THE RED FLAGS OF
TALKING GREEN:
semantic trickery and can-do
paralysis
TABLE
OF CONTENTS_____
I
A WORD
II
THE
MEDIA, or the rhetoric starts here
III SOME
HISTORY WORTH REFINING:
urban
renewal and three more r's
IV THE
RESEARCHER'S TERMINOLGOY:
1.
herman e. daly's full world
2.
thomas princen's sufficiency
3.
nef's (un)happy planet index
V RESPONSIVE
LIVING:
1.
the experimental station
2.
mont radar
3.
internet resources and software
VI FROM
HERE ON (GETTING) OUT
WHAT IS THE WORD
Samuel
Beckett[1]
folly -
folly for to -
for to -
what is the word -
folly from this -
all this -
folly from all this -
given -
folly given all this -
seeing -
folly seeing all this -
this -
what is the word -
this this -
this this here -
all this this here -
folly given all this -
seeing -
folly seeing all this
this here -
for to -
what is the word -
see -
glimpse -
seem to glimpse -
folly for to need to
seem to glimpse -
what -
what is the word -
and where -
folly for to need to
seem to glimpse what where -
where -
what is the word -
there -
over there -
away over there -
afar -
afar away over there -
afaint -
afaint afar away over
there what -
what -
what is the word -
seeing all this -
all this this -
all this this here -
folly for to see what -
glimpse -
seem to glimpse -
need to seem to glimpse
-
afaint afar away over
there what -
folly for to need to
seem to glimpse afaint afar away over there what -what -
what is the word -
I A
WORD
SUSTAIN
-verb (used with object)
1. to
support, hold, or bear up from below; bear the weight
2. to
bear (a burden, charge, etc.).
3. to
undergo, experience, or suffer (injury, loss, etc.);
4. to
keep (a person, the mind, the spirits, etc.) from giving way, as under trial or
affliction.
5. to
keep up or keep going, as an action or process: to sustain a conversation.
6. to
supply with food, drink, and other necessities of life.
7. to
provide for (an institution or the like) by furnishing means or funds.
8. to
support (a cause or the like) by aid or approval.
9. to
uphold as valid, just, or correct, as a claim or the person making it: The
judge sustained the lawyer's objection.
10. to confirm or
corroborate, as a statement: Further
I say "sustainable" and I feel a resistance. Does it
feel too much like a freshly set a-buzzing business escape hatch? It goes down
the hatch, but does one ever stop a word from vibrating? Or does the president
sleep more soundly now that he's held a beaker of ethanol in his hands? Sustainable: the word usually sits next to
development at the meetings. The meeting of needs, those of this generation and
maybe another seven. Most business plans include projections for three or five
years. How many three or five years of business as usual are there left for a
population of 6.5 billion and growing? And who's going to pay for the
psychoanalysis necessary to explain why Las Vegas should be a ghost town,
instead of Detroit... We are no longer speaking about automobiles here, but
drinking water.
This research began as a feasibility study for renovating an existing
structure into a space for cooperative living, farming, cultural production,
etc. An important facet of the rehabilitation is enlisting the aid of friends
(architects, engineers and other artists) to contribute to the overall
development of the space, and in addition, work to adapt systems for water
collection and energy production/storage. Although the ultimate goal of the
project is still to create an environment for cooperative living, the present
research has taken a detour towards a more semantic inquiry. Currently, I am
interested in making an analytical survey of the language employed in
discussing sustainable development and motivating social action. This language
can be used for smoothing around confrontations but can also become the bridge between
talking about action
and taking action.
II THE
MEDIA OR, THE RHETORIC STARTS HERE
MEDIUS, MIDDLE, MEDIUM!
Environmental issues are beginning to have more regular coverage
in the American mass media, but the stories being presented seem distanced and
lackadaisical in comparison with the urgent, action-now voice coming from
less-accessed scientific and academic publications. Visit the website of The
New York Times Online and one can read stories about socialites selling
eco-friendly cleaning products, masses of fish in the Great Lakes dying of an
unknown disease, fair-trade coffee, hybrid cars, and see an advertisement for a
sweepstakes in which one can win "The Ultimate Green Home Makeover"
from a soy milk company[2].
The benefits of this sort of press are questionable. Commodifying
the planet, its natural resources, and inhabitants, has been the continuous
action of business since the industrial revolution. Persuading the public to
purchase more ethically or ecologically produced clothing, food or appliances
seems like a feel-good diversion from the more complex issues spawned from
manufacturing practices and consuming lifestyles that are contributing,
although some would STILL say arguably, to global warming, loss of
bio-diversity and neurological and physical illnesses. If viewed with through
the rosiest of glass, this new popularization of eco-friendly products may
persuade companies that "green"=green.
