Sustainability Awakening

Before the oceans have actually started to rise noticably, a wave has hit the consciousness of Americans and it is being felt in all quarters of society, economy, and polity. The words "sustainable" and "green" are being attached to corporate names, products, advertizing campaigns, movements and government programs, and no longer refer to fringe thinkers or fringe activists. "Sustainability", in name, is becoming a mainstream goal.

But what is "sustainable"? What does the world look like when it reaches "sustainability"? All of the habitat requirements of humanity, energy, food, housing, transportation, and of all creatures, air, water, soils, forests, and unforgettably the global climate and Earth's integrated ecology, are all in grave danger, and in the conscience of many of us cry out for dramatically new sustainable practices. The end of peak oil at the very moment of global climate change at the very moment that human populations over-reach the carrying capacity of the Earth, proposes some very traumatic scenarios for us. Does the global agenda of reducing carbon emissions reach far enough into the realm of necessity to avoid catastrophic disasters or global war?

This question is important because there are so many ways to think about sustainability. Anyone who is asking the question "What solutions are actually sustainable?" will be confounded by the depth and extent of the problem. In the worst case scenario, the ability of Earth to support life could collapse. Although unlikely, many of the not-so-bad scenarios are still horrific to contemplate, and predictable. In one very likely scenario, the Antartic and Greenland ice sheets will unload such huge masses of ice into the world's oceans that sea level could rise by 25 feet. How much of the world's population would be displaced, I do not know, but given the pattern of living close to oceans through out the world, but no one will argue that the effect would be minor. Disasters worse than all of the disasters in human history combined could befall us simultaneously, subjecting humanity to a selection event, a moment in human history when the nature of humanity would be altered by natural selection. Although this is a description of a worst case scenario, many others that fall short of this severity will still profoundly change our world. In the guaranteed minimum scenario, resource allocation, the ability of governments to manage, the ability of people to cooperate and minimze the damage, will be severely tested.

The goal of sustainability, then, is not just an issue of energy conservation and limiting green house gasses. The ethic of Sustainability, of a pattern of human behavior that, while evolving, does not exhaust the capacity of the Earth to support life, must be infused throughout all human societies. Questions of how resources are distributed, how habitats, soils and waters are cared for, how energy is tapped and distributed, how people share access to these things, and how people solve their conflicts, must all be addressed. Sustainability is found in the technology we choose, in the economies by which we live, in the cultural values we practice, and in the social structures we create.

At SolarFest 2007, one of the workshop tracks has been named "Sustainability Awakening", after the seemingly sudden (to this observer) awakening across American society (late in the wake of other nations) that the global climate and human activity are intimately connected, and that our energy use must be made "sustainable". Solarfest has spearheaded this consciousness raising since 1995, keeping the spirit of caring for the Earth alive whether in fashion or out. Now, as more and more Americans, and indeed citizens and leaders from all over the world, begin to change their habits and expectations, showing a new deference to the greater needs of the entire planet, We at Solarfest are uniquely positioned to ask the next big question: What does "sustainable" mean? What does a sustainable world look like?

In the "Sustainability Awakening" Workshop track, our goal is to educate ourselves and to seek, in very rough terms, answers to the question "What does a sustainable world look like?". To do this, we will listen to experts in many fields and from disparate points of view, and with expanded horizons, our workshops participants will share their ideas about a sustainable world, and how individuals will fit into these visions and can influence a favorable outcome. Hopefully we can instigate conversations about the meaning of "Sustainable" that will drive us further toward meaningful survival.