Category: Discussions

> CFS FINAL FORUM (in past format): Sat. Oct. 11, 3-5 p.m., SAV City Hall Council Chambers. Speaker–Erin McKee VanSlooten, Local Foods senior program associate, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy. Topic—“From Farm to School: Encouraging Food Literacy for Children”. Business—Establishing a sustainability coalition in SAV; Social—Refreshments and networking. Free, and open to the public!

EVERYTHING CHANGES, INCLUDING CFS  (Clifton Ware, Editor/Publisher)

 If you’ve paid attention to the announcement above, you’ve observed that the title is “CFS FINAL FORUM” (final in terms of past format). You’re probably wondering what this means, so here’s a brief explanation.

Since CFS’s kick-off meeting in January ’12, several positive initiatives have occurred, with a few individuals assuming leadership roles in pursuing specific areas of interest. At least three participants’ initiatives were already established, but CFS has provided a forum for sharing their projects and promoting them within the sustainability community.

In the meantime, my self-proclaimed role as co-founder/organizer has grown increasingly more complex, with expanding responsibilities, all attributable to my unrealistic personal expectations and goals for CFS. No one is to blame but myself for this situation. Hoping that more citizens would take up the sustainability banner and take on leadership roles was an idealistic vision. It turns out this vision was unrealistic, at least at this time. At some point, when the converging crises we’ve addressed in newsletters and forums begin to affect people’s lives more profoundly, I suspect the community will rally and set about getting more involved. But at my advancing age (771/2), I’m full aware that I’ll not be able to maintain the level of organizing and management it will take to fulfill our original vision of CFS as a long-term sustainable community.

Thankfully, I’m wise enough to understand when it’s time to withdraw from undertaking worthwhile initiatives, especially when positive outcomes have occurred. Overall, I’m proud of our collective accomplishments, and I remain committed to supporting any genuine effort undertaken by citizens seeking to create greater resilience and sustainability—for themselves, their families, their friends, and their community.

So CFS is in a changing mode, a reorganization or revision. In sum, key members of the education-communication team have decided to revisit our educational mission of providing information, instruction, and support to any individuals or groups interested in creating greater resilience and sustainability, within SAV and surrounding communities, and anywhere else. The forum concept will probably continue, but the format will likely morph into a more informal study-discussion group that addresses relevant topics, with support from presenters, books, articles, videos, and the like. CFS will also likely continue as a key member of any sustainability coalition formed in SAV.

This weekly newsletter will also continue, though perhaps on a modified publishing schedule, and, at some point, perhaps in an altered, upgraded format. But, first, in order to improve our effectiveness and services, we need to redefine our new CFS mission, goals, and objectives. If you have any suggestions or recommendations to offer, please feel free to share them.

Finally, for a perceptive, informative overview of the existing world situation, as related to the sustainability challenges associated with economy, energy, and environment, I encourage you to read Chris Martenson’s latest commentary: Ready Or Not… And if you really want to be better informed, study his Crash Course, beginning with the free chapters listed for the past few weeks in previous newsletters. Chapter 15 follows.

ECONOMIC AND ENERGY NEWS-VIEWS

> Peak Prosperity: Ready Or Not… (Chris Martenson). Most of the negative news and major world events we see around us are symptoms of the disease, not the disease itself. We are on an unsustainable course; economically, ecologically, and — most immediately worryingly  — in our use of energy. It’s really this simple: Anything that can’t go on forever, won’t.

> Peak Prosperity: Demographics – Crash Course Chapter 15. Our national demographic architecture no longer can afford the entitlement system we have. And that’s even assuming entitlements were currently sufficiently funded. But as the last chapter showed, the existing programs are underfunded to the tune of $100-200 Trillion.

> Economy & Markets Daily: Ten Things That Affect Your Purchasing Power. Almost every group in every category suffered a decline in income over the past six years. The exceptions were households led by those over 65 years old, households of retirees, and those with net worth in the 90% to 100% range.

> Common Dreams: Broken Dreams: Amidst Economic Insecurity, Americans Can’t Get Ahead. A new study shows that a majority of Americans have “a decidedly gloomy” economic outlook and have lost faith in the so-called American Dream.

> Great Transition: Monetizing Nature: Taking Precaution On A Slippery Slope. In embracing the monetary valuation of nature as a strategy for mobilizing support for environmental conservation, environmentalists are resigning themselves to a political status quo that can only comprehend value in terms of money and markets.

> Resilience: Post-Capitalism (Charles Eisenstein). What is more relevant to me [than the fiction of property] is the precise nature of the social agreements that define and underlie property.

> The Archdruid Report: Dark Age America: The Senility Of The Elites (J.M. Greer). The behavior of the holders of wealth and power in contemporary America is a textbook example of the way that a mature elite turns senile. Some elites realize that it’s crucial to play to the audience, to convince those outside elite circles that the holders of wealth and power still have some vague sense of concern for the survival of the society they claim the right to lead.

> Daily Kos: ‘The Most Important Chart About The American Economy You’ll See This Year’. Pavlina Tcherneva’s chart showing the distribution of income gains during periods of economic expansion reveals a shocking trend in income between the top 10% and the rest of the American population, whose earnings have gradually decreased since the 1980s.

> Daily Kos: Americans Want CEO Pay To Be Lower, But They Don’t Get Just How High It Is. Americans believe that CEOs make 30 times as much as unskilled workers. By contrast, Americans believe that CEOs should only make seven times as much as unskilled workers. In reality, CEOs make far, far more: 354 times as much in 2012, by some measures.

> Huffington Post: Why An Unequal Planet Can Never Be Green. The super-rich don’t just consume at rates that dwarf the consumption of mere financial mortals. Their profligate spending stimulates endless consumption all the way down the economic ladder. In more equal societies, most people can afford the same things. In that environment, things don’t matter all that much.

> OilPrice: How Rising Interest Rates Could Spell The End Of The U.S. Energy Boom. The winding down of extraordinary measures taken by the U.S. Federal Reserve to ameliorate the effects of the financial crisis could reverberate through energy markets.

> Fortune: Climate Summit Kicks Off With Promises Of $200 Billion For Clean Energy. Obama says the U.S. will lead a global effort to forge an international agreement on emission targets by 2020.

> Resilience: Peak Oil Review – Sept 29. Here’s a summary of oil news from around the world.

CLIMATE AND ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS-VIEWS

> Common Dreams: Sizzle, Sizzle, Fossil Fuels And Trouble: Study Confirms Climate Change Drove Extreme Heat Waves.  NOAA’s latest report’s analyses “overwhelmingly show” a link between the five heat waves included in the study—ones in 2013 that hit Australia, Korea, Europe, Japan and China—and climate change.

> The Hill: EPA: Greenhouse Gases From Major Polluters Grew Last Year. The more than 1,550 power plants in the EPA’s database emitted more than 2 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide last year, the largest portion of greenhouse gas emissions, accounting for 32 percent. Power plants’ emissions grew by 13 million metric tons [with coal serving as a major energy source].

> E360 Yale: Beyond Treaties: A New Way Of Framing Global Climate Action. It sounds bleak. Yet, strangely, all may not be lost. The answer may lie in Plan B — reframing the entire climate issue as one of national decision-making and self interest, rather than global treaty writing.

> Common Dreams: What 35,000 Walruses Forced To The Beach Tell Us About Global Warming.  “The walruses are telling us that the Arctic environment is changing extremely rapidly, and it is time for the rest of the world to take notice and also to take action to address the root causes of climate change.”

> Media Matters: Sunday News Shows Ignore Historic Climate March. While upwards of 400,000 people were marching for climate action in New York City, Sunday news shows on NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN and Fox failed to cover the People’s Climate March, a massive protest against climate change held September 21 in New York City, in conjunction with events in more than 150 countries worldwide.