"What does America need to regain its global stature?"
asks the headline of Thomas L. Friedman's recent article "The Power of
Green" featured on the cover of The New York Times Sunday Magazine. The
headline replies like it knows what it's talking about: "Environmental
leadership." It seems like a proposition befit of the most competitive
marketing campaign: SUSTAINABILITY = RENEWED GLOBAL SOVERIENTY. Who knew such a
thing as empire was still so entrenched in the popular imagination? The desire
for proliferation, control and a way to ease mortality pains is always
reinventing itself in the political sphere. The following paragraphs are the
opening to Friedman's article.
One day Iraq, our post-9/11 trauma and the divisiveness
of the Bush years will all be behind us and America will need, and want, to
get its groove back. We will need to find a way to reknit America
at home, reconnect America abroad and restore America to its natural place
in the global order as the beacon of progress, hope and inspiration. I have an idea how.
It's called "green."
In the world of ideas, to name something is to
own it. If you can name an issue, you can own the issue. One thing that always
struck me about the term "green" was the degree to which, for so many years,
it was defined by its opponents, by the people who wanted to disparage it.
And they defined it as "liberal," "tree-hugging," "sissy,"
"girlie-man," "unpatriotic," "vaguely French."
Well, I want to rename "green." I
want to rename it geostrategic, geoeconomic, capitalistic and patriotic. I want to do that because
I think that living, working, designing, manufacturing and projecting America
in a green way can be the basis of a new unifying political movement for the
21st century. A redefined, broader and more muscular green ideology
is not meant to trump the traditional Republican and Democratic agendas but
rather to bridge them when it comes to addressing the three major issues facing
every American today: jobs, temperature and terrorism.
[3]
His tone, terminology, and elbow rubbing with discrimination read
like the stereotype of the authority figure vamping cool. IS this really the
way one must convey information in America in order to draw any attention
to the
Ego stroking advertising that promises good karma with each
purchase and well-respected popular news forums are reinforcing the
continuation of consumer habits that's liken to handling an entire nation with
kid gloves; but it is precisely this delicacy (or avoidance) that is strangling
it. At best, one could say they that these gradual introductions to consumer
accountability may ease the receptiveness to more direct forms of
communication.
ON THE SIDE...
One could investigate all forms of communication in terms of
marketing. In order to express one's internal conscious desires (perhaps
already skewed by the shifting murk of unconscious ones), it is necessary to
employ gesticulations that are legible within the terms of particular social
structures.
We do not know just what forms early stories took. One
possibility is that they were often spontaneous accounts of a personal act of
bravery or feat of skill that a man wanted to impress upon his fellow
tribesman.
A social behavior cannot result from a moral
rule; it expresses the structure of a society, a play of material forces that
animates it. -Georges
Bataille[5]
From the earliest tribes of hunters to
contemporary journalists, the common force that animates communications is
the drive to exert one's position in the social structure. It is as if to
proclaim, my thoughts exist, therefore I exist, because when I attempt to
express myself a reaction may prove that there is some materiality to my ideas.
The words employed in such fields as policy-making must work to forge principles
that eventually precipitate an unconscious critical thinking process. Organizational
policies are ghosts or after-images.
[6]
So how does one speak in the present? In a time still situated
in the middle of Benjamin's phantasmagoria (the etymology of phantasmagoria can be traced to the Greek 'phantasma' ghost and 'agoreuein' to speak in public
[7]
), in a society perpetually spinning out on Marx's dancing
table? How can we relate Marx's human labor to
Bataille's play of material forces?
Detroit,
Michigan, 1967.
Objective form, made an object, given
its form through description, a physicality as much as words make palpable or
communicate. Compare language to money and the nature of circulation, or
communication:
Namely, it is circulation which is out of hand, not like nature but like
money, which is sheer circulation, the sheer circulation or play of the
signifier, and which is, as
you know, the root of error, madness, stupidity, and all other evil. -Friedrich
Schlegel[8]
The linen, the coat, the paper on which money is printed, the
computer's hard drive or the modulations of electrical or optical currents necessary to
transmit information are all material bases for the disembodied sign systems
they sustain. -J. Hillis
Miller[9]
III SOME
HISTORY WORTH REFINING
The city is studied for how the past looks back
at us for recognition in the duration and depredation of objects, persons, and
memories in time. It invites us to treat experience as stretching across time
rather than simply extending in space. It accumulates metonymic objects and
artifacts as a kind of involuntary memory. To elicit this memory is to arrive
at a moment of recognition of how the present was-or-was-not immanent in
what-has-been as its future. In this sense, the city is rune and ruin; aura and
trace. It is never complete, but always already debris. As an emblem in the
allegory of modernity, the city stands for the failure of
Enlightenment to realize Utopia, just as the postmodern phase, predicament,
attitude, state of mind, is the willingness to live in the phantasmal after
having consigned the project of Utopia back to mythology. -Rajeev S. Patke[10]
The
local government gets federal funding, who's chewing the fat of big business
and sometimes it manages to spit out an idea in between bites for something
like a utopian social project called URBAN RENEWEL. From the 1940's- 1970's
this work is stripped down into three steps:
1.
