Grandpa and Great Uncle

Having had no father to speak of growing up, Father’s Day was something I never worried about as a kid. No ugly ties for me to buy. Instead I watched as my mom and her sisters and brothers came to honor my grandpa with small gifts and gestures - hard to find candy, favorite pipe tobacco. I lived in a multi-generational household, which in the 1960s was falling victim of urban sprawl.  Waxing nostalgic?  Likely! Don’t get me wrong, when I was a kid living with your grandparents was NOT cool. The quintessential generation gap was amplified  in every cultural aspect from music (Lawrence Welk vs Rolling Stones) to hair style (crew cut versus ‘fro).  Our desires for privacy and autonomy fueled the mass migration from cities that resulted in cookie cutter housing developments with nuclear families.  Since the 1960s, living space per person has expanded dramatically. Kids sharing a bedroom – are you joking?

Maybe this personal space has lead to greater peace and harmony and less conflict but perhaps we have lost someting as well like our ability to get along with diverse populations – something that is identified as a huge challenge as the workforce expands when people work longer and retire later <multi-generational workforce>. While we have been forced (kicking and screaming) to adjust to a “new (recession) normal”, with lots of competition and scarce resources, could we have benefitted from lessons that skip a generation?

My grandparents were forever impacted by the Great Depression that left them saving twine, using every scrap of fabric, and every ounce of food. We did not live on credit. We composted, recycled cans, re-used glass jars, even nails and handed down “perfectly good” clothes.  We only had one car and rode our bikes everywhere as transportation.  While this perspective was born of necessity and the mantra that waste was a sin, it was also fundamentally very sustainable.  

On Father’s Day I always think about my grandpa. My grandpa taught us all to swim and urged us to ride our bikes to get places.  What I think about to day is how he connected us with the food on our table.  He farmed our back lot and we picked beetles off his roses, rocks out of the fields, and weeds out of the orchard in addition to harvesting food.  We saw tomatoes, bittermelon, bok choy, peanuts!, peppers and peas go from the garden to our table. 

A conference I attended this week talked about the resurgence of multi-generational households, for a variety of reasons.  The value of that extended history edcuation is priceless.  I didn’t at the time, but I now treasure having have had the influence of my grandparents.

Along this vein, Scientific American looked at how past campaigns have altered behavior, and make some predictions about how current sustainability focused campaigns may alter our consumption and energy usage patterns to help combat climate change including simple everyday actions like turning off the lights when you leave a room or setting your thermostat a few degrees warmer in the summer and cooler in the winter. Implemented correctly and in the right context, these programs could change energy consumption behaviors quite drastically. The studies cited in the article talk about smoking cessation and seat belt awareness programs.

Photo courtesy of TLC Family

My background is originally in anthropology, with a sociology slant, and so these types of social change and shift speak to me. What causes us to cover our mouths when we sneeze or learn to recycle? Many times these are very deliberate campaigns and programs that are introduced in schools or through the socialization process of growing up in contemporary America.

This gives me great hope that if in 20 years (or less) we can shift the perception of Americans and their consumption and transportation patterns, there is hope that we can meet some important goals: reducing our individual carbon footprint, increase transit ridership and awareness of the environmental impacts of our travel behaviors, and other sustainable behaviors that are important to us.

As an aircraft approaches its destination, it comes under the control of the approach radar, which guides the aircraft down from its cruising altitude into the approach pattern to the airport, until it makes contact with the instrument landing system that can guide it to landing. In high traffic areas, multiple airports are served by a single approach control or TRACON. The single busiest TRACON is SoCal Approach, located within the confines of MCAS Miramar in San Diego, California. This center serves sixty-two airports including San Diego, John Wayne, LAX, Long Beach, Burbank and Ontario. The lack of technology and crowded skies mean that planes descend, mostly, in a stair step fashion rather than on a continuous downward slope. With a lack of highly precise position readings and so many planes, it is the only way the system can operate safely.

A recent GE advertisement does a decent job of explaining the operational problems with this method of air traffic control.

Continuous Descent Approach, also known Optimized Profile Descent, has been proven to reduce fuel in the approach and landing phases of flight, by eliminating the need for pilots to adjust throttles as they stair step their way down to landing. Continuous descent approach utilizes a 3-degree glide slope to bring an aircraft safely and efficiently down from cruising altitude to landing. According to aircraft engine manufacturer GE, next generation air traffic control, including optimized descent can produce fuel savings of 5-15%.  While it has been proven effective, continuous descent approach is not feasible to implement on a wide scale under the current air traffic control system. It requires too much communication and coordination through every phase of a flight. A more holistic system that tracked and ordered flights from a much farther distance would be better able to coordinate approaching aircraft, but the limits of radar technology prevent this.

A new air traffic control systems has been in the planning stages for years, but it is a project that is constantly being kicked down the road. With the renewed focus on infrastructure spending, the next generation air traffic control system must be a priority. It will create more capacity at America’s busiest airport by allowing a reduction in aircraft separation and reduce fuel consumption on approach and landing.

