Via Solutions

Full with a lesson on the basics of David Ricardo’s Comparative Advantage theory to a discussion of the vision for a more sustainable Appalachia, this article outlines how it came to be that Appalachia became synonymous with mountain top mining, rapid environmental destruction and risk with limited return, that somehow gives the allusion of infinite return, and of course, how this place can be and is being saved. The key concepts from the piece are below, but I would highly recommend a full reading.

via huffington post.

We know that sustainability as a concept has remained nebulous. Save for the idea that it implies an equitable distribution and consumption of resources, that will not compromise future generations use of said resources, we have little else to agree on about what sustainability looks like in action, in day to day existence.

I recently read an essay in Grist, Environmentalism’ can never address climate change, written by David Robert, who literally opens his piece by saying, “I’m not an environmentalist and these aren’t environmental challenges.” It made me think about what exactly the challenge is then. What kind of challenge is the climate change (and related sustainability) challenge then?  The idea that framing matters is not new; communication scholars have long been studying the fallout—both positive and negative—from the way in which we talk about certain issues.  Somehow though, we in the climate movement seem to have thought we were exempt from this phenomenon for far too long; that somehow data would speak for itself.  Don’t get me wrong, there were plenty of people thinking about how to talk about this stuff before; artists, scientists, policy makers, students, but to make an impact, to have a critical mass, we all need to have a shared vocabulary and clear vision about what we want, when we want it, how we get there and most importantly how we talk about it.

I see the new blog as an opportunity to showcase and discuss living proof of sustainability, of people working towards a clear vision, and not always through novel technology (although, yes, sometimes we will discuss this), but more importantly, a reading between the lines of where we are and where we want to be. In Robert’s essay, he argues that if we succeed at the sustainability challenge (a big if, he points out), it will be a groundbreaking, revolutionary new model. “…it will be a tidal shift in human history on par with the agriculture, industrialization, or democracy itself.”

The difference is, those that lived through these histories only had a slight understanding of the massive impact they were about to have on the physical and social operating systems of the planet. We, on the other hand, with our science and blogs (and science blogs), living in the data explosion era, know better, maybe.  So, let’s get to it. We have a lot of re-making to do.

I took some of our fabulous CISC interns on a kayaking voyage up the Bronx River a few weeks ago. And this is what they had to say about it.

“New Yorkers tend to think inwards and underground about their city: Central Park and the subway. But lately, this has been changing.  Boating organizations and environmental groups have sprung up in the past half-century to increase awareness of the waterways critical condition and importance to the City.  As summer outreach and planning interns, we decided to take a kayak trip with one of these organizations, the Bronx River Alliance, to experience hands on the effects of the City on our waterways.

The Bronx River, New York City’s only freshwater river, runs 23 miles long from the Kensico Dam in upper Westchester County through 13 Westchester municipalities to where the East River converges with Long Island Sound. This once beautiful and thriving body of water is now a contaminated conduit for industrial and residential wastes.

The Bronx River Alliance formed in 1974, has taken remarkable strides in trying to restore this river back to its original serenity. This organization develops community outreach initiatives, conducts research on the River’s ecology and serves as an advocate for the River and its surrounding community. BRA’s work illustrates how dedicated citizens who are adamant about preserving our environment can and do make a difference.

However, their hard work is not immediately evident upon emerging from the Hunt’s Point subway station. We had never been to Hunts Point, but we were aware of the controversial developments of Robert Moses and their devastating toll it  had on the Bronx.  As we walked toward the Bruckner Expressway overpass, it wasn’t hard to see that the area is plagued with social ills. In a city as wealthy as New York, the hard truth is that poor communities bare the brunt of environmental ravages. The built environment of Hunts Point is a veritable death trap. The expressway is at least 5 lanes across, with no pedestrian walkway to be spoken of; truck after truck barrel down the road, amidst incessant car honking and exhaust fumes. Walking up the crumbling steps to cross the gritty overpass, was not welcoming. In lieu of shrubs and flowers, the overpass offered only concrete and graffiti.

Crossing the bare concrete overpass, we entered Concrete Plant Park. With parched grass, a lack of trees and no real social gathering point, the “park” falls desperately short of being an inviting public space. It would be hard to imagine a similar scene anywhere in Manhattan. In Hunt’s Point and other parts of the Bronx, the environmental inequity that exists between those communities that receive waste and those that produce it – those that dump and those that get dumped on – is hard to miss.

