Sustainability. It's easy. It's difficult. It makes economic sense now. It will later.
It's in our self-interest. It's a moral imperative.
Don't scare our kids. Be optimistic.
Despite an avalanche of interest (and marketing campaigns) dealing with the topic, it's uncertain how sustainability can be achieved - or what it really means.
"Healthy systems have limits. Get over it. Love your limits," said Jamie Cloud, founder and president of the Cloud Institute for Sustainability Education.
Sustainability was the theme of eighth annual International Bioethics Forum held April 23 and 24 at the BioPharmaceutical Technology Center in Fitchburg.
Society appears to be on the cusp of a new sustainable narrative, the latest in a progression of narratives from hero, religion, democratic, scientific and economic, Cloud said.
Cloud said it's important not to keep reinforcing what we already know - that we face major problems - and to talk more about solutions, thereby creating new neural pathways, even in adults.
"Thinking drives behavior and behavior causes results," she said.
"Kids call grownups the 'given ups'" for their propensity for dire forecasts, she said. "Adults say a lot fewer sillier things when adults are in the room."
"We can make the shift to a sustainable future. There is another fate than our current future," she said, which is the opposite of a scenario she calls the "bummer"- things are the way they are and we can't do anything about it.
Other common attitudes are the social trap (I'll do it if someone else does), winning (it's a zero sum game in which someone's gains equal someone else's losses), and hoarding (there's not enough to go around).
There's also the martyr syndrome (I won't take anything), the anthropocentric view (only humans count), the expansive view (resources are unlimited and there are substitutes for everything), those who think humans are in complete control and - the most widespread attitude - simply not thinking.
Cloud said sustainability is a non-zero sum game in which cooperation ensures everybody gains, although it's a tough concept to get across. She referred to a fishing game in which participants are supposed to develop strategies to maximize yields.
Even though participants know replacement rates, few make it more than a few rounds without depleting the stock of fish, Cloud said. They invariably demand 20 percent more than the rate of supply.
Cloud uses the fishing game to determine the narrative underlying the actions of participants.
"People are very disconnected from the results of their behavior. They don't take responsibility for their behavior," an attitude that kids have adopted by the time they enter first grade, Cloud said.
People often can't see feedback (believing is seeing) and exhibit insane behavior, which she defined as doing the same behavior and expecting different results. It's also common to identify symptoms as the problem, such as focusing on global warming instead of our actions.
"We are always creating self-fulfilling prophecies," she said. "Uncertainty about our mental models does not prevent us from using them, even if the models are incorrect."
Although every sector of society except schools is making shifts toward sustainability and even regeneration.Cloud said schools are 50 years behind the time in fostering the interdependency required for a sustainable future.
"Where do we think we're going without children, young people or teachers?" she asked. "We're talking about turning the ship around. This is not instant orange juice."
Most people know little about natural laws and ecological principles, she said
""If we create the conditions for learning (about interdependency), we don't have to worry about teaching morality," she said
Long before AIG became an acronym for economic hubris and incompetence, UW-Madison ecologist Cal DeWitt used it as shorthand for arrogance, ignorance and greed, the prime factors in fostering unsustainability.
DeWitt recently contributed several papers to a conference examining the roots of unsustainability and .
DeWitt confessed to being a radical, as defined by the roots sent out by seedlings, and a conservative, who never takes something without replacing it.
"We must return creation's service to us with service of our own," DeWitt said.
The loss of 2.2 million of U.S. farmland annually to development and the failure to improve conditions for the world's 2.5 billion farmers are manifestations of unsustainability, he said.
"It's presumptuous to think we can replace these farms with other means of production and 'save' them," he said. The replacement of agrarian culture with managers of industrialized production is "a consciously driven process driven by investment."
He referred to a study in the United Kingdom that found a conversion to organic agriculture could save billions of dollars by reducing or eliminating external costs associated with conventional agriculture, including greenhouse gases, loss of soil productivity, erosion and pesticides.
DeWitt criticized the "fragmentation and secularization of knowledge" and questioned the wisdom of excluding theology, which he called the "study of the economy of the biosphere" from academia.