RAZE: Tear down and apart the existing communities
2.
BUILD NEW: Highways and housing projects that look like the FUTURE
3.
(RE)ORDER: Community to conform to business.
WHAT
failed, WHAT can work NOW?
Adapt
an ideology
1.
REUSE: Renovate existing buildings that are structurally sound.
2.
RECYCLE: Materials from buildings that must be demolished.
3.
REDUCE: New building that perpetuates urban sprawl and requires extending the
existing grid.
III THE RESEARCHER'S TERMINOLOGY
In
order to divest sustainability
and green of their potential to
be associated with or dismissed as something leftist, radical, or cult-like,
economic researchers are working to redefine how the global economy is being
discussed. By using what could be termed a colloquial economics language mixed
with innovative comparisons of data, the following critical thinkers are
pointing out a new perspective, respectfully rooted in science and brimming
with heavy social implications.
1.
Herman E. Daly's FULL World
"[THE]
FACTS ARE PLAIN AND UNCONTESTABLE: THE BIOSHPERE IS FINITE, NONGROWING, CLOSED
(EXCEPT FOR THE CONSTANT INPUT OF SOALR ENERGY), AND CONSTRAINED BY THE LAWS OF
THERMODYNAMICS. ANY SUBSYSTEM, SUCH AS THE ECONOMY, MUST AT SOME POINT CEASE
GROWING AND ADAPT ITSELF TO A DYNAMIC EQUILIBRIUM, SOMETHING LIKE A STEADY
STATE. BIRTH RATES MUST EQUAL DEATH RATES, AND PRODUCTION OF COMMODIITES MUST
EQUAL DEPRECIATION RATES." Herman E. Daly[11]
Herman
E. Daly is a professor at The School of Public Policy at University of
Maryland. Daly formerly worked as the senior economist in the environment
department of the World Bank (from 1988-1994), and is considered one of the
founders of environmental economics. In his essay from 2005, Economics in a
Full World, Daly begins his
criticism of current business and consumption practices with switching the
modifier of the word world from
"empty" into it's opposite, "full." This dialectical
swap-out is one of Daly's favorite semiotic tricks (empty vs. full world,
natural vs. man-made capitol, producing bads vs. goods, utility vs. disutility,
unlimited resources (solar energy) vs. limited resources (fixed stock of
minerals and fossil fuels), but it does seem to make discussing the complex
inter-relatedness of the economy and the environment more comprehensible to a
broader audience. He describes economy as "a subsystem of the finite biosphere"[12]
that it exists within. Considering we are more or less trapped in our current
biosphere, finite seems like a very precise word to activate perspective. We
can talk all we want about how space is infinite, or maybe even that space
doesn't exist, but if we want to continue having this conversation, we have to
first address the very practical problem of a global economy dependant on
growth. According to Daly, a growth-based economy was not a problem at the
beginning of the industrial revolution, when people more or less inhabited an
"empty" world with seemingly limitless natural resources and space
for unlimited man-made objects. Due to the fact that we now live in a
"full" world, not only in terms of populations, but also their
material objects, which we must consider, have life spans as well, ranging from
utility to disutility.
When the economy's expansion encroaches too much on
its surrounding ecosystem, we will begin to sacrifice natural capital (such as
fish, minerals and fossil fuels) that is worth much more than the man-mad
capital (such as roads, factories and appliances) added by the growth. We will
then have what I call uneconomic growth, producing "bads" faster than
goods--- making us poorer, not richer. (Daly, p. 100)
Daly expands on his idea of uneconomical growth by
saying that it occurs when production is increased "at an expense of
resources and well-being that is worth more than the items made." One can
wave around sheets of statistical data related to resource consumption and
material production, but "well-being" seems to be push the comfort
threshold of those tied to traditional economic variables. It is exactly this
immaterial factor of well being whose consideration could ultimately work to
sway the public opinion of shifting away from a growth based economy to a
sustainable one. The ISEW, or index of sustainable economic welfare, was
developed in 1989 by Clifford W. Cobb and John B. Cobb, Jr. Unlike the GDP,
which is a measure of overall economic activity [the annual market value of
final goods and services purchased in a nation, plus all exports net of
imports; expressed as:
GDP = consumption + investment +
(government spending) + (exports - imports)], the ISEW takes into account the following data:
Column
A: Year
Column
B: Consumer Expenditure
Column
C: Income Inequality
Column
D: Adjusted Consumer Expenditure
Column
E(+): Services from Domestic Labor
Column
F(+): Services from Consumer Durables
Column
G(+): Services from Streets and Highways
Column
H(+): Public Expenditure on Health and Education
Column
I(-): Consumer Durables: difference between expenditure and value of services
Column
J(-): Defensive Private Expenditures on Health and Education
Column
K(-): Costs of Commuting
Column
L(-): Costs of Personal Pollution Control
Column
M(-): Costs of Automobile Accidents
Column
N(-): Costs of Water Pollution
Column
O(-): Costs of Air Pollution
Column
P(-): Costs of Noise Pollution
Column
Q(-): Loss of Natural Habitats
Column
R(-): Loss of Farmlands
Column
S(-): Depletion of Non-Renewable Resources
Column
T(-): Costs of Climate Change
Column
U(-): Costs of Ozone Depletion
Column
V(+): Net Capital Growth
Column
W(+): Net Change in International Position
Column
X: Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare
Column
Y: Per capita Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare
Column
Z: Gross Domestic Product
Column AA: Per capita
Gross Domestic Product[13]
The way that Daly proposes to enact an economic
change that aims to up the ISEW, rather than the GDP, is by reorienting the
current throughput (growth) economy to one that is sustainable (development).
