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Peter W. Bardaglio
Peter W. Bardaglio is a senior advisor at Second Nature and author of numerous works on sustainability and social entrepreneurship, including Boldly Sustainable: Hope and Opportunity for Higher Education in the Age of Climate Change. Coordinator of the Tompkins County Climate Protection Initiative (TCCPI), a regional climate protection initiative in the Ithaca, NY area, he is also president of Black Oak Wind Farm, LLC and Seneca Strategic Consulting, LLC.
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Rebooting the Future
Earth Day and the Fossil Fuel Regime
I wrote the following short commentary for the March-April 2013 issue of the TCCPI Newsletter:
It's no little irony that at the same time we recommit to becoming better stewards of our life support system otherwise known as "the environment," we are faced with the dilemma of how to respond to the news that Cayuga Power Plant is seeking to shift from coal to natural gas. While many are touting natural gas as a cleaner burning alternative to coal, recent reports coming out of Cornell University and elsewhere suggest that the methane emissions released during the life cycle of natural gas production and distribution, not just combustion, make it as dirty or perhaps even dirtier than coal.
So what to do? Cayuga Power Plant supplies over 300 megawatts of electricity to the grid and is not easily replaced. It also is a key source of property taxes for both the town of Lansing and Tompkins County. Shutting it down would have a major impact on the area's economy.
There is no easy answer and there will be huge trade offs regardless of what course we take. If nothing else, the Cayuga Power Plant stands as a stark reminder of just how deeply embedded we are in the fossil fuel regime and just how difficult it will be extricate ourselves from it.
The debate over how to move forward has the potential to be a crucial teachable moment in the life of our community, reminding us that there are always consequences to our decisions, whether conscious or unconscious, intentional or unintentional. Perhaps one of the best ways we can observe this year's Earth Day is to recognize there are no easy answers, only complexities and challenges that we must confront and work our way through.
Renewable Energy, Fossil Fuels, and Government Subsidies: The Real Story
This is a revised and expanded version of a commentary first published in the October-November 2012 issue of the TCCPI Newsletter.
If there's one thing that gets under my skin fast, it's somebody who should know better spouting something along these lines: "Renewable energy is too dependent on government subsidies and can't compete on its own with fossil fuels. The government should stop trying to pick winners and losers." I just had a run-in the other day with someone who said almost exactly these words. The conversation did not go well.
If there's one thing that gets under my skin fast, it's somebody who should know better spouting something along these lines: "Renewable energy is too dependent on government subsidies and can't compete on its own with fossil fuels. The government should stop trying to pick winners and losers." I just had a run-in the other day with someone who said almost exactly these words. The conversation did not go well.
What drives me crazy is not the notion that government subsidies are a bad idea, it's that many people believe oil, coal, and natural gas companies stand on their own without any government
help. It's the same kind of deep rooted mythology that leads folks to insist that there is a "free market" in health care.
help. It's the same kind of deep rooted mythology that leads folks to insist that there is a "free market" in health care.How does this kind of misinformation persist in the face of study after study that shows the fossil fuel industry receives far more support from the government than wind or solar? It's simple: people believe what they want to believe no matter how much evidence to the contrary is piled up right in front of them.
That doesn't mean that we shouldn't at least try to get our facts straight, though. So here we go.
According to a 2010 Environmental Law Institute report, the U.S. government provided $72 billion between 2002 and 2008 to the fossil fuel industry. About $54 billion of that total took the form of permanent tax credits for oil, coal, and natural gas producers. During that same period, the renewable energy industry received only $29 billion, most of it also in the form of federal tax credits. The difference is that none of the renewable energy tax credits are permanent.
And that's just the beginning of how the scales are tipped in favor of oil, coal, and natural gas. As David Roberts writes in Grist, "Comparisons of direct subsidies capture only the tip of a giant iceberg - most of fossil fuels' big advantages are invisible, beneath the surface, and entirely taken for granted." Even a quick glance at the indirect subsidies makes clear how uneven the playing field is. External costs such as the public health toll paid for air and water pollution and the national security price of maintaining our addiction to oil amount to trillions of dollars.
