Ignorance. Want. Needs.

Earlier this month, Peter and Mike did a show on the recent Marcellus Summit 2010 hosted at the Penn Stater Conference Center. During that show, Peter spoke about some of his experiences at the conference, his thoughts on who was represented and who wasn't, and what the goal of the conference seemed to be. In part, he found the talk of John Felmy (featured on our YouTube page) to be particularly disturbing.

As a follow-up and an expansion on that episode, Peter wrote an op-ed piece on the most recent Voices of Central Pennsylvania. Here is a brief excerpt:

It takes no leap of imagination or some profound and deep thought to see that the gas-infatuated and addicted industries equate their “wants” with our “needs.” I hope that they are wrong.
Felmy, encouraged the faithful attendants to use “facts,” and hopefully “the same facts,” in their deliberations on these matters. Having listened to his presentation several times, I think the gathered were to conclude that those who prescribe to the high faith of fossil–fuel-addiction-meets-growth-economics jargon that “projections” that “show” gas gas “needs” that increase industry profits are, in fact, “facts.”

Consider some projections regarding climate change and extinction, facts that are both reliable and valid. The Earth, on average, will warm 6.4-degrees Celsius (11.5 degrees Fahrenheit) by century’s end. Over a billion climate refugees will migrate. Water scarcity – fueled in some small part by hydraulic fracturing – will plunge nations into civil and regional wars over water. The rainforests and boreal forests will nearly disappear. The oceans will further toxify and acidify. Less than 50% of species alive today will be extinct. Earth will be ecologically impoverished. Bladerunner meets The Stand perhaps?

What are your thoughts on our energy "needs" and our future?

PSU graduate working toward sustainable culture in Mexico

This is a really interesting story from today's Centre Daily Times:

Graduating from Penn State in 2009 with a master’s degree in civil engineering wasn’t enough to help one alumnus find a job.

But David Vargas’ next decision — moving back to his birthplace of Mexico with his girlfriend to backpack, travel and visit his family — would completely change his fortune.

“We wanted to volunteer with nonprofits and organic farms and do whatever we could to just get by. We started talking about my thesis on rainwater harvesting and everybody was super-interested, and we started building systems for contacts that were interested,” said Vargas.

“Once we put up three rainwater harvesting systems, we decided we better start a business and nonprofit here, and that’s when we met my business partner (Enrique Lomnitz) and we joined forces.”

Bravo to Vargas!

We might see more initiatives like this coming from Penn State graduates in the future. PSU is formulating its strategic plan around sustainability and a huge component of that is developing skilled people who teach for sustainability, students who learn for sustainability, and graduates work for sustainability across the board. Vargas is on the cutting edge.

Moving on

A few months ago, we hosted Katherine Watt of the local Transition Towns initiative on the show. We talked about energy decline and climate change as opportunities for local, regional, and cultural transformation.

As a follow up, you can check out her recent piece in the Centre Daily Times, "Transition planning moves on":

What ideas are lying around for us? There are two dominant competing visions of the Centre County future. One is thousands of drill towers, concrete pads and pipelines ripping down the woods; thousands of semis rumbling along formerly quiet country roads; potential widespread water contamination and depletion; carbon flying skyward; and a steady flow of gas and profit heading east to investors in New York, London and other world financial capitals.

The other vision is food, farms and forests, and no matter how many times the drilling proponents repeat their reassuring lies, once the water’s a mile underground or contaminated, it’s unusable. Once the trees and roots are gone, so are the living ecosystems they support.

My friends working in the local sustainability movement say people “get it.” They’re sick of the talk and want to see more action. Transition planning, as pioneered in England by Rob Hopkins, has a dozen or so interwoven components for building resilient communities for the post-carbon age.

Read more here.

Two things come to mind: First, what are you doing to work toward this transition? Second, do you know how to get involved? If you don't, you can start by connecting with Transition Centre!

Sustainable Politics

Given the recent state and national election results, today's show was timely. Perhaps not timely enough given the highly charged atmosphere and the anti-climate change mood in much of the country, but timely in talking about what sustainable politics could be.

It was our good fortune to host three pretty engaged women. For the first few minutes talked with Jennifer Wagner-Lawlor (Assoc. Professor of Women's Studies) who has arranged the TEDxNorthPacificGarbagePatch event being aired at the Berg Auditorium in the Life Sciences Building at Penn State's University Park campus. You can get a sense of the problem by watching the following TED Talk and checking out the plasticpollutioncoalition.org.

Then we talked about sustainable politics with Rosa Eberly, a self-described free-range rhetorician who teachers Communication Arts and Sciences at Penn State and deals with civic engagement each and every day. We also were joined by State College mayor Elizabeth Goreham. What is a sustainable politics? Well, it involves engagement, good information, alertness, and staying engaged.

Listen to the show HERE.

The great Pacific garbage patch - TEDx Talk at Penn State

If you aren't aware of it, there is a continent of trash in the North Pacific Gyre about twice the area of the state of Texas. How did we get this thing? What is it doing? What can we do about it? How can we change to prevent more of it?

On Saturday, November 6th, at 11:30 a.m. you can join the TEDxGreatPacificGarbagePatch Watch Party at PSU! at the Life Sciences Building, Berg Auditorium (RM 100).

Here's the flier.Today, on Sustainability Now radio, the PSU organizer for this event, Jennifer Wagner-Lawlor will join us for a few minutes to discuss the event and answer a few questions. Tune in from 4-5 pm on The Lion 90.7 fm.

Sustainable Penn State

Penn State is a mammoth institution. We hold the biggest Pepsi contract in the state of Pennsylvania as far as we know. Approximately 42,000 people attend this school at University Park each year and close to 80,000 each year across the whole system. Let's face it. What we do as an institution matters.

Well...what is happening? According to a recent video at Penn State's Center for Sustainability website, We Are! Penn State! is getting closer to the mark. Watch.



We hope to have some of the people on this video on our show to talk about the future of the world according to Penn State's vision of sustainability. Where are we going to shape our technologies? Our politics? Our economy? Maybe most importantly, how do we participate in our culture in meaningful ways to care for the seventh generation and beyond?

The guys at Freeze Thaw Cycles recycle hundreds of pounds of aluminum

A couple of weeks ago we had Jordyn Drayton, the co-owner of Freeze Thaw Cycles in State College, Pa. This morning, they sent off hundreds of pounds of used wheel rims, handlebars, cranks, stems, seat posts, and more to a metal recycling facility in Lewistown, Pa. Check it out.



Disclosure: Peter Buckland races for Freeze Thaw.