Dr. Harold Glasser - Campus Sustainability

Dr. Harold Glasser, Executive Director for Campus Sustainability here at Western Michigan University came to give an in-class presentation on December 2nd. His articulate explanations and unparalleled ability to put perplexing information in perspective was incredibly inspirational. He began by explaining the importance of sustainability. As far as we know, Earth is the only habitable planet available, so living sustainably should be of the utmost importance. The world has never before seen a time like this. Never before, in human's approximate 200,000 years of existence, has our climate shifted so rapidly, as it has since the time of industrialization. It has become apparent that our actions are to blame. Mitigating these problems is imperative, or we are going to have to learn to adapt to a very new, very formidable environment. Unfortunately, it is now a race against the clock, and most experts will agree, the clock has already won. This leaves us scrambling to prevent even more climate disruption, meaning the real bulk of this problem will fall into the hands of our generation. Dr. Glasser continued by showing a very memorable chart, quite similar to the one pictured below:

This chart displays the ecological footprint of seven related regions of the world by population size. It is clear where much of the responsibility for global climate change falls. Dr. Glasser then elicits the question "Is our quality of life really 8 times better?" How do we justify such an enormous footprint for such a relatively small population?

Dr. Glasser then brings up a very interesting argument. He begins by explaining how people have sued cigarette companies for causing health detriment without first giving a suitable warning. He then goes on to wonder if universities and other higher education institutions will be sued in the future over claims that they did not adequately prepare our generation for the uncertain and ominous future, as it relates to impending climate change.

The presentation is ended with a quote by Albert Einstein. "The world we have made, as a result of the level of thinking we have done thus far, creates problems we cannot solve at the same level of thinking at which we created them." I found this quote to be incredibly fascinating and quite accurate regarding the logical progression of human achievement. We must learn from our mistakes and adapt to the unpredictable problems unintentionally created by solving other problems.

Welcome to a New Planet: Eaarth

In a 2010 book called "Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet" by Bill McKibben, we are presented with a strikingly familiar, yet fundamentally different planet. The semantic difference between Earth and Eaarth is much like the difference one would find if they happened to be an inhabitant of Pluto circa 2006. We're still talking about the same chunk of rock orbiting the sun, however, recent technological findings are forcing us to reclassify our former designations. Of course, the reclassification of Earth to Eaarth is fictional, whereas Pluto's reclassification is an actuality (though both are based on relatively undisputed facts and science).

Through reading Eaarth, I was struck with a plethora of emotions, namely anger, frustration and despair. While these are certainly not enjoyable emotions to experience, they undoubtedly assist in embedding their emotional impact much deeper into my memory and consciousness. When something has a strong emotional impact (be it positive or negative) you are much more likely to recall the event with clarity than you would an emotionally "neutral" event. It is for this reason that I believe Bill McKibben has a motive behind his angering demeanor, though I still think he needs to lighten up a bit.

McKibben starts off bombarding us with alarming and disturbing facts and figures. Some may consider this to be a scare tactic, but tactic or not, this stuff is serious. Over a million square MILES of the arctic ice cap has already melted. Fossil-fuel emissions have raised the acidity of our oceans to 30% higher than it should be. The tropics are now larger than ever, having expanded more than 2 degrees of latitude north and south in the last 30 years. Our carbon dioxide emissions have passed the threshold point of no return (350ppm) and now hover around the 400ppm mark. An enormous 40% reduction in sea ice has been observed since 1970. These statistics are mindbogglingly extreme, and this change is occurring FAST.  No matter how you spin it, our world will never be the same. Welcome to Eaarth.

McKibben continues to urge us away from temporary "fixes" to environmental problems. So you say the sea level is rising? Well, why not simply build an impenetrable waterproof wall around threatened low-lying areas? That should do the trick. McKibben explains how this is the primary way humans tend to deal with problems. We look for the easiest quickest fix, and call it good. People don't like to make sacrifices, especially when the sacrifice is the result of a problem that may not have any direct, personal negative impact. Sure, we can think about how awful global warming is, and how we are willing to help mitigate its effects, but until action is actually taken, our thoughts alone contribute little to nothing. It becomes easy to understand what spawns McKibben's frustrations, and why portions of his book feel as though you're being yelled at by a parent. With planet Earth already dead, we must face our challenging new reality one step at a time.

City Sustainability Initiatives - Denver

The city of Denver, CO is definitely trying to do its part when it comes to environmental stewardship and sustainability. On Denver's city website, they provide a page listing links of various environmental programs and organizations. This is the link:

http://www.denvergov.org/LivinginDenver/Environment/tabid/435532/Default.aspx

On this page you will find many resources including the city's free recycling programs, information on various sustainability initiatives, public transportation, environmental health and the city's bicycling programs. Among these resources provided, two of the sustainability initiatives really stood out.

1) Greenprint Denver (http://www.greenprintdenver.org/)

• Greenprint Denver provides citizens with information regarding Denver's pledge to environmental sustainability. The focus of this project is seven-fold, touching on energy, air & emissions, water, land, transportation, waste, and community. Within each of these categories, you can find information relating to Denver's goals, programs, policy, and achievements as they relate to each individual topic. For example, the new house bill (2010-1001) relating to our country's energy policy increases the state's Renewable Portfolio Standard to 30% by 2020 which makes it the second highest in the country. Many goals are outlined here, such as the installation of solar panels on city facilities, the replacement of incandescent traffic light bulbs to LED reducing energy consumption by 85%, and many more. This information is regularly updated, displaying the city's achievements over time. Information is also provided to the average consumer on how each person can assist in making a difference. 