> Resilience: Extracting Ourselves From The Extractivist Mindset (Robert Jensen). An insightful, informative review of “This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate” by Naomi Klein.

> CBS News: Half The World’s Wildlife Gone Over Last 40 Years. According to the Living Planet Report 2014, “the number of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish across the globe is, on average, about half the size it was 40 years ago, the result of inordinate stresses on our planet’s limited bio-capacity due primarily to increasing global human population.

> Ecologist: UN: Only Small Farmers And Agroecology Can Feed The World. Modern industrial agricultural methods can no longer feed the world, due to the impacts of overlapping environmental and ecological crises linked to land, water and resource availability. Agroecology is a traditional way of using farming methods that are less resource oriented, and which work in harmony with society.

LOCAL, STATE, AND REGIONAL NEWS-VIEWS

> Fresh Energy: Minnesota Slams Door (And Insulates It) On Drafty Homes With New Energy Code. Energy codes set the bare minimum requirements for energy use in buildings, and impact every area of your home. Because buildings make up 40 percent of our nation’s energy use they’re a key strategy in reducing our energy consumption.

> Midwest Energy News: Minnesota Faith Groups Featured In ‘Climate Reality’ Project. Minnesota faith communities were in the spotlight again this week as part of the 24 Hours of Reality, a series of videos hosted by Al Gore’s Climate Reality Project.

> MinnPost: Earth Journal: Why So Much Oil From The Fracking Boom Is Moving By High-Risk Rail. Rail shipping is inherently more prone to problems than pipeline transport. Also, a much higher risk of catastrophe as oil-laden “unit trains” of 80 to 120 tank cars move through the nation’s largest, densest metropolitan areas, including the Twin Cities.

> MPR: Managing A Herd: Bison Could Help Restore Minnesota Prairie. Although the land is not suitable for farming, it is good enough for six-foot-high stands of blue stem and other prairie grasses that make up most of the diet of the Blue Mounds bison herd.

> CBS Minnesota: Good Question: Why Do We Use So Much Plastic?  According to the plastics industry, 90 percent of grocery bags in the U.S. are still plastic. They cost between 1 to 2 cents, while paper bags can run 4 to 5 cents. But, what we do with these plastic bags has serious environmental consequences.

SUSTAINABLE CHALLENGES, IDEAS AND PRACTICES

> Resilience-Shareable: The World’s First Tiny House Hoteliers. All over blogs and documentaries about tiny houses, people are saying the same thing: I’d rather have a life full of experiences than things. There’s this turn away from consumerism toward more meaningful living.

> Resilient Life: Why Bother Composting? Here’s a succinct overview of the why, when, and how of composting. Anyone can do it.

> Common Dreams: Organic Vs. ‘Climate-Smart’: Can The UN Fix Farming In Time? An array of scientists other sustainably minded folks have been proposing that farmers adopt growing methods that leverage the soil’s capacity to absorb carbon. This proposed type of agricultural practice would be as much based on environmental stewardship as it is on productivity and profit.

> Psyblog: This Is What Heavy Multitasking Could Be Doing To Your Brain. A recent study of people who multitasked more across different media indicates lowers gray-matter density in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC: indicated by white dots in the image shown). [What might be the long-term effects on overall learning and behavior?]

> HowEricLives: Wallowing In Bias (Eric Garza, blog). Scientists have worldviews just like everyone else, and just like everyone else their worldviews are, at best, imperfect models of how the world works. Because scientists’ worldviews are imperfect, scientists have biases, just like everyone else, that inevitably show up in how they design and carry out their research.

> Resilience: Plowing Bedrock: How Bad Is Soil Erosion In US Cropland? (Bob Wise, blog) New studies, in which actual runoff⁹ from test fields is collected and measured, show that actual soil erosion is 100-200% worse than the most sophisticated estimate. With actual soil erosion this severe, we may be losing topsoil at 10 to 30 times the rate it is forming.

> Resilience: Building Different Relationships Before It’s Too Late (Chris Hedges, an 8-minute video and summary). “We must build movements to serve as a check on power and commit to doing all of the hard work that movement building entails: “If we are not willing to sacrifice, stand up and mobilize for the forces of life then we won’t have any life.”

> Slate: America Is Overlooking A Plentiful Renewable Resource: Animal Poop (Daniel Gross). The Biogas Opportunities Roadmap estimates that the animal manure produced in the U.S. each year could support some 8,241 digester systems that could collectively produce enough electricity to power nearly 1.1 million homes.

> Resilience: Uncharted Territory For A System In Overshoot (Mary Odom). We are in uncharted territory with the Ebola virus disease (EVD).  There is no benchmark for EVD, which kills 3 out of 4 people it touches, and is emerging into a global population of 7 billion.

> The Conversation: Life In A ‘Degrowth’ Economy, And Why You Might Actually Enjoy It. What does genuine economic progress look like? The orthodox answer is that a bigger economy is always better, but this idea is increasingly strained by the knowledge that, on a finite planet, the economy can’t grow forever.

NOTABLE UPCOMING LOCAL EVENTS

> Minnesota Renewable Energy: Minnesota Solar Tour. Sat., Oct. 4, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Free, self-guided tour of homes, farms, businesses, schools, and governments featuring solar. Info: www.mnsolartour.org

> UM Institute on the Environment: Frontiers In The Environment, a series of presentations held in R350 Learning & Environmental Sciences Building. Information: http://environment.umn.edu/events/

> Pilgrim House Unitarian Universalist Fellowship: The Top Conservation Threats We Face, And What One Can Do To Make A Difference (presented by Sierra Club North Star Chapter). Sun., Oct. 12, 10:15 a.m, 1212 W. Highway 96, Arden Hills. Info: http://www.pilgrimhouseuua.org

> Pilgrim House Unitarian Universalist Fellowship: Sand, Cattle & Land Stewardship: How Can We Keep The Land And People Together? (George Boody, Executive Director, Land Stewardship Project). Sun., Oct. 19, 10:15 a.m., 1212 W. Highway 96, Arden Hills.  Info: http://www.pilgrimhouseuua.org

What’s Possible?    (Clifton Ware, Editor/Publisher)

At long last, it seems that people around the world are beginning to wake up and address the crucial issue of climate change. Even the media is getting into the act, although some pundits remain deniers and propagators of misinformation, bad science, and slanted views fed to them by opportunistic fossil fuel corporations, conservative organizations, and greedy billionaires.

In a Common Dreams article published Tuesday (Bill McKibben Reacts to President Obama’s Climate Summit Speech), the charismatic founder of 350.org and foremost proponent of climate change action had this to say about President Obama’s speech:

“President Obama says America has ‘stepped up to the plate’ — and dropped down a bunt single when we’re behind by 10 runs in the 9th inning. If the President really wants collective ambition, he’s got to show a little more can-do spirit from the world’s leading economy.”

Also included in the newswire is a statement by May Boeve, executive director of 350.org, in reference to the People’s Climate March on Sunday and the Climate Summit on Tuesday [excerpts]:

“The 400,000 who took to the streets in New York City, and the hundreds of thousands more who marched around the world, represent a burning demand for action to save a world on fire.”

“350 is the red line for human beings, the most important number on the planet. The most recent science tells us that unless we can reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to 350 parts per million [down from the current 400 ppm], we will cause huge and irreversible damage to the earth. But solutions exist. All around the world, a movement is building to take on the climate crisis, to get humanity out of the danger zone and below 350. This movement is massive, it is diverse, and it is visionary. We are activists, scholars, and scientists. We are leaders in our businesses, our churches, our governments, and our schools. We are clean energy advocates, forward-thinking politicians, and fearless revolutionaries. And we are united around the world, driven to make our planet livable for all who come after us.”

