National Strategy for Sustainability - Ideas for Change in America

If you create sustainability priorities, insist that it be done in a way that promotes collective intelligence. The simple up down voting method used for the Top Ten Ideas project guaranteed lowest common denominator rather than highest common denominator results.

Suggested by Michael Kelly on 02/04/2009 @ 10:36AM PT

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There is a growing number of sustainable farms in this nation, but the USDA is actively enacting programs that will curtail their growth, if not eliminate them entirely. The National Animal ID System (NAIS) is a case in point, and it is currently up for comments NOW! Visit
http://www.regulations.gov/fdmspublic/component/main?main=DocketDetail&d=APHIS-2007-0096

and register an objection to this program. The NAIS is a program that registers every premises where livestock might visit, or live. This registration allows the government to inspect at any time. Through existing animal health regulations, it requires cattle, sheep, and goats, and other species are listed in the general program. The cattle, sheep and goats will have to be identified permanently (RFID tags preferable) and every time those animals leave their premises, lose a tag, are sold, escape, breed with an animal from another farm, those actions will have to be reported to the government, or farmers face fines or incarceration.

It doesn't apparently matter that the program does nothing to protect our animal's health, except endanger it because people risk reporting if they call a vet and the tag isn't visible. It doesn't matter that ear tags are not possible for some possible breeds of goat, either they don't have ear flaps, or they are too small for the tags. (Oh yeah, there's that whole "oral fixation" thing that goat's have.) It doesn't matter that this has nothing to do with food safety, as disease infection happens more than 95% of time in the processing plant, where the tag is no longer attached.
It doesn't address Bird Flu, or Mad Cow, except chase the infection and encourage people to keep their animals in hiding, afraid to call for help.

This program was created by Big Ag, with no representation from the sustainable or true organic farmers. It affects all livestock owners, with no regard for scale of operation, age, religion or purpose of owning the animals. The only ones exempt from the tagging and tracking components are the ones who invented the program, the Big Ag poultry and pork producers.

Please, the comment period is only open until March 16. If you want to learn more about NAIS, visit http://www.libertyark.net or http://www.ftcldf.org. Contact your legislators and the White House, the media and anyone else who eats.

Sustainable farming is the root of sustainability. It sequesters carbon, cleans the air, provides food for humans, habitat for wildlife, supports the soil and is a basic solution to food safety issues and transport costs. If NAIS is enacted fully, most of us sustainable farmers will be out of business, just when the time has come that people are waking up to what we're offering.

Suggested by Patricia Stewart on 02/04/2009 @ 06:15AM PT

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I suggest that 6 of you vocal people work with me TWICE in 2009 to get a 5-20 minute AUDIO message recorded so we can start the "Campaign for a Sustainable America" Podcast. I'm skilled in podcasting and would be glad to volunteer my help to get this project started. Of course all participants would need to get your ideas for an audio presentation approved by the main organizers of this critically important IDEA.

joseph
Clean@h2opodcast.com
http://H2Opodcast.com

Suggested by Joseph Puentes on 02/04/2009 @ 05:24AM PT

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Investigate and revamp the way Child Protection Services (CPS) is allowed to operate.

It needs to be presently know to the country about CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES (CPS) SYSTEM AND AUTHORITY ABUSE... Families are being abused by the very system which was put into place to protect them. Child Protective Service (CPS) agencies abuse their federally endorsed authority to destroy the lives of thousands of children every year.

Child protective Service around the nation abuse their authority by lying, manipulate and financially profiting for CPS workers and the CPS system; in turn destroying and separating children from their homes; having no intention to ever honestly resolve, restructure and reunite the family for the better, turning children into orphans and lost without a background of self.

This is an issue that seriously needs to be address... The only people that suffer are the children. Child Protective Services (CPS) in America has violated the trust of the people and the children they are supposed to be protecting.

Brenda Scott, in her study of CPS concluded, "Child Protective Services is out of control. The system, as it operates today, should be scrapped. If children are to be protected in their homes and in the system, radical new guidelines must be adopted. At the core of the problem is the anti family mindset of CPS. Removal is the first resort, not the last. With in-sufficient checks and balances, the system that was designed to protect children has become the greatest perpetrator of harm."

Please join me in telling your stories and start a petition as well as lobbing to reform CPS. We are fighting for the kids that have been taking from us and fighting to prevent children to be wrongly taking from other families.

CPS has come to believe they are above the law and the Constitution.

This information provided by the Facebook group: Parent's Against Child Protective Services (CPS) Authority Abuse

Suggested by Dawna Chipman on 02/02/2009 @ 11:14PM PT

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With a global depression kicking in and the early signs of calls for protectionism, the hope of true global unity and peace faces stiffer challenges.

Yet I feel there are relatively simple long term strategies that can improve the outlook.

They are effeciency and full employment.

Economic Effeciencies is the key factor.

Globally governments should unite in a call for international and national collaboration to deliver effeciencies in the production of goods and services. The primary focus should be on core goods and services such as health, housing and food.