Then there are the costs of climate change as superstorms such as Sandy become more frequent and violent. The New York Times pegs the damage from Sandy at $82 billion. That's just about the total cost of the renewable energy and fossil fuel federal subsidies from 2002 to 2008. And let's not forget the enormous sunk costs of an infrastructure built on the assumption of cheap fossil energy: highways, suburbs, airports, and the like.
In Roberts's words, shifting "from fossil fuels to renewable energy is not like going from Coke to Pepsi; it is to build a new world." Not even Nate Silver, as good as he is, can tell us how long this new world will take to build and whether we will get far enough along in time to stave off runaway climate change.
But one thing we should be clear about: it's long past the time to get started, and a national energy policy geared towards this future is an essential first step. China has just announced that it will be implementing a carbon tax to begin weaning its economy off of fossil fuels. Australia, India, Japan, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, and Sweden have already put one in place. When will the U.S. finally get on board with the only real chance we have to avoid catastrophic climate disruption?
Climate Change and the Divestment Movement
Thanks to the efforts of Bill McKibben's "Do the Math Tour," the Responsible Endowments Coalition, and others, the push for divestment on the part of universities and colleges from the fossil fuel industry, and the redirection of those investments into socially responsible and environmentally sustainable businesses, including those in the local community, is gaining traction throughout the country.
Trustees who oversee college and university endowments investments that total about $400 billion
in the U.S. need to be held accountable for the damage their oil, gas, and coal investments are inflicting on the rest of society. How can any higher education institution consider itself sustainable when it has committed millions of dollars to the very activities that its own scientists have found to be the leading contributors to climate destabilization?
in the U.S. need to be held accountable for the damage their oil, gas, and coal investments are inflicting on the rest of society. How can any higher education institution consider itself sustainable when it has committed millions of dollars to the very activities that its own scientists have found to be the leading contributors to climate destabilization?
Already, two higher education institutions, Hampshire College and Unity College, have decided to pull their investments out from fossil fuel companies. Students at Middleburgy College, Harvard University, Cornell University, Ithaca College, the Claremont Colleges, and dozens of other institutions are mounting significant efforts.
We all know that a clear, predictable, and fair national energy policy encouraging investment in energy efficiency and renewable energy is the key to any real, viable solution to avoiding runaway climate change. If this is the case, then why does the overwhelming bulk of our federal tax dollars go to subsidizing the oil, coal, and gas industries and not clean energy? Why are the tax credits that support the fossil fuel industry permanent and unchallengeable? Why are the tax credits that support renewable energy temporary and constantly up for grabs?
The answer to these questions is obvious: the fossil fuel regime in this country has a stranglehold on political power unmatched in the rest of the industrialized world. This is the reason why the U.S. is the only developed nation whose conservative political party engages in mass climate change denialism.
If colleges and universities want to take a leadership role on the issues of sustainability and climate protection, how can they do so effectively without supporting a more sensible energy policy, one that will help us avoid climate catastrophe? How can they advocate for a more sensible energy policy if they don't put their money where their mouth is? In other words, until higher education demonstrates that it's willing to directly invest its own considerable financial resources in an alternative clean energy regime, its credibility in calling for a new energy policy will be open to attack.
I have two main sources of hope. First, it will be the students, not sustainability officers, presidents, or trustees, who drive the real change. It's their future and they know how deeply at risk it is. They also are becoming increasingly aware of how deeply the colleges and universities they attend are involved in propping up the fossil fuel regime, and they are organizing to do something about it. "Our complicity in sources of violence and environmental destruction has on-the-ground implications every day," Middlebury students recently declared. "Heavy investment in the fossil fuel giants of our world has implications for climate change, human health, and the environment that reach far beyond Middlebury."