Also related to the UN Climate Summit news is an inspirational 4-minute film (‘What’s Possible’: The U.N. Climate Summit Opening Film …) narrated by Morgan Freeman. This film proposes that climate change is solvable, thanks largely to developing technologies [which notable experts question] and the possibility of world leaders taking responsible, constructive action.

To add more substance about the latest climate change news and views, several informative articles below await your perusal. I hope you agree that now is the time for all world citizens to come to the aid of our home planet—for humanity’s sake. And this includes YOU!

CLIMATE AND ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS-VIEWS

> Environmental Defense Fund: Demand Climate Action. The People’s Climate March included 310,000 [up to 400,000?] climate activists marching across New York, and thousands more worldwide joined in the protest. Here’s how you can participate and do your part.

> NPR: Large Protests In Hundreds Of Cities Vent Ire At Climate Change. The idea for the huge march started with professor and activist Bill McKibben as a way to push for actions that limit greenhouse gas emissions. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon marched with the protesters, as did former Vice President Al Gore.

> Weathering the Storm: Climate Change: A Few Myths And Some Hard Realities (Mike Conley). Beware of “spinmeisters” making their case by extrapolating isolated data points into a big picture that ignores the totality of the evidence. Climate scientists and most scientific bodies are nearly as one that a) climate change is happening, b) it is largely anthropogenic, and c) it is occurring at an accelerated rate.

> Common Dreams: Climate Change You Can Believe In (Bill Moyers & Michael Winship). Just as Sunday’s big People’s Climate March and the UN global summit on climate converge here in New York City, the nation and world are experiencing weather of an intensity that should rattle the stubborn false convictions of even the most fervent climate change denier.

> Common Dreams: Whether We Engage or Do Nothing… This Changes Everything (Naomi Klein). When it comes to climate change, the trick is recognizing that the best cure for the terror caused by an unlivable future is the real prospect that we could build something much better than many of us have previously dared hope.

> Common Dreams-Truthdig: The Coming Climate Revolt (Chris Hedges). If the response of the corporate state is repression rather than reform then our strategy and our tactics must be different. We will have to cease our appealing to the system. We will have to view the state, including the Democratic Party, as antagonistic to genuine reform. We will have to speak in the language of … revolution.

> Climate Progress: NOAA: With Hottest August On Record, 2014 Takes Aim At Hottest Year On Record. Last month was the warmest August since records began being kept in 1880, NOAA reports. Projections clearly indicate that 2014 is going to be one of the hottest years on record—and possibly the hottest. Stay tuned. Mother Nature is just getting started.

> Marketwatch: Climate Change Isn’t The Problem. A Population Bomb Is Killing Us (Paul Farrell). The human race is in a suicidal rush to self-destruction. We can’t blame some grand conspiracy of climate-science deniers, Big Oil, Koch Bros, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, GOP governors and Congress. We are the problem. We are responsible for destroying the planet.

> Resilience:  Population & Aging. Five articles from five publications address the issue of human population and the aging factor.

> Planetizen: ‘Better Growth, Better Climate‘. A new report by the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate describes specific actions, which can strengthen economic performance and reduce climate change risks. A key strategy is to build better, more productive cities.

> The Daly News: Spending On Preventing Climate Wars Versus Spending To Secure Sources Of Oil. In terms of war and national security, a much more serious long-term threat is that of climate wars. Money being spent on oil wars ought to be shifted to strategies to prevent climate wars by getting at the root causes of climate disruption.

ECONOMY AND ENERGY NEWS-VIEWS

> The Guardian: Naomi Klein: We Tried It Your Way And We Don’t Have Another Decade To Waste. The climate-change movement is making little headway against corporate vested interests, says the author of Shock Doctrine. But how does she think her new book, “This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs the Climate”, will help galvanize people?

> Crude Oil Peak: US Shale Oil Growth Covers Up Production Drop In Rest-Of-World. While US shale oil production is growing, there was a drop in crude production in the rest of world since February 2012 of almost 2 million barrels/d. How did this come about? As usual, there is decline and growth and then we have geopolitics.

> The Archdruid Report: Dark Age America: The End Of The Old Order (J.M. Greer). People tend to pay much more attention to whatever they’re losing than to the even greater losses suffered by others. The middle-class Americans who denounce welfare for the poor while demanding that funding for Medicare and Social Security remain intact are par for the course.

> Minnesota 2020: Energy Trends: Fossil Future or Renewable Outlook?   Business as usual sets us up to continue down an unsustainable path. Despite the bleak picture this paints for climate change, the good news is that there is so much improvement to seek that there are a large range of options for policymakers, who need to take advantage of these options and step up to do more.

> Peak Oil: Paul Krugman’s Errors And Omissions (R. Heinberg). Heinberg addresses Krugman’s errors and omissions in a recent NY Times op-ed, with succinct, factual explanations about the realities of available energy sources and existing economic forces.

> Our Finite World: Low Oil Prices: Sign Of A Debt Bubble Collapse, Leading To The End Of Oil Supply? (Gail Tverberg). Falling commodity prices likely means that the debt bubble which has been holding up the world economy for a very long time–since World War II, at least–is failing to expand sufficiently. If the debt bubble collapses, we will be in huge difficulty.

> Yale-Environment 360: Oil Companies Quietly Prepare For A Future Of Carbon Pricing. The toll of fossil fuel emissions — from the ballooning costs of crop insurance tied to climate-related weather extremes, to the ravages of sea level rise in coastal areas, to stresses on health services as tropical diseases migrate northward — is part of the discussions at the UN Climate Summit in New York this week. And the new carbon mathematics is putting a spotlight on the oil industry.

LOCAL, STATE, AND REGIONAL NEWS-VIEWS

> Midwest Energy News: Minnesota Faith Groups Featured In ‘Climate Reality’ Project. Faith-based organizations are becoming increasingly vocal and active in the clean-energy movement. While it’s a national phenomenon, our story focused on Minnesota churches installing solar power and taking other steps to reduce their energy impact. Minnesota faith communities were in the spotlight again this week as part of the 24 Hours of Reality, a series of videos hosted by Al Gore’s Climate Reality Project.

> MPR: Race, Poverty Tied To Metro Transportation Funding. The effort is meant to help address disparities in the metro area between whites and people of color. Studies have shown that the region has some of the widest racial disparities in the country in income, education and health.

> Star Tribune (editorial): Minnesota’s Global Outlook Helps Land Sustainability. Minnesota’s Global Outlook Helps Land Sustainability. Minneapolis will host a major global conference on sustainability (MN2015: Democracy In A Stable Future) that will attract the former heads of state of nearly 100 countries to MN in Oct. 2015.

> MinnPost: Blog: Farming Into The Future: Hmong American Farm. The 16 farmers who rent five or ten-acre fields from the Hmong American Farmers Association (HAFA) are part of a project that includes research, cooperation and community.

> MinnPost: Earth Journal: 1,300 Bird Species Facing Extinction From Environmental Causes Worldwide. This compares to about 150 known extinctions of birds in the last five centuries, a rate that may accelerate tenfold by the end of this one. 197 bird species are in such dire circumstances that they’re considered to be just one serious epidemic or a couple of bad breeding seasons from their vanishing point.

SUSTAINABLE CHALLENGES, IDEAS AND PRACTICES

> Turn 21: Welcome to the 21^st Century. This is the time for our species to “turn 21”: to transition from adolescence to responsible adulthood as citizens of the planet, before we destroy our own future. Read > http://turn21.org/

> Organic Consumers Association: The Carbon Underground: Reversing Global Warming.. Members of the regenerative organics movement invite us to educate yourself about the good news of regenerative organics and natural carbon sequestration. They propose uniting the climate movement, the organic movement, the animal rights, family farmer, and conservation movements into a mighty force for transformation and regeneration.

