National Strategy for Sustainability - Ideas for Change in America

I'm very pleased this idea made it to the top ten and certainly receives my vote for #1. Protecting wild fish stocks and healthy watersheds is an essential part of sustainability. In this regard FERC needs an overall so that no new permits will go to projects that will harm wild fish stocks, particularly salmon. For this reason, no hydro-project should be permitted in the Chilkoot Watershed in Haines, Alaska, as currently proposed by Alaska Power and Telephone. Beyond that, planning should begin immediately to dismantle some unsustainable projects--the four lower Snake River dams and Klamath River dams--in order to restore salmon runs. In addition estuary restoration should become a green job priority.

Suggested by Kathleen Menke on 01/18/2009 @ 05:38PM PT

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Consider what we mean by sustainability. Sustainable for which life form? Humans you say. How many humans? This is the important question usually avoided for political correctness or head-in-the-sand reasons.

Let's get realistic and address the human population problem by first realizing that a lower human population not only simplifies achieving sustainability, it will also be very necessary in most countries as they have already exceeded the natural carrying capacity of their lands and are only staying afloat with the onetime bonanza of cheap fossil fuels on which they've become dependent.

We cannot reach sustainability on a finite planet with an ever growing population. It must be stable and sustainable with a large margin for natural catastrophes and other life forms on which we all depend from sustenance to spirituality.

So what to do? Revisit the recommendations of the Rockefeller and the Jordan Population Commissions and work toward a US Population Policy that will lead to a sustainable population which is currently estimated at around 1/3 of current numbers. This policy must consider water, and biological resources locally available for each of the bioregions of the US. It must also address human migration.

From the Rockefeller Commission Report:
“After two years of concentrated effort, we have concluded that, in the long run, no substantial benefits will result from further growth of the Nation’s population, rather that the gradual stabilization of our population through voluntary means would contribute significantly to the Nation’s ability to solve its problems. We have looked for, and have not found, any convincing economic argument for continued population growth. The health of our country does not depend on it, nor does the vitality of business nor the welfare of the average person.”

Less is more.

Wolfger Schneider

Suggested by Wolfger Schneider on 01/18/2009 @ 11:01AM PT

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In terms of sustainability, a recycling system that is user friendly, efficient and meaningful is key. To that end, let's expand curbside recycling to encourage people to recycle at least the easiest things to recycle. Then let's expand the system by setting up drop off centers at grocery stores. Make it possible to recycle ALL kinds of packaging, and make packaging ALL recyclable. Why grocery stores? Because everybody goes there with an empty car and leaves with a full car. Because trucks go there with full trailers and leave with empty trailers. Why not stop this waste and encourage people to load up recyclables and take them to drop-offs at the store (those materials besides what curbside recycling would pick up). Then trucks deliver goods to grocery stores, and instead of using gas to haul NOTHING back in an empty trailer, that leg of their journey is used to transport materials that customers have dropped off. They transport those materials to processing plants (which by the way employ people on all skill levels from engineers to manual sorters) and in the process the trucking company makes a little money on the side from the goods they deliver. If materials were made to be more easily recycled, then this in turn would decrease the need to mine or log for more raw materials.

We already have all the raw materials we need without digging or drilling or logging. Let's give new jobs to miners and loggers in recycling plants. Let's provide jobs for those that aren't cut out to get a college degree, and let's provide jobs for chemical and mechanical engineers to keep the whole recycling machine going.
As with green energy, recycling has the potential to be another green industry that could create jobs and at the same time foster sustainability.

Suggested by Monica Birsen on 01/18/2009 @ 09:16AM PT

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This strategy should NOT include digging for more oil ANYWHERE... even on our home soil. Oil is non-renewable and will not last us forever... this is not considered sustainable. We have all the resources to truly implement renewable energies that will make this nation, and this world, a more sustainable place in which to live. These include solar power, wind power and hydro power. Now we must actually act upon these abilities and start utilizing the amazing resources we have.

Suggested by Rebecca Yaguda on 01/18/2009 @ 06:11AM PT

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Conservation is the low-hanging fruit. Start by consuming less. Buy less, use less, reduce, re-use, recycle, but especially in buildings, which are the biggest energy hogs. There is a lot of focus on new green buildings, and adding renewables, which is great and necessary, but remember that the great majority of energy used in the life of a building is after construction. Millions of existing homes and other buildings in this country need to be retrofitted-greened-in order to meet our goals. A huge amount could be done with a Green the House Corps, trained to air-seal and re-insulate buildings. (Example: We did this to our roof only and immediately started saving 25% on heating oil use; as we do the basement and the windows and doors, it will continue to drop. Then, when we need to replace the furnace, we'll go to something that is renewable). My suggestion would be to have an education campaign about this and retrain coal workers, returning military, jobless, etc. to do it to every home that uses heating or cooling.

