Everyone Has an Interest in Sustainability
By NICK PECKHAM
Sustainability is a funny word. It has one meaning to a nation, another meaning to a neighborhood. Sustainability concerns change with age and experience; it waxes and wanes with the economy and with the state of war and peace.
As each of us maps strategies for our own well-being, let’s consider why we might care about the web of life people are a small part of.
We live on a small planet. Four billion years ago, Earth was formed along with the rest of the solar system. For a billion years it was too hot to support life. The first life form was probably an amoeba in the ocean. Today, a mere 3 billion years later, human beings have given names to more than 1.6 million different life forms.
Modern society, associated with organized farming, is only a few thousand years old. The United States is a really young 232 years – longer than most things live but hardly a click on Mother Earth’s wristwatch.
In 1776 there were fewer than a billion people on Earth; today we number nearly 7 billion, each of us using the resources of Earth for all we eat or make and for the economy that permits modern society to exist.
The global economy runs on energy – and lots of it, mostly from fossil fuel. Fossil fuel burning has disrupted the weather patterns and damaged the atmosphere.
In 1859 the United States produced 2,000 barrels of oil, and by 1906 this production increased to nearly 125 million barrels. Oil production continued to increase throughout the 20th century, as did coal mining and natural gas production.
The fossil fuels and uranium exist in finite quantities on Earth. In 2004, USA Today reported enough oil remained on Earth to last about 40 years. The estimates for natural gas (50 years) and coal (200 years) are tempered by our clearer understanding of what burning all these fossil fuels is doing to the world we live in. In 2006, the International Atomic Energy Agency estimated an 85-year supply of uranium remains.
Electric power plants boil water to make steam to run turbines that turn generators. All this water boiling is done with the heat from fossil fuels, nuclear reactions and recently focused solar energy. This leads us to renewable energy.
The good news is there is plenty of it. Sun, wind, ocean and river movements and geothermal are all available. Renewable energy equipment is being manufactured at both large and small scales. On my farm, I have a 2-kilowatt wind generator, and Columbia gets some electricity from the 2,000-kilowatt wind generators in northwest Missouri.
We, the people, need to transform our relationship with the planet we live on. A deeper understanding of sustainability by citizens everywhere is the key. The practical focus on our economy will provide employment for an increasing number of people using less energy per person. This energy must come from renewable strategies.
Earth is the only place that supports human life. There is nowhere else for billions of people to go.
We live in challenging times, and as Buckminster Fuller observed, “The 21st century is when we find out if the human race is a failed experiment.” I believe the human spirit can overcome this challenge. It’s time to get going.
Nick Peckham is an architect with Peckham & Wright Architects and inventor of the RioGen.
Originally published by NICK PECKHAM.
(c) 2008 Columbia Daily Tribune. Provided by ProQuest LLC. All rights Reserved.