Progress isn’t always as beautiful as we want it to be.

Creationism and Photoshop: two manifestations of our cultural obsession with perfection. It’s appealing, the idea that highly complex things or impossibly beautiful things just exist, just like that, with no work, no effort, no trial and error.

The reality is arguably very different. Beauty takes effort and time. A swanky lifestyle costs money. It took a billion years for a single cell organism to appear and another three billion before they figured out how to work together in multicellular style.

The story of human development is no different. It has taken time and hard work. Hunting and gathering transitioned slowly to industrial agriculture, wooden wheels took hundreds of years to become cars, cultivated cacao beans eventually, thankfully, morphed into Green & Blacks.

And so it is with renewable energy. Ten years ago, the power output of individual turbines was still being measured in kilowatts. This year, a whopping 10MW turbine is being erected in Norway. Bell Labs first modern solar cells, invented in the fifties, were about 6% efficient. Today, there exists a 40% efficient photovoltaic panel. Yet as anyone with even a passing interest in the environment knows, people who do not share that interest also do not like renewable energy. The message is very clear: Do. Not. Want.

Renewable energy is, apparently, not efficient enough and when all the lights go off and we’re left sitting in the cold and the dark, environmentalists will rue the day (shake angry fist here) they had the audacity to suggest such a foolish notion.

Of course there are problems with renewable energy. There are problems with everything. Nothing, not even a carefully airbrushed face or a fully formed world created in the blink of an eye, is actually perfect. Yet it is rare to hear such dismissive scrutiny cast against any other kind of technology.

When the first car was invented, nobody claimed it was useless because it didn’t go far enough on one tank. When the first mobile phones came on the market, no one refused one because they couldn’t get their emails on it. When it comes to electricity, there is a level of expectation to blame for this attitude. For the most part, we all grew up with electricity available abundantly and immediately. The thought of anything jeopardizing that is scary. But that can’t be the only issue at play here.

Our coddled culture of convenience is so rife that people find it genuinely traumatic to put paper in one bin and tins in another. In this respect, a perfect society is the next step on from a convenient society: if it doesn’t suit immediately, reject it.

We have also lived through an unprecedented exponential technology boom. It is completely normal, now, to walk into a shop on the high street and walk out again a few minutes later with more computing power in our back pockets than it took to get to the moon, and for less money than it costs to make dinner for your friends.

When that’s the world we live in, why wouldn’t a wind turbine work perfectly straight away? If the entire solar system can be created in just seven days and I can talk to satellites in space with the gadget in my pocket, why wouldn’t one solar panel power my entire suburb?

Somewhere along the way we have lost our patience and our perspective. But worse, we have lost our resilience. The threat of famine or war or flood is more terrifying now than it has ever been because we can no longer even cope with the most minor of inconveniences, the smallest imperfections. The idea of something that isn’t flawless immediately has become unthinkable.

Yet whatever anyone says, fossil fuels will run out, nuclear cannot power 100% of everything, and renewable energy is working. Just look at the astonishing successes Spain, Portugal and Germany have had with a rapid expansion of the industry. It is happening slowly and imperfectly. It is taking effort and money. There is no way of instant airbrushing. But like the evolution of anything, it will get there in end.

Image: tibchris, CGP Grey.com

Perhaps the luck of the Irish will help make green dreams come true when it comes to the country’s goal to shift away from fossil fuels. Situated at the end of the supply chain and currently 90 percent dependent on imported oil, Ireland hopes to get 40 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2020 – far exceeding the EU’s target of 16 percent.

But luck might not be necessary in a nation driven by an urgent need for employment. Ireland sees its financial difficulties and depressed economy not as a hurdle to going green, but a major motivator. Switching to wind power and other renewables would not only provide thousands of jobs, but stabilize dramatic swings in oil and gas prices. Additionally, Ireland’s prospects are looking far sunnier than its trademark misty gray skies.