> Talk Poverty: Top 10 Solutions To Cut Poverty And Grow The Middle Class. The U.S. Census Bureau released its annual figures recently on income, poverty, and health insurance. It revealed that four years into the economic recovery, economic insecurity remains widespread, and low- and middle-income workers have seen no significant wage growth over the past decade.

> Climate Progress: Putting Solar Panels On School Roofs Could Dramatically Increase America’s Solar Capacity. Any building with a large, flat rooftop is a prime candidate for a solar installation. And one particular large, flat roof that’s ubiquitous in the U.S. is on schools. If schools took advantage of their full potential for solar, they would add 5.4 gigawatts to the country’s solar capacity.

> ENSIA: A New Generation Of Gmos. Environmental news site Grist has called synthetic biology “the next front in the GMO war.” Friends of the Earth, an environmental organization that views genetically modified crops as “a direct extension of chemical agriculture,” calls synbio an “extreme form” of genetic engineering.

> Yes! &Truthout: Beyond Divestment: Climate-Concerned Philanthropists Pledge To Move Billions To Wind And Solar. Where should organizations put their money, if they aren’t putting it into fossil fuel companies? That’s the question behind the movement’s new strategy, known as “divest-invest,” which seeks to make divestment more effective by taking funds previously invested in fossil fuels and reinvesting them in renewable energy and sustainable economic development.

> Resilience: Defining The Simple Life (Book review). The simple life, almost as hard to define as it is to live, has historically served as an ancient and universal ideal.  Simple Living in History: Pioneers of the Deep Future, edited by Samuel Alexander and Amanda McLeod, contains 26 chapters discussing individuals, cultures, and movements that have embraced forms of ‘simple living’ throughout history.

> New York Times: Companies Are Taking The Baton In Climate Change Efforts. With political efforts to slow global warming moving at a tortuous pace, some of the world’s largest companies are stepping into the void, pledging more support for renewable energy, greener supply chains and fresh efforts to stop the destruction of the world’s tropical forests.

NOTABLE UPCOMING LOCAL EVENTS

> CFS OCTOBER SUSTAINABILITY FORUM: Sat. Oct. 11, 3-5 p.m., SAV City Hall Council Chambers. Speaker–Erin McKee VanSlooten, Local Foods senior program associate, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy. Topic (3-4 p.m.)—“From Farm to School: Encouraging Food Literacy for Children”. Business (4-4:30 p.m.)—Organizing a sustainability coalition in SAV; Social (4:30-5 p.m.)—Refreshments and networking.

> UM Institute on the Environment: Frontiers In The Environment, a series of presentations held in R350 Learning & Environmental Sciences Building. Information: http://environment.umn.edu/events/

On Being Conservative . . . And Liberal       Clifton Ware, Editor-Publisher 

We humans love labels because they help us to easily identify, describe, and size up people, especially in relation to belief systems or worldviews. I think you’ll agree that some belief systems are entangling humanity in multiple ongoing conflicts, as reported daily in the media. Our American socio-cultural-political system, like many others, is under assault by two principal constituencies promoting conflicting worldviews: conservatives and liberals, along with extreme subgroups usually identified as conservative fundamentalists and liberal secularists. As a result, it’s becoming increasingly more challenging for Americans to form a significant, moderate-oriented political constituency, which is essential for resolving differences by means of civil discourse and compromise. This becomes increasingly important as humanity faces multiple converging crises that call for the creation of greater resilience and sustainability throughout all areas of society.

(This longer-than-usual commentary continues below, at the end.)

ECONOMIC AND ENERGY NEWS-VIEWS

> Peak Prosperity: Inflation – Crash Course Chapter 11; How Much Is A Trillion? – Crash Course Chapter 12, and Debt – Crash Course Chapter 13. Continue learning about how economic concerns affect sustainability for individuals and societies. Free videos and transcripts.

> RT Question More: ‘Limits To Growth’ Vindicated: World Headed Towards Economic, Environmental Collapse. Recent research does not indicate that collapse of the world economy, environment and population is a certainty, nor that the future will unfold exactly as MIT researchers predicted in 1972. But these findings should sound an alarm bell, as it seems unlikely that the quest for ever-increasing growth cannot continue unchecked.

> Yes! A Wealthy Capitalist On Why Money Doesn’t Trickle Down. Nick Hanauer, venture capitalist and self-described “plutocrat,” says a healthy economy and an effective democracy depend on a thriving middle class of workers.

> Huffington Post: Oil Is Back! (Michael T. Klare). Despite what you may think, Americans, on average, are driving more miles every day, not fewer, filling ever more fuel tanks with ever more gasoline, and evidently feeling ever less bad about it.

> The Daly News: Three Limits to Growth (Herman Daly). As production (real GDP) grows, its marginal utility declines, because we satisfy our most important needs first. Likewise, the marginal disutility inflicted by growth increases, because as the economy expands into the ecosphere we sacrifice our least important ecological services first (to the extent we know them).

> The Guardian: Limits To Growth Was Right. New Research Shows We’re Nearing Collapse. The 1972 book Limits to Growth, which predicted our civilization would probably collapse some time this century, has been criticized as doomsday fantasy since it was published. Back in 2002, self-styled environmental expert Bjorn Lomborg consigned it to the “dustbin of history”.

> Resilience-Resource Insights: Are We On The Path Of ‘Limits To Growth’? (Kurt Cobb). What’s important about the Limits to Growth model is not any precise dates which we might get from running a scenario. What’s important are the markers described by the researchers as harbingers of limits. Those harbingers have begun to appear.

> The Archdruid Report: Dark Age America: The Cauldron of Nations (J. M. Greer). t’s one thing to suggest, as I did in last week’s post here, that North America a few centuries from now might have something like five per cent of its current population. It’s quite another thing to talk about exactly whose descendants will comprise that five per cent.

CLIMATE AND ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS-VIEWS

> Common Dreams: ‘Ferocious Love’ And The Climate Fight To Come. Activist and journalist Naomi Klein offers new book on capitalism, climate change, and the global grassroots movement that could ‘change everything’: “This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs The Climate”.

> Desmogblog:
What Does Climate Adaptation Actually Look Like?        A series of climate impact models includes numerous infographics, also looks at the capacity for various sectors to adapt to climate change and to contribute to greenhouse gas emissions reductions.

> The Guardian: Greenhouse Gas Emissions Rise At Fastest Rate For 30 Years. Concentrations of carbon dioxide, the major cause of global warming, increased at their fastest rate for 30 years in 2013, despite warnings from the world’s scientists of the need to cut emissions to halt temperature rises.

> Resource Insights: The More Uncertain We Are, The More Careful We Should Be (Kurt Cobb). As I suggested in last week’s piece, climate change is an obvious candidate for the precautionary principle because climate change involves the risk of systemic ruin.

MPR: Audubon Report Finds Climate Change ‘Spells Trouble’ For North American Birds. The six-year Audubon Society study of more than 500 North American bird species looks at how changing temperatures, extreme weather, rising sea levels and other effects of climate change will be pushing birds and their ranges around between now and the end of the century.

The Washington Post: Co2 Levels In Atmosphere Rising At Dramatically Faster Rate, U.N. Report Warns. Levels of heat-trapping carbon dioxide in the atmosphere rose at a record-shattering pace last year, a new report shows, a surge that surprised scientists and spurred fears of an accelerated warming of the planet in decades to come. 

> Yes! Climate Comeback: A Grassroots Movement Steps Back Into The International Arena. Three major international meetings about climate change are on the horizon. The common thread in the messages that are winning support is to connect the climate crisis to local, real issues of life, including how to survive the diminished and more dangerous planet we are leaving to future world citizens.

> Star Tribune: Economists Try To Calculate The Cost Of Climate Change.
The economic cost of greenhouse gas emissions is likely deeper than scholars have been estimating, and the costs are going to be borne unequally across the globe, according to research presented at a conference underway at the University of Minnesota.