DeWitt was instrumental in the creation a nationally recognized program to purchase development rights in the Town of Dunn.
"We decided not to permit the gradual deterioration of our human community," he said from
Critics often claim genetically modified crops and other biotechnological advances are incompatible with sustainability, but proponents say it's not that simple, said Pual Thompson, with Michigan State University, who studies the ethical and philosophical implications of agricultural technoscience.
Thompson said sustainability could be viewed from three perspectives: resource sufficiency (resource depletion and renewal), system resilience and reproducibility (preserving functional integrity) and a as a social movement (meeting fundamental human goals). The latter approach often involves criticism of agricultural biotechnology as fostering an imbalance in power between, for example, developed and developing countries.
Thompson said biotechnology could be viewed as sustainable if it increased the efficiency of production (but not if it also increased consumption).
Proponents thought they the first generation of genetically modified crops were compatible with sustainability because, for example, herbicide resistance made it possible to reduce tillage and thereby reduce soil erosion.
The second generation of genetically modified crops seek to improve nutrient content, thereby increase production efficiency and add stress-resistance genes that would, for example, increase drought tolerance.
Concerns about how genetically modified crops would affect biodiversity assume that the system is functioning well, but Thompson questioned whether that was true of our current system of agriculutural production.
Genetically modified crops could improve functional integrity by extracting energy from biofuels, particularly from plant cellulose, Thompson said.
Charges that genetically modified crops increase the power of corporations, which often involve concerning the right of farmers to should be save and plant patented seed, should be balanced the with the need to recover the costs of developing seed, costs, he said..
Thompson said the development of biosensors, which could be implanted in livestock to diagnose disease, could be viewed as compatible with sustainability since it improves efficiency, helps control disease vectors that threaten livestock and humans, and protects the functional integrity of the production system by reducing prophylactic antibiotic use, thereby reducing the development of antibiotic-resistance.
However, a proposal to send information by wireless transmitters from sensors directly to regulatory agencies could exacerbagte producers' concerns about their the relative powerlessness
Biosensors could also foster industrial agriculture by replacing the trust between producers and consumers, although it could also foster community-supported agriculture by, for example, ensuring the safety of organic produce and unprocessed milk.
The development of biosensors "is a truly ambiguous development," he said.
The development of mega livestock farms may be a distortion of the ecosystem and is unsustainable, the result of subsidies and cheap fossil fuels that make it cheap to produce and ship grains.
The goal is to aim for the "middle ground" of development since sustainability is threatened by extremes in income - excessive consumption or the insecurity associated with extreme poverty, which encourages families to have more children.
A variety of dubious claims are covered by sustainability, said Regina Hauser, executive director of Natural Step, a nonprofit organization ________.
She referred to a recent advertisement in which the CEO of S.C. Johnson tout's the firm's use of methan gas from a landfill, while also showing cans of Lemon Pledge on the assembly line.
"What's sustainable about Lemon Pledge?" she asked. "Is it really necessary? Would a damp rag clean as well?"
"This is probably going to be a wild ride," she said of the adjustment to a sustainable society.
Natural Steps is based on precepts identified by a Swedish doctor several decades ago, which include "Nothing disappears" (matter is a closed system) and "Everything disperses" (substances are of value in their more concentrated forms).
Business should recognize that esources are removed much faster than the geological rate of formation, and avoid introducing substances, such as plastics, that are foreign to nature.
She said it's a false dichotomy to present choices between the economy and the environment; such as a tax on carbon emissions; instead, the economy should be viewed as within the environment.
Whistler, British Columbia, an international ski resort, applied Natural Step principles to develop a plan to become sustainable by 2060, based on the recommendations of 16 community groups. Only one of the groups focused on natural resources; the rest involved community resources, she said. (whistleritsournature.ca).
Nike applies the principles in meeting its goal to produce shoes that are completely recyclable, and 100 percent carbon and water neutral.
"We're dreaming if we think the private sector will get us there," she said, noting the role of regulations and incentives. America is recovering from a "leadership vacuum" during the last eight years and the bar needs to be set higher, she said. She conceded that Natural Step currently had only a small influence on the total market.