Depiction of Optimized Profile Descent, source: www.volpe.dot.gov

Image Courtesy of Boeing

There is an activist group in the UK called “Plane Stupid” who periodically stages protests at airports, where they scale fences, climb on planes, wave banners and generally try to bring airport operations to a screeching halt. The primary point of the group is to protest the harmful effects of air travel on the environment. However, their protests, which only prolong an already painful experience for passengers through additional ground delays, do not endear Plane Stupid to the traveling public. Much to the chagrin of Plane Stupid, air travel is not going away, but it is well on its way to becoming more environmentally friendly.

Aviation is an area where economics and environmental sustainability are in agreement. Airlines are saddled with high fixed equipment and labor costs, but it is how well an airline manages fuel costs that can be the difference between a profitable quarter and one in the red. Airlines control fuel costs either by reducing the price they pay per gallon of fuel, via fuel hedges and futures, or by reducing the amount of fuel they burn. To illustrate, airlines will spend $750,000 per narrow body plane for blended winglets that provide for a 6% fuel burn reduction (Boeing 737) and up to $3 Million per plane for Performance Improvement Packages on widebody aircraft that produce fuel burn reductions of 1.6% (PIP for GE90 engine on Boeing 777 aircraft). Less fuel burned is more profit for carriers. With every passing year, airlines retire aircraft using fuel-hungry low-bypass engines, and replace them with more efficient planes utilizing high-bypass turbofans, further reducing fuel consumption. Next generation airliners, like Boeing’s 787, Airbus’s A350 XWB and Bombardier’s CSeries, utilize engines from Pratt & Whitney, Rolls-Royce, and GE which will reduce fuel burn even more, and will burn fuel more cleanly than any engine in commercial service today.

The GEnx engine, which poweres the Boeing 787 and 747-8. Image Courtesy of GE

787 Dreamliner Parts, Source: Seattlepi.com

1.History of Green Growth – New Urbanism

2.“Trashing” Food Composting

3. Oregon’s Transportation Planning Rule and Sustainability

Check out a other great posts from this past week:

• Cascadia CAN Get Along!



1962World's Fair

In honor of the 50th Anniversary of the 1962 (April 21st – October 21st, 2012) Worlds Fair that created the Seattle Center, the Center is sponsoring a Haiku contest on the topic of sustainability.

Whether you’re an accomplished poet or would like to learn about haiku you’re encouraged to participate. The contest is sponsored and will be judged by the Haiku Society of America and the prize for the winning haiku is $100.

The theme for the Haiku contest will be: Sustainability. The Pacific Northwest has a wealth of knowledge and passion to pave the way for a sustainable future – from Native American wisdom to the climate change initiatives, from cyclists to kayakers, from green builders to master gardeners, from bio fuels to organic foods. In May of 2012 the 50^th Anniversary Celebration will focus on sustainability and big bold ideas to meet the environmental challenges ahead. Entries are accepted between Sept 21st and Dec 31st but enter early to get more on-line votes. Get out your pens and remember 5-7-5!

Electric Vehicles/Highways

If you go to the Climate Policy and West Coast Transportation Conference ECOtality reports there will be an update of the EV Project, the world’s largest construction of EV infrastructure. ECOtality North America is overseeing the installation of approximately 15,000 electric vehicle charging stations in 16 cities across six U.S. states, as well as the District of Columbia. Or the I-5 Greenhighways project in Cascadia.  The $230 million public-private initiative is funded in part with a $114.8 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).  The session will take place on Friday, September 17, 2010 at 1:15 PM PDT.

In Cascadia this is the I-5 GreenHighway.

Portland Farmer's Market

Not only does buying close to home help support your local economy and family owned farms (which is critical to the preservation of land for the cultivation of food and wildlife), but it also reduces the amount of energy spent on transporting food from long distances. This has recently been called a “local diet” or becoming a “locavore” – but it used to be called normal before transportation costs became low enough to truck or fly food all over the world. According  to Thomas Starrs’ 2005 article from SustainableBusiness.com, food in US grocery stores travel an average of 1,500 miles. Some foods are even worse than that: grapes grown in Chile, shipped to California, then trucked to Iowa travel over 4,200 miles.

Summer strawberries for jam

So think about ways to cut your food’s carbon footprint, by purchasing closer to home. And even better, preserve those tasty summer and fall foods for winter – check with your local farmer’s market for classes or your county’s food extension course.

Green Seattle Image from nakedloon.com

The City of Seattle Office of Sustainability and Environment (OSE) has been developing an analytical  framework to assess how Seattle could achieve Carbon Neutrality.  To take comments on this framework and as part of on-going outreach to promote a dialogue  with the community, OSE is sponsoring a Town Hall meeting on September 14th 2010 from 6-8 pm in Council Chambers, City Hall.

Also OSE is looking for community ideas to name this Initiative! They ask “Is the term ‘carbon neutrality’ inspiring? If not, what is?”  Name and logo entries are being taken for Seattle’s carbon neutral initiative and can be submitted through September 14th at this link.  You can help set the image for sustainability in Seattle.

