. Monsanto says it doesn't matter how the contamination took place, and is therefore demanding Schmeiser pay their Technology Fee (the fee farmers must pay to grow Monsanto's genetically engineered products). According to Schmeiser, "I never had anything to do with Monsanto, outside of buying chemicals. I never signed a contract.

If I would go to St. Louis (Monsanto Headquarters) and contaminate their plots - destroy what they have worked on for 40 years - I think I would be put in jail and the key thrown away."

A Living Nightmare

Imagine London before Dickens, before King Henry the VIII, in the 14th century. Teeming with the great unwashed, rivers of sewage in the streets. Now imagine London with even more people, unable to leave their homes. Now the rivers of sewage are underfoot at the kitchen table, in the bedroom, the peoples bodies are slimed from working, relaxing, and sleeping in sewage. Disease is rife, there is no quality of life.

That gives you a picture of the a modern 21st century feedlot in Kansas. The only difference is cows, not people. Diseases caused by the filth and the unnatural diet of corn and soy, cows are designed to eat fresh clean grass, are rampant and are controlled by huge quantities of antibiotics. Additionally, large quantities of the waste run off into our water courses contributing to the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico.

Even if you can accept the ethical implications of this mistreatment of animals are you prepared to eat the antibiotic soaked flesh of these pitiful creatures? Where does most of this flesh end up? Look in your local supermarket, at your local fast food outlet. The only way to avoid it is to abstain completely or to source organic or at least grass fed beef from sustainable farms.

Cows belong on farms where they can graze on grass, where their waste is recycled naturally into the earth in small enough doses to be healthy. Where their welfare can be looked after and they can lead a natural life. Where they contribute to local economy by supporting family rather than corporate farming.

Thanks to Michael Pollan for the analogy - Omnivore's Dilemma pg 73

The US can reduce energy use by 30% through efficiency alone.

"Rocky Mountain Institute's Energy and Resources Team has just published a report that shows the opportunity for 30 percent energy savings in the United States. Assessing the Electric Productivity Gap and the U.S. Efficiency Opportunity analyzed electric productivity state by state, and found a significant gap between the highest and lowest performing states.

Electric productivity measures how much gross domestic product is generated for each kilowatt-hour consumed ($GDP/kWh). This finding is significant because if laggard states achieved the electric productivity of the top ten performing states through energy efficiency, we would achieve electric savings equivalent to more than 60 percent of U.S. coal-fired generation. According to Natalie Mims, Consultant on RMI's Energy & Resources Team (ERT), "closing the electric productivity gap through energy efficiency is the largest near-term opportunity to immediately reduce electricity use and greenhouse gases, and move the United States forward as a leader in the new clean energy economy."

The electric productivity of top performing states, like New York, Connecticut, and California, serves as an example of what's achievable. Those states show the nation how barriers to efficiency practices can be overcome, how state utilities can be regulated, and how new and effective technologies can be implemented. Conversely, lower performing states have a huge opportunity to learn from the successes of higher performing states by closing their electric productivity gap using known and tested technology and policy. This will be the focus of RMI's next step, as ERT concentrates on the efficiency measures that can cost-effectively have the largest impact." - - RMI e alert Newsletter 05/02/09

RMI has been on the forefront of research and policy recommendations regarding efficiency for as long as I can remember. Their latest report is startling. Check out the interactive map to see how your state is doing.

Sustainable agriculture = sustainable food supply

"We live off of what comes out of the soil, not what's in the bank. If we squander the ecological capital of the soil, the capital on paper won't much matter... For the past 50 or 60 years, we have followed industrialized agricultural policies that have increased the rate of destruction of productive farmland. For those 50 or 60 years, we have let ourselves believe the absurd notion that as long as we have money we will have food. If we continue our offenses against the land and the labor by which we are fed, the food supply will decline, and we will have a problem far more complex than the failure of our paper economy. Remember, if our agriculture is not sustainable then our food supply is not sustainable... Either we pay attention or we pay a huge price, not so far down the road. When we face the fact that civilizations have destroyed themselves by destroying their farmland, it's clear that we don't really have a choice." - Wes Jackson of the Land Insitute

Read the rest of the interview at Organic Consumers Association

It's Cold Outside

It is a cold snowy morning. I am staying in an old sandstone residence at a boarding school in West Yorkshire dating back to the 18th century. I can feel cold air seeping in around the old single pane windows. This is an historic grade 1 listed building which severely limits the modifications allowed, double glazing isn’t likely any time soon. So, I roll up a couple of tea towels and stuff them into the gap at the bottom of the window and along the join between the upper and lower sections where I could see a cob web blowing in the breeze.