"We need to quiet our cleverness," and observe nature, said "Tim Gaidis, who leads the sustainable design program at HOK, a St. Louis architectural firm widely known for its projects around the world.
"In biomimicry, everything has been done before," he said, referring to innumerable designs derived from nature, including products such as Velcro, adhesives based on the feet of geckos, and fabrics whose colors are based on the refraction of light instead of dyes, and self-cleaning paints based on how lotus leaves shed water..
Architects now try to tap the "genius of place" in their projects, such as one in India that incorporates the region's water cycle, increasing infiltration during the monsoon season for extraction during the dry season, and, emulating the dictum that there's no waste in nature, locating industries in such a manner as to use each other's byproducts.
Gaidis said architects are incorporating several natural design principles, such as self-shading by cacti, the ability of leaves to dissipate the energy of rain, and the holes of black tailed prairie dogs for natural ventilation.
"We need to include a biologist early in the design stage," he said.
He said LEED offered is similar to a building code, offering a minimum design standard.
"Obsolesence dies out in nature," he said. The current financial system is "not optimized".
"We're at a fantastic leverage point in our economy if we can just let go," he said.
Oil shortages and a grim prognosis
If our energy-hogging civilization collapses, we can put some of the blame on our biological proclivities, which have hard-wired us for excitement and toys until the very end.
Despite obvious indicators that our lifestyle can't continue - as evidenced by an exponential growth in population coupled with a precipitous decline in oil reserves, for example - our hormones, addictions and hankering for novelty lead us to pretend nothing's amiss, according to Nathan John Hagens, a researcher with the University of Vermont.
Hagens left a successful career in Wall Street after becoming concerned about the "finite limits to resources" and the failure of economics to consider pollution and other externalities associated with development. He's now earning a doctoral degree and edits a Web site dealing energy-related issues (www.theoildrum.org).
Hagens compared our plight with the Irish elk, which went extinct several thousand years ago when the climate changed. Male elk had humungous antlers, as wide as 12 feet, which were important in attracting mates. However, the elk couldn't obtain enough calcium and phosphorus from vegetation when the climate changed, which were leached from their bones.
Human males still engage in similar ostentatious mate-attracting displays of conspicuous consumption, fostering the wasteful allocation of resources, Hagens said
It's no wonder we haven't yet mastered the art of restraint, since we're naïve to the perils of energy opulence, Hagens said. The 100-year Industrial Age (a mere blip in human history) was fostered by the profligate use of energy, which is currently at levels (57 barrels per person annually in the U.S.) that "make the kings and queens of old look like paupers," he said.
The discovery of oil was fortuitous since the East coast had already been deforested by 1900, Hagens said.
Admonitions to "Drill, baby, drill" are a diversion since domestic oil production peaked in 1970 while world oil discoveries have been declining since 1964; we now use 3 or 4 barrels for every one discovered, he said.
"Cheap energy subsidized the entire (industrial) system," he said.
Moreover, oil is becoming more difficult to extract, which means there's less net energy - the energy remaining after the costs of exploration, production and processing are considered. Sixty percent of the oil reserves are in a region of the Persian Gulf; and most of the cheap oil is located outside the U.S., he said.
Save for nuclear energy, Hagaens said the alternatives to oil are much less energy dense, often by a factor of 100 to 1,000. The U.S. has already exhausted the best grades of coal, he said. Wind and biomass have extremely low densities. Biomass requires water, and that's not in plentiful supply. Hagens said 90 percent of the world's fresh water resources are already used by agriculture, and 65 percent of the world lacks the water required for biomass production.
"These externalities must be accounted for. We're not the only species on the planet," he said.
Scientific illiteracy in the U.S. hampers acceptance of the stark facts about dwindling energy resources, Hagen said, noting that we rank next to Turkey in the proportion of population that believes in evolution.
And our evolutionary past contributes to our perception of the problem. There have been 285,000 generations since we evolved from monkeys while only seven generations have experienced the Industrial Revolution, which means that we've had little time to adjust to the change, Hagens said.
