Green Man Thriving

Is Cap and Trade Another Bubble in the Making?

I applaud the U.S. House for recent passing the Cap and Trade energy legislation- the Waxman-Markey Bill.  Finally our Congress has recognized that climate change (the term "climate disruption" is more accurate) is real, is induced by human activity, and needs to be confronted before the process becomes irreversible.   So if you are a denier of climate disruption, you will get no comfort from the shots that I am about to take at Cap and Trade, despite it being a sign of progress.

Yes, Cap and Trade is intended to limit the total emissions of CO2 gases to a mandated level, while minimizing total cost to the economy.  Yes, it's a market-based approach that allows trading of carbon allowances and offsets, and presumably is more "economically efficient" than direct regulation or even a carbon tax.

So what's the problem?

Well, it looks like we are being set up for another massive financial bubble, inflated with all the mutant toxic forms of financial instruments that has melted down our world economy. Rachel Morris sounded this warning very clearly in Mother Jones.The carbon trading market is expected to become a $2-trillion marketplace in the next five years.  It will be the biggest commodities derivative product for big finance, according to Commodities Futures Trading Commissioner Bart Chilton.  These "products" can be sliced, diced, bundled, and sprinkled with ratings pixie dust just like securities from the sub-prime mortgage market.  Yes, it's the recipe that almost killed us before.

Big finance, like JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley, have already set up trading desks in response to the carbon markets in Europe and current voluntary markets in the US.  Al Gore has founded a company GIM that has invested in a carbon trading exchange in Chicago CCX, also founded by ex-Treasury Secretary and ex-Goldmanite Henry Paulson. Nothing outrageous there.  The real red flag to be alert for is waving frantically in Congress. A few years ago big finance did not give a cow fart about global climate disruption.  Now the financial industry has over 130 lobbyists in Congress just on this issue, and is spending many millions of dollars in the effort.

I have emphasized before that big finance -"Wall Street" - is essentially so self-interested, powerful, and unconstrained as to be sociopathic and not trustworthy.  I have emphasized finding local solutions and ways to circumvent its influence.  Global climate disruption, however, is a non-localized problem with no primarily local solution.  So we must create trustworthy national and international solutions and supporting institutions to solve climate disruption.

I don't believe the financial markets are ready to be trusted. Henry Waxman, who is no friend of big finance, says that opponents of his bill should not "let the perfect be the enemy of the good."  I'm not sure what the right answers or institutions are just now, but I do know one thing.  The only enemy of the good in this bill will never be confused with the perfect, except perhaps in its own propaganda or when it wants to pay out big bonuses to its own.

Goldman Sach's Outrageous Fortune

In case you need more proof that our financial and economic system is fundamentally corrupt and needs to be replaced, investment banker Goldman Sachs will pay out the biggest bonuses ever in its 140-year history.  How can that be when the US and world economy is in the toilet? How can that be when the actions of Goldman Sachs and other Wall Street leviathans were a principle cause?

Well Goldman Sachs has had a great year so far. And how can that be? Well of course Goldman received from taxpayers, directly and not so indirectly, over $50-billion.  They've also taken many billions in easy loans from the Federal Reserve in recent months. The Federal Reserve will not release that information - so we don't know how much.  This is all well documented by Nomi Prins, an economists who used to work for Goldman Sachs, at Democracy Now! and on Alternet (I wonder if they will rehire Nomi?)  Wall Street apologists will point out that Goldman Sachs, among other firms, paid back their $10-Billion in TARP money. As Nomi explains, that was a slight of hand designed to distract us from much bigger pillage.

As I have said before, an important first step to reverse the organized theft of Wall Street (and other large financial centers) is to re-localize.  Instead of putting your money with big multinational banks like Citigroup or Bank of America, take a look at your local credit unions.  Some have picked up the anti-consumer habits of the pillagers. But most are still focused on treating you in a transparent way and keep more money (more lending) in your local economy.

The Move to "Local First" - We Need Alliances

We can strengthen and transform our communities and economies on a local level.  I believe the best way to accomplish this is to build alliances amongst community groups, activists, and small business leaders. (The politicians will follow the bandwagon.)