My other main source of hope, oddly enough, is the market. Regardless of which political party is in power, for example, it will only be a matter of time before solar reaches grid parity, the point at which electricity generated by solar is as cheap as or cheaper than electricity generated by fossil fuel or nuclear power. In fact, General Electric -- yes, that's right, General Electric -- claims that due to falling PV prices and increasing efficiency this point could be reached in the U.S. in as little as five years. And that's without any subsidies whatsoever or, for that matter, any leadership from higher ed. Wouldn't it be a lot better for the long term credibility and relevance of colleges and universities to get on the right side of history and exercise their influence to help accelerate the transition to a clean energy economy and stave off runaway climate change? We all know the next five years are critical, and the faster we move towards a more efficient, greener energy regime, the better off we all will be. Why shouldn't higher education make achieving this new order its top priority?
My other main source of hope, oddly enough, is the market. Regardless of which political party is in power, for example, it will only be a matter of time before solar reaches grid parity, the point at which electricity generated by solar is as cheap as or cheaper than electricity generated by fossil fuel or nuclear power. In fact, General Electric -- yes, that's right, General Electric -- claims that due to falling PV prices and increasing efficiency this point could be reached in the U.S. in as little as five years. And that's without any subsidies whatsoever or, for that matter, any leadership from higher ed. Wouldn't it be a lot better for the long term credibility and relevance of colleges and universities to get on the right side of history and exercise their influence to help accelerate the transition to a clean energy economy and stave off runaway climate change? We all know the next five years are critical, and the faster we move towards a more efficient, greener energy regime, the better off we all will be. Why shouldn't higher education make achieving this new order its top priority?
Slavery, Freedom, and the American Story
I wrote this piece about racial justice and the meaning of the Fourth of July nearly 20 years ago for the Baltimore Sun, when I was a history professor at Goucher College. The original article can be found here. In many ways, the roots of our difficulties regarding the creation of a sustainable society go back to the nation's founding belief that people could be treated as commodities to be bought and sold, a belief that reinforced the notion that the biosphere could be dealt with in the same way.
Of course, the tradition itself was not all that pure. Not only was Mount Vernon the residence of our country's first president; it was also a plantation on which several hundred slaves lived and died. As much as any one place, it embodied the ambiguity and complexity of the circumstances that gave birth to the United States and that fueled its economic and geographic expansion. When the Civil War broke out, the land that saw itself as a shining beacon of liberty was also the largest slave-holding country in the world.
Whether or not we want to admit it, it is the historical fate of Americans to live in a society where slavery and freedom developed hand in hand. Indeed, it can be argued that the enslavement of African-Americans made possible the freedom of whites, and that whites had before them the massive numbers of blacks in bondage to remind them of the precious character of their liberty.
Part of what made the Civil War such a profound upheaval was that during the conflict slavery and freedom finally became disentangled. Not that Northerners set out at the beginning to end slavery once and for all. The primary goal for the North was always the preservation of the Union. As Abraham Lincoln proclaimed in 1861, "The central idea pervading this struggle is the necessity . . . of proving that popular government is not an absurdity. We must settle this question now, whether, in a free government, the minority have the right to break up the government whenever they choose."
In the course of attempting to restore the Union, however, it became clear to the North that the destruction of slavery was a military necessity. Furthermore, slaves themselves -- by escaping to Union lines whenever the opportunity presented itself -- put enormous pressure on the federal government to make emancipation a war aim.
One of the great tragedies of the Civil War was that Americans approached the problem of slavery in a way that evaded the larger issue of race relations. Slavery was only one aspect of this broader question, but most whites in both the North and the South refused to deal with race, preferring to keep the controversy confined within the narrow channels of the peculiar institution.
Before the war, rather than addressing slavery directly and arguing about the moral legitimacy of the institution where it actually existed, Northerners and Southerners engaged in an abstract debate about slavery where it wasn't: in the western territories. During the war, the need to avoid alienating the border states and sending them into the arms of the Confederacy constrained discussion about emancipation and African-American rights. Then, when the war was over, the tension between the contradictory goals of national reconciliation and freedom for blacks made it nearly impossible to confront the question of racial discrimination.
Instead, the issue of race was put on the back burner in an effort to patch up differences between the North and South and to put the United States back on the road to economic development and prosperity. The emancipation of slaves, the granting of citizenship to blacks, and the bestowal of voting rights on African-American males solved the existing problems in the eyes of the country.
Blacks, then, were left to fend for themselves without any sustained attempt to raze the social structure of the South and replace it with a new one. As a result, the pre-war system of race relations was largely intact.
