[Iowa-dx] FW: [irenew] Sustainable society within reach,
ecological designer says
hhart@blue.weeg.uiowa.edu
hhart@blue.weeg.uiowa.edu
Mon, 24 Sep 2007 11:57:02 -0500
I don't think so, but he does have some connection to the Green Party. =20
HBe was involved in some way with the platform work early on, and I =20
think he was considered or solicited for their speakers' bureau at one =20
point.
Holly
Quoting "tpfeiff@earthlink.net" <tpfeiff@earthlink.net>:
> Couldn't this person be related to Larry Orr? :-)
>
> Ted Pfeiff
> Scott County
>
>
>
>
>> [Original Message]
>> From: tallex2002 <altenergynetwork@alternate-energy.net>
>> To: <irenew@yahoogroups.com>
>> Date: 9/23/2007 3:57:51 PM
>> Subject: [irenew] Sustainable society within reach, ecological designer
> says
>>
>> Sustainable society within reach, ecological designer says
>>
>> http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?
>> f=3D/c/a/2007/09/22/HOR9MRFI6.DTL
>>
>>
>> If the summer's crop of drought and wildfire headlines threatened to
>> send you sliding into a sweaty, globally warmed pit of despair,
>> you'll find the words of David Orr inspiring, albeit in a tough-love
>> kind of way. According to Orr, a pioneer in ecological design and
>> Paul Sears Distinguished Professor and chair of the environmental
>> studies program at Oberlin College, we already have the technology
>> and know-how to create a world where every individual alive today can
>> live a fulfilling, sustainable life. But only - and here's our kick
>> in the pants - if we act immediately to reduce our consumption of
>> fossil fuels.
>>
>> Consider, for starters, that to meet the goal of reducing annual
>> global carbon emissions from the current 8.5 billion tons to a more
>> sustainable 3 billion tons, Americans will have to reduce per-person
>> carbon emissions from an average of 5 tons per year to roughly 0.3 of
>> a ton per year. "The average car driven the average U.S. mileage
>> emits its weight in carbon each year," says Orr. "So, if you drive a
>> 2-ton SUV for one year, you've exceeded your carbon emission
>> allotment for the year seven times over before anything else is
>> counted."
>>
>> Lest you're tempted to slump back in front of the air-conditioner,
>> Orr maps out a plan for reducing consumption step by step. Just make
>> those steps quick ones. "Changes in our fossil energy consumption -
>> hence, carbon emissions - are not optional but mandatory," says
>> Orr. "Our choice is whether we organize the transition or let
>> circumstance and nature do it for us. The former path permits
>> cautious optimism; the latter would be catastrophic at a scale
>> difficult to imagine."
>>
>> Peeling the onion
>> "This is like the proverbial onion, and we have to start peeling off
>> the layers," says Orr. "First we stop buying things none of us really
>> want to buy." No one, he suggests, wants to buy pesticide residues or
>> to spend money on gas wasted idling in traffic jams, or to pay - as a
>> result of inefficient design - for two to three times more energy
>> than we really need to run our homes and businesses. At the first
>> level of reducing consumption we switch, as quickly as possible, to
>> technologies that shrink our ecological footprint: We eat organic
>> food, drive smaller and alternative-energy cars and use mass transit.
>> We buy energy-efficient appliances and convert to solar energy.
>>
>> Orr would like to see the government prod our adoption of these
>> technologies with a guaranteed annual increase in the price of fuels
>> until prices reflect the fuels' ecological costs. He also calls for a
>> federal transportation policy to install a high-speed rail network
>> across the country. Such a system, complemented by urban light-rail,
>> would help us to get out of our cars and to remain mobile and
>> economically viable as oil reserves and production decline. (Calgary,
>> Alberta, not only has a light-rail system, but it also runs on wind
>> power.)
>>
>> When asked about the costs of adopting these technologies, Orr
>> suggests we weigh their cost against the cost of the rampant
>> inflation and ongoing oil wars that will otherwise ensue as oil grows
>> scarce.
>>
>> Plus, Orr has little patience for monetary excuses. "Tell me how much
>> we spend as a nation on pet psychologists, on Botox. Let's start down
>> the list of silly stuff that we buy, and pretty soon we'll be talking
>> about tens of billions of dollars. This economy has a lot of slack."
>>
>> Reducing consumption
>> Peeling back the second layer of the onion requires that we take
>> stock of our spending patterns and reduce unnecessary consumption,
>> remembering that most of what we purchase requires the expenditure of
>> fossil fuels to produce, distribute and dispose of or recycle. Orr
>> suggests that a good place to start is with things we buy that we
>> know lower our quality of life.
>>
>> Too much of the wrong kind of food is an example that will resonate
>> with many of us, and one that Orr finds particularly apt. "That's a
>> lose-lose-lose situation," says Orr. "Society loses because we have
>> to go fight oil wars to make sure we have enough oil to haul our
>> excess body fat around. (Sheldon H. Jacobson of the University of
>> Illinois at Urbana-Champaign recently calculated that Americans are
>> using approximately 1 billion more gallons of gas per year to power
>> our cars than we did in 1960 because of our collective weight gain.)
>> It's a double loss on the individual level because you die early of a
>> heart attack or Type II diabetes, and you've lived a highly immobile
>> life, which is a less rich life than you really wanted to live
>> anyway."
>>
>> After we start buying less of what's not good for us, we can take a
>> look at where we're substituting shopping and possessions for family
>> and community. We stop believing the advertisements that tell us we
>> will be loved, happy and leading an easier life if only we spend
>> enough. Instead we focus on building relationships and vibrant
>> communities. "Could we design a life that is rather like a European
>> village life with a vibrant town square where things are happening
>> and consumption is fairly minimal? Why not? What's the downside?
>> That's the concept behind what's being called the new urbanism -
>> design that gives us access without having to have mobility, and a
>> place to gather other than the mall. We pay a lot of money to fly to
>> Europe to see places exactly like that," says Orr.
>>
>> There is a fourth layer of the onion: giving up things that we truly
>> need and desire in order that someone else today, or in the future,
>> can live well - something, says Orr, our heroes of former generations
>> often did.
>>
>> Whether we have to peel down to that layer will depend upon the steps
>> we take now to reduce consumption. "This culture is hamstrung because
>> we don't recognize limits," says Orr. "Ironically, if we refuse to
>> recognize our limits, we will impose even greater limits on
>> ourselves."
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Get your daily alternative energy news
>>
>> Alternate Energy Resource Network
>> 1000+ news sources-resources
>> updated daily
>>
>> http://www.alternate-energy.net
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Alt Energy Resource Network News Blog
>>
>> http://blog.alternate-energy.net/index.php
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Next_Generation_Grid
>>
>> http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/next_generation_grid
>>
>>
>> Alternative_Energy_Politics
>>
>> http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/Alternative_Energy_Politics
>>
>>
>> Tomorrow-energy
>>
>> http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/tomorrow-energy
>>
>>
>> Earth_Rescue_International
>>
>> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Earth_Rescue_International
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Yahoo! Groups Links
>>
>> <*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
>> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/irenew/
>>
>> <*> Your email settings:
>> Individual Email | Traditional
>>
>> <*> To change settings online go to:
>> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/irenew/join
>> (Yahoo! ID required)
>>
>> <*> To change settings via email:
>> mailto:irenew-digest@yahoogroups.com
>> mailto:irenew-fullfeatured@yahoogroups.com
>>
>> <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
>> irenew-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
>>
>> <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
>> http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
>>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Iowa-dx mailing list
> Iowa-dx@lists.gp-us.org
> http://lists.gp-us.org/mailman/listinfo/iowa-dx
>