The Effeciencies need to be translated into lower prices only. That is, profit taking remains the same (This probably means regulation).

Governments can promote businesses that are successful in delivering price reductions against stable profits as great community entreprenuers. The business can then promote this recognition to improve their sales.

This sets the stage for the second initiative. Through enterprise bargaining and government support, business and employees should be encouraged to reallocate work hours until they can engage as much of the workforce as possible. Again governments promote successful business communities and individuals.

For example, if you had an economy with a workforce of 1000 people and the economy had 10 percent unemployment that would mean 100 people out of work requiring taxation to give them basic needs. Let say the 900 workers work 40 hours per week. The demand for labour is 36000 hours per week.

Remembering efficiencies reducing prices and therefore increasing the buying power of wages, if all 1000 worked 36 hours a week( that is, employees willingly trade work hours for leisure and the feelings of helping their fellow citizens) we would have full employment and invigarated spirits.

If it then became policy that it became a corporate responsibility to work for full employment, effeciencies and profit we would have an economy of producers tied forever to their consumers(workers). Perhaps it may even be simpler. Another efficiency?

Welfare taxation could be diverted to assisting businesses recoup the overhead costs of additional employment.

Employees, Government and Employers may be further inspired to look for efficiencies.

If we behaved this way globally there are perhaps many effeciences to be welcomed. A global economy, one currency a wider acceptance of global corporations (with strong regulation).

I know of a way to reduce trasnsaction costs for most businesses by creating a google like online trading store that uses simple current technologies (Webservices) to automate finance, shipping and transaction entry.

Switching to long lived housing with renewable energies and local energy storage puts us on a long term curve of reduced costs etc ...

If we could engage the world, it could be the greatest time of innovation and cooperation. Maybe peace would be seen as an economic commodity. If we could create international laws for peace and an effecient powerful global peace corp could we reduce national defence costs.

The issues ahead of us are global and we need to find a way to work together. But as Davos has demonstrated it may probably have to come from the grass roots. I have a sense many of us are willing to make the small sacrifices to help our fellow man.

Much succcess with your efforts.

Suggested by Rob Beasley on 02/02/2009 @ 02:44PM PT

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Not sure if this has been suggested already, because I can't read all 38 suggestions for some reason.

Anyhow, my suggestion is simple. Do everything possible to encourage people to ride their bikes -- from building bike lanes and paths, to giving people tax breaks for not owning a car (or for buying a bike), to running public service spots pushing the idea of a cycling culture.

This may sound like a small and overly simple idea, but it's not. When people decide to stop driving and start using bicycles for daily transportation, huge changes occur aside from just the decreased use of fossil fuels: For one they realize it's not that difficult to get around on a bike instead of in a car; indeed, sometimes it's faster. Secondly, they enjoy the trip, and this happiness has a cumulative effect on our collective psyche. These feelings of contentment leave us less likely to consume in order to fill some void or hollowness inside. Third, the very simplicity of a bike mechanically and the physical effort required to pedal it encourages people to seek a simpler more purpose driven life. Fourth, riding a bike instead of driving encourages us to slow down a little and not think we're so darn important that we have to hurdle ourselves around town as fast as possible in a 3,000 lb fuel burning machine. Fifth, more people cycling will create more political pressure for clean air initiatives and stricter auto emission standards. Lastly, biking promotes good health and encourages a healthy lifestyle. People will waste less energy being sick and a drain on our country's resources and economy. And they will make heathier food choices -- eating more whole foods and less animal products and highly refined foods (see other suggestions regarding food production).

So to anyone reading this: Try riding your bike more. Get a trailer or panniers to haul groceries and other things. Just decide that it needs to be a priority in your life, and you need to make it happen. Then see if I'm correct. I guarantee you will!

Suggested by Jeff Chapman on 02/01/2009 @ 04:51PM PT

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I would simply like to suggest that whoever has not heard of the book Cities as Sustainable Ecosystems: Principles and Practices to read it. It uses The Ten Melbourne Principles for Sustainable Cities as a basis for a formula to make all cities in the world sustainable. I am an architecture student and I read this book expecting some profound architectural statement, but it is completely focused on the community and working with the governing bodies and non-profits to make our world sustainable. Sustainability is more than recycling and reducing energy consumption, it is about ensuring people can live on this planet together and cooperate with each other without killing each other prematurely in the process.

