The hard thing for most to understand is that real
industrial change does demand commitment which is readily available for green solutions
and ample time. Now we see the trends we have long since identified developing
a serious bite. And yes we are solving
all those problems. It only appears
slow.
But think, the Sahel is now marching back and will
likely keep on going to ultimately restore the Sahara Desert to full
productivity. Many will say this is
impossible but that is simply not true.
In its natural state it was well covered with vegetation.
As well, coal is now on the run mostly because
natural gas allows it to happen now.
Geothermal can be tapped to take up slack when it is necessary.
Break
the Ban: Tell a Solutions Story Today!
November
18, 2013
Frances Moore
Lappé,
“If it bleeds,
it leads”… ever hear that maxim of journalism? If you want readers, go with the
scary, gruesome story — that’s what gets hearts pumping and grabs attention.
Yeah, but what grabs our attention can also scare the heck out of us and shut
us down.
Scary news might
“sell,” but we can also feel so bombarded with the negative that our
“why-bother” reflex kicks in. Fear stimuli go straight to the brain’s amygdala,
Harvard Medical School’s Srinivasan Pillay explains. But, he adds “because hope seems to
travel in the same dungeons [parts of the brain] as fear, it might be a good
soldier to employ if we want to meet fear.”
Hope isn’t blind
optimism. It’s a sense of possibility — delight in the new and joy in the
creativity that characterizes our species. So, let’s break the good-news ban
and become storytellers about real breakthroughs. (Below, don’t miss our top
ten go-to’s.) I’m convinced that, in the process, we strengthen — as we must —
our capacity to incorporate and act on the bad news as well.
After all, it’s only in changing the small
stories that we change the big,
dangerous story — the myth of our own powerlessness. Remember, what we do and
say doesn’t just influence our friends, but also our friends’ friends and our
friends’ friends’ friends. Yes, three layers out, research shows.
That’s power! Besides, it’s a great way to
start the day. Here are some recent items that have “made my day.”
Renewables ramping up.
With news of Keystone and tar sands and
coal-crazy China, it’s easy to think that renewable energy is going nowhere,
but we’d be so wrong. Between 2008 and 2012, the U.S. nearly doubled its renewables
capacity. And in the first three months of this year, 82 percent of newly installed domestic
electricity-generating capacity was renewable.
Plus, installed capacity of new solar units during the first quarter of this
year is more than double that of same period last year.
Globally, thirteen countries now get 30 percent or more of their electricity from
renewable sources. And Germany — with cloud cover worse than Alaska’s —
gets 21 percent of its electricity from renewables. In
2010, Germany — slightly smaller in size than Montana — produced about half the
world’s solar energy. That could depress you, or, it could remind us of the
vastness of untapped potential. In April, at the first Pathways
to 100% Renewables conference in San Francisco, I heard
scientists declare that there’s absolutely no technical obstacle to our
planet’s reaching 100 percent renewable energy in a few decades.
Abetting the process, the cost of renewables
is plummeting worldwide — that of electricity from large solar power plants
fell by more than half, from $0.31 per kilowatt-hour in 2009 to $0.14 in 2012.
Wind wows.
Denmark’s wind energy alone provides
about 30 percent of the country’s electricity, making it
the world leader ranked by the share of a country’s electricity that wind power
provides. And U.S. wind power? We’re second only to China among the world’s wind energy
producers, with wind power equal to about 10 nuclear power stations or 40
coal-fired power stations.
Growing up in oil-centric Texas, I would have
been the last person to predict my home state’s leadership. But in the 1990s
eight utility companies brought groups of citizens together to learn and to
think through options. By the end of the process, they’d ranked efficiency
higher than when they began, and the share of those willing to pay for
renewables and conservation increased by more than 60 percent. Apparently, the utility companies listened:
If Texas were a country, it would now be the world’s sixth ranking wind
energy producer.
Cities, states,
countries pledge to go clean.
