Living within Our Ecological Means

Keystone XL: A Bad Idea

2012-01-13T14:39:00.003-07:00

A pipeline from Canada to Texas? It's just plain not worth the risk. Getting synthoil from
tar sands is an energy intensive and polluting process. And then a pipeline to Texas, just to then export it? Only greed could come up with it. NASA's climate expert James Hansen says it well: it's game over to avoid the worst of climate change if we proceed. Now is a great time to get the "NO" message to the state department and Pres. Obama. and also to anyone who thinks this pipeline is a good idea.

Who stands to benefit from such a pipeline? Follow this link to Think Progress.

Minority Rule in U.S. Congress

2011-12-05T13:37:00.001-07:00

Minority Rule in U.S. Congress

The United States Congress allows itself to be bullied by a very small number of voters. Links in the two preceding postings take you to information about the Americans’ overwhelming support of family planning. The most recent describes an organization of Evangelical Christians who argue that family planning is in keeping with their beliefs about the family and the environment. So much for the supposed monolithic opposition to birth control of this religious group. Below that link is an article excerpted from a Rand study that found that a substantial if not overwhelming percent of citizens approve of government support for family planning both here and abroad.

All of us need to call our congressional representatives to account on funding for family planning.

Ann O'Connell

Sexuality and Religion: What's the Connection?: Leading Evangelical Speaks Out With Rev. Haffner

2011-11-07T20:37:00.000-07:00

Sexuality and Religion: What's the Connection?: Leading Evangelical Speaks Out With Rev. Haffner

Support for Family Planning and Abortion

2011-07-14T09:29:00.001-06:00

Support for Family Planning and Abortion

Most members of the millennial generation (those between 18 and 29) believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases – as do most Americans between 30 and 65. (In a June 10^th article in the Salt Lake Tribune, Most young Americans back same-sex marriage, abortion, Lisa Schencker reported on a survey by the Public Religion Research Institute of Washington D.C. http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/51971031-78/abortion-percent-americans-survey.html.csp?page=1
Abortion should be legal in all/most cases
Ages 18-29 60%
Ages 30-49 58%
Ages 50-64 59%

The responses to this survey released in early June, 2011 should be considered along with the results of a Rand Organization sponsored survey of 2003, (Grammich, Changes in American Opinions about Family Planning.) http://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/reprints/2005/RP1148.pdf. The topic was different Some of the questions, a repeat from a survey of 1998, asked respondents if they supported family planning policies including U.S. health insurance coverage of family planning services and U.S. sponsorship of family planning programs in developing countries. Although there has been some decline in the support for both domestic and third world family planning the approval rates are still substantial. For example, support for family planning programs in developing countries received 87% approval in 1998 and 76% in 2003. The authors of the Rand study try to tease out the reasons for the 10% decline in support for family planning here and abroad and I recommend the article for this analysis. However the important question to be asked is that when a substantial majority of Americans approve of making family planning available and abortion legal, why can a small but vocal minority so easily thwart the will of the majority?

Ann O'Connell

GPI STUDY: WE MUST JUSTIFY THE USE OF ANY RESOURCE

2011-06-04T00:06:00.001-06:00

As a natural resources social scientist, my work involves investigating, analyzing, and reporting on the intangibles far more often than the tangibles because of the need to think holistically as well as act strategically when conservation and stewardship of our natural heritage is concerned. Having a systemic, reliable, transparent, and comparable approach for identifying and inventorying the broad array of social-ecological health components that can be quantified in measures that can be understood (i.e., dollars) at all levels of society is a foundational principle of designing as well as undertaking a scientifically valid assessment. The Utah GPI approach is a robust, inclusive one due to the incorporation of the typically undervalued or seemingly invisible socio-ecological impacts that affect the very core functions of life as we know it. Not only is such an evaluation-decision-making tool long overdue, it is, imho, the only way to justify our societal use of any resource, both renewable and nonrenewable. A full accounting of the total costs and benefits of our actions should be projected through the future generations we are affecting, as we use more resources than one world can possibly sustain, let alone do so with any shred of decent human co-existence with our fellow creatures on, in, and around this planet. Having the GPI as a quantitative assessment tool of Utah's footprint is invaluable as we can make arguments and build a strong case for inclusion of heretofore unmeasured actions that affect our energy flows, meaning our human quality of life will not suffer as greatly as it has in the past. I also urge all of us to simultaneously employ qualitative means of measuring the quality of the health and wealth we enjoy. In my humble opinion, to solely gauge human impacts and make far-reaching, irreversible decisions with only economic or social measures, we diminish the Divine, i.e., all the living beings of Creation that share this planet. The Utah GPI Report, will go a long way to informing us as citizens and should play a role in the way our health and wealth decisions are made in the immediate future.

