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www.SustainableWays.com
Newsletter #20
In This Issue:
-One-Size-Fits-All = Destructive
-Breaking the Cycle
-Back to Ishmael
::ONE-SIZE-FITS-ALL = DESTRUCTIVE::
This past month, as I was listening to a talk about nuclear power plants, I started to think critically about energy sources. I thought about fossil fuels like oil and coal and gas, and how they seem to be such a poor choice for us to depend on so critically.
Why would you build an entire civilization based on an energy source that takes billions of years to be replenished?
Then I looked at alternative energy sources like nuclear power. The biggest issues with nuclear seem to be safety oriented: What if there’s a meltdown? What if the nuclear waste leaches into our drinking water? Whereas using fossil fuels degrades our environment slowly, nuclear power can do it so much more dramatically.
Then there’s hydroelectric power (i.e., dams). It’s clean, it’s efficient, and it’s renewable. But dams (which are used for all kinds of other things, like irrigation) can wreak havoc on surrounding ecosystems. We’d probably have to dam up every river in the world to make hydroelectric power our main source of energy.
And what about the energy sources environmentalist dream about at night, wind and solar? Even they have their drawbacks. Think about how many windmills and how many solar panels it would take to support 6 billion people. Imagine driving by an industrial area and instead of seeing a clump of smoky power plants, seeing miles and miles of back to back wind towers or solar panels.
The more and more I thought about it, the more I realized that our problems would never be solved by finding an alternative renewable energy source. I started to think that it wasn’t so much about WHAT we’re using but HOW we’re using it.
In addition to expecting an energy source to eventually support a growing population of 6 billion, we also demand that it be available to everyone at all times. The only way to supply that demand is to centralize our power supply. Ultimately, you end up with a few companies controlling all the power (literally).
Unfortunately, in our economy, it makes financial sense for a power company to mow down an old growth forest (aka cheap real estate) and coat it with a layer of solar panels. It makes financial sense to find one-size-fits-all solutions, no matter what the long-term consequences.
So if every energy source becomes destructive on a scale of 6 billion, why bother trying?
::BREAKING THE CYCLE::
Whenever I find a dead end like this, I try to dig deeper.
Why do we expect one energy source to completely replace fossil fuels, anyway? Why can’t we use solar in regions with lots of sunlight, wind power in areas with lots of wind, and hydro in places with a lot of water?
Because energy is controlled by wealthy, successful businesses—businesses that got rich by selling one product (fossil fuels) to as many people as possible. It’s far more profitable to sell one shoddy product to millions, perhaps billions of people, than to sell quality products that actually cater to unique groups of people.
Take, for example, McDonald’s and BurgerKing. Their food is definitely not the best stuff around. But because it has widespread appeal, they make a lot of money. The more money they make, the cheaper they can make their products, the more money they can spend and advertising, and the more people they appeal to. It’s a continuing cycle.
Now imagine if instead of selling burgers everywhere, they sold steak, rice and beans in Puerto Rico, sushi in Japan, spaghetti and meatballs in Italy, and so on. It would cost them a lot more money, the food would be more expensive, and they wouldn’t be nearly as powerful as they are now.
So then how do you break the cycle?
Maybe businesses should spend more money to provide better quality alternatives at decent prices. But for every company that steps down, another will take its place as a reigning superpower and continue the cycle.
Maybe consumers should spend more money on better quality alternatives that are already out there. But for every American who chooses solar power and sushi, there’s at least one person from another part of the world who’ll gladly choose fossil fuels and BurgerKing over what they already have (or don’t have). And the cycle continues.
(Sigh.) Another dead end.
::BACK TO ISHMAEL::
I keep digging and digging for answers, and it seems like every time I get to the root of a problem, it’s really just the stem of another, deeper issue. But I keep on going because I know it’s ultimately useless to focus on treating symptoms.
This month I finally reviewed the book that first taught me how to “dig:” Ishmael, by Daniel Quinn (http://sustainableways.com/books/ishmael.html). I’ve read this book eight times, and I still get something out of it every time. I’ve also included some Ishmael quotes (http://sustainableways.com/books/ish_quotes.html) and links that I’ve collected over the years.
If you haven’t ready Ishmael yet, I HIGHLY recommend you get your hands on a copy. A lot of what I write about in these newsletters mirrors what I learned by reading Ishmael.
And if you, by any chance, decide to buy a copy from Amazon.com (new or used), make sure you do so through any of my links (click, throw it in your shopping cart, and BUY IT). The tiny commission I get helps keep this site going.
By the way, if you click through to Amazon from my site and add ANYTHING to your shopping cart and buy it within 24 hours, I STILL get a commission, even if the product you bought has nothing to do with my site! So anytime you’re going to buy something from Amazon, click on any of my Amazon links, find the product you’re going to buy, and get it ASAP =)
Till next month,
-Krystle C.
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