[The] GDP is problematic because [it] conflates
qualitative improvement (development) with quantitative increase (growth). The
sustainable economy must at some point stop growing, but it need not stop
developing. There is no reason to limit the qualitative improvement in design
of products, which can increase GDP without increasing the amount of resources
used. The main idea behind sustainability is to shift the path of progress from
growth, which is not sustainable, toward development, which presumably is.
(Daly, p. 103)
Daly's main motivations for pursuing this type of
sustainable economy are to stop the current trend of "borrow[ing] from the
supply of future generations,"[14]
and avoid "an ecological catastrophe that would sharply lower living
standards."[15] He suggests
three precepts to aid this transition:
1. Limit the use of all resources
to rates that ultimately
result in levels of waste that can
be absorbed by the ecosystem.
2. Exploit renewable resources at
rates that do not exceed the ability of the ecosystem to regenerate the
resources.
3. Deplete nonrenewable resources
at rates that, as far as possible, do not exceed the rate of development of renewable
resources. (Daly, p. 102)
2. Thomas Princen's SUFFIENCY
"PRECIEVED CRISES DEMAND ALTERNATIVE FORMS OF SOCIAL
ORGANIZATION, ONES THAT MAKE TRANSFORMATIONAL, NOT MARGINAL, CHANGE."
Thomas Princen[16]
Thomas Princen is an Associate Professor of International Natural
Resources and Environmental Policy at the School of Natural Resources and
Environment at The University of Michigan. Although he enlists several of
Daly's key concepts for his critique, Princen is much more focused on just
how the terminology around sustainability has impeded any real economical
changes.
[The]] prevailing principles of social
organization- cooperation, efficiency, equity, sovereignty- are not up to the
task. They may have worked in times of resource abundance, in an ecologically
"empty world," a world where human impact is minor, where there is always
another frontier, but they do not work now. They do not guide decision
makers- not elite global managers, not farmers and ashers, not corporate
leaders, not consumers- in reversing the biophysical trends and getting on a
sustainable path. (Thomas Princen,
p. 34)
Princen
points the finger at analysts, specifically those involved in policy making,
who "try to maintain the purity of their science by eschewing the
politics," and consequently defer any potential for taking action to people in diplomatic or bureaucratic positions
"who understand little of that science."[18]
He faults them for the continuation of environmental improvement (short-term, marginal improvements based on current
resource use practices that produce little to no social or political change,
and that at best, slow the rate of environmental degradation), over the
implementation of sustainability (long-term, transformational change for
ecological integrity based on biophysical processes that will dictate
alternative social organizations). Like Daly, who sees the problem of the
political co-opting of "the buzzword "sustainability" for its
soothing rhetorical effect without meaning anything by it,"[19]
Princen calls for "an effective vocabulary for the policy maker and activist that allow,
indeed encourage, an escape from the well-worn prescriptions that result in
marginal change at best."[20]
He condemns the terms "cooperation" and "efficiency" for
prolonging environmental improvement and impeding attempts to reverse biophysical trends in degradation
through their displacement of problems. People can agree that something most be
done, but the way in which diplomatic organizations cooperate ("negotiating, reaching agreement,
implementing, monitoring, resolving disputes, building confidence"[21])
only works to deter "the drastic overhaul"[22]
that he feels needs to be performed on the economy's operation. Organizations
may work at increasing the efficiency of a system, but they are still avoiding the over-arching structural
problem of a growth-oriented economy. It may sound like something is being
done, but behind these illusionary projects are actual biophysical conditions
that should be calling the shots.