This is not to say that the Civil War failed to transform the country. As Pulitzer Prize-winning historian James McPherson points out, before 1861 "United States" was a plural noun: "The United States are south of Canada and north of Mexico." Following the defeat of the Confederacy in 1865, "United States" became a singular noun. The legacy of the Civil War, in other words, went beyond the preservation of the Union to the creation of a nation. From this perspective, although George Washington may have been the father of the country, Abraham Lincoln was the founder of the nation.
Despite all the changes set in motion by the Civil War, we still have not completed the most urgent task before us: the establishment of equitable race relations. Until we recognize that freedom without justice is an empty promise, the troubling and equivocal symbolism of Mount Vernon will never be put behind us and the full potential of the American Revolution will never be realized.
The time is fast approaching when it will be too late to do anything. As we gather with friends and family on the Fourth of July, we should remember that the date marks the retreat of the Confederate forces from Gettysburg as well as the Declaration of Independence. We could hardly find a more meaningful way to observe both events than to renew our commitment to racial justice in America and bring about the "new birth of freedom" envisioned by Lincoln in 1863 as he surveyed the blood-soaked battlefield at Gettysburg.
Dealing with Opponents to Climate Action
I was asked by the editor of Climate Access earlier this week to share my thoughts about "the main lesson you’ve learned from trying to deal with opponents of action on climate?" Here's my full response, which was edited down a bit:
Trying to discuss the need for climate action with those who oppose taking such steps makes clear to me that nothing I say or do is going to change their minds. In my role as coordinator of the Tompkins County Climate Protection Initiative (TCCPI), I've found that the best way to engage such folks is to stay focused on the need for improving energy efficiency and reducing energy consumption, building a more resilient local food system, and creating healthier neighborhoods.
As a recent Yale University study shows, a high degree of science literacy does not necessarily mean that a person will support the notion that climate change is a serious issue; instead, cultural values play the biggest role in determining how individuals feel about climate change. Once they've made up their mind, trying to change their opinion is a nearly impossible task.
This doesn't mean giving up on the effort to educate the general public. We provide lots of opportunity on our web site (www.tccpi.org), for instance, to learn about what climate change means, why it is so urgent to take action, and the specific impact it will have on our state (New York). We also provide a significant list of resources relating to climate change, climate protection agreements, and climate action plans. But these do not make up the core of our main strategy.
Instead, we emphasize ways in which the transition to a cleaner, more efficient energy economy can promote a more sustainable economy and society. We highlight success stories in the community that make such efforts more personal and other similar efforts taking place in upstate New York. Our electronic newsletter as well as our web site seek to get the word out about this work.
Perhaps the biggest accomplishment so far is to launch what will be the first community-owned wind farm in New York, Black Oak Wind Farm, a 20 MW project located just outside of Ithaca. We just successfully concluded our seed capital round, raising $1.2 million from about 76 individuals, and will be moving to the next stage of getting this project off the ground. We've been getting some great national press (see here, for example), but more important is the tremendous support we've been receiving from the community.
It's this kind of effort, one that provides local investors a great opportunity to get involved in the clean energy economy, creates local jobs, produces competitively priced renewable energy, and by the way, helps to reduce the region's carbon footprint, that TCCPI is trying to promote. And as president of Black Oak, I'm following the proverbial advice about putting my money where my mouth is.
As a recent Yale University study shows, a high degree of science literacy does not necessarily mean that a person will support the notion that climate change is a serious issue; instead, cultural values play the biggest role in determining how individuals feel about climate change. Once they've made up their mind, trying to change their opinion is a nearly impossible task.
This doesn't mean giving up on the effort to educate the general public. We provide lots of opportunity on our web site (www.tccpi.org), for instance, to learn about what climate change means, why it is so urgent to take action, and the specific impact it will have on our state (New York). We also provide a significant list of resources relating to climate change, climate protection agreements, and climate action plans. But these do not make up the core of our main strategy.