Eight countries, 42 cities, and 48 regions
have shifted, or are committed to shifting within the next few decades, to 100
percent renewable energy in at least one sector, e.g. electricity,
transportation, heating/cooling. In California, San Francisco, Lancaster,
and San José have
officially set their goal at 100 percent renewable electricity within the next
decade. And if you’re thinking, “Oh yeah, that’s just California”: Greensburg,
Kan., set its goal at 100 percent renewable power for all sectors
after the town was wiped out by a tornado in 2007.
In Colorado, the state’s target is 30 percent renewable
electricity by 2020, a standard that’s helped spur success — especially when it
comes to wind.
And Vermont’s energy plan is set to get the state to 90 percent renewable
energy in all sectors by mid-century.
And whole countries? Iceland already gets 100
percent of its electricity from renewables — three-quarters from large hydro
and 25 percent from geothermal. In Costa Rica, it’s about 95 percent –
mainly from hydroelectric (which it’s working to diversify), along with wind,
biomass, and geothermal. Costa Rica’s sights are set on becoming the world’s
first carbon-neutral country in time for its 2021 bicentennial. Absorbing more
carbon will speed it along, so Costa Rica’s forestry-financing agency is
working with landowners to plant 7 million trees on
cattle and coffee farms in the next few years.
Monaco, Norway, New
Zealand, and Iceland are also shooting to become the first
carbon-neutral country. And Ethiopia unveiled
plans to become a middle-income carbon-neutral country by 2025.
Citizens clobber coal.
Just since 2005, as part of Sierra
Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign,
citizens across the country have stopped more than 165 coal plants from opening and
successfully pushed for the retirement of more than 100 existing ones. The
campaign aims to retire one third of America’s remaining 500 coal plants by
2020. And if you’re not registering how important
this is, consider that coal accounts for more than a third of
U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.
Forests forever.
In India, ten million families take part in
roughly 100,000 “forest-management groups” responsible for protecting nearby
woodlands. Motivation is high, especially for women, because firewood still
provides three-fourths of the energy used in cooking. Working collaboratively
with the Indian government, these groups cover a fifth of India’s forests;
and they’re likely a reason that India is
the few countries in the world to enjoy
an increase in forest cover since 2005.
And if you are not
excited yet? Try just two final tales:
Close to home: Four years ago in Magnolia Springs, Ala.,
the conservative town government passed the toughest land
regulation in the south. It’s spending a quarter
million dollars on a comprehensive plan to restore and protect its charming
river from agricultural chemical runoff. “I’m a tree hugging, liberal — I mean
a tree-hugging conservative Republican! Which I know some people may say is an
oxymoron,” said Mayor
Charlie Houser of this small town near Mobile. Brown pelicans are showing up
again, says Houser, and he adds: “Cormorants up in the treetops… Beautiful
site!”
Around the world: Three-fourths of Niger is
desert, and news headlines focus on hunger there. But over two decades, poor
farmers in the country’s south have “regreened” 12.5 million desolate acres.
In all, Niger farmers have nurtured the growth of some 200 million trees – discovering
that trees and crops are not competitors but are complementary.
The trees protect the soil, bringing big crop-yield increases, and they provide
fruit, nutritious leaves, fodder, and firewood. Now young people are returning
to villages in Niger, and school kids are learning to care for the trees, too.
Are you willing to step up as a solutions-news
ban breaker?
Neuroscientists tell us our brains are
“plastic,” with new
neuronal connections being created all the time, forming new
“streambeds” in our brains that shape our responses to life. So, isn’t
actively choosing what
shapes our brains perhaps the most powerful ways to change ourselves, enabling
us to change the world?
Facing unprecedented challenges, we can choose
to remain open to possibility and creativity — not mired in despair. Surely,
the latter is a luxury that none can afford. We can create and enthusiastically
share a solutions story today, every day. It is a Revolutionary Act.
Adapted from EcoMind: Changing the Way We Think, to Create the World We Want –
filled with solutions stories for your retelling.
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