Adventures in Sustainable Living Podcast

Episode 200

Sustainability Summit 102

After covering quite a variety of topics over the last 100 episodes there are several things that clearly stand out.

Sustainability is about people, planet and profits. It  has a lot to do with being mindful about how you live as well as having the right mindset.  I truly think we humans have a moral obligation to treat our planet well. Yet despite the clear need to reduce our use of fossil fuels, we continue to race for additional non-renewable resources. Additionally, we are still trying to use money and technology to solve our problems and it is not working.  

So join me for the Sustainability Summit 102 where I will high light some very important points regarding our future on this planet. 

Welcome back everyone to the Adventures in Sustainable Living podcast. This is your host Patrick and this is E 200 which is called Sustainability Summit 102.  

You know it is interesting to look back over the last 100 episodes to see the enormous variety of subjects that have been covered. What I would like to do with this episode is an overview of various topics based on the episodes with the greatest number of downloads. 

In so many previous episodes I have discussed very specific issues concerning what humanity is doing and why, what affect that has on the environment and what is going to happen if we do not change our ways. Certainly I have said over and over again things such as “Give up plastic bags. Make your own natural cleaning products. Drive less. Go solar. Ditch the single use plastics.” 

But sometimes I feel as if that is just as effective as me standing on the side of the road with a cardboard sign and waving as people drive by. This is because for the most part people that are comfortable with how they live are much less likely to make significant changes especially if that involves a certain level of inconvenience. Humanity, in general, is incapable of sacrificing convenience in order to prevent dire consequences on future generations. Consequently, we are all driving along in a speeding car and after passing that sign that says “Danger, Cliff Ahead” we just look at each other and say “Well, it hasn’t happened yet.” 

But maybe this is part of our genetic makeup. We are much better at responding to immediate threats. If there is a tornado we run. If there is a forest fire, we evacuate. That same is true with a hurricane. Our ingrained behavior, our internal programing is biased toward responding to immediate threats to our health and well being and not something in the distant future.  

But I think most of us in the developed world have a false sense of security. We live in a place where the environment is stable, life is good, we are gainfully employed, live in a nice house and have all that we need to be comfortable. Consequently it is easy to become indifferent to what is happening on the other side of the globe. People already suffering due to climate migration may as well be cardboard cut out pasted on our wall. Yet this complacent attitude has created a massive problem. 

Fossil Fuels

Clearly our use of fossil fuels is going to result in the downfall of humanity. We have heard warnings from various scholars, teacher, diplomats and scientists for over 150 years. 

Despite this we are now racing for additional non-renewable resources that have become more accessible due to climate change and melting sea ice. We are once again running in the wrong direction. And the only thing worse than running in the wrong direction is running in the wrong direction enthusiastically. 

Every five years or so very predictably I start questioning why I am doing what I am doing. Is it worth it? Am I accomplishing what I want and living the way I want? Is there more I can do? Can I live differently? What can I change? Am I going in the right direction? 

This is just part of my process of making positive changes. This is also how I learn more about sustainability and regenerative living. I am always asking questions. I also think these are valid questions everyone of us should be asking. Are we contributing to the problem or are we part of the solution? 

Clearly fossil fuels are not going to be phased out tomorrow. But until that happens it is worth evaluating our own lifestyles to see what can be changed. The average person in a developed country could easily live on 50% less that what they do. The list of things we can change is considerably long so take some time to reevaluate your life. For example, after some careful consideration I was able to reduce my commuting by 50%. This is despite living in the middle of the forest.  

Climate Change

In case you haven’t noticed, discussions about climate change have now become increasingly urgent. This is because we are now reaching emergency status. 

Interestingly enough, this concept of climate change is nothing new. The first seminal paper regarding climate change was published in 1896. Somewhere around the 1930s or 1940s a direct connection was made between increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and global warming. Clear evidence of climate change was evident as far back as the 1950s..