Instead, we emphasize ways in which the transition to a cleaner, more efficient energy economy can promote a more sustainable economy and society. We highlight success stories in the community that make such efforts more personal and other similar efforts taking place in upstate New York. Our electronic newsletter as well as our web site seek to get the word out about this work.
Perhaps the biggest accomplishment so far is to launch what will be the first community-owned wind farm in New York, Black Oak Wind Farm, a 20 MW project located just outside of Ithaca. We just successfully concluded our seed capital round, raising $1.2 million from about 76 individuals, and will be moving to the next stage of getting this project off the ground. We've been getting some great national press (see here, for example), but more important is the tremendous support we've been receiving from the community.
It's this kind of effort, one that provides local investors a great opportunity to get involved in the clean energy economy, creates local jobs, produces competitively priced renewable energy, and by the way, helps to reduce the region's carbon footprint, that TCCPI is trying to promote. And as president of Black Oak, I'm following the proverbial advice about putting my money where my mouth is.
Going Down with the Ship?
I wrote the following short piece for the April-May 2012 issue of the TCCPI Newsletter:
One hundred years ago this spring the Titanic went down in the North Atlantic, taking the lives of over 1,500 people. Leaving Southampton on April 10, it set out on its maiden voyage celebrated as one of the most technologically advanced ships built to date. Sixteen watertight compartments and remotely activated doors, among other safety features, made it unsinkable, or so the engineers said. The speed with which the Titanic met its end shocked the world, and the event became an enduring symbol of technological hubris.
One hundred years ago this spring the Titanic went down in the North Atlantic, taking the lives of over 1,500 people. Leaving Southampton on April 10, it set out on its maiden voyage celebrated as one of the most technologically advanced ships built to date. Sixteen watertight compartments and remotely activated doors, among other safety features, made it unsinkable, or so the engineers said. The speed with which the Titanic met its end shocked the world, and the event became an enduring symbol of technological hubris.
This same hubris can be seen in our own time as we plunge forward heedless of the damage industrial society inflicts on the biosphere that supports our very lives. The explosive growth of fossil fuel consumption that made possible such marvels as the Titantic has placed an unprecedented burden on our global climate system, pushing it to the brink of disaster. As Peter Hess writes, both the sinking of the Titanic and the accelerating threat of runaway climate change "are the result of a collision between human over-confidence and the implacable forces of nature."
If nothing else, the story of the Titanic should warn us that climate change is more than a physical problem to be solved by technology. It is, in Malcolm Bull's words,"an ethical problem that necessarily requires moral solutions." The real question is not so much whether we have the ability to slow down the rate of global warming but whether we have the capacity to expand our moral imagination so that we can grasp the importance of doing so.
Leadership by Example: Campus-Community Collaboration on Climate Protection
I wrote the following for the October 2011 issue of The ACUPCC Implementer and thought I should also share it here:
Embedded in the American College & University Presidents' Climate Commitment (ACUPCC) is the notion of leadership by example. By committing their institutions to the goal of carbon neutrality, the presidents who are signatories to the ACUPCC underscore the critical role of higher education in meeting the challenge of climate change and building a more sustainable future.
Universities and colleges in the United States have historically been crucibles of social change and laboratories for new ideas and creative solutions to some of society’s toughest problems. In this sense, the ACUPCC is part of a long tradition in our country. What is new, however, is the scale of the problem and the threat it poses to human civilization. Simply providing a model of sustainability will not suffice this time around. Campuses can only truly become sustainable if the communities around them are sustainable. In this sense, implicit in the ACUPCC is the commitment to not only dramatically reduce the carbon footprint of the university or college, but also collaborate with the larger community in doing so.
The Tompkins County Climate Protection Initiative (TCCPI) seeks to demonstrate what this kind of 
collaboration looks like and the impact it can have on a region’s economic and environmental health. With a population of about 100,000, Tompkins County includes three ACUPCC signatories: Cornell University, Ithaca College, and Tompkins Cortland Community College. These three institutions also happen to be among the top employers in the county. At the same time, the city of Ithaca, the town of Ithaca, and the county government have made formal commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, with the latter calling for a decrease in emissions of 80 percent by 2050 and establishing an interim goal of 20 percent by 2020.
collaboration looks like and the impact it can have on a region’s economic and environmental health. With a population of about 100,000, Tompkins County includes three ACUPCC signatories: Cornell University, Ithaca College, and Tompkins Cortland Community College. These three institutions also happen to be among the top employers in the county. At the same time, the city of Ithaca, the town of Ithaca, and the county government have made formal commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, with the latter calling for a decrease in emissions of 80 percent by 2050 and establishing an interim goal of 20 percent by 2020.
