The Unlikely Activist

Tell me it ain't true, Dr. Suzuki

I can't believe it. Within minutes I learn 1) how much I really owe environmental scientist David Suzuki, and 2) how much I really owe environmental scientist David Sukuki. No typo here. Just two quick points.

First, I owe David Suzuki for alerting me to the recent release of a report we all need to take to heart: the Global Footprint Network's just released Living Planet Report 2006. Its message is both startling and clear. Dr. Suzuki says it best...

"On October 9th, according to the Global Footprint Network, humanity went into ecological debt for the year, where demand for resources and the production of waste outpaced the planet's capacity to produce new resources and absorb the wastes."

In terms of framing an issue, how much more clear and memorable can this be? Many sustainability issues are complex and confusing, but this one isn't. There is a limit. And the speed at which we're approaching it is increasing, just as the date we go into ecological debt comes earlier each year. As described in the Living Planet Report 2006, we have hit ecological 'overshoot'. What does that mean, exactly? Well--and this too is an easy factoid to remember--it means that...

"...it now takes about one year and three months for the Earth to regenerate what we use in a single year."

Think about it.

So there you go. It's for bringing me this kind of clarity and needed information that I owe David Suzuki.

But here's the second reason realize how much I owe him. And that is that he won't be giving us his vital knowledge and breadth of understanding any more. If a Reuters report from Wednesday, October 25th is on the mark, Dr. Suzuki has decided to "quit the spotlight for a simple life." Away from the stages, and the lecture halls, and the book tours I suspect.

I can well understand how the man who inspired me with his unforgettable The Sacred Balance may deserve a better balance of his own now. But I will miss him. And work harder.

Climate change and voter impact

As you know by now, I believe that each individual will follow their eConsciousness where it feels right. They'll change the products they buy and use in their homes, lead their businesses towards sustainability, support local farms, or take a role in education and advocacy--each a form of activism in its own right.

They may just need a push to get there. So here's a reminder to add this action to all of your lists--vote. With a million small initiatives and some very large ones needed to avert the worst of a climate crisis, the more awareness and support that comes from our pubic servants, the better.

Three web sites will help you appreciate what's at stake and provide an easy way for you to help put climate change where it needs to be on the political agenda. First is the Climate Change Coalition site. Start here for a quick, comprehensive look at the latest, via background articles, news, and movie clips.

Next, click from the Coalition site or navigate directly to ClimateUSA. Here, you'll see the trailer for a revealing movie on moving beyond the Kyoto agreement, along with a plea for participating actively in the 2006 Congressional elections. And even though voting day is rapidly approaching, you can take a minute to remind your candidates of your concern about climate change and their ability to lead the way.

The Questions for Candidates site will look up the candidates in your area, and gives you a template loaded with important questions that you can forward to your candidates.

Look, with even Evangelical Christians signing on to the cause in rising numbers, the time for real action in our seats of government is here. It's easy for you to be a part of it, too.

The amazing power of thinking differently

There's a wonderful thing about traveling through the world of sustainability with an open and hungry mind. It's this--the chance to meet people who are able to teach us to think differently. People who can turn convention right on its head to reveal ways of solving problems that we might otherwise have just blown by.

Consider, for example, what we might accomplish by simply looking to the designs and processes of the natural world...

* Creating molecular sized batteries, modeled on the way plants convert and store energy from the sun
* Removing carbon dioxide from the air by literally changing it into usable and solid building material
* Emulating natural processes to enable growing fruits and vegetables year-round in cold, northern climates
* Developing closed-loop agricultural parks that run entirely on waste input and produce no waste output

Indeed, nature has the potential to show us how to remove toxins, eliminate waste, and live in a world where we need only a small fraction of the resources we now take from the earth.

I think it's fair to say that thinking differently, and getting others to do likewise, was a key takeaway from this past weekend's Bioneers by the Bay/ Connecting for Change conference at the Dartmouth campus of the University of Massachusetts. It's an event where non-profits, climate scientists, activists of one stripe or another, anthropologists, spiritual leaders, and sustainable business experts came together--both literally and figuratively.

The event took place concurrently with a Bioneers conference on the west coast and satellite sessions in between, and was hosted by the Marion Institute. Three days of plenaries and workshops gave plenty of time to connect with sustainability movers and shakers like Janine Benyus, Ray Anderson, Gunter Pauli, John and Nancy Todd, Lynn Margulis, and Paul Hawken.

I'll close by encouraging you to visit Bioneers on line and consider stepping 'into the green box' next time around. It was a weekend full of inspiring learning and growing. It was a conference I'll never forget.