As we set off in our kayaks, we saw a garbage dump, a scrap metal recycling center, and parking lots lining a good portion of both riverbanks.  As we passed, we noticed a certain stench.  It would be simple to conclude that the smell originated from these concrete yards of the industrial age.  However, even in areas where trees line the river, the smell lingered.  Why?  The smell didn’t come from the dump; it came from the water itself.

In theory, the water shouldn’t be polluted.  The City’s fourteen water purification centers can process all the water used and release a purified form back into its estuaries.  So why is there sewage in the water?  Because of NYC’s antiquated sewage planning.  The city uses a combined sewage overflow system (CSO) to handle both human waste and regular runoff water.  This type of system accounts for 70% of the NYC sewage system according to the New York City Department of Environmental Protection (NYCDEP). On a normal, rainless day, the system is able to collect and process all of the fluids running through the system.  However, when it rains, there is too much water for the system to handle, and thus the overflow water is redirected straight to the estuaries, untreated.  That means raw sewage –shoots straight into the river.  To contextualize, Hunt’s Point’s largest CSO, CSO 007, collects an estimated 1.7 million floatables (garbage and solid matter) each year.

Despite the smell, and the murky water filled with human biproducts, we paddled along. Our guide Miguel began pointing things out to us, that the river is an ecological home, not a deserted wasteland and that there is a vibrant ecological community regenerating along the Bronx River in Hunt’s Point. The contaminated and brackish waters are home to unusual species of edible plants and a host of wildlife. Along the banks of the river rare conifers, fruit trees and medicinal plants such as Mugwort thrive.  Japanese Knotwood grows rampant-a vestige of a naturalist’s planting from the 1850s and indicative of the rich biological history of the area.

We saw Egret and Heron that nest along the river. Striped Bass and Blue Fish are indigenous, and although not advisable to eat, neighborhood fishermen cannot be dissuaded.  We witnessed a gentleman bathing en plein air just a stone’s throw from the ominous CS007, and a rope swing was rigged up in a tree where kids jump into the river to swim. Community youth were also exploring the River along with us. Miguel introduced them as youth from, Rock the Boat - an organization that trains youth in traditional boat building and water ecology.

Wrapping up the three and a half hour trip, we emerge tired and with mixed feelings.  On one hand, it’s pretty depressing to see the state of the river due to the lack of foresight when creating the sewage system, and how we haven’t moved to significantly clean up the area.  Also, people shouldn’t have to live around these conditions. But on the other hand, organizations like the Bronx River Alliance and Rock the Boat increase exposure to these issues so that they don’t go unnoticed.  And at the same time, young people out on the water are gaining valuable skills while they hopefully, become more engaged in solutions and the restoration of  these important places.

Earlier today, I had the pleasure of sitting down with my friend and fellow urban planning student Heidi Exline one last time before she heads off to India for nine months. In less than two weeks, she will be leaving for Ludhiana (a city of around a million people several hours north of Delhi) to study community food security on a Fulbright Fellowship. This spring, Heidi finished her Master of Urban Planning (MUP) at Hunter College with a concentration in sustainable community food systems. She is just one of the many CUNY students and alums doing noteworthy work, both in New York City and beyond.

Heidi’s interest in food didn’t begin in India. It didn’t even begin in New York City for that matter. Heidi’s love of food began as a child, growing up on a farm in Iowa. While she wasn’t at all interested in the corn and soybeans her father grew, she did love cooking with him. She took that love of food with her when she moved to New York City.

During her first four years here, Heidi was employed as a social worker, indulging her interest in food by cooking and eating out at New York City’s many restaurants.  However, after four years in social work, Heidi still hadn’t found her niche. She turned to food full time and accepted a job working at Murray’s Cheese.  It was then that she decided to pursue food as a career, and spent a summer in Vermont learning to make goat cheese.

Upon returning to New York City, Heidi found it hard to find a job in the cheese world that fit her interests. At the same time, her interests in community education and the non-profit sector began to grow and she eventually landed a job at City Harvest. For the next four years, Heidi enjoyed immersing herself in food. Through City Harvest, she worked with regional farmers and food rescue programs, while reading books about food and taking food-related classes at Hunter College. Two years ago, Heidi returned to school full time to pursue a graduate degree in planning, constructing a self-designed concentration in community food security.  While in school, she also worked on food issues and policy for Speaker Christine Quinn’s office.