Suggested by Liz Newman on 01/18/2009 @ 03:09AM PT

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Some thoughts:

" Your goal has to be to get the greenest solutions to the poorest people".- Van Jones (The New Yorker interview with Elizabeth Kolbert 1-12-09)

“You must not deal only with the symptoms. You have to get to the root causes by promoting environmental rehabilitation and empowering people to do things for themselves. What is done for the people without involving them cannot be sustained.” Dr. Wangari Maathai- 2004 Nobel Prize for Peace

Awakening to a different level of awareness is the key to
A NEW EARTH

And lest we forget about the very life giving interconnected ecosystems that give us life.

We are all tired of the hierarchies, the snarkies, the hypocrites, the bigots, the shysters, the ghettos, the corporate loan sharks, the big man politics, the drug dealers and all the fighting for crumbs while the welath gets concentrated in the hand of the few while the whole shebang is going down the tubes. Planet Earth is the Titanic – there are no life boats. It is time to stop re-arranging the deck chairs. It is not up to Obama -- it is up to us.

Here is a wonderful start: In order to create real deep change
look at our own insanity.
Eckhart Tolle presents in his book The New Earth one of the most honest explorations of the current state of humanity: He implores us to see and accept that this state, which is based on an erroneous identification with the egoic mind, is one of dangerous insanity.
Tolle tells us there is good news, however. There is an alternative to this potentially dire situation. Humanity now, perhaps more than in any previous time, has an opportunity to create a new, saner, more loving world. This will involve a radical inner leap from the current egoic consciousness to an entirely new one.

In illuminating the nature of this shift in consciousness, Tolle describes in detail how our current ego-based state of consciousness operates. Then gently, and in very practical terms, he leads us into this new consciousness. We will come to experience who we truly are-which is something infinitely greater than anything we currently think we are-and learn to live and breathe freely.

How I wish to sound smart and intellectual and maybe write a book or two? But what is the point? We all know it is time to end the fighting, the classicism, the racisms, the sexisms, the homophobia, the nature phobia, the greed, the selfishness, nationalism, and our addictions and etc.

It is time for humanity to wake up, grow up and share and clean up its mess, take care of each other and take care of our brother sister species all over the planet. No awards--no 15 seconds of fame... just do it just because.

It time to honor Brother Sun and Sister Moon and the miracle of a blade of grass and the fish in the sea and you and me. It is time to put down the bombs and the guns and the addictions and stock market ticker tape and build gardens together and repair the earth.

It is time to stop blowing up mountains or digging deep in the earth for bloody oil or for gold or for diamonds and build decent thoughtful AFFORDABLE eco-housing and eco-villages and solar energy stations. It is time to give up the Jaguars and SUV's and private planes and $500 night hotels. And don't forget the Arts! How about armies of musicians filling the world with Samba and smooth Jazz?

It is time to stop making a buck off the back of workers and mother earth. It is time to put the Earth First and no compromise! It is time to stop, think and understand that we have the power to change ourselves first then the world, our cities our villages own neighborhoods will change. Will it be easy? heck no. How do we start? With our words, the stories we tell oursleves and each other. The roots of peace and re-connecting with earth start with a shift in individual conciousness, a willingness to look deeply at our habits and privelege and then inspiring each other, forgiving each other, encouraging each other, praising each other to step outside of our own fear.

It is the "end time" for using our words to continue to create separation. OUR WORDS ARE POWERFUL. We need to take responsibility to stop the words of hate, to stop the language of self depreciation and abuse that we fling around and time to start to create healing and peace through our words and actions. We are all wounded all over the planet. No one is untouched by war and crime and hate and poverty.

"Teach this triple truth to all" said Gautama Siddhartha, the founder of Buddhism, 563-483 B.C..: "A generous heart, kind speech, and a life of service and compassion are the things which renew humanity". Jesus preached "Love thy neighbor as thyself". Do also remember that Gaia, Mother Earth is a living planet and she rules—not us.

"Imagine" (Thank You John Lennon), that you are Mother Theresa, Ama, Desmond Tutu, Wangari Mathaai, Jesus and Buddha, and Joshsua Bell, Angelina Jolie, Princess Di, Bill Gates, Martin Luther King Jr.…Work together , dance together, heal and STOP WAR…close prisons and turn them into healing centers and make all Universities FREE....Just Do it !

