Posts Tagged ‘Sustainability’

Sustainable?

What does it mean to be sustainable? Does it mean that we are able to support and maintain ourselves environmentally? Does it mean that we can support and maintain ourselves economically?

I would argue that it means both.

We can not charge ahead with environmental changes that we can not support in the long run economically.

This is illustrated in a recent study conducted at Juan Carlos University in Madrid by Gabriel Calzada. He points out that as we push towards “greener” sources of power the economy suffers. This is because governments typically subsidize green projects.

In fact they subsidize them extremely heavily. The end result is that organizations are being paid up to 11 times the going rate for comparable services and products if they make use of green products and energy sources.

Now the need to move towards environmentally friendly solutions seems to justify such aggressive behavior. Unfortunately, as in all aspects of life, there are consequences from such actions.

Every dollar that the government overspends on “green” solutions is a dollar that can not be applied to other projects – even green projects. In fact, Calzada calculates that every time a “green” job is created, 2-1/2 conventional jobs are lost because of the extra funding required.

This is simply not sustainable. When people lose their jobs they will be unable to pay to heat their homes. Do you think that they are thinking about what damage to the environment will occur if they light a fire or take some more drastic action?
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Sustainability and green living go hand in hand. After all green living is all about reducing our impact on the environment – that is, to making sure that we don’t interfere with its sustainability.

So it makes sense that when we plan environmentally friendly projects we make sure that they are sustainable. That means that there is no point in starting a venture that will not be feasible in the long run.

For instance, it would be great if we could eliminate all of our CO2 emissions in the next year. Let’s be realistic though - right now, with the technology and finances that we have available, it’s not going to happen and starting a project that attempts to do so would be foolish.

Planning to reduce CO2 emissions in reasonable amounts that we can achieve does make sense. Each year we can build upon what we have accomplished. We can find more ways to reduce CO2, and keep improving on what we have achieved. With small consistent steps over the long term, we can achieve more than we ever believed.

If, however, we start unreasonable, unsustainable projects, then they will fail and we will be right back where started. We will have accomplished nothing and we will be feeling the pressure to accomplish more even quicker to make up for lost time.

Consistent, sustainable reductions in pollution, that’s the key to green living- for ourselves, our families, our communities, our country and our planet.

Is Sustainable Traffic Possible?

I came across this article about Daniel Sperling - a man who has been a visionary about traffic. He’s not only someone who recognizes that there is a problem, but also has come up with some practical solutions.

I checked and his book, Two Billion Cars: Driving Toward Sustainability, is available at Amazon. It seems like a few things have changed in the oil and car markets since the book was written; however the ideas of how to deal with our traffic problems are still valid.

Here’s an excerpt from the article at the Miami Herald that describes Sperling’s thinking.