As Heidi headed towards graduation, she began looking for opportunities to work in her field abroad. With the sponsorship of a professor from the Punjab Agricultural University, Heidi eventually applied to and won a Fulbright Fellowship in Ludhiana. While there, her goal is to piece together the stories of the many residents of the region into a community food assessment that will empower the community to improve food security and access.

For herself, Heidi is also hoping to learn about the connections between food and agriculture in India and the U.S. In her words: “our food system doesn’t happen in a silo – no pun intended.” Learning about these connections will inform and strengthen the work she does in India, as well as the work she will do here in the States upon her return. In the end, she wants to better understand urban-rural linkages and how cities can support sustainable regional food systems.  Understanding these sorts of linkages and how they can contribute to sustainability is something that we are all about here at the Institute. We wish Heidi the best of luck in her pursuit.

As part of its 25th anniversary, Summer Stage has branched out from its home base in Central Park, with over 100 events at venues across the city, in all five boroughs. For a full line up, visit the Summer Stage site.

The events to be held at the East River Park venue will offer free bike valet parking, as the foundation has partnered with the wonderful folks over at Transportation Alternatives. The idea behind the collaboration is to “give greater access to cyclists…and to provide an incentive to utilize alternative means of transportation, and promote the use of green spaces in the Lower East Side.”

The service begins at the event on Tuesday, August 4th and will continue for the duration of the 13 days of free public programming at that venue. Roll on over and hand your bike off to the experts.

Hydroponics and the City: New Food for a New Age
1-3:30PM, Saturday June 26th, 2010

Creating sustainable local food systems might mean changing how we grow food. Learn how some New Yorkers are growing local food with local resources. See The Science Barge — the only fully-functioning demonstration of renewable energy supporting sustainable hydroponic agriculture in NY — and all its green glory. Hear about Gotham Greens, the first commercial hydroponic greenhouse in NYC. Make a Window Farm so you can Research and Do It Yourself.

Featuring:
Jenn Nelkin-Greenhouse Director, Gotham Greens
Ted Ullrich- Window Farmsand DoTank: Brooklyn

Location:
The Science Barge, 99 Dock Street, Yonkers,
located on the Hudson River, just north of the Yonkers Pier.
Take the MetroNorth Railroad to Yonkers station.
Limited metered parking is available as well.
1PM, Saturday June 26th, 2010
This event is free but you must RSVP
to cmolnar@hunter.cuny.edu Limited to 30 People!!!!!

But now we seem to be back to a different argument: not how we should regulate carbon, but if we should at all. Tomorrow the senate will vote on a resolution of disapproval from Senator Lisa Murkowski, which would essentially ban the regulation of carbon dioxide under the clean air act. For a full write up and information about who is backing it and why, see the NY Times article.  Essentially the disapproval, if passed will veto the endangerment finding, which was a “scientific determination that green house gasses are bad for public health and welfare.”

It appears that this summer’s climate debate might be heavier than we at first thought, with the lingering weight of the “why should we regulate” question added to the “how.” From a sustainability perspective (not partisan) the White House issued a Statement of Administration Policy saying they strongly oppose the resolution. And most importantly, there is language stipulating that a veto would likely be recommended by administration senior advisers if the President is presented with the resolution.

So…all hope is not lost. But it is going to be a hot, political, summer.

Ranging from violence–hitting executives with oily fish, (the Quentin Tarantino approach) to gussying ourselves up after a breakup– leaving that bad BP boyfriend behind (the glamour mag approach), the suggestions for punishment indicate  creative, intelligent and heartfelt concerns about how we might deal with BP once the oil stops gushing. How we move beyond behavior that inherently involves high risk, low probability disasters, and that is we, as in all of us, is another question.  That would require us to lose the vindictive spirit and focus on how we might, for example, do all those retrofits and behavior changes that might lessen the massive thirst that BP quenches. Some suggestions from Slate readers asked BP to fund renewable energy research and development in a  dollar for dollar match on what they pay in damages. I love this suggestion.

Ideas are clearly flowing. But is the political will, the political creativity up for the challenge? Until then,  welcome to the world of ideas…and the blogosphere.