We don't need slave labor, wage slaves, sex slaves and unsafe working conditions. We have cheap stuff all over the place and we are fouling our nest with all this stuff and for what? Ipod’s, HDTV, Big Macs, Big Gulps, Game Boys, CD, DVD's, computers—all more stuff to stuff ourselves with and make us better and smarter species?

So it is up to us-- to decide what we will develop, sustain and encourage.

Suggested by Mary Rose Kaczorowski on 01/18/2009 @ 12:54AM PT

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It is simple:

Build a high speed rail system that connects with existing rail in new towns or towns 'left behind'.

Stop allowing any use outside of current use in areas not served by a rail or light rail infrastructure.

Make the idiots who run local bus and rail systms collaborate so people who need to get around actually CAN.

Implement Inclusionary Zoning in rail and light rail station areas.

Support small businesses and really disincent any auto based malls.

Implement community based planning in all areas.

Stop building roads. If rebuiding roads as part of the stimulus. mandate right of way for rail based transit must be included <--- THIS IS IMPRTANT AND TIME SENSITIVE. Example - the SR520 bridge in Seattle is on the list and is falling down. More people go over this bridge FROM Seattle to work at Microsoft than come into Seattle. Somehow -- dunno maybe it was a coterie of the local liberal fascist types, decided that Light Rail would NOT go over this. RIDICULOUS.

Support local food sustainability. Growing food in local gardens and parking strips, and laws that optimize Farmers Markets on public lands, and laws that force the local gas station and/or corner convenience store to have fresh produce.

Help schools have gardens and fresh foods. Lift the liability for foods taken from the school garden and help schools pay for training of staff to cook properly. Just look at what Jamie Oliver has done in England..the consequences to our kid's learning is profound.

Have help and infrastructure for us to have solar panels on our roofs and stormwater management. I would like tax incentives and advice. Others may need loans or help. It all goes to create green jobs.

Make cities perform storm water management. I am objectively (denied by the city) on a watershed that floods the valley below. There is a city right of way just behind me that still has the result of a landslide. Get a program for water cachements on all watersheds. I would love to see a cistern up behind me where that landslide occurred.

Fiannly, i live in Seattle. if you think Seattle is Green then you have been Greenwashed. Our Mayor built a command center to deal with emergencies like earthquakes and being cut off from supplies such as gasoline (which has happened two years in a row now) with NO SOLAR PANELS. Consequence: No way for responders to recharge their equipment. Instead, he proved out his vision that green space is made of roof gardens and vines growing on walls so his big developer friends could get away with theiir greenspace requirements by hanging vines on the outside wall of thier deveopments. Please take him into some desk in Washington DC where he can do no harm.

Suggested by Kathryn Keller on 01/18/2009 @ 12:14AM PT

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With the looming threat of global warming, the current economy collapse and continued population growth, we have all the elements of a perfect storm. How then can we create a sound energy and environmental plan for a sustainable America?

One thing we could do is:
1) start with doing an assessment of natural resources available in different parts of the country.
2) Assess our current usage of these non-renewable essential resources.
3) Implement a nationwide set of policies and incentives to correct the imbalances.

Why? Because Nature knows best. We should have the humility to recognize this by now. It has taken our specie less than 200 hundreds years to transform this delicate paradise into a pillaged, polluted, decimated, sick planet. No level of scientific development can replicate the exquisite perfection of the world we live in. We may be able to understand its many separate pieces but still have no idea how it is all held together. But I digress!

The idea is that we shouldn't take more than nature provides for us every year. If we do, we should either put in place systems that will minimize the impact, conserve, generate more resources, trade with someone else that has more of it and be financially penalized if none of the above it happening.

1. HARNESS THE SUN

Start with a solar map of the US. Which state receives more than 300 days of sun/year? These states should have mandatory solar installation in all new buildings, double-paned windows, solar water heating and cooling , least amount of cement for heat reflection, green roofs etc.

Need: Real tax incentives, creative installment payments, community based installations, train builders, electricians, urban planners etc.
Benefits: Creation of new jobs, training, research and business incubators for green companies.

2. CONSERVE WATER

Take a rain map in the US. Which state gets less than 5 inches of rain/year?
Rain collection water, low flow toilets mandatory for all new buildings, grey water treatment (no more flushing toilet with drinkable water), lawns should be banned, and replaced by artificial lawns or xeriscape etc.