As intuitive and popular as cooperation and efficiency are,
both suffer from "normative" neutrality." One can cooperate to
protect a forest just as well as one can cooperate to clear-cut it. One can
find efficiencies in harvesting so as to save trees just as well as one can
find efficiencies to get every last bit of fiber off an acre of forestland.
When incentives line up on the side of return on investment and growth,
cooperation and efficiency lean toward clear cutting and extraction, toward
ever more economic activity, toward spurring material and energy throughput in
the economy. -Princen, p. 40
He proposes to replace efficiency and cooperation
with sufficiency, a class of
principles designed to be a means of self-management in terms of
over-consumption. Princen says sufficiency,
... compels decision makers to ask
when too much resource use or too little regeneration risks important values
such as ecological integrity and social cohesion, when material gains now
preclude material gains in the future, when consumer gratification or investor
reward threatens economic security, when benefits internalized depend on costs
externalized. -Princen, p. 44
Princen's SUFFIENCY PRINCIPLES:
Restraint- The behavioral tendency to use less than what is
physically or technically or legally or financially possible; a self-management
and structuring resource use with built-in limits.
Precautionary- Corrective action is warranted in the face of
critical environmental threats even if the science is not conclusive.
Polluter
Pays- Those actors primarily
responsible for degradation pay for clean up and amelioration.
Zero- Compromise solutions are unacceptable when such
compromises serve only to postpone a real solution; goes beyond the precautionary to work as a preemptive halt to environmental
insult's incompatible with the ecosystem functioning.
Reverse
Onus- Reverses the license to
produce any substance and leave it up to others to demonstrate its harm,
putting the burden of proof on those who would intervene into critical life
support systems. Allows experiments in tightly controlled labs, after which the
would-be inventor must demonstrate that any harm is extremely unlikely before
being permitted to release the substance into the atmosphere or water systems.[23]
3. New Economics Foundation's (UN)HAPPY PLANET INDEX
"GROWTH ISN'T WORKING... IT CONSISTENTLY FAILS TO TAKE
ACCOUNT OF REAL WORLD ENVIRONMENTAL LIMITS... WE HAVE ONLY ONE HABITABLE
PLANET, BOUNDED BY SCIENTIFIC LAWS OF MATTER AND ENERGY. UNFORTUNATELY, WE
CANNOT CONJURE NEW RESOURCES OUT OF NOTHING." -The New Economics
Foundation[24]
Founded in 1986 by the leaders of The Other Economic Summit
(TOES), the New Economics Foundation has created a wealth (as in well-being of
the planet and it's
inhabitants) index in much the same spirit as the ISEW mentioned previously,[25]
and as a sort of critique of the United Nations' HDI (Human Development Index).
Their index, the HPI, which was published in 2006, survey's 178 countries
globally that are presented in the following groups: Western World, Middle East
and North Africa, Africa, Asia, Former Communist Countries, Central and South
America, and Caribbean and West Pacific. Each country receives a number on a
scale of 1-100 that is representative of the surveyed country's life
expectancy, ecological footprint, and life satisfaction, and the results for
each category are color coded according to the shades of a traffic light (dark
red to green=bad to exceptional performance). The comparisons that can be made
with just these three variables are very intriguing. The United States and
Germany have very similar life satisfaction and expectancy scores, but
Germany's ecological footprint is about half that of The United States. On the
other hand, Russia and Japan have the same ecological footprint, but the
Japanese live about 17 years longer and rated 50 percent higher for life
satisfaction than the Russians. Statistical data can be used to prove a point,
so use it.
IV RESPONSIVE LIVING
It
seems that the researchers are all more or less under the same impression: by
the time those with real political and economic power see the light, the solar
power of the sun may be the only light left to see. Putting into action
policies that have a truly transformational effect on how the economy is run,
as opposed to the current "trickle-down" version of sustainability,
is a process that might never get the chance to be graciously implemented. In
the meantime, let's not forget that we're all still individuals and can work
towards lessening our own ecological footprints and contribute to more
fulfilling means of engaging with society and the environment around us. Returning
to the initial motivations behind this research, I would like to present two
functioning examples of cooperative living environments that have little to do
with the stereotypes of communal spaces. Here there is no particular emphasis
on spirituality or having multiple sex partners. Come and go as you please, but
participate if you're going to stick around.
1.
The Experimental Station, Chicago, USA
"...YOU
COULD COLLECT A LOT OF INFORAMTION ON SUSTAINABLE LIVING, BUT IF YOU LIVE
SUSTAINABLY FOR FIFTY YEARS, THEN YOU'VE DONE SOMETHING ENTIRELY DIFFERENT AND
ENTIRELY BETTER." -Dan Peterman[26]
In
1986, Dan Peterman began working for the Resource Center at 61st Street in
Chicago in exchange for studio space there. The Resource Center had already
been reused for a number of purposes before becoming the first and largest
non-profit recycling center in the city in the late 1960's. Headed by Ken Dunn,
the facility also housed small-scale alternative ventures like a book and
clothing exchange, a bakery, gardens and a bike shop. Before Peterman began
driving a materials pick-up truck that would bring things back to the building
for sorting, he said that all the physical remains of these past uses left the
space "embedded with a rich social history."