The principles are:
Vision
Economy and Society
Biodiversity
Ecological Footprints
Model Cities on Ecosystems
Sense of Place
Empowerment
Partnerships
Sustainable Production and Consumption
Governance and Hope

All principles discussed provide international examples of cities which are doing these things as well.
ISBN number is 1597261882

Suggested by Michael Johnson on 01/30/2009 @ 08:49AM PT

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Tonight my husband and I attended a lecture at Memorial University of Newfoundland, given by Dr. William Rees, one of the five Trudeau Fellows of 2007, funded by the Trudeau Foundation (a Canadian think-tank). The lecture hall was full of people from students to elderly folks like ourselves. Dr. Rees gave a brilliant summation on the subject "Is Humanity Sustainable?" covering the development of the brain, and then the evolution of human societies, up to the present. He showed that we are very fast approaching a point of no return and that the Western world in particular is using most of the world's resources; the world's population is fast approaching the point at which global disasters will arrive...the collapse of civilization itself. Everyone was glued to what he said. The economies of our countries (Canada and the United States) have been in freefall for some months and of course the reaction of government is to legislate stimulus packages to try to bring them back to health. After listening to his talk I realized that in fact we cannot and should not be trying to bring back the very infrastructures and fossil-fuel driven economies that brought us to this point. We had adapted as a society to the capitalist system but now we are 'maladapted' to change...and since it is change that President Obama is urging us to accept, we must understand that we cannot go back...we must go forward, into entirely new and sustainable living patterns and stop abusing and overusing the finite resources of our planet. We should not be funding the antiquated automotive industry, we should not be funding banks and investment firms which create false wealth etc. It was an enormously challenging discussion and many books and authors were recommended but it certainly has made me think. We have a government bent on returning our country to ideas which are thirty years out of date...and the Leader of the opposition is a very bright man who nevertheless does not appear to have grasped the need for change. President Obama is our only hope, but even his administration seems to be in thrall to certain dated ideas that we can somehow return to what we had...I didn't see this before tonight but I now realize that he is taking the first important steps towards REAL change...in creating openness in government, he is introducing us to each other, and to new ideas. We do need to throw off the old ideas that got us into this mess (globally!). I for one am going to read as many of the books recommended this evening as I can, and attempt to gain a clearer picture of where we are, and what we all must do. I deeply regret that we haven't a politician of the calibre of President Obama, but we do at least have thinkers like William Rees. Cheers and love to you all...from a pro-American Canadian, Judy Gibson, St. John's, Newfoundland.

Suggested by Judy Gibson on 01/28/2009 @ 07:31PM PT

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Art has a vital role to play in healing our nation and restoring hope. Thank you, Rob, for integrating arts into your proposal! Artists around the world have been working effectively for years to lead the transformation to a sustainable civilization, addressing environmental health, social justice, education and culture through collaborative partnerships with scientists, engineers, architects, landscape architects, schools, environmental agencies, communities and residents. Many of these projects help raise awareness of environmental issues, engage the public in solving problems creatively and beautifully, and reconnect people to local history. The following proposals emerged from discussions with colleagues in the field of ecological art in the US and internationally. We urge President Elect Obama’s administration to incorporate this artistic energy as you look towards renewing a sense of civic pride, public service and ecological stewardship in our country.

1. Federal agencies such as the EPA, Energy, HUD, Department of the Interior (especially the USFWS and Parks), NASA, NOAA, should work with the NEA/NEH to create artist fellowships, residencies and develop cultural programs at museums and parks that foster eco-art practices.

2. Cultural diplomacy through the Department of State should appoint ecoartist-ambassadors, cultural emissaries who work through U.S. embassies, to collaborate with their foreign colleagues to develop eco-art projects and bioremediation efforts with local partners across the globe and especially in developing countries.

3. Explore program opportunities within the Department of Education and the National Science Foundation to bring eco-artists into local schools, colleges and universities to inspire American students to become more excited about the study of science and learn about energy efficiency and green design.

4. Incorporate eco-art into the work of the Peace Corps and AmeriCorps to advance a widespread 21st century WPA-style works program to address urgent infrastructure and restoration needs in informative and aesthetic ways.

5. Expand the Obama stimulus plan for creating new green collar jobs to include ecological artists and encourage the formation of collaborative and multidisciplinary teams that can approach old problems in new and systemic ways.

You can learn more on sites such as: http://ecoartspace.org, http://greenmuseum.org and http://sfeap.org , and work with us to engage and value creativity and diversity, the way nature would.

(Thanks to text contributors: Mary Jo Aagerstoun, Sam Bower, Xavier Cortada, Chris Freemantle, David Haley, Eve Andree Laramee, Amy Lipton, Aviva Rahmani, Tricia Watts, Linda Weintraub, and many others from http://ecoartnetwork.org.)

Suggested by Mary Jo Aagerstoun on 01/25/2009 @ 05:59AM PT

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Human leadership are so far away from the reality, that it is evident that the machinery they create to make this world work does not work to fix or improve the reality. We are facing trying times in the economy, forcing us to use resources such as a payday loan just to make it through. However, you don’t always have to go this route if you practice saving money and financial planning. I recently read an interesting article on the payday loan blog at PersonalMoneyStore.com that primarily targets this concept. You can read the article yourself entitled "Credit: Part I | Financial Tips from Your Payday Loan Source" on the <a title="Credit: Part 1 | Tips From Your Payday Loan Source" rev="vote-for" href="http://personalmoneystore.com/moneyblog/2009/01/06/credit-part-i-financial-tips-from-your-payday-loan-source/">payday loan</a> money blog at personalmoneystore.com

Suggested by Elyssa F. on 01/22/2009 @ 08:11PM PT