Cap'n Dividend

An hilarious '50s style promotion for a very cool concept - cap and dividend (essentially a cap and trade system, with an auction of carbon allowances, the proceeds from which get distributed to the public in the form of a dividend - to offset rising energy costs).



In Mass, we're already starting to see the benefits of cap and trade auctions (though not in the form of dividends) - the RGGI proceeds (about $13 million in Sept and $14 million in Dec) will go in part towards supporting the Green Communities Act, which will reward communities that meet conservation and efficiency standards with funds for renewable energy projects.

Representative Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) will soon be introducing the Cap and Dividend Act of 2009 - shoot your reps an email and tell them you support the concept.

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The End of Coal, the Start of Something New

A couple of quick news clips from the sustainability in higher ed movement that I think in someways are emblematic of the transformation our global society is going through.

The first comes from Duke, where the last rail car of coal was delivered this week. (a closer look shows that they'll still be getting some coal - though a lot less - by truck, at least for a while longer, and they're switching to natural gas - fewer emissions but not a long-term sustainable solution -- but the main point remains, this is a big, exciting step towards climate neutrality and sustainability):

http://news.duke.edu/2009/02/railcar.html

"The efforts are part of Duke's goal to become a climate-neutral campus, a pledge made by President Richard Brodhead in 2007, as part of the American College & University Presidents Climate Commitment."

The second is an Op-ed piece by David Shi, President of Furman University, who does an excellent job of conveying the importance and power of the collective action represented in the ACUPCC. The examples of what they've already done and are planning to do give an exciting sense of the solutions that exist and the new ways we can design our buidlings, campuses, communities, institutions, etc. to create a fossil-fuel free, sustainable future. He also provides a great concrete example of how the collective action of the ACUPCC is helping to beneift all the schools involved, in a more coordinated way than if they were all just 'going it alone':

http://www.thestate.com/editorial-columns/story/692550.html

And finally, while I'm in a roll posting links, here's a new article about the ACUPCC Carbon Offset Prtocol, the development of which we at Second Nature helped coordinate:

http://www.nwf.org/campusEcology/climateedu/articleView.cfm?iArticleID=56

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Renewable Electricity for the Commonwealth

Just a quick post, with a quick "just do it" tip for our fellow Massachusetts residents: Often the challenges seem overwhelming and it's tough to know what one person can do to really make a difference. The differences we make will in large part be the result of many seemingly small (when viewed in isolation) actions. Of course these add up - in terms of each of our individual impacts, and our collective impacts, which eventually tip the system into a new state of being - hopefully one that is sustainable.

So here's an easy one: start buying renewable electricity. National Grid has the GreenUp Program, which gives a few options for ways to buy electricity produced from renewable sources. We went with New England Green Start 100% from Mass Energy (the "content label" link shows the exact breakdown -mostly small hydro, some biomass and a little solar and wind). It adds 2.4 cents per kwh - which is modest considering what you get, and totally worth it, and at the same time something we're constantly working to offset through cost-savings from demand-reduction (with energy efficient lighting and applicances, and lots of behavioral stuff - air drying clothes, powerstrips swithced off, lights off, etc. - on the efficient lighting check out these two recent blog posts on LEDs from Aedi Construction and Planet Blue Solutions - they're not just for stand-by lights anymore).

Most of us are generally familiar with the benefits by this point - avoiding the bad: GHG emissions, dependence on foriegn fossil fuels, the many problems with domestic fossil fuels (mountain top removal and fly ash slurry spills from coal, for example), volatile fossil fuel prices, finite supplies, health problems, etc... And promoting the good: living off abudant solar gain (in the form of solar electricity, solar thermal, wind, hydro, biomass), promoting local, resilient energy systems (which support healthy, resilient, local economies), stablizing costs, and driving down costs through scale.

That little little added cost per month is still there, of course - and aside from a fulfilling sense of doing the right thing, and the ability to reduce your carbon footprint, you don't see much direct benefit. But it's that's much more incentive to reduce your demand - and by sending a powerful message to the market, you'll be helping to shift the whole grid system to a clean future - answering the 10-year challenge to Repower America, and tackling a big piece of global SP1 violations. And as a final kicker, a portion of the extra cost is tax-deductible.

So sign up today! (and if you're not in mass, check out your utility company - most have these kinds of programs going - and if they don't you can buy some RECs, and help tighten the supply in those markets to push the development of more renewable generation facilities). Stay going.

National Teach-In

Yesterday was the National Teach-In on Global Warming Solutions - 100s of campuses, churches, and organizations held meetings and events to learn about and discuss the solutions we need to implement, and make plans to connect with local and national political leaders.

The group developed a web-cast to kick-off events and provide some background. A lot of it focused on the Presidential Climate Action Project - a report developed by leading thinkers like Ray Anderson, David Orr, Hunter Lovins, and many more, to provide a road map for the new administration on how to take meaningful and effective action in the first 100 days to put the country on the path to economic recovery, and a clean and just energy future. The webcast is about 45 minutes, and worth the watch, check it out:

http://www.nationalteachin.org/index.php

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i.heart will.i.am

Seems like I can't turn around without posting another awesome video from will.i.am - this one taking Gore's speech and challenge about creating 100% clean renewable energy within 10 years (9.5 now...I'm sure you all saw the news yesterday that Obama's going to stop the federal gov't from impeding states on setting their own higher auto-standards - a great early move).

