Ok, Here it is....
I'm calling on all big thinkers to come and argue the random musings of an old guy who is frustrated at the idea that the best ideas the corporate world can come up with to save the planet are contained in such gems as CFL light bulbs and plastic bag tax.
I'm calling on scientists and designers; economists and ecologists; couch potatoes and businessmen.
Really I'm looking for some people who can put some real fact into some of the ideas I've had lately about how one would really go about fixing some of the problems the world faces today.
I'm a designer. A designer by definition is a solution guy. When I see something doesn't work I fix it. But the world is too big; I can't fix it by myself and I need your help.
Now I'm not a scientist or an engineer. I don't have a lot of data but I do know quite a lot and I can tell you from the perspective of an armchair critic that most of the "ecological" solutions we are buying into at the moment are at best "bandaid" solutions and most are totally wrong headed.
So what is the REAL answer? What are some REAL, LONG TERM SUSTAINABLE solutions?
Paying 5¢ at the grocery store to get the same bag you got for free a month ago? I think NOT.
OK I get it that some of this stuff takes money and I actually do understand where the 5¢ goes but really this is not a solution. I also understand that it must be proven the the public at large is willing to pay more for their products to realize real change, but I think over the past TEN YEARS we have proven that already! Isn't it time for some real change?
What are the problems we face? Plastic, fossil fuels, energy prices, depleting resources, pollution.... the list could go on and on.
What are the obstacles we face to real change? Big business, Big Oil companies, economic forces, government indifference and lack of will (or is it just red tape?)...
I invite all big thinkers here to hash it out in a big wrestling match to see what we can come up with.
I thank you all, in advance, for whatever contributions you submit. Please try to keep it sane, polite, focused and respectful to all contributors.
Where to start? It's a big question but lets start with some of the easier stuff like plastic bags. If I were a store operator charging 5¢ for a bag at my store I would use that money to buy compostable corn-gluten shopping bags. Wouldn't that work? Rather than spending it on responsible waste/ recycling fees. Maybe 5∞ wouldn't be enough; maybe I would still have to charge the environmental fee on top. I don't know for sure but in the end if you don't want plastic bags in the environment then STOP GIVING THEM OUT! Somebody told me once that the Fortino's stores were doing this but I have shopped at Fortino's recently and I don't think this is the case. Does anyone have any info on stores that are doing this?
ReplyDeleteI say forget bags completely considering groceries are mostly prepackaged, return to 'knob-hill' containers & have the cart valets assist loading them into customers vehicles. We can buy cloth bags too.
DeleteSome of us don't have cars... sorry. Most permanent bags are just another useless redirect from the end goal. They have nylon handles or thread and consume enough space in a landfill to replace the 100 bags they presume to save us from. Fabric bags are best of course but what if you don't wand to carry one to work with you on the off chance that your wife will phone and want you to bring a few things home. Re-usable or not, everything eventually finds it's way into a landfill and even with my adversion to these permanent bags we already have about 10 that we don't use on a regular basis.
DeleteOk so I got some things at Fortino's yesterday and the bags look suspiciously like the might be compostable (off green colour and printed with eco Green slogans all over it) but they are NOT compostable. The have the recyclable plastic logo (and number) on them. So I really don't think ANY retailers have taken up this idea and started to provide a REAL solution. Fortino's is now operated by President's Choice (Loblaws) and as such they will not operate as an independent, intelligent, retail grocer. They are now corporate and bend to the wills of industry, lobbyist, government pressure etc. Too Bad.
DeleteI heard this recently, but forget if it was in a movie or on the news .... we need to let the 'big Oil companies' know that WE DON'T NEED THEM! Maybe it was you even who said that, being my husband and all ... Anyway, yes, we need to tell the Oil elites that we no longer want or need their business and get back to being self sustained like taking advantage of government subsidies for solar panels or building homes from used tires! Sounds ridiculous but it works... look it up. Love your thinking Chris!
ReplyDeleteOil companies are going to be a real problem. The reality is that as we start to adopt alternative fuel resources the there will be a big backlash from oil producers. As the market starts to change in a big way the oil companies will be forced to drop the price of oil. This will probably be such a dramatic effort as to make oil cheaper than any other possible energy source and reestablish oil dependancy and crush any competing companies for energy supply.
ReplyDeleteAnd of course this would cause SUCH A MARKET CRASH LIKE NOBODY HAS EVER SEEN!
This is something that none of us could wish for. It would be the same problem for plastic really because plastic is made from and owned by oil companies. On a positive note (I think this is a plus sort of) Oil Companies have been very interested in buying up and investing it alternate fuel ideas already. They are just not interested in making it readily available yet. Who wants to get stuck with 60 Billion barrels of oil that they have already dug up and refined and stored for the last ten years and not have anyone who wants to buy it.
Does anyone have any REAL estimate of world oil reserves and how long they would last if we stopped digging for oil today?
Ok, so I did a little research on Google Searches and according to a variety of sources it seems like our world oil reserves is somewhere around 1200 billion barrels. Production / consumption is around 30 billion barrels a year. Consumption is starting to overtake production and at 30 billion per year current wells will run dry by around 2050. New well discoveries and low grade (tar sands) may buy us another 20 years or so. that gives us about 50 years to lose our dependancy on oil. Ethanol? Not enough agricultural land to produce for food AND for fuel. Fewer people? Squish people into higher density and claim more land back?
DeleteHydrogen? We will need to adopt many or all of these resources to completely replace our dependancy on oil. So any ideas folks... Now is the time.
This is an essay I wrote several years ago.
DeleteIt is not 100% bullet proof but there is some good logic here.
Energy Crisis…. What Energy Crisis?
You will find it as a new post on How do you save the world.
I've done a little electronics design so I have a pretty good Idea what I'm talking about when I say the electric energy saving products we have been presented with so far SUCK!
ReplyDeleteOk Phillips says it's new more efficient LED replacement bulbs waste no electricity in heat generation. WHAT?! Have you touched one of those things after it has been on for an hour or so. THEY'RE HOT.
Why? I believe they must have transformers in them to regulate the voltage to a lower level. Transformers are inefficient and generate heat. (Lets hope for the moment that they are at least using a solid state voltage regulator). OK but if a LED needs 3 volts and you put 4 together in series you need 12 volts right? So if you put 36 together in series that would be 108 volts. No need for a transformer right. So why are we not doing this? I know they are right when they say LED's don't generate heat. Does anyone have any technical experience in this and can make a comment?
Home Depot sells a device marketed as an ecological solution. It is a power bar that has a remote on off switch. Very conveinient but is it really an ecological solution? I presume that the premis is to eliminate trickle phantom currents like the TV and VCR etc. but think about this for a minute. The power bar itself has to maintain a trickle to be ready to receive commands from it's own remote! now you have replaced a phantom current with a phantom current PLUS even MORE BATTERIES! Not Good.
ReplyDeleteHere is the link to an energy efficient (off the grid) home made of re-used rubber tires - very cool. http://www.touchtheearthranch.com/Rhome.htm
ReplyDeleteThe proliferation of small electronics devices that need charging and the use of rechargeable batteries means we have 100's of little transformers around the house to charge all the electronics devices. Lighting is now going toward being low voltage as well. SO it can't be efficient to have 100's of transformers around the house plugged into 110 voltage. Really I think the future solution should be to have the Electrical power authority deliver power at say 12 volts. I think we could standardize many devices to use the same low voltage and lighting as well. In the meantime I challenge some company to start selling a low voltage lighting package to consumers based on LED Lights and Solar power to run it.
ReplyDelete