I first started hearing about climate change when I was a teenager. What I didn’t know at the time is the enormous effort being put forth to prevent this from happening. Scientists, politicians, environmentalist, diplomats, and presidents all knew. Advances in computer modeling at the time, coupled with a comparison of atmospheres on other planets with high carbon dioxide content, predicted with astonishing accuracy what would happen on Earth if we continued to burn fossil fuels. 

Big government, all major gas and oil companies, executives from the coal industry all knew. And how did they use that information. They spent millions of dollars on disinformation campaigns to confuse the public. We has a window of opportunity nearly 50 years ago to prevent exactly what is happening now. 

At this point we have most likely irreversibly altered what took 4.5 billion years of evolution to create. We are now increasingly desperate to slow down the vehicle of change that may well take a century to stop. 

In fact NASA scientist have clearly pointed out that 

“The effects of human-caused global warming are happening now, are irreversible on the timescale of people alive today, and will worsen in the decades to come.”

And of course, all in the name of progress. We so easily forget that progress is never really a net gain, meaning there is always a price. 

Renewable  Energy

But some of that price could be mitigated by the use of renewable energy. It may not be the end all be all but as of 2016 the price of solar and wind energy was less than fossil fuels. The price of solar energy for your home has decreased by over 60% over the last two decades. In 2010 it cost $378 to produce one megawatt of solar electricity. By 2019 that price had dropped to $68. 

Solar energy is literally the most abundant energy source on Earth.  The amount of potential solar energy that reaches our planet in one hour equals the total energy consumption of everyone on the planet.  Just 20 days of sunshine can create the same amount of energy as all the Earth’s gas, oil and coal combined.

Yes the entire planet could be run off of renewable energy. Yes there are challenges to transitioning to all renewable energy. We have the technology in place to do that now and yet we mostly sit on our hands. 

The Right Mindset

Humanity has been through several major transitions that have literally altered the course of our history. Transitioning to an agricultural economy is a good example. The transition to a fossil fuel based society is another. And our transition to all renewable energy is the next step we need to take. It will literally alter every aspect of our lives. 

Although humans are not the only species on the planet that are able to alter the environment, we are the only species capable of altering the forces of nature on a massive scale. Obviously that is now working to our detriment. But changing what we are doing is sometimes simply a matter of having the right motivation and right mindset. 

We have a tendency to sit back and take in the massive scale of our global problems and think our individual action makes no difference. But we fail to recognize that it is the individual action of each of the 8 billion people on the planet that got us where we are today. And it is the individual action of each of us that will help to reverse the effects we have had on our planet. The answer is really very simple. It is a matter of being a better star thrower. 

There was once a very wise man who would go to the ocean to do his writing. He was always in the habit of walking on the beach before he started his work. One day he was taking in his typical peaceful walk when he looked down the beach and saw a young man. At first he thought this young man was dancing. But as he got closer he realized that he was not dancing at all. He was repeatedly picking up something and tossing it into the ocean. 

As he got even closer he asked the young man what he was doing. The young man paused for a moment and said, “Throwing starfish into the ocean. The tide is going out and if I don’t throw them into the ocean they will die.” 

The wise man said, “But there are miles and miles of beach and thousands of starfish all along the beach. You can’t possibly make a difference!” The young man paused for a moment, then reached down and picked up another starfish and threw it into the ocean. He then turned and said, “It made of difference for that one!”

I am truly of the opinion that we have all we need to be successful in our quest to live a sustainable life. But a recent study revealed that 54% of people believed that living a life that is easier on the planet was a priority for them but only 34% said they “mostly lived that way.”  

This is because people have a preference for their existing lifestyle. And the simple truth is that having some sort of routine gives us a sense of personal security. But people also feel that living sustainably takes up too much time. But this attitude stems from our addiction to convenience. 

Part of the problem is that we are always busy. Busy with work, raising a family, managing constant social commitments, constant email, voicemails, text messages, managing our finances. One deadline after another after another. This is just our version of modern life. And it does not help that everyone else is just as busy and everyone wants everything instantly. Patience has become a thing of the past because we don’t have time to be patient. But this is the price we pay for having the world at our fingertips.