Dana Dolsen, MSc
dana_dolsen@hotmail.com

GPI is a Valuable Study for Utah

2011-05-02T15:42:00.002-06:00

I attended the 2011 presentation release of the Utah Genuine Progress Indicator and as a business owner in Salt Lake, I found it important in it's facts for the future of Utah. The "goods sold only" nature of the usual GDP seems quite inadequate as compared to GPI, and the Utah study seems quite thorough. It's truly pulls in "quality of life" factors. I downloaded the executive study and then the full report and both are worth studying. You can get to them by clicking on the title link above.

Flushing the Toilet

2008-10-10T14:21:00.002-06:00

So, this might sound really odd but one of the things I am doing to live within my ecological means is following a simple saying that was above the toilet in a friends house when I was growing up...it goes something like this...

"If it's yellow, let it mellow. If it's brown, flush it down."

Now, I don't know how much water I am saving the planet by doing this but, I do know that our toilet uses a lot of water and my philosophy is that every little bit helps...so, make up a song teach it to your partner, kids, friends, whatever...have fun with it and when guests come over...don't worry about the fact that there is yellow water in your toilet...just teach them about ecology and let them know that you are doing your best to save the environment.

I am thinking that if we only flush the toilet every 5 times or so, that we are saving our earth at least a little bit...thanks and heres to thinking creatively about living in peace with our planet.

Salt Lake City's Carbon Footprint

2008-06-14T09:37:00.002-06:00

Salt Lake City residents emitted an average of 2.5 metric tons of carbon per year for highway transportation and residential energy use in 2005, according to a recent Brookings Institution report, "Shrinking the Carbon Footprint of Metropolitan America". In the study of the per-capita carbon footprint of 100 metropolitan areas in the United States, Salt Lake City was number 50. This compares with 2.24 tons of carbon emitted by the average metro resident from transportation and residential energy. Residents in the largest metro areas emit less carbon than the average American, who emits 2.6 metric tons. In 2005, the lowest per-capita emitting cities of the 100 were Honolulu, Los Angeles, and Portland, while the highest were Indianopolis and Lexington-Fayette, KY.

Salt Lakers' footprint decreased 3.88 percent between 2000 and 2005. Interestingly, although the portion of the footprint due to transportation use went up 9.9 percent, the portion due to residential use went down 18.3 percent.

The Brookings report cited "significant policy leadership" from states and cities producing a "staggering" diversity of activities. Mentioned in the report were the Western Climate Initiative and the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, with participation from Utah and Salt Lake City, respectively. The report called for expanded federal action to decrease the energy intensity and carbon intensity of the U.S. economy and cited numerous federal policy failures.

Drive at 50 instead of 70 mph

2008-05-08T14:36:00.003-06:00

(Posted on behalf of Andy Schoenberg)

I submitted this letter to the editor this week:

We could do something immediately to reduce our gas consumption, improve air quality, reduce global warming, save money and lives. Let's drive at at 50 instead of 70 mph on our freeways. Department of Transportation studies show that such a speed reduction would increase average gas mileage by 20%. The reason is that the power needed to overcome air resistance increases as the cube of speed. If you cube the ratio of 70/50 you get 2.74 or a 274 % increase in power requirement. At $3.50 per gallon a 20% improvement of gas mileage will save you 70 cents per gallon. This is much better than the proposed savings by eliminating the federal tax on gas of 18 cents.

The proposed speed reduction will reduce stopping distance by half as well as the energy absorbed by your car and your body in a crash. This is due to the fact that kinetic energy is proportional to speed squared. A reduction in the 40,000 killed, 3 million injured, and more than $200 billion in car insurance per year would likely be another advantage. Contact your representative to propose such a change.

-Andy Schoenberg

Utah Vital Signs

2008-05-07T23:12:00.004-06:00

For more information about UPEC's sustainability research project, Utah Vital Signs, see this site: http://www.utahpop.org/vitalsigns.