Undiscussable

My 'Twenty-Twenty-Twenty Plan': Pathway to Energy Independence

Even as we steadily transition toward the age of electricity, oddly we will not discuss the huge problem of global warming induced by our continued addiction to fossil fuels. The problem is not one of scarcity so much, but rather the scarcity of places to put the waste products. As we attempt to develop fossil fuel sources that prove ever-harder-to-develop, we pollute waterways whether via "fracking" for natural gas or "oil spills" for oil and gas. And then there is the carbon-loading of the atmosphere from burning the fuels.

But at least half of us, mostly fundamentalists, ultra-right Republicans and fundamentalist Christians here in the US, don't want to admit that we have a problem.

For those willing to discuss our need to transition away from fossil fuels, here is a simple twenty-twenty-twenty plan: Beginning next year or the next, place a twenty cent per gallon federal tax on fossil fuel products (mainly gasoline and diesel fuel), then increase it twenty cents a year for twenty years. In five years the tax adds one dollar to the price of each gallon of fuel. In ten year it adds two dollars. In twenty years it adds four dollars per gallon. I think such a "carbon tax" would help us transition, somewhat smoothly away from our addiction to fossil fuels. The proceeds from the tax could be used for mass transit, infrastructure maintenance/replacement, and other social needs. Note: other carbon tax matters might be appended to the base proposed here.

People here in the US will cry fowl, but even President George W. Bush admitted that "America is addicted to oil." Isn't it time we Americans sacrificed our short-term wants for some long-term survival needs? Time is short, and the costs of dragging our feet further on this issue are steep, if not catastrophic. Can we begin to talk about this particular undiscussable? We'll see. Not likely this year since no one will discuss much in an election year. But maybe the conversation can begin (again) soon on this much needed issue.

Related:
My Ecology and Economics Blog: Carbon Tax Posts

Earth Day Requiem

It is Earth Day, and I can't find any recognition of such on the mainstream Sunday morning TV feeds. Maybe that's a good thing, since mainstream media is about selling products, not about saving the planet. But maybe it's an indication of just how undiscussable our assault on Earth has become. Today, I want to share a couple of things from David Brower and Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. that ought to be part of today's conversation.

In Encounters with the Archdruid, a wonder-filled book about David Brower and some of his antagonists, John McPhee notes:

Sooner or later in every talk, Brower describes the creation of the world. He invites his listeners to consider the six days of Genesis as a figure of speech for what has in fact been four billion years. On this scale, a day equals something like six hundred and sixty-six million years, and thus "all day Monday and until Tuesday noon, creation was busy getting the earth going." Life began Tuesday noon, and "the beautiful, organic wholeness of it" developed over the next four days. "At 4 P.M. Saturday, the big reptiles came on. Five hours later, when the redwoods appeared, there were no more big reptiles. At three minutes before midnight, man appeared. At one-fourth of a second before midnight, Christ arrived. At one fortieth of a second before midnight, the Industrial Revolution began. We are surrounded with people who think that what we have been doing for the last one-fortieth of a second can go on indefinitely. They are considered normal, but they are stark, raving mad."

In his last book, A Man Without a Country, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. concludes with a poem, simply titled:

REQUIEM
The crucified planet Earth,
should it find a voice and a sense of irony,
might now well say
of our abuse of it,
"Forgive them father,
that they know not what they do."

The irony would be
that we know what
we are doing.

When the last living thing
has died on account of us,
how poetical it would be
if Earth could say,
in a voice floating up
perhaps
from the floor
of the Grand Canyon,
"It is done."
People did not like it here.

As to Vonnegut's "we know what we are doing," I'll defer to Joseph Campbell: "Those who think they know, don't know. Those who know they don't know, know." Certainly we act like we know what we are doing. And we talk like we know what we are doing. But do we?

Related:
David Ehrenfeld. The Arrogance of Humanism
Neil Postman. Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business
David Orr. Earth in Mind: On Education, Environment, and the Human Prospect
David Brower, Wikipedia link
Kurt Vonnegut, Wikipedia link

Too Many People

Human population dynamics is one of the most undiscussable of the undiscussables. As the 42nd celebration of Earth Day approaches, I feel a need to say something about 'overcrowding'. Can you ever have "too many people?" Certainly, if you hike into a wilderness area and everywhere you look you see people. Certainly, if you are fishing in over-crowded waters. And so on. But can you have too many people on Earth? That depends on who you talk with.

