Your suggested actions
Published February 21, 2009 @ 09:04PM PT
It is exciting to see the support from all of you for a National Sustainability Strategy. After so many years since the Earth Summit, this Campaign renews our hopes to finally move from paper and possibility to policy and practice.
As National Coordinator for the Citizens Network for Sustainable Development, I am especially thankful to Change.org and the Ideas for Change project helping bring this idea back into the mainstream discussion.
Over past weeks we read and discussed many of the "suggested actions" which you sent on how to effectively move from idea to policy. Your suggestions cover a wide range of actions and initiatives across the spectrum of environmental, social and economic priorities. So, where shall we begin?
Some of you focused on sustainable energy, moving away from fossil fuels towards a responsible system based on renewables. Some focused on waste and recycling systems.
Others highlight the need for safe and nutritious food, for local food systems and sufficiency, decreasing the demand for pesticides, fertilizers, and transport-intensive produce. Others emphasise protection of watersheds and other ecosystems. Some raise the problem of the consumer culture and the need to change the consumption and production patterns at the root of many of these problems and concerns.
In addition to mapping these ideas and priorities in a coherent vision and proposal, there is the work of assessing the prospects within government to welcome and commit to this quest. The idea of "sustainable development" can be found in speeches, reports and programs throughout different parts of our government. However, these are starting points in the task to develop a far-reaching vision and strategy for our country's future.
In the coming weeks we will explore these ideas and priorities and examine the prospects for sustainability within the White House and various departments and committees of our government. We will also look to the many groups and efforts around the country currently practicing and promoting sustainability who we should reach out to as allies in this campaign.
Comments
Comments on Change.org are meant for further exploration and evaluation of the ideas covered in the posts. To that end, we welcome constructive comments. However, we reserve the right to delete comments that are offensive, abusive, or off-topic; that contain ad hominem attacks; or that are designed to subvert or hijack comment threads rather than contribute to them. Repeat offenders may be permanently removed from the site at our discretion.
Author
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Jeffrey Barber
- Silver Spring, MD
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Jeffrey is the National Coordinator for the Citizens Network for Sustainable Development , which continues to promote and help build the sustainability movement in the United States. He is also Executive Director of Integrative Strategies Forum, based in Silver Spring, Maryland, encouraging collaborative action and knowledge exchange.
I had been a day trader / on line trader from about 1998, I had use of my 401K to a brokerage account. However, I have learned the hard way & many dollars too late that Wall street was nothing more then a puppet... to fascilitate the rich & those in the know... primarily the hedge fund operators.
I have lost thousounds of dollars to to what illegal practice of Naked Share Shorting. Something Annette Nazereth said did NOT exist!!! SHE SAID IT DID NOT EXIST!!!! please do not put someone that in my opinion was in the back pockets of the the illegal operators of wall street. SHE KNEW it exists but did not want to deal with it... she needs to be fired from all wall street tasks. Please do NOT put a suspected bank robber in the bank!!!
thank you for yourattention in this matter.
Posted by Jay Solinger on 02/23/2009 @ 08:24AM PT
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Hi i had an idea for a gym called joules gym and each machine in the gym was connected to a dynamo and created electricity. Thus, by working out human energy can be turned into electricity. I thought it would be cool and perhaps we can give health food as incentive.
Also braking energy can be harnessed in everycar. And water heaters should be placed right before hot water is needed that way hot water isn't wasted. My physics teacher said that it might be a good idea to combine the water heater and a refrigerator -- the coils in the back of the fridge might be able to help heat water.
Also I think we can harness wave power by designing piston like attachments onto the outer edge of boats and in the event of necessity perhaps they can double as life perserving devices.
I have tons of ideas and I would be happy to see some become reality.
Posted by Netneutrality blank on 02/24/2009 @ 06:30AM PT
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Can sustainability actually be achieved without an all out program to stabilize global and U.S. population?
