Getting Down to Brass Tacks and Solar Panels

I took the international students in my first year (university) sustainability course on a field trip the other day. We boarded a tiny bus and went to Sooke, British Columbia (south tip of Vancouver Island in Canada) to visit the T'sou-ke First Nation's solar energy initiatives.

My students were all very impressed, each for a different reason. Our tour began with a traditional ceremony with a warm and wonderful elder and spiritual healer, Shirley. It included music, prayer, smudging, a water blessing, and a welcome. Many of the young people were moved by the reverence of this ceremony, and the many ways that it incorporated (included and embodied) elements of the natural world.

Our tour of the three solar installations (students were impressed by the bank of batteries, getting up close to some photovoltaic panels, and the fact that the T'sou-ke First Nation is making money by selling energy back to the grid) was punctuated with other experiences. On the bank of the river, we noted the white shell midden (an ancient garbage dump of sorts), which also contains archaeological treasures such as arrowheads, utensils made from antlers, rock tools, and beads from the early days of trading with Europeans. We also learned that during the salmon run each fall, the sand bars are filled with bears taking their share of the fish!

Next, we got to see a 54 foot long dugout canoe, made in the 1990s from one very large tree trunk. We were regaled with stories of tribal journeys — great ocean trips from one community to the next all along the coast, with days full of paddling followed by dancing, drumming and feasting to all hours of the morning. Only three rules for these great celebrations: no alcohol, no drugs, no cell phones! (My students didn't think they'd survive. ;-)

Finally, we saw a Nissan Leaf electric car and charging station up close and personal. People can (and do) drive from all across North America to charge up for free at the charging station at the T'sou-ke First Nation! We also saw and learned about solar thermal installations that pre-heat water for hot water tanks.

Perhaps the niftiest story we heard (the day after discussing the Just Transition to Green Jobs in class) was that when the T'sou-ke Nation put out tenders for the solar installations, they said they wanted the winning contractor to not only train some T'sou-ke members but also then hire them to help with the installation. That way, there's more of a sense of ownership of the project, several members have new job skills, and repair and maintenance is done in-house.

Once inside again, the students were invited to take back their power by lowering their own energy consumption as much as possible. This, it turns out, ought to be the first step before determining what solar energy capacity you need to put on your roof. (I rememember Amory Lovins calling this "nega-watts" — the energy not needed due to conservation efforts.) Each wrote their conservation commitments on a paper leaf and taped it to a Tree of Life poster on the wall. 

Our host, Andrew, wrapped up the session with an explanation of the S-curve, sharing that the price of solar panels has dropped so much that we're on the verge of an explosion. "If you were thinking of investing in solar," he said, "now's the time."

Shirley, the elder, said a farewell prayer on our behalf, and then it was time to say goodbye. All the way back to the university, the students shared with me their favourite moments. I could tell it was a worthwhile field trip for them, as it helped them see in action several of the principles of sustainable development that we've been learning about in class.

*******

Believe it or not, that story was just a preamble for what I really want to talk to you about today. I found the field trip quite inspiring myself, and especially so when I came home to an email about a certificate program in community energy management. My interest was immediately piqued. Six courses make up the certificate:

• Intro to Community Energy & Emissions Planning 
• Community-Based Renewable Energy 
• Green Energy & Local Economic Development 
• Financing & Governance for Green Energy Systems 
• Reducing Energy Use in New & Existing Buildings 
• Low Carbon Transportation

For a few minutes, I was really quite excited by the prospect of taking these courses and really helping my community make its way to localized renewable energy. But then I remembered something. I don't "get" energy. As I've admitted here before, I was hit by lightning as a child and I've been afraid of electricity ever since. So I've never learned about it, experimented with it, or done anything more than carefully plugged in an appliance. 

When I realized that the learning curve for me would be like pushing a boulder up a steep hill, I immediately forwarded the email to people in my community who are already involved with and steeped in the world of renewable energy. 

I don't have to take these courses. I am a teacher, but also a connector of people to learning opportunities. That is one of the gifts I can give to the climate change movement. 

Here's the information, in case you're interested in the Community Energy Management Certificate. The courses are online, so you could take them from anywhere in the world.

http://communityenergy.bc.ca/certificate-in-community-energy/

And to learn more about the T'sou-ke Nation's solar project, visit http://www.tsoukenation.com/first-nation-takes-lead-on-solar-power/. Be sure to watch the movie over in the righthand column. It's quite inspiring!