Regulations: Anyone using excess water, no matter what it is for, should either collect it and/or recycle it. or pay more. Agriculture should be limited to drought intensive species and low irrigation systems. Principles of permaculture should be implemented.
Benefits: with dimishing water levels due to global warming inland, water conservation MUST be MANDATORY in drought states and allocated to what is needed (growing food etc.) Create water conservation jobs & training.

3. HARNESS THE WIND

Take a wind map of the US. Which state gets lots of wind all year around?
For the states or counties that receive sufficient wind, create local laws, Federal incentives

Regulations: Give major tax incentives, creative payment plans, community installation for wind turbines etc.
Benefits: Create energy for the community, resell excess to grid, use fund for community projects.
Create new green collar jobs, invest locally in wind energy research, training, build a new green local economy etc.

4. FOOD PRODUCTION

Our food travels an average of 1500 miles from farm to plate in the US! That's a lot of gas, refrigeration, chemical fertilizers and CO2 emissions! Not very sustainable! Why not have every town create one or more organic Victory Gardens depending on the population size. They produced more than 42% of our food during WWII, we don't need to wait for another war to do this. If today, a food producing state is hit with some erratic weather pattern (drought or flood) due to climate change, there is no alternative in place. With the economy on the brink, we need to bring food security back into our local communities.

Regulations: Every new building project should have a space allocated for an organic community garden, same for schools, prisons, hospitals, retirement homes etc. Allow the use of public land, abandoned lots and public parks with the help of city officials, to be used to accomplish this. Local nurseries can donate seeds, compost. People can take turn to take care of the garden. One master gardener is responsible for the project creation and maintenance.
Cuba did it out of necessity after the fall of the Soviet Empire, they now have free organic fruit and vegetables for everyone!

Benefits: All year around healthy organic food produced locally, new jobs and income created.
Recycling of biodegradable food waste from garden, local restaurants for producing compost for everyone.

The knowledge to grow food is essential to our survival, and we have lost it. Overuse of pesticides and chemical fertilizers by mega agro-farming corporations is not sustainable. Not only we have polluted every body of water and that of people that live near them, but have depleted the soil and the food we eat of all needed nutrient. It is time to quietly regain control of some of our food. Older generations can share their know-how (before they go), youth can lend physical strengths and learn from them, communities will come together and everyone wins.

Suggested by Sophie Lapaire on 01/17/2009 @ 11:53PM PT

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I would like to suggest as part of a comprehensive plan a national campaign encouraging gardening.

The national government could provide free instructions, discounted organic/nongmo seeds, and an education campaigned designed to let the general population know the economic and health benefits of using the lawn for food rather than for lawn :).

Thanks.

Suggested by Matt Knoll-WIlli... on 01/17/2009 @ 02:45PM PT

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A national sustainability strategy will be most effective if it is grounded in a common set of sustainability indicators. A weighted average of these indicators should replace the GDP as the economy's key measurement.

Some simple solutions address many problems at once. Other solutions tend to solve one problem while making five or ten other things worse. Our nation’s problems are too many, to be solved one by one. A national strategy for sustainability should develop a national set of sustainability indicators, to help decision-makers recognize cost-effective solutions addressing many problems at once. A weighted average of these indicators could monitor the “Gross Domestic Happiness” (GDH) of our country. For example, the nation of Bhutan uses the Gross Domestic Happiness of its citizens as a touchstone for national policy. Most great businesses use a single performance indicator to guide their decisions, as documented in the book “Good to Great” by Jim Collins. Sightline Institute tracks a set of sustainability indicators in the Pacific NW region, to support policy recommendations for healthier people and wildlife.

Many national policy decisions are based on measurements such as the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) which are poor indicators of the social, ecological, and even economic wellbeing of most Americans. These outdated measurements take no account of our future wellbeing, and are very inaccurate measures of present wellbeing. We need a good set of performance indicators for the wellbeing of the nation today and in the future.
The book “Collapse” by Jared Diamond tells that societies with distorted policy-feedback mechanisms tend to fail. If the political leaders base important decisions on criteria that do not account for the wellbeing of most members of the society, then that society is prone to collapse. The Obama administration has a wonderful opportunity not only to do good deeds, but also to define a yardstick by which the deeds of future administrations will be measured.

When each government initiative is rated by its performance in improving the scores of the various components of the Gross Domestic Happiness measurement, then initiatives will tend to solve multiple problems at once, while creating fewer new problems.

Suggested by Levin Nock on 01/17/2009 @ 02:44PM PT