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101 Solutions to Global Warming (New Society $24.95)
To paraphrase Dickens, it is the best of times and the worst of times.
With the advent of Skype, we can talk face to face, with someone on the other side of the planet, for free.
But our species must simultaneously consider its extinction as the result of burning fossil fuels and destroying the tropical rainforest.
If Canadians were all rationalists like Spock, there would have been a Green majority in Ottawa by now. But evidently precious few Canadians-less than 15%-agree with California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger who said, "I say the debate is over. We know the science, we see the threat, the time for action is now.";
We know the science, we see the threat, and we keep driving our minivans.
So somebody has to speak for the planet. That's why environmental lynchpins like David Suzuki or Guy Dauncey, president of the BC Sustainable Energy Association, are essential in the fight to confront global warming. They can place our collective predicament in clear and palatable scientific terms. And at the same time they are able to act as cheerleaders for change. They do the math; they show the path.
According to Dauncey's 101 Solutions to Global Warming (New Society $24.95), the human species began about five million years ago and the adventure we call modern science only began 500 years ago-one ten-thousandth of that time. We retain stone age brains in the space age.
"We are inside a bubble of time, so it is difficult to ponder the existence of humans 500 years in the future, let alone a million years, but ask your friends what they think will be the condition of humanity in 500 years, and then in a million years.
"I wager that most will respond with pessimism, suggesting that we will be extinct if not by the former, then certainly by the latter date. Yet a million years is only a tiny 0.028% additional fragment of the time since life began.";
Dauncey proceeds to argue that the single most important factor that will determine whether we navigate the rapids of global warming successfully will be whether we view the future as an inevitable disaster-as retribution for human greed and ignorance-or as an exciting invitation "to embark on a new adventure into a climate-friendly, ecologically harmonious world.";
It sounds like it could be a new Star Trek series-with Spock at the controls instead of Kirk-a fight to the death to save the world, the ultimate pitched battle between the optimists and the pessimists.
"We do not lack for solutions,"; says Dauncey. "If we put our minds to it, there is no reason to believe we cannot succeed.";
To put his mind where his mantra is, Dauncey begins with 75 remarkably readable pages that summarize the ecological problems that we collectively face. Then he switches to a litany of 101 solutions for families, farmers, communities, businesses, the financial sector, transportation and even evangelists.
What kind of car would Jesus drive? This question, believe it or not, is being seriously raised by Born-Agains. And you probably did not know there are 80,000 apartments in Stockholm being heated with biogas from the city's sewage works. The cars and buses in Kristianstad, Sweden, have been running on sewage biogas, mixed with organic wastes, for $1 per gallon (in 2002).
Sewage, according to one expert, contains ten times the energy needed to treat it. Closer to home, engineer Stephen Salter has calculated Victoria's sewage contains enough energy to provide pure biodiesel for 200 buses and 5,000 cars, heat 3,500 homes, or generate electricity for 2,500 homes. Kelowna already uses heat pumps to extract heat from its wastewater treatment plant, a technology that has been introduced to Whistler.
There is no shortage of inspiring individuals like 15-year-old Malkom Boothroyd who completed three years of schooling in two years, subsequently persuading his parents to accompany him on a 10,000-mile bicycle ride from the Yukon to Florida to publicize the need for bird conservation.
Arrested 15 times for non-violent civil disobedience to promote climate concerns, Ted Glick fasted for 107 days, surviving on liquids only, as part of a campaign to get environmental legislation passed.
Felix Kramer founded non-profit CalCars in 2002 and then worked with a team to convert a Toyota Prius into a Plug-In Hybrid that gets more than 100 mpg, provoking major change in the world's motor industry.
Now even some of the big corporations are playing catch-up to these heroes of personal initiative. Nike has found a way to eliminate AF6, a greenhouse gas, from the process they use to create air pockets in running shoes. A software company called Hyperion pays a $5,000 per year bonus to employees whose vehicles average 45 mpg or better.
Thanks largely to the spearheading of Chris and Judith Plant, who founded the company that has published Dauncey's book, most Canadian publishers-including big guys like Random House which will allegedly increase its use of recycled paper from 3% to 30% in 2010-are inspired and intimidated by New Society's formerly radical decision to switch entirely to post-consumer recycled paper.
"As a species, we may be stubborn, stupid and proud,"; Dauncey says, "but we are also intelligent, creative and courageous, and we love a challenge.";
9780865715899
[BCBW 2009]
With the advent of Skype, we can talk face to face, with someone on the other side of the planet, for free.