TCCPI seeks to leverage these climate action commitments to mobilize a countywide energy efficiency effort and accelerate the transition to a clean energy economy. The coalition, launched in June 2008, currently consists of local leaders from more than forty organizations, institutions, and businesses in the county organized into five sectors: business/financial, education, local government, nonprofit, and youth. Each of these sectors has selected a representative to the steering committee, which tracks the progress of the coalition’s projects and sets the agenda for the monthly meetings of the whole group.
Among the projects currently underway is an effort to explore the feasibility of a combined heating and power plant shared by Cayuga Medical Center and its next door neighbor, the Museum of the Earth. Working with Cornell Cooperative Extension of Tompkins County, TCCPI has also helped to support the establishment of the Tompkins County Energy Corps, which is made up of students from Cornell and Ithaca College who carry out informational energy audits for homeowners, share information with them about state and federal incentives, and encourage concrete steps to improve the energy performance of their residences. Other projects involve the implementation of a $375,000 EPA Climate Showcase Community grant secured by the Tompkins County Planning Office and EcoVillage at Ithaca, both TCCPI members, and the rollout this fall of a countywide campaign to raise awareness about the importance of energy savings.
Perhaps the most ambitious effort undertaken by TCCPI is its current attempt to shape the economic development agenda not just of Tompkins County but the seven other counties in the region that make up what is known as “the Southern Tier.” In particular, TCCPI has called for the implementation throughout the region of large-scale commercial energy efficiency and renewable energy projects totaling $100 million.
This past summer New York’s Governor Andrew Cuomo announced a sweeping new initiative that has created a remarkable opportunity for the Southern Tier to think strategically about major investments in energy efficiency and renewable energy. The governor has established ten regional councils that have until November 14 to submit proposals for a share of a $1 billion fund established on behalf of a coordinated economic development strategy. Each of the councils is co-chaired by an academic and business leader. Governor Cuomo has appointed David Skorton, president of Cornell University, and Tom Tranter, president and CEO of Corning Enterprises, to head up the Southern Tier group.
The economic development funding has been put together from multiple agencies in the form of grants and tax incentives. The ability to leverage a small portion of this money to develop potential sites for energy upgrades, carry out the feasibility studies, and issue the RFPs would make it possible to secure the necessary private capital. These sites would primarily involve airports, school systems, college and university campuses, hospitals, and local government buildings, but could also include commercial and industrial buildings. TCCPI has proposed deploying $1 million in state support for a revolving fund to help attract up to $100 million in private capital. By aggregating the commercial energy efficiency and renewable energy projects and coordinating the effort, an attractive investment portfolio would be created, hundreds of jobs created, administrative costs substantially reduced, and significant energy savings realized.
The key, then, is scale. Such a far reaching initiative would require a collaborative platform similar to TCCPI for deploying clean energy technologies across government, commercial, industrial, and educational organizations for maximum impact on economic growth and environmental health. It remains to be seen whether Governor Cuomo will approve such an approach. But the energy working group of the Southern Tier Regional Economic Development Council has endorsed the TCCPI proposal and it has a good chance of being included in the overall package submitted to Cuomo on November 14.
The bottom line? TCCPI clearly represents the next logical stage in the process initiated by the ACUPCC. With its emphasis on campuses and communities partnering to engage climate and energy issues, the TCCPI model provides a framework for multisector collaboration that holds out hope of a brighter future for all, demonstrating that job creation, energy security, and responsible stewardship of the environment are not mutually exclusive.
Creating New Spaces for Connecting in New Ways
I contributed the following post to Second Nature's blog recently. It was part of a series by Second Nature staff on why we work in the field of sustainability. Thanks to Georges Dyer for the gentle prodding!