We already see some hopeful signs.  Several Florida business organizations, including the Florida Chamber, have been promoting the notion of "buying local."  This statewide effort -- dubbed "Backyard Economics" -- encourages Florida to spend money in their own local communities. In fact they have developed a discount card for a deal at many Florida businesses, big or small, corporate or not. Consumers can download a discount card for participating businesses.... And an example of a local organization that does a great job promoting their local businesses with the "Backyard" campaign is the Safety Harbor Chamber of Commerce.  This organization really promotes their downtown and the nice mix of local businesses there. The energy to do that comes from volunteer business leaders like Kat Hoffman, managing partner of Caribbean Kat's Trading, a fun boutique on Main Street in Safety Harbor, FL.

We should applaud these efforts, but it does not take the local theme as far as it needs to go. There are numerous examples of community organizations in the Tampa Bay area.  I recently came across one example of a community-based social network launched this year in Tarpon Springs.  Code Green Community invites Tarpon Springs residents to work together to create a more green and sustainable community. It was started by a St. Pete College student Eric Stewart, and the site has attracted a core group of member that are doing some cool green and sustainable things.  Eric and his friends also offer others help in setting up their own "Code Green" type network in their own towns.  This is the kind of alliance-building and social entrepreneurship that we need to nourish and grow many times over.

What's the alternative to growth that damages communities?

Yes the Florida legislature and the governor pulled the trigger on SB 360 and killed off growth management in the state of Florida. So in collusion with the privateers who left us the wreckage of the real estate bust, they want us to do it all over again.  First, I urge everyone to scrutinize the development decisions of their local governments and raise Holy Hell when they start selling out our communities to irresponsible developers (I call them "privateers.")

Next, even more importantly in the long run, we need a new model for development, one that focuses not just on private profit but on the public good and the good of the planet. The idea that large centralized (and centralizing) institutions like the state, the federal government, "Wall Street" finance, multinational corporations, corporate media, etc. will serve our communities and local economies well is now a discredited ideology, in my opinion. Like other discredited ideologies of aggrandized power (such as Monarchy, Communism, Fascism, etc.), these institutions may serve a purpose for a time, but they begin to break down because they become largely self-serving at a terrible expense to the majority of society. The mythologies and mental edifices that support their aggrandizement also begin to show strain. 

I'm not suggesting that we overthrow these institutions - that would not be possible or wholly desirable now - but I do suggest that we put our democratic voices, personal energies, and economic power into another way of organizing society and the economy.

I urge everyone to join the movement to build local living economies.  To be truly green and to get at the root of the true obstables to human development and healing the planet, this is the direction we should take. To find out more about this movement, check out the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies or the American Independent Business Alliance.

The Cancerous Growth Promoter Act

You can try to create a green life, home, and neigborhood as I have in Florida. But if your elected officials conspire to make life worse for most people, all your individual efforts can mean nothing.

The Florida legislature is in the final stages of passing Senate Bill 360, cynically called "The Community Renewal Act."     Its supporters claim that the act's radical changes to the state's growth management laws will promote jobs and reduce the growth of sprawl in rural areas, driving it to "urban areas."  In fact, it basically guts the ability of most local communities to put any meaningful limits on rapacious development, regardless of its awful impact.

In Pinellas County where I live, we still have extraordinary natural assets, including some of the best beaches in the world, great parks, and a few undeveloped tracks of woodland. Yet, almost all of Pinellas County will be deemed urban by this bill. ("Urban" is defined as 1000 people per square mile, or 1 person per acre.)

Today, Pinellas is the most densely populated county in Florida, sprawling, traffic-congested, and filled with strip-mall mono-culture.  I live a few minutes from the ultimate artery of urban sprawl, US  Highway 19. Dubbed "Death Valley" US 19 is one of the most congested and dangerous roads in the nation - a legacy of unchecked, irresponsible development. In recent years taxpayers have ponied up lots of money to retrofit "Death Valley" but at best this is patchwork, and it is reviled in the community. 