2) Denver Living Streets (http://www.denverlivingstreets.com/)

• Living Streets is an incredibly fascinating program; one I have never really seen before. The main purpose of this sustainability initiative is to maximize the efficiency of a given roadway's capacity to support more people and more trips utilizing any mode of transportation. This allows for a unique roadway/pedestrian/public transit integration. Much like the tactic observed in the urban planning of Curitiba, Brazil, Denver is now employing a unique transportation method of its own: a multimodal transportation plan. While this project is still in an exploratory phase, integration can be observed around the city. In a survey distributed by the city, you can understand how they are trying to promote less driving among residents. Two of the important figures can be seen below:

When the questions from the first graph above were asked to people involved in the living streets program, the results were much different:
Drive Alone: 27%
Bike: 23%
Transit: 19% (14% bus, 5% rail)
Walk: 12%
Other: 19%
Of course, these results are not statistically relevant because they were not taken from a "random" sample. It would be interesting to see how these results would vary if a similar study were conducted here in Kalamazoo.

Think Globally, Act Locally

After watching Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" and perusing the IPCC's Fourth Assessment Report, the imperative task of mitigating global climate change has been made clear. Scientific evidence of rising temperatures, as well as rising carbon dioxide levels has become irrefutable.

Here is one of the principle pieces of evidence used in Al Gore's documentary:

This chart shows the seasonal fluctuations of the level of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere, and rapidly increasing upward trend since the late 1950s. Since carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas, it prevents solar radiation from leaving earth's atmosphere, preventing the warmth of this radiation from escaping back into space. The correlation with rising temperatures is not coincidental:

This figure, published by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) displays this general upward trend of global temperatures over several centuries. These charts speak incredible volumes, displaying a recent trend completely inconsistent with over a thousand years of global temperature data.

Understanding this global phenomenon, the need to solve this problem on an enormous scale is quite urgent. Unfortunately, global and even national-scale problem solving is not a forte of the human race. We all have conflicting ideas, and the more people you have working to solve a single issue, the more conflicting arguments you will find. This process typically results in urgent issues dragging on over time we cannot afford to waste. Moreover, issues of this scale must go through intense political processes, something well known to be anything but expeditious. Varying ideas as they relate to political and economic systems end up in a deadlock of controversy. People become so bogged down with our inefficient means of implementing change that many simply give up. Issues of this scale become incredibly ominous and people begin to wonder how they can possibly make a difference.

People begin to understand they can't just walk into a United Nations conference with a well-prepared speech and change the world. There will always be critics. There will always be opposition. For this reason, it is clear to understand the power of grassroots movements. As the famous words echo "think globally, act locally". This becomes a much more comprehensible approach, something palpable and graspable to the everyday citizen. As Bill McKibben states in his book "Eaarth", "The project we are now undertaking – maintenance, graceful decline, hunkering down, holding on against the storm – requires a different scale. Instead of continents and vast nations, we need to think about states, about towns, about neighborhoods, about blocks.”

Over my next few blog posts, I'd like to understand some local environmental efforts employed around the world. I will try to observe various programs in my prospective cities, and explore the possibility of implementing their success here in Kalamazoo.

Sustainable Inspiration from the Third World

Sometimes inspiration can come from the unlikeliest of places. This was most certainly the case for me after reading a chapter entitled "Curitiba" from Bill McKibben's Hope, Human and Wild. This chapter, which focuses on the city of Curitiba, Brazil, is heavily laden with incredible success stories of urban planning and development. McKibben gave a very unique perspective of the things that can be accomplished with a driven, dedicated city government. Though this city is very poor, with an average per capita income of roughly $2,500 (compared to the United States at over 18 times that amount) they manage to keep Curitiba, and its population of 1.8 million, functioning like a well oiled machine. Much of the credit can be given to the city's former mayor, Jaime Lerner (pictured below).

It was his dream to create a city scaled to that of a human instead of the automobile. Because of the poverty level, the majority of people in Curitiba cannot afford a vehicle for transportation. For this reason, city planners have been required to think outside of the box.

While studying architecture at the University of Michigan, I spent a great deal of time focusing on the drastic changes cities faced across the globe with the advent of the automobile. Before this time, cities made much more efficient use of space, as people didn't have the time or resources for frequent long-distance travel (long-distance being a very relative term). Cities at this time were much more intimate and unique. They had character. This was a time before you could easily and correctly predict every restaurant and store likely to be contained within any given urban area. Yet, as the status quo of vehicle ownership has shifted over the 20th century, cities must update antiquated infrastructure to better cater to the needs of their citizens. One of the most extreme changes cities face when updating their century/centuries-old urban fabric is reconfiguring the now-too-narrow width of the streets. Around the time of their development, roads were constructed based on the pedestrians and few horse-drawn carriages they were meant to carry. Obviously, traffic has grown considerably since that time, and the congestion it causes can make city roadways impenetrable to the point of worthlessness.

Bill McKibben outlines this process as it relates to Curitiba. It is obvious to see how this problem becomes extremely difficult to tackle. You can't simply push the buildings aside to create more room. This process requires a complete transformation of proximal buildings as well, requiring now the involvement of building owners, residents, tenants, store owners, etc... A simple idea very quickly becomes a big hairy mess. Furthermore, a transformation like this requires an ample amount of funding; funding Curitiba cannot afford. Here is the ingenious solution Curitiba executed to solve this problem:

"Instead of buying up buildings and tearing them down to widen streets, planners stared at the maps long enough to see that the existing streets would do just fine - as long as they were considered in groups of three parallel avenues. Traffic on the first avenue would flow one way, into town. The middle street would be devoted to buses, driving in dedicated lanes so they could move more quickly. A block over you'd find motorists heading out of town. No highways in the city - three streets still scaled to human beings."

While I continue searching for an appropriate city to reside in after Kalamazoo, I would like to see evidence of creative methods employed to tackle difficult urban planning problems.