“The
difficulty lies, not in the new ideas,” John Maynard Keynes has observed, “but
in escaping from the old ones.” Nowhere
is the truth of this observation clearer than in our continued adherence to an
economy based on fossil fuels. As more
than one study has determined, we have the means at our disposal to move into a
clean energy world in which the power of the wind, sun, water, tides, and other
renewable sources is tapped and runaway climate change is averted. The latest of these studies comes from the
United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which earlier this
month released a report surveying the already existing technologies that, in
combination, could make this happen. The
critical missing components are the necessary policies that would drive change
in this direction and the political will to implement them.
clean energy world in which the power of the wind, sun, water, tides, and other
renewable sources is tapped and runaway climate change is averted. The latest of these studies comes from the
United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which earlier this
month released a report surveying the already existing technologies that, in
combination, could make this happen. The
critical missing components are the necessary policies that would drive change
in this direction and the political will to implement them.I get up every day and do the work that I do because
I want to help create the public pressure and culture of collaboration that
will make these changes occur. I get up
every day and do the work that I do because I believe each one of us has the
responsibility to be a subject in history and not just an object of history. I get up every day and do the work that I do
because there is no silver bullet, no magic wand, that can make the immense
problems confronting us go away. The
only thing that will work is to escape from the old myths of independence and
self-reliance and embrace the truths of interdependence and mutuality.
The overturning of the old paradigm will only happen
if we intentionally and strategically create what Gibrán Rivera refers to as
“the spaces for connection.” Collaboration,
inclusivity, and mutual respect make it possible for us to move upstream, where
the real solutions are. As Rivera puts
it, “By re-inventing the ways in which we come together we begin to live in the
world we are trying to build.” Second
Nature, together with the generous support of the Park Foundation, have
provided me with the invaluable space not only for connection but also
experimentation, the opportunity to reinvent myself as a social entrepreneur
and explore new models of partnership and change such as the Tompkins County Climate Protection Initiative (TCCPI). And for
that I will always be grateful.
Keeping the Social in Sustainability
Once again I've been asked to serve as an "outside expert" for an online course on "Integrating Sustainability into Training and Curriculum." And once again I've been asked a terrific question by one of the students in the class; in this case, he serves as the sustainability coordinator for a community college in the Upper Midwest.
Most equate sustainability with the environmental realm and often fail to make the connection that sustainabiility is multifaceted. A recent teaching cohort in sustainability that I organized this
academic year was made up of liberal arts and technical faculty, representing a wonderful diversity of disciplines, yet the conversations always seemed to revert back to the environmental realm. Economics and sustainability was understood by most, but that darned old social dimension just seemed out of reach. There is a mind-set that is hard to crack. What advice can you give that can help me better facilitate such groups in the future?
The question goes like this:
Most equate sustainability with the environmental realm and often fail to make the connection that sustainabiility is multifaceted. A recent teaching cohort in sustainability that I organized thisacademic year was made up of liberal arts and technical faculty, representing a wonderful diversity of disciplines, yet the conversations always seemed to revert back to the environmental realm. Economics and sustainability was understood by most, but that darned old social dimension just seemed out of reach. There is a mind-set that is hard to crack. What advice can you give that can help me better facilitate such groups in the future?
In many ways, this question gets at the fundamental challenge for the sustainability movement. How do we make sure that the social dimension of sustainability is kept at the center of the conversation and its connection with the environmental dimension made clear?
I have two approaches to suggest, one theoretical and the other practical. The more theoretical approach involves understanding the role of diversity in both the ecosystem and social/cultural system. Few people would dispute the notion that biodiversity is a central condition for the health of the ecosystem. In fact, it is widely understood that greater biodiversity means greater health. This is why the sixth and latest mass extinction, predicted by E.O. Wilson in The Future of Life to eliminate half of the existing species by 2100 at the current rate, is such a cause for concern.
Just as diversity is vital to the health of the ecosystem, so it plays a central part in the health of our social system. Given the impact of human beings on both biodiversity and climate change, it is clear that unless we pay attention to the social and cultural well being of humans we will not succeed in meeting the environmental challenges that threaten our very survival; the two are inextricably linked.