> Smithsonian: Can The World Really Set Aside Half Of The Planet For Wildlife? The high point of biodiversity likely coincided with the moment modern humans left Africa and spread out across the globe 60,000 years ago. As people arrived, other species faltered and vanished, slowly at first and now with such acceleration that E.O. Wilson talks of a coming “biological holocaust,” the sixth mass extinction event, the only one caused not by some cataclysm but by a single species—us.

> KTAR News: New Study Finds The Southwest Might Be Facing ‘Megadrought’. A new study by The University of Arizona, Cornell University and the U.S. Geological Survey says the chances of a “megadrought” that runs 35 years or more ranges from 30 to 40 percent over the next century in the Grand Canyon State.

> Resilience: Ebola As A Game-Changer. Overpopulation, inequity, peak oil, and disturbed natural environment have converged with the problem of Ebola, to set up the conditions for a pandemic.

LOCAL, STATE, AND REGIONAL NEWS-VIEWS

> Star Tribune: U Unveils Strategy For ‘Grand Challenges‘ Of Climate Change …
Climate change and food safety would become two of the University of Minnesota’s top research priorities under a draft of a new strategic plan unveiled Friday by President Eric Kaler.

> Star Tribune: Economists Try To Calculate The Cost Of Climate Change.
The economic cost of greenhouse gas emissions is likely deeper than scholars have been estimating, and the costs are going to be borne unequally across the globe, according to research presented at a conference underway at the University of Minnesota.

> MPR: ‘Wilderness Has No Price’: Boundary Waters Fight, 50 Years Later. The Wilderness Act has protected 9 million acres of federal land–including 1million acres of the Boundary Waters, and helped cultivate an environmental movement that pushed to protect America’s last wild places. But it also ignited a huge battle over who should control Minnesota’s wilderness, as the emerging debate over proposed copper-nickel mines near the Boundary Waters illustrates.

SUSTAINABLE CHALLENGES, IDEAS AND PRACTICE

> Yahoo News: Investments In Clean Energy Pay Off. US energy companies have steadily increased investments in energy efficiency over the past five years – $7.2 billion in 2013 alone. They return $3 to $4 for every dollar spent.

> New Economics: Five Steps For A High Well-Being Society. It’s now eight years since David Cameron first declared that “it’s time we focused not just on GDP, but on GWB – general well-being” and in that time the UK has become a global leader by measuring national well-being – but we have yet to make the leap from measurement to action.

> The NY Times: For Some, ’Tis A Gift To Be Simple. For people who have not saved enough or have broken into their savings because of lost jobs and health crises, the findings offer a glimmer of hope. If you can cover basic expenses, pursuing inexpensive, everyday things that bring comfort and satisfaction can lead to happiness equal to jetting about on international trips in your 70s and 80s.

> Wall Street Journal: More Than Two-Thirds Of American Youth Wouldn’t Qualify For Service, Pentagon Says. More than two-thirds of America’s youth would fail to qualify for military service because of physical, behavioral or educational shortcomings.

> Shareable: New Urban Ag Study Touts Potential Of Small Cities. According to the UN, more than 50 percent of the world’s urban population lives in small and medium urban clusters. And an estimated two-thirds of global urban land is also in small to medium urban clusters. In short, more than half of the urban population is occupying about two-thirds of the urban land.

> Resilience: Voices And Reflections Of The Community Resilience And New Economy Movement. A growing worldwide movement aims to replace the default economy of excess, control, and exploitation with a new economy based on respecting biophysical constraints, preferring decentralization, and supporting mutuality.

On Being Conservative . . . And Liberal (Continued) Most citizens aspire to forming balanced, inclusive perspectives that contain a variable mix of conservative and progressive views. But extremists, right and left, those who rigidly hold uncompromising opinions and beliefs, stifle any search for truth or sane solutions by using irrational emotional rhetoric—no matter the amount of overwhelming substantial proof presented in clarifying controversial issues. For certain, if we humans wish to live sustainably—in managing a series of converging social, economic, political, and environmental crises—it will require making radical positive changes, in individuals and society. Many enlightened futurists claim that the path we are on today cannot lead to a prosperous future, but will most likely resemble a less materially prosperous scenario. However, if sane heads prevail, it’s possible we might find our way to a more prosperous future in terms of psycho-emotional and spiritual wellbeing. In seeking an understanding of the innate and cultivated differences observed in conservatives and liberals, we can begin with looking at recent brain research, which increasingly shows that conservative and liberal brains differ in various ways (http://2012election.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=004818)). Regarding the effects of genetic inheritance on people’s worldviews, the question arises: Why are most citizens in developing countries demonstrably conservative, as observed in some Arab-speaking countries, while most citizens in more highly developed countries are generally more liberal, as observed in northern European countries? The answer may be found in other brain research, which suggests that brains can be altered over time by socio-cultural conditionings (http://www.psychologicalscience.org/index.php/publications/observer/2011/may-june-11/the-mind-in-the-world-culture-and-the-brain.html). Perhaps the socio-cultural affect might explain why liberalism may be attributed to certain forms of nurturing, as found in cultures promoting more personal freedom and expression. It seems that socio-cultural groups that emphasize curiosity, critical thinking, and evidence-based reasoning tend to evolve toward a more liberal outlook and behavior. Recent brain research has also suggested that long periods spent in nurturing certain patterns of thought and behavior, as occurs in most cultural environments, may also alter the brain. If so, this lends credence to the power of education and supportive environments in shaping worldviews To some extent, it seems everyone has been brainwashed by their socio-cultural institutions, including beliefs and mores transmitted by family, church, and state. Unfortunately, many people rarely question the beliefs and practices bestowed on them throughout their entire lives. Indeed, some societies even discourage the questioning of traditions and beliefs. For me, adherence to a rigid belief system stifles personal freedom: the freedom to be curious, to think, to question, and to explore potential possibilities. As for my conservative side, I hold fast to the basic human values espoused by most conservatives, including the practice of ethical, moral behavior, as dictated by the Golden Rule. Based on the mayhem occurring worldwide, this universal guideline for human behavior is not always understood, respected, and heeded by all world citizens. Like most conservatives, I believe there are some things—socio-culturally, educationally, economically, and environmentally—that need conserving, with minimal changes. At the top of this list are all aspects of the natural environment, most of which are being negatively affected by increasing numbers of consuming humans. On my predominantly liberal side I embrace progressive values, mostly those associated with social reforms. As a youth and young adult nurtured with Methodism’s fervent social message, I was instilled with a belief in human equality and compassion for all living things. Also, I embrace the liberal belief in change—as long as it leads to positive outcomes, such as greater opportunities for nurturing growth and individual fulfillment for all creatures. Ironically, for reasons not fully understood, progressives seem to be more concerned with environmental issues, so perhaps they may be considered as environmental conservatives. This has not always been so, as epitomized by former president Teddy Roosevelt, a progressive Republican widely touted as an exemplary environmental activist. For everyone desiring to live more resiliently—and create a more sustainable future for coming generations—the primary task may well be discerning which conservative and liberal values deserve sustaining, and which ones should be discarded. Although some firmly held but unfounded beliefs might offer soothing comfort, we cannot afford to waste time and energy in justifying and maintaining them. Instead, I say we need to concentrate on promoting only those values that enhance the prospects for achieving substantial, long-term resilience and sustainability.

Clifton Ware, Editor —  Do We Green Activists ‘Walk The Talk’?

Here we go again, taking another trip, this time by auto to beautiful Colorado. We’re anticipating two weeks of inspirational activities, including teaching at three universities, sightseeing, and taking some day hikes.

