SUSTAIN-AGE
Stone-Age - Bronze-Age - Iron-Age - Sustain-Age
2015 is not 1985 or 1955! Many people are not aware of where we are in history.
Many challenges face the Sustain-Age Citizen. Probably the 3 most urgent are:
Fossil fuel:
Developed nations’ infrastructure is totally reliant on cheap fossil fuel. What is the price break of say gasoline for people to stop using their cars and flocking to public transport (where it exists)? Never mind straining our budgets to breaking point. In the summer of 2008 gasoline hit $4.50 a gallon for the first time in history and public transit systems saw a large increase in users. Some say the financial meltdown of 2008 was partly caused by this.
Economy:
The U.S. is now mostly a post-industrial country, having gone through its manufacturing heyday. So, can service industries really produce a vibrant economy? Manufacturing adds value to natural resources creating real wealth. Many people think we are now in a “steady-state” economy, one that doesn’t grow. It turns out that growth at all costs is fuelled by the need to pay back debt. Some argue that growth isn’t even possible in a resource strained world. So, we talk about recovery, but what is there to recover? Most of the earlier busy-ness was fuelled by debt!
Climate change:
Climate change is a complicated subject, being part of a world-wide system. The U.S. drought of 2012 may or may not be directly linked to climate change. However, there were smaller effects that year that didn’t necessarily make the national headlines. Because spring started in February, apple trees in Michigan set flowers and fruit early, only to be wiped out by frost. Michigan is the second largest apple growing state and lost most of its crop. So, disruptions in season can have devastating effects for food growers, e.g. also causing flowers to grow when there are no pollinators. Probably the food system world-wide is the thing most susceptible to climate disruption, and because so few of us are involved in food production, it goes by unnoticed – however, without food, we’re not going to be doing much else!
Question: But it’s just me, what effect will one person have?
Answer: You are one of the 7 billion. In fact, if you live in the U.S., your percentage impact is proportionately greater than others, because the U.S. is 4.4% of world population but consumes 25% of world-wide resources.
All the present and future challenges can be mitigated by individuals, if we get to work on them.
Sustain-Age Cloud of Uncertainty
Energy:
Economy:
Climate Change:
Ecological status:
Limits exceeded:
Healthcare:
Bad management (or corporate pressures):
Changing world:
Many challenges face the Sustain-Age Citizen. Probably the 3 most urgent are:
- Easy-access fossil fuel depletion, leading to rising energy prices over time
- Changing economy
- Climate change impacts (although still abstract for many, will probably be the defining challenge of the age)
Fossil fuel:
Developed nations’ infrastructure is totally reliant on cheap fossil fuel. What is the price break of say gasoline for people to stop using their cars and flocking to public transport (where it exists)? Never mind straining our budgets to breaking point. In the summer of 2008 gasoline hit $4.50 a gallon for the first time in history and public transit systems saw a large increase in users. Some say the financial meltdown of 2008 was partly caused by this.
Economy:
The U.S. is now mostly a post-industrial country, having gone through its manufacturing heyday. So, can service industries really produce a vibrant economy? Manufacturing adds value to natural resources creating real wealth. Many people think we are now in a “steady-state” economy, one that doesn’t grow. It turns out that growth at all costs is fuelled by the need to pay back debt. Some argue that growth isn’t even possible in a resource strained world. So, we talk about recovery, but what is there to recover? Most of the earlier busy-ness was fuelled by debt!
Climate change:
Climate change is a complicated subject, being part of a world-wide system. The U.S. drought of 2012 may or may not be directly linked to climate change. However, there were smaller effects that year that didn’t necessarily make the national headlines. Because spring started in February, apple trees in Michigan set flowers and fruit early, only to be wiped out by frost. Michigan is the second largest apple growing state and lost most of its crop. So, disruptions in season can have devastating effects for food growers, e.g. also causing flowers to grow when there are no pollinators. Probably the food system world-wide is the thing most susceptible to climate disruption, and because so few of us are involved in food production, it goes by unnoticed – however, without food, we’re not going to be doing much else!
Question: But it’s just me, what effect will one person have?
Answer: You are one of the 7 billion. In fact, if you live in the U.S., your percentage impact is proportionately greater than others, because the U.S. is 4.4% of world population but consumes 25% of world-wide resources.
All the present and future challenges can be mitigated by individuals, if we get to work on them.
Sustain-Age Cloud of Uncertainty
Energy:
- Easy-access fossil fuel depletion
- Rising energy prices
- Energy conservation required in all areas of life
- Need to switch to renewable energy sources
- Conserve energy through efficiency (especially in our buildings)
Economy:
- Changing economy
- Under-funded pensions at city, state and corporations
- Silent 10% extra unemployed, not counted in U.S. Fed numbers
- Indebtedness at personal and Federal levels worldwide
Climate Change:
- Climate change impacts unknown locally and world-wide
- Unlikely to hold 2 degree C planet heat rise, now at 0.8C
Ecological status:
- Soil depletion
- Fish depletion in oceans
- Pollution levels already overstretched (there is no ‘away’ in ‘throw it away’)
Limits exceeded:
- Water shortages for crops, and people in heat island regions
- Resource depletion or at least resource strain in most key areas
Healthcare:
- Unsustainable U.S. disease management system (also called health-care system)
- Processed food (addictive food, low nutrition) endemic in developed nations adding to ill health
Bad management (or corporate pressures):
- Massive infrastructure repair needs
- No local food security (we grow 6% of our needs in Philadelphia area)
- Meat consumption reduction example required among developed nations (for people and planet health)
- Seed/plant diversity undermined by large agri-business corporations
- Small farms undermined by agri-business
- 47 million people need food assistance in U.S.
Changing world:
- Population levels never seen before (7 billion and climbing)
- New resource demands of 3 billion people in India and China who wish to become middle class