Why is diversity crucial to social and cultural well being? Let me offer one example that I think helps to illuminate the connection between diversity in the biological and social spheres. Obviously, creativity and innovation are required if we are to come up with effective solutions to the issues of biodiversity, climate change, and the transition to a low carbon economy. The famous and overused Einstein quotation about how the problems we face will never be solved by the same thinking that first created the problems is relevant here.
The most recent research, as outlined in Steven Johnson's Where Good Ideas Come From, underscores the extent to which innovation is best fostered in a dynamic social web rather than in intellectual isolation. Those "eureka moments" of the lone genius are few and far between. The most fertile environments for sparking creativity, as Johnson suggests, are those in which diverse and even divergent perspectives come together and interact. In short, the more diverse the social system and the greater the degree of engagement the more likely it is that we will develop the necessary solutions to the immense challenges we face in the 21st century. It's a pretty good bet that the same old elites in the same old silos (read higher education as we know it) that created the environmental crisis of our time will not come up with the answers we need.
What about the more concrete suggestion for making sure in talking about sustainability we don't lose track of the social dimension, especially the issues of equity and justice? I can sum this up in one word: food. If there is one thing that brings together the environmental and social better than any other, this is it. Food makes real the connection in a way that more abstract concepts of biodiversity and climate change simply don't and can't. Everybody relates to food because it is a vital part of everyone's day to day life and there are very few people who do not derive significant pleasure from eating food. Even more important, there are few more widely agreed upon measures of equity and justice in society than access to high quality, healthy, and affordable food.
A thoughtful discussion of how the food movement can revitalize environmentalism can be found in a recent column in Time by Bryan Walsh, the magazine's environmental reporter. Walsh rightly argues that the food movement has the potential not only to change the way we eat and farm but also "the way we work and relate to one another." It is the social and political diversity of the food movement and its decentralized character that makes it so powerful. The food movement has taken root and spread rapidly from Berkeley to the Bronx and from Wal-Mart to Whole Earth. In other words, its structure mimics that of a healthy and vibrant biosphere.
More than any other issue, food has the greatest potential to connect the social and the environmental in ways that can engage the most fervent social justice advocates, on the one hand. and most passionate environmentalists, on the other, and help them see what they have in common. We need to make sure that not only are our gardens properly tended but that everyone has a seat at the table. Could you pass the guacamole, please?
Cornell Names TCCPI 2011 Partner in Sustainability
Since 2008, thanks to the generosity of the Park Foundation, I've been working on building the Tompkins County Climate Protection Initiative (TCCPI) coalition. As coordinator, I've had the opportunity to work with a terrific group of visionary leaders from Ithaca and Tompkins County to help our community significantly reduce its greenhouse gas emissions and accelerate the transition to a clean energy economy. Cornell University, a signatory of the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment (ACUPCC), has been a crucial player in the formation of this coalition. It was thus very exciting for TCCPI to receive the 2011 Partner in Sustainability Award from Cornell last Friday.
Here's the Ithaca Journal article on this announcement:
The Tompkins County Climate Protection Initiative was awarded the
second annual Partners in Sustainability Award on Friday.
The award, presented by the Cornell University President's Sustainable Campus Committee, recognized the initiative for its ongoing partnership in regional carbon reduction strategies, according to a statement released by Cornell.
Among the achievements of the group are the creation of peer-to-peer mentoring, development of a regional strategy for achieving reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and the development of financing mechanisms for homeowners and businesses to achieve greenhouse gas reduction targets.
In the statement, Cornell sustainability manager Daniel Roth said, "By recognizing groups that partner with higher education institutions to advance sustainability, we build on the successes of research and teaching, and acknowledge that we must also bring together practitioners and leaders throughout the world in support of new policies and practices."
The award is given each year to one or more recipients who have made significant contributions to the sustainable development of New York and the Cornell campus through collaboration with the university, according to the statement.
Award winners are evaluated on research, regional stewardship, education and public engagement.
This award is a wonderful recognition of the good work carried out by the coalition and a reminder of how much work remains to be done.