“We have doubled our renewable energy. We can double it and double it again,” says Eamon Ryan, Ireland’s minister for communications, energy and natural resources. “It is the perfect answer to the recessionary blues.”

Of course, it’s not as simple as throwing up some wind turbines and calling it a day. Just as it is here in America, one of the biggest obstacles is an aging electrical grid – but a grid interconnector directly from Ireland to Britain is currently being built, and with an energy minister who’s devoted to renewables, more improvements are sure to come.

What’s the biggest thing this island nation has going for it? Shoreline, and lots of it. Ireland has enough land and ocean space to provide its own wind power and even have enough to export to other countries. Five offshore wind farm projects are in the pipeline and marine energy is a possibility in the future.

Ireland is looking beyond the estimated $1.33 billion price tag, seeing it as an investment in the future – for both its people and the environment. Perhaps we should sit back and take some notes.

Image: Wikimedia Commons

Climate change is nonsense.

If I’m ever lucky enough to bump into millionaire Donald Trump (say at a real estate sale or divorce court), I will rush up to the man and shake his hand. He’s opened my eyes to this global warming hoax once and for all. Addressing an audience of 500 admirers at the Trump National Golf Club (Westchester, N.Y.), he uttered these immortal words:

With the coldest winter ever recorded, with snow setting record levels up and down the coast, the Nobel committee should take the Nobel Prize back from Al Gore…Gore wants us to clean up our factories and plants in order to protect us from global warming, when China and other countries couldn’t care less. It would make us totally non-competitive in the manufacturing world, and China, Japan and India are laughing at America’s stupidity.

I bet those countries aren’t laughing now!

But if there’s one person who does look stupid, it’s me. All these years believing in the power of science, logic, reasoned argument and differentiating between weather and climate, and now the Donald’s blown that baloney into the weeds. But I can take it – after all, I’d rather get my story correct than support some thoughtless populist prejudice designed to further the political agendas of self-serving elites. Don, you’re the man.

But I want more from our Gore-slaying guru of truthiness. I want him to explain the specifics. What say you to these thorny issues, Mr. Trump?

1. Increasingly extreme weather. Any fool can see that the earth can’t be warming up if it’s snowing! So what is causing all this weird weather right now? There’s only one rational conclusion: the earth must be cooling down. (I’m blaming all these wind turbines, it’s like global air-con).

2. Crops are on the run. Guatemalan coffee growers are moving their plantations, claiming that climbing temperatures are putting their livelihoods at risk. Scottish soft fruit is in danger of getting squished. Indian farmers are insuring themselves against crop failure. To them all I say – what’s wrong with tinned food? This loose food fad has to stop sometime, might as well be now. (And don’t get me started on that organic rubbish).

3. The mountains are thawing. The glaciers are melting on Everest and the Himalayan snows are turning into lakes. What’s that about, Don? No, I’ve got it – summer’s coming! Of course. These things are so obvious if you spend the time to really think them through.

4. The seas are rising. The island chain of the Maldives is sliding beneath the waves, and its inhabitants are responding with heavy investment in a zero-carbon economy. Heavy. See what I’m saying? The heavier it is, the less it floats. (Pro tip, guys: use coal, it gets lighter the more you use it).

5. The ice-caps are melting. The Antarctic ice shelves are breaking up (here’s the latest from the US Geological Survey), making the oceans rise twice as fast as they were doing in the 1970s. The summer polar ice cap is 20% reduced from its 1979 coverage. Where’s it all going? It’s this snow we’re having! Gotcha. The ice isn’t melting, it’s just moving around! Give it a few years and it’ll be right back at the poles again, you’ll see.

Am I on the right track, Don?