For your reading enlightenment, I would strongly recommend:

Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature, by Janine Benyus
A Safe and Sustainable World: The Promise of Ecological Design, by Nancy and John Todd
Mid-Course Correction: Toward a Sustainable Enterprise--The Interface Model, by Ray Anderson

...and anything by Paul Hawken. These are only a few of the books that jumped out at me while at Bioneers. Happy reading.

Why Sustainability is not a specialized sport

Everyone tells me to specialize. All that I read about blogging tells me to specialize. And to all of that I say, sorry. Some rules are just made to try and break.

Here's my reasoning. As our planet itself is teaching us, things we never thought to be so are interdependent. We're finding connections and causality and relationships across the board. We're learning that when we do things that result in pollution, climate change, resource depletion, species extinction, and more, we trigger a cascade of events. Because it's all connected. We are all connected.

So along comes a sustainability movement encompassing all sorts of actions--some personal, some business related, some governmental, some spiritually driven. And guess what? They are all interdependent!

There you go. I write here to help us find our eConsciousness. To see how we can put it to good use. To see how and why others chose to do the same. And how can we accomplish this if we aren't willing to learn from each other? I want to create a place where the business-minded, the scientific, the spiritualist, the artist, the public servant and all come to travel together. I'm just here to connect the dots.

That's why I won't--or can't--specialize.

Enough of that. I want to leave you with a piece that I discovered a while back that puts a little more substance into the interdependence notion. It's beautifully written. And I thank David Suzuki, Canada's renowned environmentalist/scientist for it. Happy reading...

Declaration of Interdependence...

This We Know

We are the earth, through the plants and animals that nourish us.

We are the rains and the oceans that flow through our veins.

We are the breath of the forests of the land, and the plants of the sea.

We are human animals, related to all other life as descendants of the firstborn cell.

We share with these kin a common history, written in our genes.

We share a common present, filled with uncertainty.

And we share a common future, as yet untold.

We humans are but one of thirty million species weaving the thin layer of life enveloping the world.

The stability of communities of living things depends upon this diversity.

Linked in that web, we are interconnected -- using, cleansing, sharing and replenishing the fundamental elements of life.

Our home, planet Earth, is finite; all life shares its resources and the energy from the sun, and therefore has limits to growth.

For the first time, we have touched those limits.

When we compromise the air, the water, the soil and the variety of life, we steal from the endless future to serve the fleeting present.

This We Believe

Humans have become so numerous and our tools so powerful that we have driven fellow creatures to extinction, dammed the great rivers, torn down ancient forests, poisoned the earth, rain and wind, and ripped holes in the sky.

Our science has brought pain as well as joy; our comfort is paid for by the suffering of millions.

We are learning from our mistakes, we are mourning our vanished kin, and we now build a new politics of hope.

We respect and uphold the absolute need for clean air, water and soil.

We see that economic activities that benefit the few while shrinking the inheritance of many are wrong.

And since environmental degradation erodes biological capital forever, full ecological and social cost must enter all equations of development.

We are one brief generation in the long march of time; the future is not ours to erase.

So where knowledge is limited, we will remember all those who will walk after us, and err on the side of caution.

This We Resolve

All this that we know and believe must now become the foundation of the way we live.

At this turning point in our relationship with Earth, we work for an evolution: from dominance to partnership; from fragmentation to connection; from insecurity, to interdependence.

Think twice before you hang up those drawers

Boston Globe columnist Alex Beam has struck a blow to one of my most vivid childhood memories. One I've filed away in my 'being green before its time' file. I'm talking about air drying laundry, a practice that for good reason may be making a comeback.

Who from my baby boomer generation can't remember struggling with those springy clothespins, half wrapped up in a soggy bedsheet, or blushingly struggling with which part of mom's brassiere you're supposed to clip anyway? And how about the occasional deep freeze, when pants and shirts could stand up on their own--only to have to go right into the wash again--thanks, junior? Ahhh, now we get a second chance. And this time we'll know we're doing good. This time we're going to get it right. Right?

Not so fast. In Living green comes with a price, which appeared in the October 16th Living/Arts section, Beam shatters our expectations by noting that "a clothesline in a neighborhood can lower property values by 15 percent." Uh oh. Didn't think about that. Thanks, Alex (by way of Richard Monson, President of the California Association of Homeowners Associations, as told to Legal Affairs magazine).

So, are we simply to let this twisted version of NIMNBY (Not In My Neighbor's Back Yard) thwart our green-ness? Not on your life. We're going to hold the line (ouch!) on this one. After all, it won't be too long before a gas-guzzling SUV parked in the driveway will label a homestead as unsustainable and appropriately devalued as well. And by then clotheslines will be seen for what they really are.