Even though we're in a totally different environment, our primitive brain still often controls our actions. Our primitive brain evolved amid scarcity and imbued a propensity for magical thinking, and often overrides our newer brain, which controls rationality.. Hagens compared our plight to a man riding a stubborn elephant - the man thinks he's in control until the elephant decides otherwise.
We're also awash in information, far too much of it to completely process, he said. Studies show that we can handle about seven pieces of information. Trying to retain more information impairs judgment, as was shown when those told to memorize a sequence of seven digits selected cake for lunch while their counterparts, who were told to remember a shorter number, made more healthful selections.
We are drowning in distractions, and continually add more, such as Twitter, Hagens said.
Our primitive brain also places more value on immediate gratification and impulsivity, the legacy of a predator-prey environment where quick decisions were a definite evolutionary plus - and when anything immediately consumed would be lost, Hagens said.
Our ancestral environment also provided rewards for excitement, since a change in the background either meant danger or food. Our brains hunger for these jolts, which is why addictive behavior is so prevalent, Hagens said. He referred to 2007 Time article that tallied hundreds of millions of Americans with various addictions, such as cocaine, coffee, gambling and the Internet.
These addictions provide a pleasurable burst of dopamine. When the outside stimuli provide dopamine, the brain manufactures less and less, so it requires more and more "just to get back to normal," Hagens said.
Hagens said contemporary society provides innumerable judgment-impairing, oil-fueled dopamine jolts, such as shopping and fast cars.
Ditto for our diets, as manifested by a staggering increase in sugar consumption since 1970 (sugar-rich diets also increase dopamine production and are a gateway to other addictive substances), in addition to fostering an epidemic of obesity. (More than 30 percent of the residents of most states are obese.)
Hagens said conspicuous consumption can trace its origins the preening and lavish displays that attracted mates, as per the extravagantly feathered male peacock.
The appetite for oil is also affected by the "aspiration gap" in developing countries, where most residents would like nothing more than a car and a computer. "Who are we to tell the Chinese and Indians to stop?" Hagens asked. In the developed world, there's the "hedonic treadmill," manifested by the desire of people to earn more (and acquire more), no matter how much they made the previous year, as reflected in the increased size of the average American house - from 1,000 square feet in 1970 to 2,400 square feet in 2004.
Economics is based on false tenets, Hagens said. He said the contemporary definition of utility was like a"a 500-pound guy wanting another piece of pie."
Dependence on oil has made society less resilient and has encouraged us to displace time and labor.
"Financial capital is just a marker" for social, natural, human and built capital, he said.
Real wages increased for decades until 1974, and are now flat or declining, despite increases in productivity, coupled with huge increases in profits in the financial industry, Hagens said.
"We have used debt and cheap energy to camouflage a bifurcated society," he said.
As a result, the world economy is "a house of cards balanced on little real production." He said the world's gross domestic production of about $55 trillion is dwarfed by $1,600 trillion in global debt.
Most of the supposedly egalitarian societies are a sham because debt is used to disguise inequality, he said .
He lambasted media coverage of the current financial crisis.
It's as if America is addicted to heroin, but the media say we have a headache - and we're getting opium as a solution, he said.
All of these warnings surfaced in the 1970s but "that whole generation, all they did was talk," Hagens said.
The current credit crisis is likely to keep oil prices low for a while, he said. Hagens said there's no chance the political system would tackle the problem, since politicians focus only on the short term. "The whole country is built on one dollar, one vote," he said, noting that George Washington was the richest person in the country when he was president and that Abraham Lincoln opened bars next to polling locations when he ran for president.
With half the society "nearly broke, crying bird mouths now want something now," he said.
"As addicts we will have to hit rock bottom before we change," he said. "Global growth is over, even though 99 percent of the population doesn't realize it. If there's declining energy (resources) we can't have growth even for half the people."
"We could get really smart and end conspicuous consumption," he said. However, he thinks a more likely scenario is a population die-off within 20 or 30 years.
Hagens recommended limiting distractions, exercising. engaging in "slow activities, like gardening" and fostering friendships and other forms of social capital.
Hagen's talk was sponsored by the UW Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, Renew Wisconsin, the Energy Hub, and the Madison Peak Oil Group.