The term 'Cornucopians' (Wikipedia link) is applied to those who think that having ever-more people not only grows the economy, but also stimulates innovation to try to feed, clothe, and house the people. 'Cassandras', on the other hand, warn that to blindly follow the propaganda of the Cornucopians will lead to global environmental disasters, including global warming, ecosystem degradation, species extinction, and so on, that will degrade the quality of human life, if not threaten human civilizations. I am a Cassandra when it comes to matters environmental.

Cassandras talk both about the sheer numbers of people living on earth and likely to arrive soon, but also about the 'ecological footprint' of each, measuring how many resources each of us consume and how much waste we add to airways, waterways, and landfills. In the early 1990s I began a little web-based conversation among US Forest Service professionals and some 'university types' that I later titled Eco-Watch. Several of my first missives dealt with human population growth, and related problems. People were very uncomfortable with the missives. I suspect that if anything, US government people are even less inclined to discuss such things today. Here are a few of my 'posts':

You Can Talk about the Environment, but People are the Problem, Ellen Goodman
The Road to Sustainability (a note on population dynamics and energy use, from Population-Environment Balance)
The Most Overpopulated Nation, Paul and Anne H. Ehrlich
Overpopulation and Deep Ecology, Bill Devall
The Cornucopia Scam, Sandy Irvine

Some years ago a well-known Cornucopian Julian Simon placed a wager (Wikipedia link) with Paul Ehrlich. Simon bet that by a certain date Ehrlich's apocalyptic predictions would not play out. Simon won the bet. The problem, at least in the minds of Cassandras, was that the so-called "green revolution" in Agriculture, and other anomalies allowed societies to kick the can down the time-road, building even bigger human populations in advance of impending crashes. [Note: In the specifics of "the bet" mining technological advances, currency manipulation, and general economic interplay between nation states, disallowed certain strategic metal prices to elevate to the extent Ehrlich thought they would.]

Most of us over 60 will not live long enough to see whether or not Ehrlich's bet proved right in substance, just wrong in specific form. And no one will live long enough to see if Simon's philosophy, innovating just ahead of calamity, will prove to be a saving grace. Each of us has to die, and as long as human numbers are increasing exponentially, intergalactic travel remains constrained by our understanding of physics, and both resource "sources" and "sinks" continue to be problematic, Cassandras will worry. About 30 years ago I too was a Cornucopian. Today, I fall squarely in the Cassandra camp

Related:
Jared Diamond. Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed
David Ehrenfeld. The Arrogance of Humanism
David Orr. Earth in Mind: On Education, Environment, and the Human Prospect
'Malthusian Catastrophe' (Wikipedia link)

Jesus Was A Capricorn

Today is Easter. While most of my family, and most people in the US are singing praises to Jesus as God, I reflect on Kris Kristofferson's Jesus Was A Capricorn, thinking of Jesus as a social activist and political reformer in a culture dominated by religion. Here are a few lines, from here:

Jesus was a capricorn
He ate organic food
He believed in love and peace
And never wore no shoes

Long hair, beard and sandles
And a funky bunch of friends
Reckon we’d just nail him up
If he came down again

Chorus:
’cause everybody’s gotta have somebody to look down on
Who they can feel better than at any time they please
Someone doin’ somethin’ dirty decent folks can frown on
If you can’t find nobody else, then help yourself to me...

Related:

The First Coming: How The Kingdom of God Became Christianity, Thomas Sheehan
The Gnostic Gospels. Elaine Pagels
The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Joseph Campbell
A History of God. Karen Armstrong

A Discussable Beginning

This blog began as a thought experiment around the first of 2012. I created a paper list of things that I really ought to talk about — things that most people won't talk about. So today, I'm going to being working my way along that path. I expect to post up something about once a week.

I have been blogging for some years, here's my overall About Page. Every blog I hatched was intended to discuss matters of professional interest that had spill-over to personal interests.  Almost every blog I've created or participated in was intended to be a gathering place to share professional insights, and talk across disciplines. Unfortunately they all failed to attract participants — although there is still a bit of interest in a multi-author forest policy practice blog with an odd title: A New Century of Forest Planning. The other blogs sit out there mostly for historical reference.

So this time, I'm just going to go it alone, as I did with my Economic Dreams, Nightmares blog that I need to revive. I hope a few of you enjoy "Undiscussable." I hope that not too many of you, particularly family members, will be offended.