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Al Gore, Clean Energy and A Better Nation
Alex Steffen, WorldChanging
Normally, I try to think in planetary terms and avoid parochial nationalism, so it’s somewhat ironic that today a global perspective actually leads me to believe that what happens in America over the next 18 months is the most important global uncertainty we face. As we choose how to confront a host of planetary problems — especially climate change — will we have an America that leads or drags?
Al Gore stood up and showed what an America determined to lead would look like last week when he delivered a sharp speech calling for a bold policy — the complete conversion of our electrical supply to renewable sources within ten years:
… “We need to make a big, massive, one-off investment to transform our energy infrastructure,” Gore told a reporter. That’s true.
But it’s only part of the truth: that we need a series of parallel “big, massive, one-off investments.” The problems we face will not be solved with one big effort, even a big effort on the scale of the lunar landings or the War on Poverty. The problems we face will only be solved by a wholesale transformation of many interlocking systems at once — a transformation that aims to overcome many problems at once.
Do we need wind farms and solar arrays? Yes! But we also need to redesign our cities, so that we’re able to grow green, dense, walkable communities that let us change our transportation systems, redefine our architectural practices and recreate our infrastructure.
We need revolutions in farming, fishing and forestry, one that makes sure that the food we eat, the clothes we wear and the materials we use are healthy and sustainable — and we need better stewardship of the public lands and waters we all rely on.
(21 July 2008)
UK needs ‘Green New Deal’ to tackle ‘triple crunch’ of credit, oil price and climate crises
new economics foundation
On the first anniversary of Northern Rock falsely reassuring markets, and 75 years since President Roosevelt launched a New Deal to rescue the US from financial crisis, a new group of experts in finance, energy and the environment have come together to propose a ‘Green New Deal’ for the UK.
And, as the Green New Deal Group launch their proposals, new analysis suggests that from the end of July 2008 there is only 100 months, or less, to stabilise concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere before we hit a potential point of no return.
The Green New Deal is a response to the credit crunch and wider energy and food crises, and to the lack of comprehensive, joined-up action from politicians.
It calls for:
Massive investment in renewable energy and wider environmental transformation in the UK, leading to,
- The creation of thousands of new green collar jobs
- Reining in reckless aspects of the finance sector – but making low-cost capital available to fund the UK’s green economic shift
- Building a new alliance between environmentalists, industry, agriculture, and unions to put the interests of the real economy ahead of those of footloose finance
The global economy is facing a ‘triple crunch’: a combination of a credit-fuelled financial crisis, accelerating climate change and soaring energy prices underpinned by encroaching peak oil. It is increasingly clear that these three overlapping events threaten to develop into a perfect storm, the like of which has not been seen since the Great Depression, with potentially devastating consequences.
As in past times of crises, disparate groups have come together to propose a new solution to an epochal challenge. The Green New Deal Group, drawing inspiration from the tone of President Roosevelt’s comprehensive response to the Great Depression, propose a modernised version, a ‘Green New Deal’ designed to power a renewables revolution, create thousands of green-collar jobs and rein in the distorting power of the finance sector while making more low-cost capital available for pressing priorities.
(21 July 2008)
Trying to Build a Greener Britain, Home by Home
Elisabeth Rosenthal, New York Times
HOVE, England — When Jeffrey Marchant and his wife, Brenda, power up their computer, turn on a light or put the kettle on to boil, they can just about watch their electric bill rise.
A small box hanging on the wall across from the vase of flowers in the front hall of their tidy Victorian home displays a continuous digital readout of their electricity use and tells them immediately how much it will cost, helping them save energy.
Turn on a computer and the device — a type of so-called smart meter — goes from 300 watts to 400 watts. Turn off a light and it goes from 299 to 215. At 500, the meter is set to sound an alarm…
…The British government is debating a plan to put some version of smart metering on all 46 million gas and electricity meters in the country’s homes.
In an era when movie stars build $5 million eco-mansions, families here have made their old Victorian houses eco-friendly, too…
(20 July 2008)
Peak Energy
And What That Means For Food
Aaron Newton, Groovy Green
The following is a peak energy introduction written with Sharon Astyk for our forthcoming book, “A Nation of Farmers: Defeating the Food Crisis on American Soil,” to be published in the Spring of 2009 by New Society Publishers. This excerpt will be a review for those who follow her site and mine but might be interesting to those who have only recently become agitated by $4/gallon gas and who want to learn more. It’s very important that those of us comfortable with this topic help to shape the emerging conversation as one of opportunity not tragedy.
No doubt this will mean doing things differently now and in our future but all is not gloom and doom. The rising cost of energy could be an opportunity to address big problems- a catalyst for positive change. With that in mind we must frame this not as ‘the end of the world’ but as the beginning of something better.
(21 July 2008)