Another common roadblock to a sustainable life is that most people are convinced that one person cannot make a difference. But allow me to give you some concrete examples of just the opposite.  

-Reducing your meat and dairy consumption by even 25% for one year will reduce your carbon footprint by nearly 18%. It will result in saving 100,000 gallons or  380,000 liters of water. It would save 2,800 square feet of forest and 1,650 kilograms of grain. And that could easily be accomplished by going meat free two days per week. 

-You may not think much about tossing a plastic water bottle in the trash. But that happens 60 million time per day. So stop doing it. 

-The average person throws away nearly 400 plastic bags per year. If you stopped using them there would be that much less that ends up in the landfill. 

-Eliminating your food waste would not only save you approximately $2,700 per year, but it would prevent a tremendous amount of compostable material from going to the landfill. On a global basis, we waste enough food to feed every hungry person in the world three times over.

Self Sufficiency

Perhaps another roadblock we face is this thought of never having any control over our lives much less being self sufficient.

Initially self sufficiency was a matter of providing your own food, shelter, tools, and whatever else was needed just to survive. You could not really eliminate anything because all of what you had was exactly what you needed. This was my experience growing up on a farm. 

But these days the opposite is true. Much of what we need to “survive” so to speak, in our modern world, such as light bulbs, cell phones, computers, vehicles and the gasoline to run them, is impossible for the individual to make. So instead of depending on ourselves we depend on a vast interconnected infrastructure that we cannot possibly understand or control.  

While the average person can no longer make many of the things needed to survive in our modern world, most of us could actually get rid of more than half of our stuff and still live in luxury.

Because we are so accustomed to this lifestyle we overlook the fact that the average person in a developed country has more than ten times the environmental impact than someone in India or China.

And such a lifestyle continues to feed our total disconnection from the natural world. We no longer appreciate that it is the natural world we depend on for our very survival. Furthermore, we have no idea where our food even comes from. Approximately 54% of people have never seen a cow in person. Seven out of 10 Americans believe chocolate milk comes from brown cows. The average grade school student does not know that pickles come from cucumbers. One in five of us do not know that hamburgers are made from cows.

Perhaps it is because of this complete disconnect from our natural world and our environment we are also oblivious to the fact that we are living beyond our means. 

But if I may reduce this to a more personal level, you have to compare our consumption of resources to your monthly budget. The concept of living within a budget means that your monthly expenses stay with the confines of your monthly income. That is called living within your means.  If you are not living within your means, you are at a financial deficit every month. If you do this long enough you will go bankrupt. 

Very similar to that the Global Footprint Network compares a population’s demand for resources against what their ecosystem can supply. According to the Global Footprint Network, if a population’s demand for ecological assets exceeds their supply, they have to import goods and services because they have an ecological deficit. They also have to liquidate their assets, which means over fishing, harvesting timber and other resources at a rate that exceeds the ability to regenerate.  We also have to increase carbon emissions, we start to accumulate waste, and we have to find ways to maximize food production regardless of the affect on the environment. 

When this ecological deficit happens on a global level, there is no way to compensate for it since there are no net imports to our planet. And this is the focus of Earth Overshoot Day. It marks the date when humanity’s demand for resources and services in a given year exceeds what our planet can regenerate for that year. 

What we do know is that on a global scale we have been exceeding our ecological budget since the 1970s. The result of that is degradation of our ecosystems. This is evident through soil erosion, over grazing, deforestation, reduced productivity of crop lands, species extinction, depletion of fisheries, and global warming. 

Planetary Boundaries

Despite numerous warnings over the past century or or so, we have now exceeded some very important boundaries. 

Certainly we are all familiar with the concept of boundaries. Boundaries help us to maintain our own identity, it helps us keep control of our lives, and protects us from emotional and physical exploitation. And as mentioned above we certainly understand the importance of living within our own financial boundaries. But what about the planetary boundaries? 