I Think Permaculture Can Save the World (or At Least Delay Our Demise)

I finally found it. In the least expected place!

I was listening to a wonderfully inspiring webinar yesterday morning called Regenerative Moringa Farming. But it was about much more than that. Aaron Elton (a Vancouverite) was actually talking about a model that is lifting orphanages and villages in Uganda (his adopted homeland) out of food insecurity and poverty with large scale permaculture projects that include regenerative moringa farming.

As someone who's going to be teaching an introduction to sustainable development to first year university students in the new year, I was excited to hear Aaron talking about initiatives that are profitable (economy), healthy (social equity), beneficial (environment) — the 3 Es of sustainability — and fun (if it ain't fun, it ain't sustainable).

One of my most important take-aways from the webinar was the importance of being open to and building partnerships (including unlikely ones) when trying to get something new off (or on!) the ground.

I think I've admitted this before, but sometimes the only thing that can get me up in the morning is the potential for preservation of our species found in the principles and processes of permaculture.

Okay, so what was it that I finally found in this unexpected place? Aaron shared a quote that crisply explains my view of hope in the face of demise.

There is nothing so well known
as that we should not expect
something for nothing —
but we all do
and call it Hope.
— Edgar Watson Howe

There. That's it. You want hope? Then do something about the climate change emergency! Do not do nothing and expect a result. False hope never saved anyone's skin.

And if you want to do something exciting, take a class on permaculture ... and then get to work in the soil.

Local Versus Global Sustainable Development ... Local is More Fun

A friend of mine called the other day just after I'd finished listening to a webinar on the UN's new Sustainable Development Goals, or SDGs. I was feeling somewhere in between sad and seething, and my friend asked if it was because the webinar was all doom and gloom.

"Hell no," I responded. "There wasn't *any* doom and gloom! That's what got me so upset!"

Here's what happened. The webinar was put on by a world-renowned expert in the field of sustainable development (and if you're not familiar with my stand on sustainable development as the most transformative new paradigm to come our way in ... well, since forever, check out this post) through a network of sustainability professionals: people who care enough to be doing this stuff for a living.

I have to admit that I'd lost track of the UN's "update" of their Millennium Development Goals (which, although some of them have been deemed "met," didn't slow the climate crisis one iota, therefore any successes will soon be moot), so it was great that this fellow brought us up to speed. But when "Climate" wasn't listed as a top focus area, I started to get worried. Sure enough, turns out it's #15. Out of 19. I was completely flummoxed! 

But then I got really worried when, after noting that Focus Area #2 is Food Security and Nutrition (that's good), I had to read waaaaay down before I found this subgoal: "strengthening resilience of farming systems and food supplies to climate change."



In a letter from the co-chairs of the Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) (dated 21 February 2014), they noted:

Throughout our discussions, the group emphasized that eradication of poverty, inequitable development within and among states as well as protection of the environment are amongst the most pressing sustainable development challenges facing humankind in this century.   

Okay, so far, so good sort of. The co-chairs also explained that:

The sessions were guided by the consensus that the SDGs should be action-oriented, concise and easy to communicate, limited in number, aspirational, global in nature and universally applicable to all countries, while taking into account the different national realities, capacities and levels of development and respecting national policies and priorities. The goals should address and incorporate in a balanced way the economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainable development and their interlinkages. 

Note the misconception in the last sentence, that the 3Es of sustainable development - environment, social equity and economy - should be "balanced," when the original principle and intent was that they be "integrated." There's a difference ... one that economists fail to recognize all the time. (The economy would not exist without society, and society cannot exist without the environment. So it wouldn't be very prudent to "balance" economy with environment, would it?)

But also note that the SDGs should be "action-oriented" - not survival-oriented. There's still no sense of the urgency. (Especially when you find out that the deadline for meeting these goals is 2030. I guess the goal setters are getting sick of setting goals and want a break for a while. But the world could be in complete turmoil by 2030, especially if our food systems have broken down by then due to climate chaos.)

Now have a look at the climate change focus area:

Focus area 15. Climate
Climate change poses a grave threat to sustainable development and poverty eradication. Some areas to be considered include: reaffirming and reinforcing international commitments, such as limiting the increase in global average temperature through equitable reductions in greenhouse gas emissions; providing effective means of implementation; building resilience and adaptive capacity in developing countries; with a view to reducing global emissions of greenhouse gases, introducing inter alia economic incentives for investments in low-carbon solutions in infrastructure and industry; developing low-carbon, climate-resilient development strategies and plans. Regard must be paid to the principles of the UNFCCC, including that of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities, and to supporting and urging greater ambition in the ongoing negotiations towards a strong and effective agreement in 2015. Interlinkages to other focus areas include: food security, water, education, health, energy, sustainable consumption and production, sustainable cities, oceans and seas, ecosystems and biodiversity.  