4 of the 6 windows have an extra window on hinges added inside, they are not tight but better than nothing. Adding this feature to the last 2 windows would help and for just the cost of some draft excluder these could be much improved.

We keep the windows covered whenever we don’t need the light as the radiators are directly under the windows in most rooms. This is the worst place to put a radiator. Heat rises and much of it is simply transferred through the glass to the outdoors. This is true for most double glazing as well which is only as effective as a solid wall at holding in heat. High end windows are gas filled and triple glazed with special coatings to reflect the heat back into the room. If you can afford it they may be worth the investment. Drapes should stop at the sill and be heavy enough to insulate the window. If the drape covers the top of the radiator it will route most of the heat heat behind it and along the cold glass, heating the garden. We keep the drapes tucked in behind the radiators to keep the heat away from the cold glass. An inexpensive reflector placed behind the radiator will also reduce heat loss through the wall.

I’m in the kitchen with a warm cup of tea watching the snow fall. I can feel cold air blowing across my legs. Looking under the kitchen counter top I find there is a huge hole in the wall board where the pressure adjust valves for the boiler are accessed. Cold air is pouring in there so I stuff a bath mat into it. Earlier in the week I discovered that the front door had a gap along the edge about a centimeter across. I had some leftover foam draft excluder from tightening up our house in Sheffield and used it up along the worst sections on the edge below the latch.

Now that I’ve stopped up some of the leaks I wonder about insulation. I don’t know if the floor is insulated but judging by the feeling coming through to my stockinged feet I’d guess not. It still amazes me to find buildings in which the simplest things have not been done to save energy and increase comfort. The built environment is responsible for up to half of all energy use. As part of any plan to increase resiliency it must be high on the list. Architecture 2030 has proposed a plan that I heartily support. Check em out at,
http://www.architecture2030.org/

Coal or Aviation?

Gwynne Dyer's article regarding choosing to focus on the threats from Coal or the threats from Aviation makes some good points. She quotes James Hansen,

"Coal is 80 percent of the planet's problems," he said in an interview with The Observer. "You have to keep your eye on the ball and not waste your efforts. The number one enemy is coal and we should not forget that."


and discusses the third runway protests at Heathrow. I largely agree. We need to stay focused on leaving coal in the ground, whatever it takes. For most of us that will involve getting active in the effort to end our dependence on coal as well as reducing demand significantly in our personal lives. You could also install renewable energy on your home. But letting aviation off the hook completely seems a bit wrong headed. We need to deal with the problem on every front. We all need to fly less.

I say this, somewhat guiltily, at a moment in my life when flying is again becoming imminent as we are moving to Bermuda for a job and I will go the states to see my family while there. I have reduced my flying by almost 50% since moving to England and hope to make this next trip my last on an airliner but I still wish I had some other alternative. We investigated sea travel but the time of year was wrong even though we were prepared to pay more for it. I will however attempt to crew on a sailboat to the states for the family trip.

Anyway, read the article and judge for yourself.

British Columbia Coastline Faces Being Shaken and Swamped

Here's a link to an excellent article about a fascinating report.
Combining as it does the imminent threat of subsidence due to earthquake induced land slip and the more gradual threat of sea level rise due to a number of climate related changes, this report makes good reading.

I think the "probable", 11 to 50cm, is likely too conservative. The "possible" is more likely probable. Here is the "possible" from the report, 80 to 120cm. The report acknowledges that many researchers believe the figures for sea level rise from melting glalciers as projected in the IPCC 2007 are too conservative and that the rate of melting may increase substantially over the century. More recent science confirms this. Global warming is accelerating due to numerous positive feedback loops. I don't think scientists are sure enough about the severity of the effects, scientists are after all conservative beasts, to predict outcomes with any degree of certainty but I am willing to bet that we are in for a far rougher time of it than what governments and their panels of scientists and beaureaucrats are willing to let on.

Every day that we go about business as usual, applying palliative measures to salve our conscience in form of green consumerism, endless debate instead of action, we are, like lemmings, herding closer to the edge of climate catastrophe.

It will be interesting to see if based on this report the Canadian government is willing to put and end to the disastrous exploitation of the Alberta tar sands.

British Columbia Coastline Faces Being Shaken and Swamped

Download the report at

http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/epd/climate/pdfs/sea-level-changes-08.pdf