It was a window into a period of time that had faded away
most everywhere except in Christiania, outside of Copenhagen, and that really
attracted me to it. The activities associated with the Building definitely were
rooted in Sixties counterculture, and the environmental aspect was part of it,
but there were other dimensions as well. Many of the people who organized those
activities were still around and available when I got here, and became my
friends and colleagues. So being here allowed me to unpack a period of time that
was really interesting to me, and to explore social structures along with
environmental and artistic strategies. -Dan Peterman[27]
In
1995, Peterman was able to acquire ownership of the building and set out to not
only offer studio spaces to other artists, but to a variety of other small
enterprises, in order to open up a new space for interaction between the
neighborhood, the building, and it's cohabitants. An auto mechanic who had been
operating out of the Resource Center since the 1970's was now working in the
same space as a critical journal, a woodworking shop, and a bicycle shop that
trained neighborhood kids to repair donated bicycles in exchange for bike parts
of their own. Dan Wang describes the Building during this time period as,
.... a junk-hippie kind of place with... [a] ramshackle
structure, the three rusty VW microbuses parked along the curb, and the
overflowing community gardens adjacent to the Building... [I]nstead of fresh
country air, you got the mixed scents of the city. Instead of folk dancing, you
had neighborhood kids free-styling as they walked by... [V]arious small-scale
enterprises gathered under one roof, each of which in its own way updated,
critiqued, and advanced the validity of projects rooted in earlier
counterculture activity. And doing it there, in the shadows of the University
and on the edge of the impoverished Woodlawn neighborhood, as if to say that no
progressive cultural project would succeed without everyone, no matter their
race or class, getting a chance to take part.[28]
Five
years later Peterman faced a tenuous battle with the city of Chicago in which
the Chicago Public Schools tried take his property by eminent domain. When the
time-consuming and costly negotiations ended, Peterman was able to retain
ownership of 80% of the original property, but the next year brought an even
worse disaster. In the spring of 2001, a fire destroyed most of the interior
structure of the Building. Peterman organized an emergency campaign to save the
remains from the wrecking ball, because if the original walls of the structure
came down or were deemed unfit for rehabilitation, a new residential structure
could not be built on the site.[29]
After enduring more difficulties with the city, Peterman finally received his
building permits and was able to begin construction on The Experimental Station
(taking its name from a Frank Lloyd Wright reference) in 2003. The new building
will house many of the pre-fire projects, and the minimal architectural plans
leave open the possibility for "rooftop gardens with greenhouses,
eco-design, [and] self-sustaining energy projects."[30]
I think [the name the Experimental Station] suggests a very
clear, anchored, Midwestern identity, but also doesn't exactly spell out what
we're doing. It gives an easy and usable explanation, and it sounds productive,
like a concept that's been developed. But in the end, hopefully, it's kind of
hard to peg down beyond an incubator model. Of course, the question is
incubating what? And at that point we're striving to keep things as open as
possible... Rather than the enormous gulf that currently exists between
foundations and projects they fund, why not operate within a stable community
of some kind, and have the ability to disburse funds much more directly and
much more efficiently.
-Dan Peterman[31]
2.
Mont Radar, Québec, CANADA
There is a growing global network of communities that refer to
themselves as ecovillages, and although they differ in size and geographical
location, they all share one goal: to live as close to sustainable as possible.
One such village is Mont Radar, located in Québec on the site of a former
cold-war military base that once housed the strongest radar of its time.
Similar to Dan Peterman's reclamation project, although in a rural as opposed
to urban setting, the first owner of Mont Radar, Jean-Marc Deneau, adapted the
existing structures as the basis for his community beginning in 1996. Since
that time Deneau has developed the property to be used for large-scale
festivals, ecotourism, and housing temporary and permanent residents.
When I began this project I contacted a wide range of alternative
living communities and social centers, from American coops to German
ecovillages, in order to collect information from them concerning several basic
questions. From over thirty letters, I had two responses. The anarchist coop in
Detroit wrote back a few times, but never came through with any definitive
answers to my preformatted questions. The following interview is between Leslie
C., a permanent resident at Mont Radar, and myself.
JL: What are the organizations specific social,
political or artistic
interests?