But our species must simultaneously consider its extinction as the result of burning fossil fuels and destroying the tropical rainforest.
If Canadians were all rationalists like Spock, there would have been a Green majority in Ottawa by now. But evidently precious few Canadians-less than 15%-agree with California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger who said, "I say the debate is over. We know the science, we see the threat, the time for action is now.";
We know the science, we see the threat, and we keep driving our minivans.
So somebody has to speak for the planet. That's why environmental lynchpins like David Suzuki or Guy Dauncey, president of the BC Sustainable Energy Association, are essential in the fight to confront global warming. They can place our collective predicament in clear and palatable scientific terms. And at the same time they are able to act as cheerleaders for change. They do the math; they show the path.
According to Dauncey's 101 Solutions to Global Warming (New Society $24.95), the human species began about five million years ago and the adventure we call modern science only began 500 years ago-one ten-thousandth of that time. We retain stone age brains in the space age.
"We are inside a bubble of time, so it is difficult to ponder the existence of humans 500 years in the future, let alone a million years, but ask your friends what they think will be the condition of humanity in 500 years, and then in a million years.
"I wager that most will respond with pessimism, suggesting that we will be extinct if not by the former, then certainly by the latter date. Yet a million years is only a tiny 0.028% additional fragment of the time since life began.";
Dauncey proceeds to argue that the single most important factor that will determine whether we navigate the rapids of global warming successfully will be whether we view the future as an inevitable disaster-as retribution for human greed and ignorance-or as an exciting invitation "to embark on a new adventure into a climate-friendly, ecologically harmonious world.";
It sounds like it could be a new Star Trek series-with Spock at the controls instead of Kirk-a fight to the death to save the world, the ultimate pitched battle between the optimists and the pessimists.
"We do not lack for solutions,"; says Dauncey. "If we put our minds to it, there is no reason to believe we cannot succeed.";
To put his mind where his mantra is, Dauncey begins with 75 remarkably readable pages that summarize the ecological problems that we collectively face. Then he switches to a litany of 101 solutions for families, farmers, communities, businesses, the financial sector, transportation and even evangelists.
What kind of car would Jesus drive? This question, believe it or not, is being seriously raised by Born-Agains. And you probably did not know there are 80,000 apartments in Stockholm being heated with biogas from the city's sewage works. The cars and buses in Kristianstad, Sweden, have been running on sewage biogas, mixed with organic wastes, for $1 per gallon (in 2002).
Sewage, according to one expert, contains ten times the energy needed to treat it. Closer to home, engineer Stephen Salter has calculated Victoria's sewage contains enough energy to provide pure biodiesel for 200 buses and 5,000 cars, heat 3,500 homes, or generate electricity for 2,500 homes. Kelowna already uses heat pumps to extract heat from its wastewater treatment plant, a technology that has been introduced to Whistler.
There is no shortage of inspiring individuals like 15-year-old Malkom Boothroyd who completed three years of schooling in two years, subsequently persuading his parents to accompany him on a 10,000-mile bicycle ride from the Yukon to Florida to publicize the need for bird conservation.
Arrested 15 times for non-violent civil disobedience to promote climate concerns, Ted Glick fasted for 107 days, surviving on liquids only, as part of a campaign to get environmental legislation passed.
Felix Kramer founded non-profit CalCars in 2002 and then worked with a team to convert a Toyota Prius into a Plug-In Hybrid that gets more than 100 mpg, provoking major change in the world's motor industry.
Now even some of the big corporations are playing catch-up to these heroes of personal initiative. Nike has found a way to eliminate AF6, a greenhouse gas, from the process they use to create air pockets in running shoes. A software company called Hyperion pays a $5,000 per year bonus to employees whose vehicles average 45 mpg or better.
Thanks largely to the spearheading of Chris and Judith Plant, who founded the company that has published Dauncey's book, most Canadian publishers-including big guys like Random House which will allegedly increase its use of recycled paper from 3% to 30% in 2010-are inspired and intimidated by New Society's formerly radical decision to switch entirely to post-consumer recycled paper.
"As a species, we may be stubborn, stupid and proud,"; Dauncey says, "but we are also intelligent, creative and courageous, and we love a challenge.";
9780865715899
[BCBW 2009]
Submitted on November 16, 2009 in By David.