Image: Trump Ice Skating Rink in Central Park, New York, by James Trosh

]]> http://ecosalon.com/donald-trump-sets-the-world-straight/feed/ 8 http://ecosalon.com/eco-links-22-05-09/ http://ecosalon.com/eco-links-22-05-09/#comments Fri, 22 May 2009 12:00:46 +0000 Mike Sowden http://www.ecosalon.com/?p=17459

If you’re still chuckling from the weirdest of 2008′s green building designs, pop some popcorn and pull up a chair before you check out the Dragonfly – it’s a 600-meter-tall wing-shaped skyscraper filled with self-sufficient offices and vertical gardens. Would you be happy to see this against the Manhattan skyline?

New Zealand comedian Mike King has been talking green for a while now, yet that didn’t keep him promoting the pork industry – until he broke into a pig farm with animal activists and saw things for himself. “If I had known this was going on I would never have supported this.” Read the full story at Stuff.

Another summer, another tide of sunscreen attacking man and beast alike – unless you go for the new wave of eco-friendly versions. Check out Alternative Consumer’s recommendations, and have a look at our own.

If you work in the heirloom tomato industry, you’ll be fuming after Scientific American’s Brendan Borrell described heirlooms as “feeble and inbred” in an article that implied these strains of fruit were fatally flawed and needed a genetic band-aid. A blistering response wasn’t long in coming, prompting Mr. Borrell to take back a few of his ill-chosen words. You can read our Vanessa‘s thoughts on the subject at Civil Eats.

How about this for inflammatory? Writer and activist Michael Pollan is so concerned about food from mass-commercialized agriculture that he advises us to avoid all food we’ve seen advertised. Pioneering or paranoid? Read his argument at AlterNet and decide for yourself.

When people look at wind turbines, they make a lazy association: spinning blades = bird-killing machines = worse than traditional power. The problem, argues Benjamin Sovacool at Scitizen, is that few of us see first-hand the damage mining and acid rain does to our feathered friends, and out of sight means out of mind. Wind turbines have a ways to go, it’s true, but the conventional energy industry kills far more birds.

For the fellas out there who like to explore themselves – I mean figuratively, for pity’s sake – there’s a new magazine on that very topic, called Masc. Top tip? Funny is hot.

Some things shouldn’t be so small – stamp-sized cellphone manufacturers, I’m talking to you. In the same category is bonkers Brit Perry Watkins, who has turned a children’s ride into the world’s smallest road-legal automobile. Parking should be a cinch, although beware of being crushed under the wheels of passing bicycles. A unique concept, we dearly hope.

If you clicked on our popular TOMS vegan shoe giveaway and are now finding that standard footwear no longer measures up, hot-foot it to Greenopia where Katherine has listed the top eco-sneakers on the market today and gives advice on where to donate your shoes when they’re falling off your feet.

He’s walked 1,200 miles to raise awareness for the plight of homeless children. He’s about to walk the 600 miles from Atlanta to Washington. And he’s 11 years old. A kind of philanthropic Karl Bushby, Zach Bonner is a fund-raising walking machine, and you can read his story at MSNBC.

As someone who once got a chili seed in one of his eyes, I can attest that making hot sauce is dangerous. You need to know exactly what you’re doing, so we reckon you can’t go far wrong with Aleta’s comprehensive guide at Omnomicon. Although – is there a greener alternative to vinyl gloves?

We know that organic is the way to go in principle. But what about practice? Enough of “should”: is organic better? Chelsea Green‘s Makenna Goodman isn’t so sure. Have we been robbed by companies willfully misusing the loosely-defined organic label? Gary Hirshberg of Stonyfield Farm thinks Goodman’s aim is a little off: the real problem is the food system that small-scale farming challenges. Where do you weigh in?

If you’re wondering what the force of nature known as Bette Midler is up to these days, you don’t live in New York. She’s been tackling the city’s legendary garbage problems, and her New York Restoration Project has stumped up $38 million for good causes – not the first time she’s set such an inspiring example. Respect to the lady with the voice that parts your hair.

So, modular house-building is convenient, adaptive to the environment and oh-so-very-cool. But did you realise that you could knock a prefab together in just 8 days? It takes me that long to put up a shelf, let alone a house.