Afterword:
Seriously, prohibitions against hanging laundry are an issue in communities across the country--thousands of them. Learn more about this, and what average people like you and me can do to adopt this as one of our paths to sustainability, by logging on to Project Laundrylist. You may be surprised by the degree of opposition, as well as the commitment of 'Right to Dry' advocates.

Someone's got to pay, right?

In his latest post on the Environmental Economics blog, Tim Haab puts the spotlight on one of the fundamental realities that impact sustainable economics--namely costs that pervade our system but for which there is no direct accountability, and thus little incentive to address. Well, in sustainable business circles the push is towards a different and more promising approach to these external costs.

Tim's example is a good one, using pollution as the unaccounted for cost:

In the process of producing something, say corn, the farmer applies fertilizers to improve the crop yield. Some of the costs and most of the benefits of the fertilizer are borne by the farmer. But, some of the costs of the fertilizer run-off the farm and into nearby waterways. The result? High nutrient loads in nearby waterways resulting in increased algal blooms, lower dissolved oxygen levels, and impure drinking water. To purify the drinking water, nearby towns have to pay extra to remove the extra nutrients. This extra cost has to come from somewhere. In an ideal setting, it would come from the farmer, because the farmer is responsible for generating the cost.

He follows on with:

The additional costs borne by the nearby towns are real costs. They are dollars that could be spent on things the town residents really want, but instead have to be used to ensure their drinking water is clean.

So when you think about sustainability and formulate your own take, remember...shifting costs away from those who cause them, a classic form of 'not my problem', is not a sustainable proposition. Ultimately they need to be accounted for upstream, where they originate. There, they can and will be addressed through the kind of innovation in product and processes that industry is capable of. There, the ultimate winners will minimize both their future risk as well as the downstream cost to their customers and society at large.

Someone's got to pay, right? Not so fast. Sustainable business principles tell us that both the who and the how much are not always what they seem to be.

The Unlikely Activist goes Technorati

I've been accused of writing long when I could write short. Of stretching a point when I should compress it. It's true. I know. But I did manage to compose a very brief new Profile to post on Technorati, the blog search site for the world. Believe me, the 250 word limit had me squirming quite a bit. Reminded me of some rather ill-advised spelunking I did back in my college days.

Anyhow, here's the profile, and here's a way you can click to the latest from Technorati easily. Have fun, and thanks again for helping this (ad)venture grow.

Technorati profile for The Unlikely Activist...

A career communicator, I've set out to awaken your eConsciousness-- as facilitator, translator, motivator. Travel with me through the world of sustainability and let's explore the balance between our needs and those of the earth systems we depend upon.

A promising new environmental resource

When I began this blog, I never set out to be the expert, but rather to lead the way to the experts--the facilitate part of my mission. And on the way there, to add value by pointing out relevance, being a 'translator', and making connections--the other key part of what I've set out to do.

Well, both of these hopefully come into play in this post. And better yet, the reference I'm about to point you toward appears committed to bringing you similar value. It's the new and ever evolving Encyclopedia of Earth, described as an "electronic reference about the Earth, its natural environments, and their interaction with society". It promises to be a lifesaver for many of us who are swimming in a sea of information the likes of which none of us has seen before.

Here's how the authors describe it themselves...

"The motivation behind the Encyclopedia of Earth is simple. Go to Google™ and type in climate change, pesticides, nuclear power, sustainable development, or any other important environmental issue. Doing so returns millions of results, some fraction of which are authoritative. The remainder is of poor or unknown quality.

This illustrates a stark reality of the Web: digital information on the environment is characterized by an abundance of "great piles of content" and a dearth of "piles of great content." In other words, there are many resources for environmental content, but there is no central repository of authoritative information that meets the needs of diverse user communities."

OK, I know this all sounds a bit holier than thou, so I dove into the Encyclopedia to explore for myself. I was pleased with what I found, even moreso when I followed the Topics list to an intriguing subject area called Ecological Economics. Here, an entry on Biophysical Economics caught my attention.

If you haven't yet delved into Environmental Economics yourself, or read the intriquing book Natural Capitalism by Paul Hawken and Amory and Hunter Lovins, suffice it to say for now that it brings us a new framework for viewing our interaction with the planet. It illuminates, among other things, important notions about the value of planetary services and natural assets--oxygen production, waste decomposition, climate regulation, water purification, etc.--and their absence from traditional global economic and business models. Environmental Economics theory and practice point the way to fundamental new ways of addressing sustainability.

That said, if the piece on Biophysical Economics in the Encyclopedia of Earth represents the quality of entries coming to us through its growing content, then it's a site to bookmark for sure. Edited by Dr. Robert Constanza, Gund Professor of Ecological Economics and Director of the Gund Institute for Ecological Economics at the University of Vermont, and authored by Dr. Cutler J. Cleveland, Profesor of Geography and Environment and Director of the Center for Energy and Environmental Studies at Boston University, it's a thought provoking read.