Natural Deficit: Earth's Overshoot Day

There are some dates in history that are incredible significant. September 11th, 2001 is one that comes to mind, as well as December 16th, 1945, end of the Second World War, and 1928 with the discovery of Penicillin. Not too many would recognize an even more important date: December 17, 1987, the first time we went into ecological overshoot. Every year since then we have pushed the human enterprise past the sustainable limits of our planet.

Today will live on in history as this Earth Overshoot Day 2010: when a year’s worth of renewable resources has been consumed and we start using next year’s supply. It’s only 8 months into the year and we’re already tapped out!

In the Red: 150% of Earth's Capacity

Throughout most of human history we have lived off Earth’s natural interest, taking resources at a rate that can be regenerated and depositing waste at a rate that can be absorbed. As the world economy has grown we have pushed closer and closer to the ecological limits of our finite planet. We are using 150 percent of the Earth’s capacity, running on a very limited supply of natural credit. Today we start eating into the reserves needed to renew our natural accounts for next year – each year we grow, yet each year our resources dwindle even faster than before.

What does this mean about our society as we hope to avert runaway climate change and cope with the coming shocks of peak oil? We must recognize the conflicts in our system that will make any hope of a sustainable society impossible, namely: continued economic growth.

Sustainable Growth Is An Oxymoron

Modern economic thought considers the Earth in the equation, yet does so in a very peculiar way. Today’s economists view the Earth as a repository of resources, separate from the economy itself. These trusted advisers tell us we can continue to grow the size of the economy without worry about the finite planet, because it is separate from the equation. Economists tell us that growing the economy can solve everything: poverty, hunger, and unemployment – even climate change. And their opinion is not entirely unfounded; it is simply in need of some revisiting.

The economy is a machine driven by and for us sitting on the surface of the Earth, not in space or in some ethereal realm. The Earth provides all the resources and takes all the waste. Therefore, it is preposterous to assume the economy can be larger than the Earth can support. The economy is a subsystem of the planet, not the other way around. When we talk about sustainability we cannot ignore the size of the economy.

Once upon a time our economy was small compared to the Earth. Growth meant more than just increased material wealth. Growth improved our standard of living by giving more people access to better food, housing, health care, education and leisure time. However, at a certain point more growth does little to improve well-being and happiness. In fact, economic growth might even be linked to a decrease in happiness – we’re working longer than ever, producing more and more, yet gaining less and less. Worse yet, as we produce and consume more each year we eat more and more into our supporting system: Earth. And there’s only one Earth.

Today’s economy is now very large compared to the Earth. We have started pushing up against the physical limits of the planet: peak oil, peak water, peak food – peak everything. Climate destabilization is on the horizon and could easily be pushed into overdrive if we don’t stop emitting greenhouse gases. Poverty, hunger, inequality and environmental degradation have not seen improvement despite all our growth.

We haven’t been anywhere near sustainable in quite some time. We’re in constant overshoot: environmentally, socially, politically – overstretched and stretching for more. Overall, it would appear that our 150-year experiment with rapid growth has shown poor results. What about the alternative? Can we have prosperity without growth?

Prosperity Without Growth

Prosperity Without Growth, by Tim Jackson

An economy focused on better, not bigger – qualitative growth instead of quantitative growth – is the sustainable future we must envision. Ecological economists classify this type of economy as a “steady state economy,” where production, consumption and population remain stable, at or below the limits of our finite planet.

Don’t be fooled into thinking that a steady state economy would be stagnant – far from it. Just as a forest does not need to get exponentially bigger, our economy can function within the limits of our ecosystem. The forest is alive, always changing, always developing – but it’s overall dimensions do not change. It is simply recognizing when enough is enough and staying within those limits.

It is not a new concept. John Maynard Keynes, the economist that shaped most of our economic theory and policy today, as well John Stuart Mill, another founding economist, both recognized that a time would come when we would no longer be able to grow. They saw the growth economy as a means to an end, not the end itself and recognized that we would at some point be able to put growth behind us to focus on something better – developing our society. Tim Jackson has published some great work more recently and there is a plethora of great publications on the steady state economy by Herman Daly.

A Steady State Economy

Questioning growth may seem way out of the mainstream, if not also politically unwise, but it is the only way we can preserve a stable, secure human society into the next century. As odd as it might be to question growth, stranger still is the complete acceptance of it in defiance of the natural systems we rely on.

A steady state economy allows us to maintain our society and ecosystem for future generations, find a balance and focus on developing things like social justice, furthering free pursuit of knowledge and eliminating poverty and hunger. These higher paths that we all want – happiness, prosperity and increasing well being – do not require the size of the economy to increase. The alternative, continued addiction to growth will result in less biodiversity, increased resource scarcity and the worst-case scenarios of climate change.

We can no longer have anti-holidays like Earth Overshoot Day. I look forward to the sustainable society we create where we celebrate Earth Undershoot Day – when we end the year with excess resources. Learn more about Earth Overshoot Day and calculate your ecological footprint at the Global Footprint Network. Visit the Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy (CASSE) for more information about the Steady State Economy.

Joshua maintains the blog Steady State Revolution and collaborates on Post Growth. Image Credits: Global Footprint Network.