But what about the small scale tiny cracks in the concrete jungle that serve as brief reminders of the benefits and beauty of these other elements that often seem to evade us? How can we all play a role in finding space for those cracks? Two words: seed bombs. Last year, the Bed Stuy Meadows project worked as an intervention in this vein. And this year, the good people at DoTank in Brooklyn, are running an urban agriculture Do It Yourself workshop to teach the art of the seed bomb (as well as home composting and window farming. Full disclosure, I am helping out with compost skill share component.)

But this intervention, the GreenAid Change for Change seed bomb dispenser is just fabulous. What if this were in every store where chicklets and runts and gum balls were sold? What if children nagged their parents for a quarter so they could throw this gum ball shaped object onto the ground outside their house and see what came up in the cracks of asphalt or in the street tree bed? It could inspire wonder in younger urban children who are not necessarily exposed to the rites of spring in the same way as those outside of a city are.  And going back to the idea of beauty as utility, would it benefit everyone in the space–not just youngens–by creating spaces that promote a higher quality of life? Again, more research is critical. But this intervention takes a product that we are already used to as a consumer and retrofits it for the public good. I like it. Now, just to make them.

None of this is revolutionary or breaking news. It seems like the response to the situation–not the painstakingly slow response involved with plugging this mess–but the response in terms of responsibility that BP will have to take could be new. How will this look different than it ever has before? This has been a bad year for the extraction industry; mine shaft collapses and oil rig combustion and it’s only May! Are these companies  just unlucky or are they actually really bad at doing this work in a safe manner? And if they are, what does that mean? Do we sit idly buy and wait until the next tragedy? Or will things fundamentally change? I have no answers. Just many questions. So, let’s think, while we wait.

Over at Slate, “How to Punish BP,” has some interesting points. Daniel Gross was  on the Brian Lehrer show this morning discussing his article.

Part humor: “We could tar and feather the senior executives and board of directors. Thanks to BP, there’s an ample supply of both tar and feathers—and tarred feathers—in the Gulf.” And part tragedy, “The lucrative tourism business in Florida is suffering. Housing predictor estimates that homes in the path of the leak will lose “at least 30 percent in value as a result of the environmental catastrophe.” The thriving seafood industry in the Gulf has largely been shut down. Huge quantities of oil have been wasted. The spill may cause severe long-term damage to sea life in the Gulf, destroy sensitive coastal marshes, and send oil washing up on Atlantic Ocean beaches.”

The article nonetheless poses serious questions about the capacity to actually rectify the situation. Sue? Fine? Regulate further? Do any of these things actually alter business as usual? After discussing the merit of the usual methods already sought, he invites us to participate. Read on below and enter the competition of ideas if you have thoughts on it…

“The challenge, as I see it, is to devise punishments, or create new incentives, that give BP, its managers, and its shareholders incentives to make sure this sort of thing never happens again.

One approach might be to flip the incentives around. Instead of holding out the stick of lawsuits and fines as a cost for screw-ups, how about giving financial rewards to companies that consistently avoid despoiling the environment? Usually, these incentives are called profits. But for BP, profits alone evidently aren’t enough. We could give companies with perfect environmental and safety records a tax break or cash bonus at the end of each year.

I’ve written recently about the concept of social license—which is essentially a permit to operate your business in our jurisdiction. It’s difficult simply to stop companies from doing business in the United States just because we don’t like them. Running afoul of regulations is a great American tradition—I’m sure your favorite restaurant has been nailed with health code violations. But perhaps we can take a page from the Department of Motor Vehicles and give companies like BP a formal social license. Every time it gets hit with a violation—an oil spill, leaky pipeline, a fatal refinery accident—the license holder would be docked a few points. Businesses that accumulate several points would be placed on probation—prohibited from expanding, making acquisitions, or getting in on new drilling opportunities—until they prove they can operate safely.

What else could work? I want to hear from you, Slate readers, about other smart, satisfying punishments. All you lawyers, business ethicists, congressional experts, Louisiana residents, tree-huggers, oil executives who don’t want to kill the golden goose, libertarians, and liberals: What can we do to BP that A) produces tangible punishment; B) helps ameliorate the problems the spill has created; C) sends a message to the industry; and D) provides incentives for BP and its fellow oil producers to act with greater caution in the future?

Post your comments below or, if you prefer anonymity, send them to moneybox@slate.com; I’ll publish and assess the most interesting ideas next week.”