LC: First, the project to not present any
political opinions, but everyone is free to have its own belief as long as it
doesn't disturb the community. The social interests are to create and
experience the social project, the community based on ecological values and to
make it the most sustainable as possible. There is an important place for arts
in the project. We focus on creation and we often organize events and
gatherings that respect the ecological values of the ecovillage.
JL: How and when was the organization founded
and by whom?
LC: Jean-Marc Deneau is the first founder of
Mont-Radar's project. He bought the mountain in 1996 when it was abandoned and
in ruin. For the last 10 years, he worked hard to get rid of the motor, 4X4 and
all the people who had only money interests in the project. Two years ago, he
associate we Philippe Laramée, the editor of AUBE, an ecological magazine, and
together they started the ecovillage project.
JL: How was the space initially purchased or
acquired for use?
LC: When Mr. Deneau bought the mountain he was
having a vision of the place as an ecological outdoor center /summer camp. He
bought the mountain with the desire to have this space open for people to
connect with nature by spending time outside, practice non-motorized sports
like mountain biking, snowshoeing, skiing...
JL: How are funds raised to maintain the space?
LC: The economic viability is actually
maintained principally with the sell of piece of land to the residents and with
ecotourism. We have a hostel with private rooms and a dormitory that we rent
for the night, week or month. Also, we frequently organize events, one each
month, and rent the theater or the bunker for groups that have their own events
at the mountain. In the future, we will also develop a local economy in the
ecovillage principally with education, ecotourism, residents' developing their
own small business or creating cooperative, non-profit organism, etc.
JL: Who participates in the maintenance of the
space?
LC: All the residents shall participate in
common work around ten hours a week. Sometimes we plan special tasks in-group
and with collaborators of the projects and some visitors.
JL: How is the organization governed?
LC: The actual legal status of the mountain is
a company administrated like a non-profit organization by an administration
council composed of three persons.
JL: What were the most significant problems
encountered in developing the organization? And maintaining it now?
LC: In both case, economic, to pay the
maintenance expenses, and human resources, to deal and get along with
everyone's personality.
JL: Has the organization changed from the time
of its inception until now?
LC: Yes, until Mr. Deneau was able to get new
partner in the project it was very different because his old partners were
having a vision of the place not in respect with the nature. Two years ago, Mr.
Deneau associated with his new partner Philippe LaramŽe and together they
construct their vision of the ecovillage based on ecological principles and
values.
3. Internet Resources and Software:
The following is a list of publicly available
software programs and internet sites that pragmatically address the goal of
sustainability.
Sustability.org
Website featuring directories of resources in the following
categories: Agriculture & Food Systems, Fisheries, Forestry & Wood
Products, Manufacturing & Industry, Small Business, Technology, Economics
& Finance, and Urban/Rural Economic Ties.
"The goal of community sustainability is to
establish local economies that are economically viable, environmentally sound
and socially responsible. Achieving this goal requires participation from all
sectors of the community, both to determine community needs and to identify and
implement innovative and appropriate solutions. This section presents
information from a variety of sources on approaches and techniques used
successfully in different communities to develop key aspects of their local
economies on a sustainable basis."
Global Ecovillage Network
Website[32]
featuring directories of global ecovillages.
"The Global Ecovillage Network is a global
confederation of people and communities that meet and share their ideas, exchange
technologies, develop cultural and educational exchanges, directories and
newsletters, and are dedicated to restoring the land and living
"sustainable plus" lives by putting more back into the environment
than we take out. Network members include large networks like Sarvodaya (11,000
sustainable villages in Sri Lanka); EcoYoff and Colufifa (350 villages in
Senegal); the Ladakh project on the Tibetian plateau; ecotowns like Auroville
in South India, the Federation of Damanhur in Italy and Nimbin in Australia;
small rural ecovillages like Gaia Asociaci—n in Argentina and Huehuecoyotl,
Mexico; urban rejuvenation projects like Los Angeles EcoVillage and Christiania
in Copenhagen; permaculture design sites such as Crystal Waters, Australia,
Cochabamba, Bolivia and Barus, Brazil; and educational centers such as Findhorn
in Scotland, Centre for Alternative Technology in Wales, Earthlands in
Massachusetts, and many more. GEN's main aim is to support and encourage the
evolution of sustainable settlements across the world."
The Environmental Impact Estimator
Software available for purchase to project a construction's
project environmental impact.[33]
"Architects,
engineers and researchers can get life cycle assessment (LCA) answers about
conceptual designs of new buildings or renovations to existing buildings from
the Athena Institute's Environmental Impact Estimator. The Estimator lets you
assess the environmental implications of industrial, institutional, office, and
both multi-unit and single family residential designs. Where relevant, it also
distinguishes between owner-occupied and rental facilities. The Estimator puts
the environment on an equal footing with other more traditional design criteria
at the conceptual design stage of a building project. The Estimator
incorporates the Institute's internationally recognized life cycle inventory
databases, covering more than 90 structural and envelope materials. It
simulates over 1,000 different assembly combinations and is capable of modeling
95% of the building stock in North America. The Estimator takes into account
the environmental effects of: material manufacturing, including resource
extraction and recycled content; related transportation; on-site construction;
regional variation in energy use, transportation and other factors; building
type and assumed lifespan; maintenance, repair and replacement effects;
demolition and disposal; operating energy emissions and pre-combustion
effects."