Over the period of 5 decades we have added 4 billion people to our planet. By 2020 our population was 8.5 billion. With the combination of more people and longer lifetimes our absolute numbers continue to rise.

All of these people of course require the use of more resources. We continue to turn forests into farmland, wilderness into wheat fields and prairie into parking lots at an unprecedented rate. It is now becoming painfully obvious that there are limits to essential global resources. We are using more fresh water than ever, converting forest land at an ever increasing rate, our biosphere integrity is declining, climate change is obvious, our protective ozone is being depleted, our atmosphere is full of damaging aerosols, we have caused global interference with the natural flow and cycle of nature and we are continuously polluting the environment with over 350,000 novel chemicals. 

We have gone from living within our means to living in a constant deficit. This is often seen as cultures begin to development, people have an increased standard of living, people buy more, use more, and demand more services. This is quite obvious if you look at the rise of the economy in any developed country.

The Path to Sustainability

For some reason humanity is bent on perpetual growth. In fact, this is how we define the success of our societies. Yet sustainability in its simplest definition is the ability to maintain or support a process continuously over time, ensuring the long-term viability of natural systems, humans societies, and economies. This of course implies using our resources wisely so that future generations will also have enough resources. 

Obviously what we are doing as humans is not sustainable. What is also obvious is that economic growth is directly tied to resource consumption. Both go hand in hand with environmental degradation and climate change. Despite this obvious trend consumerism continues to be deeply ingrained. Even though there are communities of people that live simply and offer inspiration for social innovation, the question is whether or not this is possible on a global scale because humans always want more and more and more. 

Regenerative Living

If you closely read through the history of sustainability, what is most frustrating is that a whole variety of people for centuries have been trying to get our attention. Scholars starting warning us centuries ago. Scientist have shown us data and sounded the alarm. Even individuals have gained the attention of the world. These have all made a difference but it has not had the hard impact that is needed. 

Numerous species on the planet have the capability of  transforming their environment in some way. But humans are the only species with the ability to take that one step further. We have gone beyond harnessing the forces of nature and local resources to controlling and redirecting the natural world on a massive scale. Our long history of greenhouse gas emissions have set in motion climate changes that we cannot stop. We can no longer rely on the power of the technology we created to rescue us.

But is sustainable living really the answer? 

A rather lengthy study involving the Sustainability Research Institute in the UK concluded that it may be possible for everyone on the planet to lead a good life and to live within their environmental means. But if present trends continue there will be no way for both of these things to happen at the same time. 

After considering numerous factors the study concluded that not one single country on the planet provides their citizens with a good, sustainable life. So the question becomes do we want to live well or do we want to live sustainably. And is there something more we can do?

Sustainability means we have to be careful with nature and the use of natural resources so that the generations that come after us will have enough to live a comfortable life. It is about maintaining things the way they are and not making too many messes. 

Sustainability focuses on reducing our environmental impact. Regenerative living is about increasing our positive impact on the environment, repairing the damage we have done and making sure that nature can flourish. In other words, we not only need to be nice to our planet, we need to contribute to making it a better place.

There is no doubt that humanity has long since crossed certain boundaries that keep our planet in balance. We had a window of opportunity over 40 years ago to stop climate change and we ignored it. Now we can only take countermeasures to prevent the worst case scenario. 

That being said, there is one thing that always comes to mind when I think about how we should all be living. And that is “Leave only footprints.” Is we all adopted that practice then by default you would have adhered to the principles of using only what you need, reducing your waste, giving up plastics, respecting other cultures, extending a simple act of kindness, and being mindful of the fact that every single thing you do has an impact. 

The Iroquois Confederacy, which in many ways had an enormous influence on the founding principles of the US Constitution, also spoke clearly of the seventh generation principle. This principle dictates that decisions that are made today should lead to sustainability for seven generations into the future. Obviously we did not pay attention. 

Life is always uncertain. Everyone knows that. But there are a few things I know for sure. In just a few hundred years humanity has substantially altered what took nature 4.5 billion years to create. And if we do not stop what we are doing, nature will find a way. And that may mean life without humans.