See any, uh, problems there? A "grave threat to sustainable development and poverty eradication"? Are they kidding me? It's a grave threat to the survival of most life on the planet! An area "to consider" is "limiting the increase in global average temperature through equitable reductions in greenhouse gas emissions"? How about every single gawddamn nation in the world achieving the goal of zero carbon emissions by yesterday?

Perhaps the SDGs should be called "intentions" rather than goals. Because unless we make big leaps in survivable development, these goals are just nice aspirations floating on the breeze. See why I got so upset? That's where we're at on a global level.

Then later that evening (do you ever do this?), I got watching a whole pile of videos online. I couldn't stop. They were so inspiring and exciting! I think I'm going to watch some more today, in fact. They're permaculture videos by Geoff Lawton, a wonderful permaculture teacher who works all over the world. These videos have really helped me solidify the principles that I learned in the Permaculture Design Course I took two years ago. 

One of the three ethics of permaculture is Earth care ("the Earth provides us with everything we need, so we need to think beyond 'sustainable' to 'regenerative.'") And Geoff Lawton knows and understands the multiple threats we're facing. He's doing everything he can to help people learn how to survive multiple crises (water shortages, food shortages, fossil fuel energy shortages, climate disruption and erratic weather, etc.).

So I'd like to leave you with a link to Geoff's video website. You might have to give them your email address, but that's just so they can let you know when the next video comes out. If you have any interest in survival or water catchment or land restoration or greening the desert or growing an abundance of food in your own backyard, take a bit of time to watch Geoff's videos.

Picturing THIS happening locally is what keeps me going when I get down about the rest of the world insanely ignoring what's happening. So please enjoy!

Do We Even Recognize Our Addiction?

I remember reading once about a woman who didn't recognize that she was an alcoholic until she looked objectively at her recycling bin and compared it to her neighbour's. 

There sure can be lots of denial around alcoholism, eh? People will have a drink to steady their nerves or to wind down after a busy day. Then they'll have a glass of wine with dinner and a nightcap before bed. Add a glass of wine at lunch, a second drink after a particularly stressful day, a whole bottle of wine at dinner, and ... well, I don't need to continue. It can be a creeping addiction. 

Not like crack cocaine, say, or heroin, where you have to procure an illegal (in my country) substance and a needle or pipe and then inject it or (um, I'm sort of drug-illiterate). The point I'm trying to make is that some habit-forming dependencies and addictions are socially invisible like drinking, and therefore are harder 1) to recognize, and 2) to admit to.

Lately, we've become more and more willing to admit to our addiction to fossil fuels. There have been many "interventions" over the last few decades. The "oil crisis" of the early 70s was one. Our growing awareness of greenhouse gases and climate change could be seen as another.

But I realized the other day that we're still not willing to admit to our addiction to growth. I attended a week-long event in a nearby city for the last week and stayed in a hotel. One evening, I was clicking through the TV channels (we don't have a TV at home, so it's always like a toy) and flicked quickly past the talking head of one of Canada's leading political parties, commenting on the country's latest budget. All I heard was "This budget does not have a plan for growth. It does nothing to help grow the economy."

Just with that tiny clip of an interview (on my way to finding a romantic comedy), I realized how hard it has been, is, and is going to be to get people thinking that we might want to examine our addiction to growth.

If our youngest, "hippest" political party leader can't speak to change, to green jobs, to a zero-carbon (or even low-carbon) economy, how will we ever break our dependence on continual growth? 

Folks, we need to speak the words. We need to say the words "zero" and "carbon" when we speak of the economy. We need to plant the seeds of transformation and revolution. This addiction is going to kill us if we don't end it soon. The "green economy" is our methadone ... a zero-carbon economy is more like a new, healthy lifestyle filled with fun exercise, fabulously healthy food and wonderfully sustaining relationships. 

The latest IPCC assessment (AR5) only offers one scenario (RCP2.6) that gives us any hope of keeping the global temperature increase below 2ºC (and it probably hasn't included carbon feedbacks, etc.). But that scenario is based on a centuries-long drawdown of CO2 from the atmosphere (lots of green jobs there!). If we don't start reducing CO2 emissions by 2015, cutting them by 5% per year, then we'll quite simply die of an overdose.