I'll leave you with an excerpt from the entry. It lists four points of consensus on the Environmental Economics vision, thought-provoking statements that underscore the dangers of exceeding our planet's limits...

"1. the vision of the Earth as a thermodynamically closed and nonmaterially growing system, with the human economy as a subsystem of the global ecosystem. This implies that there are limits to biophysical throughput of resources from the ecosystem, through the economic subsystem, and back to the ecosystem as wastes;
2. the future vision of a sustainable planet with a high quality of life for all of its citizens (both humans and other species) within the material constraints imposed by 1;
3. the recognition that in the analysis of complex systems like the Earth at all space and time scales, fundamental uncertainty is large and irreducible and certain processes are irreversible, requiring a fundamentally precautionary stance; and
4. that institutions and management should be proactive rather than reactive and should result in simple, adaptive, and implementable policies based on a sophisticated understanding on the underlying systems which fully acknowledges the unerlying uncertainties. This forms the basis for policy implementation which is itself sustainable."

Bill Moyers puts green in the spotlight

I hadn't planned another post this evening but was moved to comment on the Bill Moyers on America segment I just watched on our local PBS channel. My guess is that the station had a good ratings night, given the large number of non core viewers who probably tuned in to see if indeed 'God is Green' (which is my slightly altered version of the show's title).

For those who didn't catch it, the segment essentially pitted Evangelical Christian against Evangelical Christian regarding their notions of stewardship vs. dominion over nature by us humans. And as it turns out, there is apparently a sizable movement, unnerving to some, of Evangelicals who are 'getting green', and are both acknowledging and taking ownership of issues like global warming. This is very reassuring, though a tremendous gap remains between outlooks.

But what really struck me was something said by a prominent leader of the 'opposition'. That is, and I paraphrase, "...those who take up the environmental cause are anti-American, anti-growth, and anti-business." Well, eureka! For here is a proverbial teaching moment, and a point to be made that could so satisfy both camps, if only both would listen. Addressing our abuses of nature and stimulating healthy, sustainable business go hand in hand. They are not mutually exclusive. In fact, business built on sustainable practices will ultimately be by far the strongest engine of our growth--but good, caring, responsible growth.

I take encouragement from this on two fronts. First, the shift in thinking by an important segment of our society proves that minds can be opened, and on a sizable scale. Second, there are ways to couch the discussion and ultimately win over those who are focused only on profit. We have an answer for you, a win-win opportunity. Come join us.

Please take a few minutes to see the Bill Moyers piece for yourself. You can watch it online at PBS.com by just clicking here.

Talking the talk, demystified

Looking back over many years in the communications business, one thing seems to be an enduring, sometimes downright painful thing for people--the cold call. Some are good at it. But most tend to sweat, pace, or procrastinate. Almost all try to avoid it. The problem? Simple really...it's not being in control of the conversation, not being sure how it's going to go, not feeling in command of all your facts.

The same phenomenon, I now understand, occurs in all sorts of conversations--even those involving talking with your friends, neighbors, fellow students, or colleagues about the environment and sustainability. What do you say when they object, challenge you, throw half-baked arguments back at you? After all, it's usually easier to debunk and deny than to prove something true. And especially so with complex issues like climate impact, resource depletion, biodiversity, and social responsibility.

I was very pleased, therefore, when I stumbled across a web posting a little while back that addresses this. Namely, it shares a real-life conversation between an environmental advocate and an energy executive. It's a constructive encounter, and one which can help us model our approaches. I'm thankful to Rhett Butler, of San Francisco for posting this on his web site: Mongabay.com. Below are some excerpts, and you can read the entire piece by clicking here.

My takeaway is that you don't have to feel it necessary to command all the science, all the facts. And if you can focus on the benefits vs. the fears, you may find eConsciousness ready to awaken in all sorts of people.

Here are the excerpts from Rhett's piece...

"Earlier this month I had the opportunity to make a pitch to "Mike," a top executive of a major energy company, about climate change and green energy. Mike said he didn't believe humans are influencing climate or that green energy is a key factor in the future business of his firm, "EnergyCo." I tried to persuade him otherwise, not by focusing on the science of climate change but on economics and market opportunities. It's not that science isn't important—I just didn't want to get caught up in an argument about core beliefs..."

"I suggested to Mike, EnergyCo should see this shift in public sentiment as an opportunity to improve its public relations and develop a framework to monetize a green movement. In an environment where perceived concerns over climate change are growing and energy from renewable sources is becoming increasingly price competitive with fossil fuel-based power, consumers want green energy. Further, I believe this shift in public sentiment will lead regulators to make green-energy mandates in the near future..."