      Every time we travel, we grow increasingly aware of the energy it takes for transportation, in addition to many other natural resources consumed along the way. Ironically, according to the prevailing economic paradigm, we’re actually helping the economy to grow, by supporting lots of people and businesses throughout our journey. What a dilemma for eco-conscious folk—to travel, or not to travel? Well, at least we’ll be carpooling, traveling in an eight-year old sedan (our only car) that gets somewhat better mileage than a Hummer. For sure, we’d like to be driving a more energy efficient vehicle, preferably a hybrid model, since our condo garage has no electrical outlets for charging EVs.

      Prompting this travel commentary is a recent timely blog by Eric Garza—“Activism and Integrity”. His thesis: “I believe activists have a lot to learn from effective mentors.” By this, he means people who walk their talk. As an example, Eric references environmental activist Bill McKibben’s recent article, We Want People to Change Their Minds, which is aimed at global warming skeptics’ attempts to undermine the work of climate activists, principally by labeling them hypocrites for consuming fossil carbon fuels to support their middle-class lifestyles.

      Although this criticism may be partially valid, I suspect that green activists use energy resources at lower levels than the majority of middle-class Americans. That being said, we all agree that recognition for the most sustainable worldwide population belongs to the poor, those who use fewer resources per person.

      Another living-by-example dilemma is revealed in how we green activists invest our hard-earned savings. Unfortunately, anyone who is invested in stocks, bonds, or commodities is most likely supporting some less-than-desirable companies. We find that walking our talk, with integrity, requires persistent, incremental self-evaluation and behavior modification—and it’s not easy!

      Eric summarizes the gist of his blog with these challenging comments:

“My goal is to invite people to look at the role integrity plays in activist pursuits, particularly those that ask people to change their behavior or to submit to legislative acts that seek to constrain it. How can activists expect to be taken seriously when they willfully behave in ways that run counter to the ideals they advocate?”

      Excellent advice. I encourage you to read Eric’s blog (Activism and Integrity)

      Note: The next issue of CFS News-Views Digest will be Sept. 19^th. We all need a break!

ECONOMIC AND ENERGY NEWS-VIEWS

> Common Dreams: ‘Unbalanced Recovery’: Wages Falling, Low-Paid Jobs Rising Across Us. While wages have declined across all sectors in the years following the financial crash of 2008, low-paid workers have been hit the hardest, the National Employment Law Project (NELP) reported this week.

TC Daily Planet: Tar Sands, Trade Rules And The Gutting Of Human Rights For Corporate Profit (Think Forward). An increasing number of people are beginning to realize that the term “free trade” denotes an extension of corporate rights and profits at the expense of sovereignty, labor and the environment. 

> Contraposition: The Energetic Basis Of Wealth. An old proposition of sustainability is that the material wealth we enjoy today in industrialized nations is based largely on our energy consumption. Take that away, and our vaunted industrial, intellectual, and entrepreneurial prowess will do little to sustain our material wealth. Can we base society’s wealth on what the sun provides us through plants?

> The Market Oracle: U.S. Housing Bull Market Over? House Prices Trend Forecast Current State. Despite U.S. house prices surging higher in July by 1.1% (May data)–after near flat lining for several months–the mainstream pundits continue to issue warnings of its unsustainability. As is always the case there are ample snippets of data out there to take either a positive or negative point of view, and since fear tends to sell more copy, that’s where most of the mainstream media’s focus lies.

> Think Progress: Income Inequality Costs The Middle Class $18,000 A Year. The 1 percent’s income grew 245 percent over three decades. The rest of us didn’t see much.

> The Archdruid Report: Dark Age America: The Population Implosion. The vast surge in human numbers that dominates the demographic history of modern times is wholly a phenomenon of the industrial age. Other historical periods have seen modest population increases, but nothing on the same scale, and those have reversed themselves promptly when ecological limits came into play.

> Our Finite World: Update On US Natural Gas, Coal, Nuclear, And Renewables. Politicians need to have a “solution” they can call an energy savior, but it is hard to see that renewables will play more than a small role. Biofuels seem to have “topped out” for now. Wind and solar PV are still growing, but it is hard to justify subsidies for them, as part of the electric grid system.

> Minnesota 2020: Invest Now Or Pay The Price Later.  Though the full extent of the risks we face with crumbling energy infrastructure is still up for debate, the overall picture is becoming clearer: we need to ramp up public and private investment at the national and state levels to modernize our energy infrastructure and bolster our energy system’s resilience to the impacts of climate change.

CLIMATE AND ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS-VIEWS

> Common Dreams: ‘Severe… Pervasive… Irreversible”: IPCC’s Devastating Climate Change Conclusions. Climate change is here. Climate change is now. Climate change will be significantly more dangerous, deadly, and expensive if nothing is done to correct humanity’s course, but aspects of future shifts are probably already irreversible.

> Climate Progress: Climate Scientists Spell Out Stark Danger And Immorality Of Inaction In New Leaked Report. The message from climate scientists about our ongoing failure to cut carbon pollution: The catastrophic changes in climate that we are voluntarily imposing on future generations cannot plausibly be undone for hundreds of years or more.

> Common Dreams: People’s Climate Mobilization: A Global Invitation. This September, world leaders are coming to New York City to talk about how to address the climate crisis. This is a crucial moment; we’re at a crossroads. We can and must change course by building a new economy through efforts to reconceive corporations and redefine economic progress.

> NY Times: U.N. Draft Report Lists Unchecked Emissions’ Risks. Runaway growth in the emission of greenhouse gases is swamping all political efforts to deal with the problem, raising the risk of “severe, pervasive and irreversible impacts” over the coming decades. Continued warming is likely to “slow down economic growth, make poverty reduction more difficult, further erode food security, and prolong existing poverty traps and create new ones.

> Washington Post: Why Our Brains Are Wired To Ignore Climate Change. George C. Marshall, founder of the Climate Outreach tank, has a new book release: “Don’t Even Think About It: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Ignore Climate Change.”

> Resilience-Resource Insights: Why Does Anyone Even Care About The Future? (Kurt Cobb) The events we imagine are placed in a time zone we call the future. The future is full of potential, but little else. It does not actually exist except as a construct in our minds. And, yet every politician, every businessperson, every human almost without exception is terribly concerned about the future, or at least, says so.

> EcoWatch: What The Anti-Fracking Movement Brings To The Climate Movement. It turns out that the same unfixable engineering problem that sets the table for contaminating our water also contaminates the atmosphere with climate-killing methane.

> E&E Publishing: Health Benefits Offset Costs Of Climate Policies. A Massachusetts Institute of Technology study found that health benefits offset between 26 and 1,050 percent of the cost of greenhouse gas reduction policies. Three different types of climate policies were studied: a clean-energy standard, a transportation policy targeting on-road vehicles and a cap-and-trade program.

> Alliance for Natural Health: GMOs: Respected Analyst Says They Could Destroy Life On The Planet. Top-down modifications to the system (through GMOs) are categorically and statistically different from bottom-up ones (regular farming, progressive tinkering with crops, etc.). There is no comparison between the tinkering of selective breeding and the top-down engineering of arbitrarily taking a gene from an organism and putting it into another.

> ENSIA: Unacceptable Levels. Today, chemicals comprise the backbone of our modern lifestyle and are the largest sector of our economy. We generate 300 billion pounds of synthetic chemicals each year in the U.S. alone, and an average American uses more than 1,500 pounds of chemical products.

LOCAL, STATE, AND REGIONAL NEWS-VIEWS

> Duluth News Tribune: Minnesota Engages Citizens On Climate Change. A 28-page catalog outlines what scientists believe is behind global climate change — namely human-caused greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide — and goes on to explain what everyday Minnesotans can do to make a difference. Download catalog: EQB Climate Change Communications.pdf

> TC Daily Planet: The Biggest Transit Show In Minnesota: The State Fair. Visitors to the MN State Fair leave their cars at home or in distant parking lots in order to take public transit to the fair grounds, where walking is the main mode of getting around.

