This is the fifty-third issue of my free newsletter. Your feedback is most welcome!
EARTH & US: World Out of Balance, Spring Equinox
On this Spring Equinox, a day of balanced darkness and light, yin and yang, the human world seems out of balance. Although daffodils and forsythia and cherry trees are in bloom and the vibrant forces of new life are budding everywhere, we humans continue on our insane course of fossil-fuel powered environmental devastation, in alienation from our Mother Earth.
What is progress?
We have been taught that progress and well-being are all about the growth of consumer goods (up sevenfold in the U.S. since 1950). In truth, that prosperity has come at the cost of using up our life support system. The Living Planet Index, a measure of the ecological health of terrestrial, marine, and freshwater species, has dropped 30% in the past thirty years.
In a recent dream, I had chosen not to go outside because it was cloudy, overcast weather. Instead I was looking at my computer screen (as I do every day). Then I noticed that I was looking at a graphic of clouds on the screen—a virtual world—and realized with a shock that too much of my life is spent at too great a distance from the real world of nature. What would we do if electricity became scarce and expensive? I suspect that we would spend a lot more time face to face with each other, instead of communicating electronically—which might be a very good thing!
Peak demand and peak oil
Here in Asheville, people who advocate for less energy consumption and stopping the building of a "peak demand" oil-fired power plant in nearby Woodfin are being called "extremists" who want everyone to live in mud huts and "go back to the Stone Age." TV ads supporting Progress Energy’s proposed power plant show children in a classroom where the lights are going out. In my opinion, the real extremists are the ones who believe people should have the right to burn up all the energy they want, regardless of the consequences of global climate catastrophe and local air pollution. Buncombe County, NC spends $400,000 per year on asthma care alone, to say nothing of other lung diseases exacerbated by air pollution. Some place the health price tag as high as $84 million. The linked threats of global climate change, air pollution, and the inevitable decline of cheap oil cannot be ignored.
We need only to look at cities that have embraced conservation and alternatives, to become aware of manifold possibilities. Price incentives (giving lower users a price break to reward conservation, and charging more for use during peak times than off-peak) can shape behavior of energy users and make a big difference. 1.5 million compact fluorescent bulbs would save 130 MW (output of Progress Energy’s proposed Woodfin Power Plant); LED lights are even more efficient. Such simple technologies as a timer on a water heater, so that the water is hot for morning showers, but not all day and all night, can save large amounts of energy, and money. Demand control, such as programmable thermostats, can help shave off peaks of consumption; for example, a home can be pre-warmed at 5 AM before people get up. During peak usage of air conditioning on hot afternoons, messages can be sent to big users alerting them to raise their thermostats by just one or two degrees—scarcely noticeable. (I, for one, hope that grocery stores might be less frigid in the summer; I see checkout clerks wearing heavy sweaters.) Energy management systems can decrease use by up to 60% in large users. For a typical family of five, it can save about $1200 per year. Energy Star appliances offer substantial savings in energy use. Without even adding one solar collector, 130 MW can be saved through conservation alone.
Step It Up!
If we are asking, as many of us will be at the April 14 "Step It Up" rallies across the country, for carbon emissions to decrease 80% by 2050, we need to get started! Building more fossil-fuel-burning power plants seems like a step in the opposite direction from where we need to go. I’d like to think that they will become obsolete in a decade or so, replaced by solar collectors warming our hot water and lighting our homes; windmills, methane digesters, and a massive effort of conservation.
What if we were to count our fossil fuel consumption calories as carefully and earnestly as some folks are counting their dietary calories? Most of the time we are not thinking about our consumption, until the electric or gas bill arrives, or we fill up the car at the gas pump. Like drivers of hybrid Prius cars, our behavior is shaped when we get immediate feedback on the effects of our behavior. Many Prius drivers state that they changed their driving habits to conserve more fuel, when they saw how their mileage dropped as a result of jack-rabbit starts and sudden stops. I prefer to believe that education, feedback, and support can help us change our habits, and that a traumatic crisis of fuel scarcity may be averted. However, I realize that our future trajectory is not likely to be a smooth descent, but one marked with "oil shocks" where sudden temporary drops in supply will give us glimpses of what is coming.
Transition Towns
"Transition Town Totnes" is a town in England where a group of people decided to follow the Kinsale, Ireland model of planning for dramatic reductions in fossil fuel use. Following a year of public education programs raising awareness with films like "The End of Suburbia," they brought together 400 people to brainstorm in an Open Space format. This led to "practical manifestations" such as fruit and nut tree plantings, natural buildings, and solar panels. They have a goal of getting 50 solar hot water units installed by July 2007, via a bulk buy and a government grant. "Re-skilling" workshops on container gardening, urban gardening, and seed saving are held. Many other Transition Towns are launching similar efforts. See www.transitionculture.org.
True Balance, True Source
What would true balance look like? My favorite image is that of people growing food together, organically, in a community plot. It makes no sense to ship food in refrigerated trucks across the country—spending thousands of calories in fossil fuel for a few calories of food energy--when we can grow it ourselves. In Cuba, when oil shipments from the Soviets were cut off, the average person lost 20 pounds, because their agricultural system—like ours—was so heavily dependent on fossil fuel for tractors, transport, fertilizers, and pesticides. Then, people learned to grow food in the cities, and Cuba became a leader in organic agriculture. I believe that if everyone grew at least a little of our own produce, our relationship with the Earth would change. Just putting our fingers into the soil, nurturing and appreciating the tiny green seedlings, paying attention to the rain and the sun, help to connect us more with the true Source of our life.
"Global warming will ... provide us the opportunity to start over on a higher plane--literally and figuratively. I hope humanity at this century's end will see global warming as the crisis that brought us together in peace at last. I imagine that the new housing, health-care, and education policies, economic activity, arts and entertainment, and ecosystem restoration will be sustainable and awesome examples of our artistic genius for elegant simplicity." -- Evolutionary biologist Elizabet Sathouris
Cathy Holt
www.kindcommunication.com
Stop the words now.
Open the window in the center of your chest
And let the spirits fly in and out.
- Rumi
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