[Sdpg] Where does this GHG (greenhouse gas) focus take us?

[Colin Leath]

Lists,

Sitting in on a San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG) meeting
about approval of a Regional Transportation Plan in which fear was
expressed about being sued by the California Attorney General over GHG
emissions was eye-opening. (some background:
http://www.planetizen.com/node/24990 ). A fear-based, GHG-focused
argument is having an effect on Southern California urban planning. (I
wish quality-of-life-based reasoning were sufficient.)


I've been half-wondering in the back of my mind where this GHG focus
would take us if people followed it completely.

As usual, George Monbiot is ahead of the game:

(1) Leave the carbon in the ground:
http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2007/12/11/rigged/

(2) Run everything off renewable power. The only thing he figures
could not be are airplanes--I believe he discusses this in detail in
his book _Heat_ :
http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2007/06/30/heat-is-now-out-in-paperback/

"""The diplomats who started talks in Bali yesterday should be
discussing *the complete decarbonisation of the global economy*.

It is not impossible. In a previous article I showed how by switching
the whole economy over to the use of electricity and by deploying the
latest thinking on regional supergrids, grid balancing and energy
storage, you could run almost the entire energy system on renewable
power(14). The major exception is flying (don't expect to see
battery-powered jetliners [what about liquid H? - see below]) which
suggests that we should be closing rather than opening runways."""

http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2007/12/04/what-is-progress/

[Monbiot] urges his readers "to remember that these privations affect
a tiny proportion of the world's people. The reason they seem so harsh
is that this tiny proportion almost certainly includes you."
http://www.alternet.org/environment/46318?page=entire

-------------------------------------------------

Monbiot also discusses the need for carbon capture. An Australian says
this can be done on a massive scale, cheaply, by improved plowing
techniques which create deep humus:
http://www.yeomansconcepts.com.au/
(using his plow design, --but other plows do the same. Note he also
advocates nuclear power, and leaving fossil fuel fossil). I learned
about Yeomans from Darren Doherty ( http://permaculture.biz/ ) at
Quail Springs.

-------------------------------------------


Also: Some in the US say the GHG emissions in China and India are a
main part of the problem. But the perceptive see those are our
emissions exported to them (as they produce what we import):
http://www.planetizen.com/node/22369

Schwarzenegger, too, communicates this:
http://www.digitalnpq.org/archive/2007_summer/19_schwarzenegger.html



Also, I've been wondering in the back of my mind:

What will people do when/if they look at being carbon-neutral on an
individual level?

What will people do when/if they apply all the radical measures some
advocate for national economies to personal economies?

I agree, with Gore, that personal life changes are not enough, but it
is fun to consider.

(there is a movement to make it easier and more mainstream to work
less, consume less:
http://www.preservenet.com/studies/WorkTimeGlobalWarming.html
http://www.timeday.org/  )

Why _is_ anyone working full time, if not to sequester carbon?? (the
purpose of our lives now?)

The greatest work is the design and implementation of carbon-neutral
or sequestering systems? (including the supporting legal and political
frameworks)

Lawton's "MONEY MONEY MONEY MONEY and permaculture" thread seems
not-too-offtopic at this point.
http://forums.permaculture.org.au/ftopic4261.php


Peace,
Colin

--------------------------

And for no other reason than not to lose track,

Diana DeRubertis writes on living in a failed new urban development in
San Diego's Mission Valley:
http://www.planetizen.com/node/22133 "Pedestrians Lost In The New Suburbia"
Her planetizen blog posts: http://www.planetizen.com/user/10382

And here's a new development planned for Mission Valley that is trying
to be greener:
http://www.quarryfalls.com/page/content/concept/

--------
Here's links on H-powered aircraft:

http://www.smartfish.ch/index.cfm/fuseaction/show/path/1-59-123.htm
http://www.physorg.com/news101391900.html
http://forum.physorg.com/index.php?showtopic=15717
http://planetforlife.com/h2/h2vehicle.html
http://ec.europa.eu/research/growth/gcc/projects/in-action-cryoplane.html