A better name for the bill is "The Cancerous Growth Promoter Act."

You would think after two years of negative population growth in Florida, a 40% plunge in property values since 2006 and 300,000 foreclosures because of the mortgage crisis engineered by Wall Street, state legislators would run in terror from yet another irresponsible call for deregulation.  No - not in a legislature sold off to lobbyists and developers.

We see a pattern here, don't we:

1. Legislators beholden to big, private money attack basic protections for our communities under the guise of a legitimate public good (stopping urban sprawl, jobs, home ownership for everyone.)

2. The legislature throws open our communities to entirely self-interested privateers, whose profits matter more than anything, whatever the consequences.

3. Like gangsters, the apologists and propogandists for big, private money threaten the community with terrible consequences if anyone starts to object to the obvious evidence of harm from the privateers' unrestrained agendas. (Loss of jobs, more sprawl, collapse of the financial system. They always convince some of the community.)

4. The privateers reap their deregulated profits, and leave the wreckage to the community (urban sprawl, a mortgage crisis, a failing world economy.)  My grandfather use to call such public-private symbiosis "rackets."

If you are a Floridian, I suggest you contact your state rep or senator, and do something about this "racket." If you are not a Floridian and you care about your community, look for this pattern - you'll see it in many places - and start doing something about it. My next post - what do we do instead?

Worm poop can save the sea grass in Tampa Bay

The ecosystem reveals new little ironies every day. Florida's drought has exposed the enviromental limits of runaway development and killed its share of lawns.  It does have at least one upside - more sea grass.

Because of no rainfall and severe lawn watering restrictions in Hillsborough and Pinellas counties, far less runoff from lawns reaches Tampa Bay. That's less chemical fertilizer and pesticides that kill off sea grass. In fact, as reported by the St. Petersburg Times, the restoration of sea grass brings the bay back to levels found in the 1950s (though still below levels that Congress in the early 90s committed to achieving.)  Sea grass is important because it provides habitat for fish and other wildlife. Good for sports fisherman. Good for eco-tourists.

So what's the lesson?  One is that generally no important change happens unless there is a crisis. Two is that we can radically improve the quality of our regional environment if Tampa-St. Petersburg area property owners make a commitment to "go green" in their yard care.

It's the chemical fertilizers and pesticides put down by owners and the lawn care service they employ which cause this pollution, kill sea grass, and expose families to toxic chemicals.   There are non-polluting alternatives that will actually keep our lawns attractive, make them stronger over time, and actually stimulate wildlife and bio-diversity in urban areas. 

First, a land owner can plant Florida native plants that thrive with less water.  For good info on the use of native plants, visit the site of the Pinellas Chapter of the Florida Native Plant Society.  Next, you should adopt organic or "natural" methods of lawn care or employ a service that follow such non-chemically based practices. 

A very effective organic fertizer is compost made from worm casting -- that is, "worm poop." There are companies on the internet and operating locally can provide natural materials and services for lawn care. For now I remain neutral on recommendations.

The draught in Florida gives us a glimpse of the impending crisis

Here I am sitting on the lanai at my Tampa area home, sipping my organic coffee, absorbing the early morning mild sun and a cool breeze from the gulf.  The garden that we started late in 2008 looks alive, with birds, butterflies, and all manner of bugs making their early morning rounds as grazer or predator. The plots of tomatos, collards, peppers, snap beans, cucumber and squash all stand at attention so early in the morning, before the mid-day Florida sun, even now in May, beats them down fiercely, when only vegetable pride keeps them from a full wilt.

The garden thrives, I think, for several reasons. We prepared the sandy soild with much organic material and we feed the garden with organic compost. We do not use pesticides and instead keep the natural balance of predator and pest insect species (OK squirrel have stolen peppers but a chicken-wire fence solves that problem.)  We mulch to keep weeds down.  Most important of all, we water the garden every day.  Florida is in an extended three year drought -- worst since the 1950s -- and our garden, like so many other products of horticulture here, would be dying otherwise.