Five percent per year ... that probably sounds scary for anyone who can't see beyond the worldview of continual fossil-fuelled economic growth. But it's actually quite an exciting prospect because it represents a transition to an economy that is safer, cleaner, healthier, more peaceful, and much more equitable.

Let's talk about it in coffee shops and classrooms, waiting rooms and newspapers. Let's help people see that development of a zero-carbon economy is the antidote to our addiction to growth.

Can't Win for Losing — Why Do We Ignore the Principles of Sustainable Development at Our Peril?

from the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency

As reported by the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (June 2010, No growth in total global CO2 emissions in 2009), the economic downturn in late 2008 and 2009 meant that the world's developed countries (OECD nations and Russia) spewed 7 percent less carbon dioxide than the year before — a dramatic decrease. This is the first time since the 1992 recession that global CO2 emissions have not increased. Good news, right? (Oh yeah!) "This would have been the largest drop in more than 40 years because the global recession froze economic activity and slashed energy use around the world."


However, the CO2 emissions of China and India increased 9 percent and 6 percent respectively — strong increases. 


The result? No growth in CO2 emissions last year, but no decrease either. China and India completely nullified the drop in emissions in the developed nations. Global emissions of carbon dioxide have therefore remained constant. (And if we want to avert global climate catastrophe, we have to get our carbon emissions down to virtually zero. Obviously, our math sucks.)


This also means, obviously, that we have done a very poor job of teaching about and insisting on sustainable development and its principles as a discussion, planning and decision-making framework. Sustainable development, which was introduced to the world at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992, has been around for almost 20 years — and still we have developing nations developing in ways that aren't sustainable ... while we in the developed parts of the world continue with our unsustainable growth. 


Ah, it's all nuts. Just nuts. Why can't we all grow up and learn to get along ... like Wombat says?

Why "Sustainability" Doesn't Work

I'm half way through a climate change conference at a local university, and the opening speaker this morning — who, despite the fact that he's a professor in an institute that deals with resources, environment and sustainability, was likened to Bjorn Lomborg after his talk by one of the students in the audience — posed the question Whose Sustainability?

His talk became an excellent example of the problem with the term "sustainability" and why it (sustainability) just has not worked. He made it crystal clear, to me at least, why North America made a gargantuan mistake when we decided we didn't "like" sustainable development, after the Rio Summit in 1992. (Other places in the world simply got on with developing sustainably!)

You see, this professor couldn't have posed this question using the term "sustainable development" (SD), because the concept was well defined and laid out before it was even thrust into the public sphere. The principles of sustainable development mean that we don't need the Bjorn Lomborgs of the world pretending that they care about poor people at the expense of action on climate change. The SD principles of

• integration of environmental, social and economic concerns
• multistakeholder roundtable consultation
• intragenerational equity (concern for today's disadvantaged)
• intergenerational equity (concern for future generations)
• precautionary principle
• polluter pays
• pollution prevention
• etc.

mean that the needs of the world's poor are automatically considered in tandem with environmental and other economic and social issues. (Does that make sense to you? Let me know if it doesn't. Perhaps I've spent so long learning and teaching about it that I see it as a simple concept when it isn't. I believe that once understood and implemented, sustainable development will be a transformative new paradigm.)

This university is doing excellent work on sustainability education. Including education about sustainable development — for students, staff and faculty — will go a long way towards helping create a cultural mindset that could ensure a climate-safe future.

189 Days to Go - Compassionate Solution #4 Call for Demilitarization

The annual budget of the world's militaries tops $1.2 trillion. Can you imagine the carbon footprint that goes along with that? Not to mention the fact that the raison d'etre of armies these days seems to be protecting oil and other fossil fuel interests. With our children's future as "collateral damage"!

No folks, military might is not sustainable. Let's start dreaming of all the ways the world's armies could contribute to ensuring a future for all the children instead of dooming it! (And they call environmentalists doom and gloomers. Sheesh!!)

Let's create a list together. Send me your ideas for what our armies could do once they're demilitarized. Here are a few to start with:

• get to work immediately to retrofit all the cities
• work on habitat protection and anti-poaching teams
• contribute 10 percent of their budgets for a United Nations Global Green Fund (please support this petition)
• get trained fast in alternative energy technologies and start building the new infrastructure
• learn how to respond to extreme weather events in timely fashion (militaries have the capacity to deploy rapidly) and how to build decent refugee villages for victims of climate catastrophes