This is a big step to see a major music star take up the call to create a sustainable society - doing a pretty damn good job of putting a lot of the pieces together (from climate and energy, to plastics and textiles, to water, to sustainable product design, etc.) and tying each back to his own daily routine - showing at the same time how (a) we're all complicit in this unsustainable reality, and how we can change our behaviors personally, demand better politically, and create better professionally, and (b) we're all getting played by corporations with goals and parameters that are in many ways misaligned with maximizing well-being for as many people as possible.

It also highlights the importance of the arts in this process of co-creating a sustainable society. For communicating in compelling ways, for inspiring, for reshaping our collective values, for connecting with our authentic selves and what's really important. Sustainable development is truly a transdisciplinary endeavor, and can't be relegated only to the scientists, engineers, designers, politicians, or economists.



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The Invention of Air

This is a great book. It's only a couple of hundred pages and I just couldn't put it down. As M says, it's basically about all of my favorite things - systems thinking, transdisciplinarity, the American Revolution, founding fathers, scientific revolution. And the author Steve Johnson is great. I've only read one of his other books (Emergence) and it was awesome as well - really a must read. Putting my biases aside, I don't know if I'd say Invention is a must read, but if you're into that sort of thing, it's definitely a great read.

The book is about Joesph Priestly - a British "natural philosopher" (scientists of the day), around the time of the Revolution, and big buddies with Franklin, Adams, Jefferson, etc. He did a ton of experiments and is often credited with 'discovering' oxygen. He isolated it first, but was kind of off in interpreting what it was, so others rounded out the discovery and named the gas. But he also basically discovered that plants give off oxygen - through very cool experiments with sprigs of mint in jars that were able to live on, while candles in jars went out, and mice died without the plants. Piecing it together with Franklin, they opened the door for the ecosystems view of the planet (though they didn't articulate it in the way we understand it today). But that process - photosynthesis, driven by solar power - the 'engine' of nature - is central to understanding the "System" level of the framework for SSD, and what makes a sustainable society. And so it's very cool to trace it back to such a key discovery, and such a key moment.

Also very cool is how the book draws out how those types of moments don't happen in isolation. The context, the interactions, the chance that lead to big changes are all crucial. And tracing Priestly through his interactions and escapades is a great way to demonstrate that. The stories about his engagement with 'societies' in London and other places he lived are great. The main one, where he got his start and met Franklin is the Honest Whigs - where they would come together on a regular basis in some pub, have a big meal and few pints and share ideas, compare notes, report back on experiments, and drive the revolution in thought that was occuring. This was a rather effective motivator for finally getting a Green Drinks chapter going here in Gloucester.

The information networks that these types of meetings, plus the great letters of the day, and the papers, created were also critical to big evolutionary leap that took place around the time. And there are parrallels, of course to today. The chages we are faced with are unprecedented, but in many ways the principles are very similar to those in any kind of big shift in a system. The openness of information and sharing of ideas got Priestly in a lot of trouble, but also got his ideas out there for others to improve upon, and consequently improve quality of life, and take us into a new chapter in our cultural evolution. The internet and mobile devices are obviously helping to drive similar dynamics today.

Priestly also shook things up in the spiritual realm, essentially founding of Unitarianism, and providing a view of Christianity that Jefferson credits with keeping him from having to abandon it all togehter. The crossing of disciplines with ease (far more common before the rigid disciplines and specializations of the modern university changed the way we view the world) is a central theme, and again resonates with the sustainability movement, as we see growth in the interrelated areas of spiritual exploration, evolving consciouness and the like.

In making this leap, the stakes are of course a bit higher. It's not the King of England and the church establishment we're facing down, it's the potential for the collapse of civilization. The good news is we're driving the mechanisms responsible for that potential, so it's really us we're facing down, and thus very much within our power to gear up and dramatically rethink and redesign how we go about our business. We've just got to get together and do it - and luckily the upswell of awareness and engagement continues to grow. Stay going.

Solutions from the Green Economy

I thought Obama's speech today was excellent - and there seemed to be a great feeling across the country, with everyone excited to witness such an historic event. It inspired me all the more to keep working to rebuild an America that is responsible and respected, one that is leading toward sustainability and not simply pressing harder on the gas pedal in the wrong direction.

The stimulus package is incredible in so many ways, for creating jobs and re-sparking the economy by funding the shift to a clean, green energy system and economy. I'm continuously surprised and pleased at how far we've come in such a relatively short time (as a product of many years of dedicated work by many people) - it is hard to believe (and fantastic and overdue) that these concepts are being put into action at the highest level, and in support of action at all levels. But still there are some important and fundamental 'blind-spots' with regard to the design of our society and economy, how we go about meeting our needs, and how we confuse the pursuit of well-being with economic growth. The Green America team has released 7 good, concise steps that will get us further down the path we now need to follow, check them out in this piece:

Everyone now understands that the economy is broken.

While many name the mortgage and credit-default-swap crises as culprits, they are only the most recent indicators of an economy with fatal design flaws. Our economy has long been based on what economist Herman Daly calls "uneconomic growth" where increases in the GDP come at an expense in resources and well-being that is worth more than the goods and services provided.

When GNP growth exacerbates social and environmental problems—from sweatshop labor to manufacturing toxic chemicals—every dollar of GNP growth reduces well-being for people and the planet, and we're all worse off.

Our fatally flawed economy creates economic injustice, poverty, and environmental crises. It doesn't have to be that way. We can create a green economy: one that serves people and the planet and offers antidotes to the current breakdown... read more »

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