> NY Times: Grain Piles Up, Waiting For A Ride, As Trains Move North ... The furious pace of energy exploration in North Dakota is creating a crisis for farmers whose grain shipments have been held up by a vast new movement of oil by rail, leading to millions of dollars in agricultural losses and slower production for breakfast cereal giants like General Mills.

MPR: Minnesota State Fair Aims To Be Zero-Waste Event. With all the food waste generated at the fair, there is great potential for more composting. Commercial composters can take everything from meat to dirty napkins and turn it into a rich mixture used for farming and landscaping. 

SUSTAINABLE CHALLENGES, IDEAS AND PRACTICES

> ENSIA: Zero Waste World. Forward-thinking companies are finding ways to take back, reuse, refurbish or recycle all kinds of things that would otherwise be thrown away. In contrast to the traditional “take-make-dispose” linear economy, which depletes resources, a circular economy is an industrial system that is restorative or regenerative by intention and design.

> MPR: Can We Solve America’s Food Waste Problem?  Roughly 40 percent of food in the U.S. today goes uneaten, according to a report from the Natural Resources Defense Council. That is more than 20 pounds of food per person every month.

> Resilience-Sustainable Food Trust: Living In The Green. The challenges of a farming family working a small farm often seem insurmountable.

> Dallas News: Here’s How To Reap Mental, Physical Rewards Of Gardening. Anyone who gardens regularly can tell you the psychological, physical and social benefits they gain from the experience. But research is beginning to confirm this, and gardening as a method for therapy is growing in popularity throughout the country.

> Resilience-A Carbon Pilgrim: Young Agrarians. The new agrarianism is first and foremost about living a life of positive energy and joy. Nature is the foundation of this joy, but so are the skills necessary to live a life. At its best the agrarian life is an integrated whole, with work and leisure mixed together, undertaken under healthful conditions and surrounded by family.

> Yes! Americans Spend $1.8 Billion On Eating Out Every Day (And 23 Other Facts You Should Probably Know). Meanwhile, more Americans got insured, the oceans continued to become more acidic, and the world’s largest collection of rubber ducks grew at a rapid pace.

> MinnPost: Commuting By Transit, Walking And Cycling Linked To Lower Weight And Less Body Fat. The public needs to be persuaded to leave their cars at home — for both health and environmental reasons — and that means politicians and other policymakers must implement laws and policies that give pedestrians, bicyclists and users of public transportation highest priority. 

> Oilprice: U.S. Warms To Clean Energy. A review of monthly figures for new installations of electric power capacity in July shows that renewable energy is quickly becoming the energy source of choice in the United States.

CFS SEPTEMBER EVENTS

> GROWING GROCERIES III WORKSHOP. Sat., Sept. 20, 1-2:45 p.m., SAV Community Center. UM Master Gardeners—Dawn Pape, Lynette Thompson, and Patrick Fischer. Register ($10; 612-706-1166)

> FORUM—Promoting Local Food Sources. Panel, UM Master Gardeners. Sat., Sept. 20, 3-5 p.m., SAV City Hall-Council Chambers. Business meeting follows, 4-5 p.m.

NOTABLE UPCOMING LOCAL EVENTS

> Minnesota Pollution Control Agency: Eco Experience: Minnesota Goes Green. “Best Attraction 2013”. Also, Renewing the Countryside: Healthy Local Foods Exhibit At MN State Fair.  Aug. 21-Sept. 1, MN State Fair, St. Paul; Info: http://www.ecoexperience.org; also webpage.

> MN350: March For Climate Progress At The MN State Fair, Sun., Aug. 31, 1-3 p.m. Sign up here. 

> SAV Chamber of Commerce: Touch-A-Truck. A fun, educational, “hands on” experience for kids of all ages! Saturday, September 13, 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., 39^th Ave NE, Silver Lake Village. Info: Tony Fragnito (tfragnito@lillienews.com; 651-748-7860), or Jan Fillmore (janfillmore@q.com; 612-788-1675).

> Sustainable Cities Institute: Midwest Convening On Climate Resilience, Sep. 21-23, Saint Paul Hotel – 350 Market St, St. Paul, MN. Register by August 31st >>

Are Sustainability Promoters a Happy Bunch?   Clif Ware, Editor

Kurt Cobb, an accomplished author, speaker, and columnist, writes a blog on sustainability. In his latest blog—“I’d be happier if I didn’t write this stuff!”—Kurt explains how he manages reading and writing about all of the negative news and views related to the series of converging crises humanity is increasingly facing.

As a way of explaining our human predicament, Kurt offers a turkey story. It seems that, although this turkey had enjoyed a safe, nurturing existence throughout its short life, it was unprepared for its sudden demise—soon after a human arrived with hatchet in hand.

The moral: perhaps it’s better to be ignorant about a situation over which one has no control. On the other hand, although a solitary turkey (or human) might be incapable of foreseeing a dreadful self-ending, a turkey (or human) may gain valuable life-saving insights in studying the history of other turkeys (or humans).

For example, history shows that civilizations typically cycle through stages of growth, stability, decline, and collapse, so perhaps we should heed history’s lessons. Where do you suppose we are on this historical cycle? Contrary to standard growth proponents, we’re most likely on the decline cycle. Time will tell.

In response to an email I sent Kurt thanking him for his blog, he responded with this comment, which serves to encapsulate the essential message of this latest blog:

“Attempts to convey the big picture to others are often difficult, but necessary work. We live inside systems we don’t fully understand. To engender respect for those systems is one of our highest priorities.  Not everyone needs to understand the big picture completely. But it is helpful to understand at least the outlines in order to place one’s personal efforts into a larger context, to see one’s relationship to the broader sustainability community worldwide, and most important, to coordinate our efforts.”

In winding down my comments—so you can read Cobb’s blog (Resource Insights)—I’d like to suggest that maybe a life goal isn’t necessarily to be happy, but rather to be content, fully satisfied that one is doing the right thing in becoming an informed citizen who actively promotes sustainability. Those who fail to act responsibly—and that’s the majority of humankind—will simply be getting a free ride, thanks to those who are concerned and taking constructive measures.

Other links of special interest that I highly recommend are Chris Martenson’s A Brief History Of US Money: The Fed – Crash Course Chapter 9 and Gail Tverberg’s Energy And The Economy – Twelve Basic Principles. The latter article provides a concise overview of energy and economy connections.

ECONOMIC AND ENERGY NEWS-VIEWS

> Peak Prosperity: A Brief History Of US Money: The Fed – Crash Course Chapter 9.  Looking at the past 100 years of the US dollar’s history, one theme becomes abundantly clear: in times of crisis, the US government has no issue with changing its own rules or breaking its own laws. And those “temporary” emergency measures have a nasty habit of quickly becoming permanent.

> Our Finite World: Energy And The Economy – Twelve Basic Principles. There is a standard view of energy and the economy, briefly summarized as follows: Economic growth can continue forever; we will learn to use less energy supplies; energy prices will rise; and the world will adapt. A different view of how energy and the economy fit together is based on the principle of reaching limits in a finite world.

> Resource Crisis: Peak Mileage And The Diminishing Returns Of Technology.  Oil depletion is destined to make oil less and less affordable, even though market oscillations may hide this phenomenon. Wages are unlikely to grow in real terms after having been static for the past 40 years. And technological miracles are unlikely.

> Bloomberg: Solar Boom Driving First Global Panel Shortage Since 2006. The solar industry is facing a looming shortage of photovoltaic panels, reversing a two-year slump triggered by a global glut. Installations expected to swell as much as 29 percent this year.

> LA Times: 36% Of Adults Lack Retirement Savings, Including Many 65 Or Older. More than a third of American adults have no retirement savings, and 14% of those ages 65 and older also haven’t put money away yet, according to a new study.