HOMER
Software available for free to analyze different power generation
technologies.[34]
"HOMER
is a computer model that simplifies the task of evaluating design options for
both off-grid and grid-connected power systems for remote, stand-alone, and
distributed generation (DG) applications. HOMER's optimization and sensitivity
analysis algorithms allow you to evaluate the economic and technical
feasibility of a large number of technology options and to account for
variation in technology costs and energy resource availability. HOMER models
both conventional and renewable energy technologies. Power sources: solar
photovoltaic (PV), wind turbine, run-of-river hydro power, electric utility
grid, microturbine, fuel cell, and generator: diesel, gasoline, biogas,
alternative and custom fuels, cofired. Storage: battery bank or hydrogen. Loads:
daily profiles with seasonal variation, deferrable (water pumping,
refrigeration), thermal (space heating, crop drying), efficiency
measures."
The Monte Carlo Method
Statistical principle named after the casino in
Monaco in which a calculation is repeated many times. Each time a random value
is chosen for each flow, for example an emission or raw material input. The
resulting range of all calculation results form a distribution from which
uncertainty information can be derived with basic statistical methods.
President's Council on Sustainable Development
The following goals were established in 1993 to advise former President Clinton on sustainable development.[35]
Goal
1: Health And The Environment
Ensure
that every person enjoys the benefits of
clean air, clean water, and a healthy environment at home, at work, and
at play.
Goal
2: Economic Prosperity
Sustain
a healthy U.S. economy that grows sufficiently to create meaningful jobs,
reduce poverty, and provide the opportunity for a high quality of life for all
in an increasingly competitive world.
Goal
3: Equity
Ensure
that all Americans are afforded justice and have the opportunity to achieve
economic, environmental, and social well-being.
Goal
4: Conservation Of Nature
Use,
conserve, protect, and restore natural resources -- land, air, water, and
biodiversity -- in ways that help ensure long-term social, economic, and
environmental benefits for ourselves and future generations.
Goal
5: Stewardship
Create
a widely held ethic of stewardship that strongly encourages individuals,
institutions, and corporations to take full responsibility for the economic,
environmental, and social consequences of their actions.
Goal
6: Sustainable Communities
Encourage
people to work together to create
healthy communities where natural and historic resources are preserved,
jobs are available, sprawl is contained, neighborhoods are secure, education is
lifelong, transportation and health care are accessible, and all citizens have opportunities to improve
the quality of their lives.
Goal
7: Civic Engagement
Create
full opportunity for citizens, businesses, and communities to participate in
and influence the natural resource, environmental, and economic decisions that
affect them.
Goal
8: Population
Move
toward stabilization of U.S. population.
Goal
9: International Responsibility
Take
a leadership role in the development and implementation of global sustainable
development policies, standards of conduct, and trade and foreign policies that
further the achievement of sustainability.
Goal
10: Education
Ensure
that all Americans have equal access to education and lifelong learning
opportunities that will prepare them for meaningful work, a high quality of
life, and an understanding of the concepts involved in sustainable development.
SimaPro
Software available for purchase to perform lifecycle analysis.[36]
"SimaPro
provides you with a professional tool to collect, analyze and monitor the
environmental performance of products and services. You can easily model and
analyze complex life cycles in a systematic and transparent way, following the
ISO 14040 series recommendations."
VII FROM
HERE ON (GETTING) OUT
"PROPERTY
IS STEALING!"
or...
"PROPERTY
IS LIBERTY!"[37]
Proudhon
said both, and both times, he was right. In an ideal world, things like
property and natural resources, and the wealth made by man's labor, would
belong to the community, not to individuals or nations. Words are like ghosts:
they might have belonged to the world of materiality once, when your brain
thought they were holding the reins of expression, but as soon as they are
uttered aloud, they disperse and evaporate into whatever form on-listeners
eardrums stretch them as. The words of policy makers register as an appeasing
plea while the corporations give accountability the silent treatment. The
activists sound off with the garbled screams of a child on the floor in the
throws of an emotional temper-tantrum, or at least that's what the well-suited
businessman heard. So maybe the best way out is to buy in now. Get together
whatever funding possible and buy a piece of property. Somewhere still thick
with trees or somewhere thick with concrete and brick. The trick is, to keep
this space open for the open-minded and get the ball rolling down the path we
decide for ourselves.
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