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Dear Friends,
We have hired a new Executive Director, Susan Jennings. Sharp and articulate, Susan understands the seriousness of the climate crisis and has the energy for our critical work. Susan's last position was as the Director of the Office of Campus and Community Sustainability at
the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. While there, she became
familiar with our work and attended two Community Solutions conferences,
in 2007 and 2008. Susan has told us that attending these conferences
greatly affected the direction of her work at the university.
According to the International Panel on Climate Change Report that was released this spring (as it is every six years), it is now clear that yesterday's climate change has become today's climate crisis.
The rate of climate change is accelerating, and there is no longer
sufficient time to do the research, development, and deployment that
would stave off catastrophic consequences.
As a Plan C organization, we bear the burden of proof.
People want to believe that wind, solar, electric cars, and carbon
sequestration will support our current lifestyles sufficiently because,
if they don't, the future appears bleak. The best evidence to support
our less complacent curtailment
position comes from the World Energy Outlook report, published annually
by the International Energy Agency (IEA), the energy arm of the
industrial powers. The 2013 World Energy Outlook report points out that
carbon sequestration is far behind schedule; that electric cars will
have little appreciable effect in the next decade or two; and that wind
and solar, along with other renewables, will provide considerably less
than half of our current energy use by 2040. Such reports motivate us to
focus on curtailment. We use the term curtailment deliberately rather
than efficiency, because curtailment states clearly our need to restrict and reduce our output of greenhouse gases.
The Post Carbon Institute in California uses the term curtailment in its opus book entitled Energy. In the summary section, under the heading "Conservation," on page 259, is this statement:
The
current energy economy is toxic not simply because of its dependence on
climate-altering fossil fuels, but also because of its massive scale
and wastefulness. A first step toward reducing its global impacts is
simply using less energy, a goal readily accomplished through
conservation practices that are widely available and cost-effective.
Energy conservation consists of two distinct strategies: efficiency and curtailment. Energy
efficiency means using less energy to produce a similar or better
service.... Curtailment means exactly what you'd think: cutting out a
use of energy altogether. ...Efficiency is typically more attractive to
people because it doesn't require them to change behavior. [Emphasis is
mine.]
But what might a future world look like if we chose radical curtailment?
It
would be the change from a consumer society to a conserver society.
Energy has given our society the opportunity to increase inequity; in a
conserver society this would be reversed, and the more equal income
distribution of the post-WWII period up to the Reagan era would be
restored. Sharing and hospitality would become our cultural hallmarks.
Energy frugality would become a widely-held value. Local recreational
opportunities would abound. One-child families would become the accepted
ideal. As consumption dropped, working hours would decrease. Education
and medical care would be free to all. Small family farms would be
subsidized and good organic farming practices would be taught.
But how can we get there?
I have taken a look at my current lifestyle. I live simply, grow a
great deal of our food, wear clothes as long as they last, keep our
thermostat low in the winter, and drive a Toyota Prius. I am not a
vegetarian, but I avoid factory-raised meat. Yet, I have realized that,
to reduce more deeply, to become a curtailer, I will need to measure and
log my energy use, which will take time and require a new level of
commitment. Believing other people might be in the same predicament, we
are developing a guide for cutting emissions and are focusing our
up-coming conference on sharing this knowledge.
Climate Crisis Solutions: Curtailment and Community Conference: Our Community Solutions conference this fall (November 7-9) will examine how individuals and communities are cutting their CO2
emissions, as well as offer specific ways that this can be done. The
conference will include a probing look at national priorities, but it
will focus on individual action. In preparing for the conference, we are
developing the Curtailer's Emissions Guide (below), which reflects our
belief that our work needs to be centered on helping people make changes
in their lifestyles.
Curtailer's Emissions Guide: This guide will help people understand their everyday energy use and CO2
emissions. It will enable the user to see which changes in lifestyle
will make the biggest difference. It is a deepening of our work, a move
from the theory to the practice of adopting a conserver lifestyle. The
Curtailer's Emissions Guide will explain how and what to measure in
order to be able to make informed decisions about reducing energy use.
Passive House Revolution Film: Last
year, we completed our film about passive house; a construction method
that can help us cut our emissions from buildings 80 to 90%. Early
reviews have been strong. One reviewer wrote: "Passive House Revolution,
what an accomplishment, it left me with a sense of hope." This year has
been focused on dissemination and film screenings. German and Spanish
translations are underway as are grant proposals that will enable us to
further extend the distribution and availability of the film.
Plug-in Folly, a PowerPoint presentation:
The promise of the electric car is that we can go on with life as
usual. But if you don't live in a state with hydro power, the electric
car's greenhouse emissions are no less, and sometimes even more, than
those of a hybrid Toyota Prius. With the electric car, as with the
promise that LEED buildings would save energy, we have been given
half-truths which have led to complacency. These misrepresentations have
also created another reason to tap into the electric grid; and that
power still comes primarily from coal and fracked gas. Plug-in Folly
explores this issue with candor and insight, showing how one of the
huge issues we face today is a misrepresentation of technology. We plan
to have this presentation completed in the next two months.
Earth-Island, Energy and Community: We just completed
several shorts, with an eye toward fundraising for our next film,
Earth-Island: Energy and Community.
This film will bring attention to the facts that the Earth's natural
resources have limits, as do those of an island, and that it is time to
share them across the globe. We believe that the strategies of the
island of Cuba for addressing its resource limits can be a healing
example to a frightened world. We will showcase Cuba's paradigms of
satisfying lifestyles involving low fossil-fuel consumption and of
international relations based on diplomacy and sharing.
Susan began working here on June 2nd;
the office is busy as we work to build a strong, cohesive new team
among the three of us. Your support of our work means a great deal to
us, whether it is small or large, and whether it is in the form of money
donated or of time volunteered.
In Community,
Faith Morgan
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