> Market Watch: Your Paycheck Has Been Shrinking For 5 Years. Since the Great Recession ended five years ago, the amount of money Americans earn each hour after adjusting for inflation has actually fallen, largely explains why the U.S. economy is growing less than two-thirds as fast as it normally does.

> Economy and Markets Daily: The U.S. Economic Collapse Will Trigger A Revolution. When the next economic collapse comes, and it’s inevitable, the revolution against the upper class will kick into higher gear! Instead of peaking in 2007, as it should have, the rich have continued to prosper while everyday people have stagnated or declined.

CLIMATE AND ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS-VIEWS

> Common Dreams: Keystone Xl’s Climate Impact Worse Than Thought: Study.The emissions generated as a result of the pipeline could be as much as four times greater than the State Department indicated in its Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) of the project.

> Climate Central: Expanding Existing Farmland Would Benefit Climate. A new study shows by expanding agriculture on the edges of regions that are already heavily farmed and confining new farming to specific areas across the globe, about 6 billion tons of carbon can be saved worldwide and 350 million tons in the U.S.

> MPR: Groups To EPA: Stop Muzzling Science Advisers. Journalist and scientific organizations accused the Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday of attempting to muzzle its independent scientific advisers by directing them to funnel all outside requests for information through agency officials.

> Resilience-World Watch Institute: Does Ecoliteracy Prevent Environmental Action?: State Of The World 2014. The existing ecological literacy, or “ecoliteracy,” model of simply addressing the knowledge deficit, rather than addressing the real issue of the behavior deficit, has tended to yield highly knowledgeable individuals who, despite their understanding, often fail to take action.

> The Guardian: Global Warming Is Moistening The Atmosphere. In a recent study the authors show that the long-term increase in water vapor in the upper troposphere cannot have resulted from natural causes – it is clearly human caused.

> The Guardian: Earth Sliding Into ‘Ecological Debt’ Earlier And Earlier, Campaigners Warn. The Global Footprint Network, which calculates earth overshoot day, said it would currently take 1.5 Earths to produce the renewable natural resources needed to support human requirements.

> ENSIA: Ecosystems Are Not Machines. If we want to save the world, we need to treat nature more as an organism and less as disposable and replaceable technology.

> Common Dreams: Towards A New Co-Existence: On Reframing Our Ecological Crises. Co-existence may sound trite to some, a bumper-sticker concept. It involves seeing oneself as one part of a system in which all the interconnected aspects are essential and valued. One aspect is not dominating the system and hogging all the resources.

> PhysOrg: Water Scarcity And Climate Change Through 2095. Future water scarcity may pose a significant challenge to our ability to adapt to or mitigate climate change. Without any climate policy to curb carbon emissions, half the world will be living under extreme water scarcity.

LOCAL, STATE, AND REGIONAL NEWS-VIEWS

> MPR: Good Buzz: U Researchers Find Hope In The Thriving Urban Bee.  Bee colonies are dying off in alarming number locally and nationwide, but hives on the rooftop of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts are doing very well.

> Twin Cities Daily Planet: Loon Commons: Saving Minnesota’s Grasslands: Conservation, Cattle And Community. Plans are underway to reintroduce cattle into grasslands to help restore them to their natural, long-term conditions. A collaborative community effort is sought to appease various interests, including farmers, hunters, and environmentalists.

> Minnpost: Letter: Minnesota Could Be A Solar Leader If We Move Forward With Smart Policies. Solar is quickly becoming competitive with options like natural gas, and it creates 91 percent less global warming pollution over its lifetime, according the Environment Minnesota’s new report called “Lighting the Way.”

> Reuters: After 23 Million Rides, No Deaths In U.S. Bike Share Programs. Not a single rider in New York City’s bike share program has been killed since it launched in May 2013, a Citi Bike representative said. This safety record is largely due to the bike’s design, construction and speed limitations, creating a safety net that cyclists riding standard bikes don’t experience.

> Minnesota 2020: Minnesota’s Flooding & The EPA’s Flood Resilience Checklist. Earlier this month, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a new set of recommendations and planning guides to help communities improve their flood resilience. Check them out. 

SUSTAINABLE CHALLENGES, IDEAS AND PRACTICES

> Shareable: You Did This! The Birth Of The Sharing Cities Network. The Sharing Cities Network is a grassroots network of communities from around the world that are want to live happier, healthier, and more sustainably by sharing resources and knowledge. Watch the 6” video for an overview.

> Yes! How America’s Largest Worker Owned Co-Op Lifts People Out Of Poverty. By spreading risk and pooling resources, co-ops offer people with little individual wealth a way to start their own businesses and build assets. That said, if starting and sustaining a successful cooperative business were easy, there would probably be more of them.

> Minnesota 2020: Bike Sharing and Safety. It was reported this week that not one person in United States has died pedaling a bike share bike. That’s in 36 cities and an estimated 23 million rides. So while biking instead of driving can make you more physically fit, it also increases your chances of staying healthy and whole, especially on a shared bike.

> ENSIA: Infographic–Can Insects Feed a Hungry Planet? 2 billion world citizens eat insects, largely beetles. Can we? Read more...

> Shareable: Can Walkable Urbanism Boost the Economy? Foot Traffic Ahead convincingly demonstrates that, in many localities, “walkable urban” has replaced “drivable suburban” as the development model of choice for business owners, office workers, and shoppers. Yet it also makes clear that the end of sprawl is far from guaranteed.

>Transition US: Unlikely Suspects – Deep Outreach: Resilience For Whom, And To What End? – “Transitioning For All”. Transitioners must address how resource depletion and climate change will affect various groups, how re-localization may be applicable to everyone, and why some people are more adaptable than others.

> UM Institute on the Environment: Focusing Ag Expansion Can Save Billions Of Tons Of Carbon. A U of MN study found that limiting agricultural expansion to several key global regions could meet the predicted need to double food production by 2050 while preserving nearly 6 billion metric tons more carbon than would be safeguarded with unguided expansion.

CFS UPCOMING EVENTS

> SUSTAINABILITY BOOK CLUB: Sat. Aug. 23, 3-5 p.m., St. Anthony Village Library (SAV Shopping Center). Books: Decline and Fall: The End of Empire (John Michael Greer; The Five Stages of Collapse: Survivor’s Toolkit (Dmitry Orlov). Open to public.

> GROWING GROCERIES III WORKSHOP. Sat., Sept. 20, 1-4 p.m., SAV Community Center -City Council Chambers. UM Master Gardeners—Dawn Pape, Lynette Thompson, and Patrick Fischer. Register ($10; 612-706-1166)

NOTABLE UPCOMING LOCAL EVENTS

> Minnesota Pollution Control Agency: Eco Experience: Minnesota Goes Green. “Best Attraction 2013”. Also, Renewing the Countryside: Healthy Local Foods Exhibit at MN State Fair.  Aug. 21-Sept. 1, MN State Fair, St. Paul; Info: http://www.ecoexperience.org.

> Alliance for Sustainability- AfroEco: Cooperative Solutions: A Convergence For A Just And Sustainable Economy. Sat., Aug. 23, 9am-6pm, Laura Jeffrey Academy, 1550 Summit Ave, St Paul, MN. Registration

> SAV Chamber of Commerce: Touch-A-Truck. A fun, educational, “hands on” experience for kids of all ages! Saturday, September 13, 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., 39^th Ave NE, Silver Lake Village. Info: Tony Fragnito (tfragnito@lillienews.com; 651-748-7860), or Jan Fillmore (janfillmore@q.com; 612-788-1675).

> Sustainable Cities Institute: Midwest Convening On Climate Resilience, Sep. 21-23, Saint Paul Hotel – 350 Market St, St. Paul, MN. Register by August 31st >>