I could go on about how this drought, like so many across the country and the world, is not a normal pattern and another sign of global climate change. I won't -- I'll leave that to the scientists for now -- but I argue that Florida must face one fact that it cannot escape. Excessive, irresponsible development for decades has now outstripped our water resources. Yes - even here in Florida, the land of the daily summer showers and once teaming wetlands, we are running out of enough fresh water. We've know this for some time and yet we allowed irresponsible development to continue. Because of our lust to deplete the supply of fresh water, the citizens of the "taxing hating" state have even been willing to pay out for expensive boondoggle like a de-salinization plant, instead of restraining our water lust.

For now severe state and county water restrictions should hopefully carry us through to the rainy season. Let's hope the rainy season is rainy enough.

Tragically a few weeks ago the lobbyist-dominated state legislature, under the guise of economic stimulus, undid many environmental protections and limitations on irresponsible development. They still do not get it. The key to a better future is to achieve economic growth without depleting our resources and permanently fouling our environment. Yes, some developers may not be able to pull out quick profits. So be it.  I say to them -- go green and get sustainable. Your profits will come and, more importantly, perhaps future generations will applaud you, not condemn you, as more and more of current generations are starting to do now.

Let's build our own sustainability movement, Tampa, everywhere!

At the recent Seattle Green Festival I spoke with Kathy Pelish, former communications director for Sustainable Ballard. She describes how area folks have become active in the local eating movement where people strive to eat food produced with 100 miles of their home.

She gives the Tampa localization movement some tasty tidbits of advice.

Sustainability: start in your home town

To strengthen our local economies and break away from choking dominance by corporate chains, we all need to find ways to promote local organisations and locally-owned companies (Sorry neo-liberal ecomomist and Friedmanites - your simplistic Pareto arguments are not cutting it.)  The fact is, only $43 of your $100 spent in a non-locally owned business stays in the local economy, whereas $73 of your $100 spent with locally owned business stays.  A good depiction of that is on the site of a local first organization in Western Michigan.

Tampa has its own "local first" movement, the Tampa Independent Business Alliance, founded in 2004. I think they've got the right idea, and the founders of this organization have worked hard to grow the movement but their battle has been uphill.  I honor their efforts.

I think we can turn to movements in other regions for inspiration. The "re-localization" movement in Seattle has over 70 communities participating in a regional effort called Sustainable Communities All Over Pudget Sound (www.SCALLOPSwa.org.) This group has lead a Local Eating initiative that has involved the towns around Seattle, over 100 small farms, and tens of thousands of participants who have committed to re-focusing their diet on food raised within 100 miles.  For many it's not 100% of the menu - Seattle's a coffee drinking town and there are no NorthWest coffee plantations - but they have committed to other levels - 75%, 50%.

I believe thes folks can inspire folks in central Florida and around the nation. In upcoming posts, I will be bringing you my talks with leaders in the SCALLOPS movement.

Sustainability - a better concept than Green?

We here about Going Green everywhere. So much so that I believe that the concept is too vague and needs to be given context when we make a "Green" claim (some say it's never meant anything but we won't address the extreme ideologues who believe that.)  Is it reducing energy use? Is it removing toxins from the environment? Is it living with a lighter footprint, consuming fewer resources and spewing less waste, the three Rs of Reduce, Reuse, and Re-cycle?  Is it a "more just" distribution of the world's resources and goods? Localism? Veganism?

I think "Green" means all these things, which is both its power and its limitation. I prefer to focus on the notion of Sustainability in Green Man Thriving. Sustainability is, I believe, a more narrow notion of how we produce an optimal economy in relation to the enviroment for the foreseeable future. Sustainability is about the inadequacy of the price mechanism in markets to build an economy which brings the most happiness to the most people.  So, unlike Green, Sustainability has no pre-conceived commitment to any mechanism or any way of being or even who benefits or loses-- any "isms" -- that I think are part and parcel of "Being Green."   I think that makes Sustainability a more rigorous and less controversial notion which opens these concepts to more people. That is its power, and where I prefer to focus now.