Posted by Gordon Johnson on 02/26/2009 @ 02:13PM PT
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Sustainability requires a whole range of balancing acts, with the goal of improving the quality of life for everyone. Fertility rates in many countries often decline as the economic status of women increases. Could this possibly be the most effective "stablization" program you are looking for?
Posted by Jeffrey Barber on 02/26/2009 @ 02:44PM PT
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That certainly is an important factor as is education since fertility rates seem to decline as the level of education increases. However, can we afford to wait for the nirvana of the global elimination of poverty and free education for all?
Population-driven economic growth is ultimately unsustainable so why not begin with something that could have a significant impact in the short term -- changes in immigration and tax policies and the establishment of a national objective of a stable population to be achieved within 20 years in the U.S., setting a model for the rest of the world. Population growth is the elephant in the room that no one wants to discuss. I like to refer to the calculus concept of a "limit". The "limit" of finite natural resources per capita as population grows without bounds is zero. How far down that road do we want to go?
When considering the environment, what is the probability that the total annual output of pollutants can be decreased at the same time as our population is doubling. The UN estimates conservatively that Americans produce 20 metric tons of pollutants per year per capita. At that rate, 300 million more people would produce another 6 billion tons annually. Even, if by some technological miracle, we were able to reduce our output by half to the 10 metric tons per capita per year, the level of Mexico, we would have made no progress on reducing the present unacceptable level.
Joel Cohen, eminent demographer, put it this way:
“I personally am very concerned by the vast inequitable and largely avoidable burdens of hunger, disease, violence, ignorance and poverty borne by too many billions of people. But I will not try to persuade you that the world will end in the next ten years unless everybody changes to a diet of soybeans and contraceptive pills, or that a universal diet of soybeans and contraceptive pills would eliminate hunger, disease, violence, ignorance and poverty…. But I will try to persuade you that the world cannot easily and comfortably accommodate an unlimited number of people at any desirable level of material, mental and civic well-being.”
Physics Professor Emeritus Dr. Albert Bartlett of the University of Colorado sums it all up as follows:
“Can you think of any problem in any area of human endeavor on any scale, from the microscopic to global, whose long-term solution is in any demonstrable way aided, assisted, or advanced by further increases in population, locally, nationally, or globally?”
Posted by Gordon Johnson on 02/26/2009 @ 03:05PM PT
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Again, it is a range of balancing acts. There is no single magic bullet. Immigration laws do not slow global population growth, only shifts where it goes. I doubt there is any one strategy that is needed here but many different ones appropriate for different places. I doubt that a Chinese style program would work in the US, for example. But you are right that it is an issue that should not be ignored simply because it is difficult to solve.
Posted by Jeffrey Barber on 02/26/2009 @ 08:12PM PT
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Yes, you are certainly right about that and in that sense but we can ease the U.S. problem with immigration changes while the UN works on the larger world problem. The U.S. is seen as one of the heaviest polluters soon to be joined by China and Russia and perhaps India. If we expect to be leader in this area, we need to get our own house in order. However, I agree that there are many things that need to be done and we need to begin.
Posted by Gordon Johnson on 03/16/2009 @ 11:59AM PT
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Start here; duhhh....
http://peswiki.com/index.php/Directory:Videos
Posted by Daniel Walker on 03/16/2009 @ 09:19AM PT
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Hi Jeff and all,
Its very important that a sustainabilit strategy from in the USA concentrates on global sustainability as the larget unsustainable consumer and producer in the world. Most important is to develop sustainable lifestyles in the US so that rest of the worlds resources, environment and societies are left with a future that can be sustained.
Posted by Uchita de Zoysa on 03/20/2009 @ 10:43PM PT
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You'd have to visit our site for more info, but Solar Roadways could make all-electric vehicles practical while weaning our nation off oil and coal entirely. I hope the Obama administration will act before it's too late.
www.solarroadways.com
Posted by Scott Brusaw on 06/30/2009 @ 12:06AM PT
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