Finally, a dumb but impressively brave act of environmental terrorism. Just imagine if their timing had been off.

Image: Sleeping Bear

Ever want to just pack up and move…your country?

If you haven’t heard by now, President Mohamed Nasheed of the Maldives insists buying a new homeland may be the only option for the 300,000 islanders who selected him last year as the country’s first democratically-elected leader.

That’s because nightmarish climate change could drown the emerald chain of 1,200 islands and 26 coral atolls that make up the territory located 435 miles southwest of Sri Lanka in the Laccadine Sea of the Indian Ocean.

Location, location, location.

Yes, that’s the draw to this magnificent tourist escape, as well as the exact cause of the looming threat of a paradise lost under rising waters by the year 2100, as forecast by the United Nations. The ground level averages 1.5m above sea level and the highest point is at 2.3m – which is the lowest high point in the world, according to Wikipedia.

So, what’s a new leader to do? Shop and save.

“We can do nothing to stop climate change on our own and so we have to buy land elsewhere,” Nasheed told the British Guardian after taking office. “It’s an insurance policy for the worst possible outcome. After all, the Israelis [began by buying] land in Palestine.”

The President told the Guardian that even a “small rise” in sea levels would inundate large parts of the archipelago.

Maldivian President Mohamed Nasheed (right) and Vice-President Hamid Ansari in Male

All eyes are on this rising star of Asia and his plan to set aside a portion of the Muslim country’s billion-dollar annual tourist income to invest in a new home, perhaps in Sri Lanka, India or Australia.

The Maldives is an unbelievably exclusive travel destination with spectacular resorts visited by the rich and famous. It’s where Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes went on their honeymoon; they rented a boat and just sailed around the atolls. No cameras can get to you there. It’s as far away as you can get. And naturally, those running the resorts do well as everything costs a fortune.

The Four Seasons resort at the Maldives is one of many ultra luxury hotels

Speaking out against the government once cost a fortune in terms of freedom for Nasheed, who was arrested and sentenced to prison several times for his political activism, which included writing a popular magazine called Sangu. Having ascended to power he is wasting no time advocating for his people, including unveiling a plan last month to make his country a carbon-neutral nation within the next 10 years.

According to The Observer, the plan developed by British climate change experts Chris Goodall (author of Ten Technologies to Save the Planet) and Mark Lynas seeks to establish a near-zero carbon economy by eliminating all fossil fuel use on the Maldive archipelago by 2020. Instead, it is calling for clean electricity to power homes, businesses and vehicles.

Features of the bold initiative include a new renewable electricity generation and transmission infrastructure with 155 large wind turbines, half a square kilometre of rooftop solar panels, and a biomass plant burning coconut husks. Battery banks would provide back-up storage for when neither wind nor solar energy is available.

As Goodall put it: “We don’t want to pretend that this plan is going to be easy to implement. There will be hiccups, and electricity supply will occasionally be disrupted. But we think that building a near-zero-carbon Maldives is a realistic challenge. Get it right and we will show the apathetic developed world that action is possible, and at reasonable cost.”

Norway also wants to be zero-carbon by 2030, but The Observer says the Norwegian plan lets a good percentage of global emissions to be offset by investments in forestry schemes abroad.

Meanwhile, Lynas believes Nasheed is on the “front line of climate change” as the Maldives is the most vulnerable country in the world. “It is a poor country, but here we have a government that is throwing down the gauntlet to the rich, highly polluting countries,” he said.

The price is huge, said to be about $110m a year for 10 years, but could pay for itself in time as the nation will no longer rely on imported oil products for electricity generation, transport and other functions.

As Nasheed sees it, it’s a small price when you consider the alternative of watching rich polluting world powers ruin your land.

“Climate change is a global emergency,” he reminds us. “The world is in danger of going into cardiac arrest, yet we behave as if we’ve caught a common cold. Today, the Maldives has announced plans to become the world’s most eco-friendly country. I can only hope other nations follow suit.”