Highbrow Magazine - climate change https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/climate-change en Climate Displacement Is Already a Crisis https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/24412-climate-displacement-already-crisis <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Mon, 01/22/2024 - 11:46</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1climate_depositphotos.jpg?itok=TGrt-prF"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1climate_depositphotos.jpg?itok=TGrt-prF" width="480" height="338" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">In the low-lying islands of the Pacific, the relentless rise of sea levels isn't a looming threat, but a devastating present reality. On the other side of the world, in sub-Saharan Africa, farmers confront expanding deserts where their fields once flourished. These are not isolated incidents but interconnected impacts of climate-induced displacement that threatens to erase communities and histories. This crisis transcends traditional borders, our understanding of our environment, and human migration itself, as ecological degradation forces unprecedented numbers of people to leave their homes. While the term “climate refugee” is still finding its footing in international legal discourse, this phenomenon is already reshaping the human geography of our planet, with not only vast environmental and geographical implications but also a high human cost of this emergent form of migration.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Throughout Earth's history, climate has always been a dynamic player, shaping ecosystems and human civilizations alike. The <a href="https://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/#:~:text=In%201896%2C%20a%20seminal%20paper,Earth%27s%20atmosphere%20to%20global%20warming." style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">onset</a> of the Industrial Revolution marked a pivotal turn in this natural process. The relentless pursuit of industrialization, powered by fossil fuels, set off an unprecedented increase in greenhouse gas emissions that insidiously reshaped climate patterns worldwide. As factories mushroomed and cities swelled, so too did the levels of carbon dioxide, methane, and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. This accumulation created an invisible blanket around the Earth, trapping heat and gradually upsetting the delicate balance of our climate systems. The consequences were not immediate, but by the late 20<sup>th</sup> century, the <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-00572-6" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">signs</a> were unmissable: rising global temperatures, melting polar ice caps, and increasingly erratic weather patterns.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">The <a href="https://www.srs.fs.usda.gov/pubs/ja/2011/ja_2011_lal_001.pdf" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">impact</a> of these climatic changes on human populations began subtly. In rural areas, especially in developing countries, farmers grappled with the unpredictability of weather, with droughts and floods becoming more frequent and severe. Coastal communities witnessed the slow but steady encroachment of the sea, as rising sea levels began to swallow islands and inundate low-lying areas.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Initially, these impacts prompted internal migration, with people <a href="https://www.aamc.org/news/rural-americans-find-little-escape-climate-change" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">moving</a> from affected rural areas to cities in search of stability and livelihoods. As the effects of climate change intensified, the scale of displacement grew, crossing international borders and continents. The term “climate refugees” began to <a href="https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/BRIE/2021/698753/EPRS_BRI(2021)698753_EN.pdf" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">surface</a> in global discourse, capturing the plight of those forced to flee due to environmental disasters; it was a little-known term when it first emerged around 1985 and still, since then, this group remains in a legal limbo, unrecognized by the traditional definitions of refugees under international law. By the 21<sup>st</sup> century, the concept of climate-induced migration had escalated from isolated incidents to a global <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/climate-change-is-already-fueling-global-migration-the-world-isnt-ready-to-meet-peoples-needs-experts-say" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">phenomenon</a>. The increasingly visible connection between climate change and migration patterns underscored a stark reality: the Earth's changing climate was no longer just an environmental issue but a powerful driver of human displacement and migration.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/1migrants_depositphotos.jpg" /></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">In the Pacific, small island nations like Kiribati and the Marshall Islands face an <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/nov/18/cop27-kiribati-donors-raise-islands-sea-level-rise" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">existential</a> threat from rising sea levels. As the ocean gradually but surely consumes their land, the residents confront the heart-wrenching prospect of leaving their ancestral homes. This scenario, no longer a grim possibility but a certainty for Pacific Islanders, serves as a harbinger for coastal communities worldwide, foreshadowing the challenges many may soon face. In sub-Saharan Africa, countries like Chad and Niger are battling the relentless advance of the Sahara Desert. The desertification of once-fertile land, compounded by severe droughts, <a href="https://theconversation.com/climate-change-and-farming-economists-warn-more-needs-to-be-done-to-adapt-in-sub-saharan-africa-215631" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">undermines</a> agricultural livelihoods, forcing people to migrate in search of sustenance. In South Asia, nations like Bangladesh and India offer a different yet equally severe scenario, as they confront the increasingly sudden fury of cyclones and floods. The 2020 super cyclone Amphan, displacing millions, is a testament to the escalating <a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/phailin-to-amphan-deadliest-cyclones-that-hit-india-in-last-10-years/articleshow/101017767.cms?from=mdr" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">intensity</a> of such disasters in the region. These events, which are becoming more and more common, prompt immediate evacuations and, over time, end up reshaping long-term migration trends and geographies as communities seek safer havens.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Meanwhile, in North America, the <a href="https://www.epa.gov/climate-indicators/climate-change-indicators-wildfires" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">increasing</a> prevalence of massive wildfires illustrates another facet of climate migration, even if it doesn’t seem like it on the surface. In the United States and Canada, communities ravaged by wildfires face the dual challenge of immediate evacuation and long-term resettlement decisions. In a developed nation like the U.S., we don’t often think of this as climate <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/u-s-wildfires-threaten-more-people-than-ever/" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">displacement</a>, but this is an internal type of migration driven by the desire to avoid future climate-related disasters or compounded by the inability to remain in an affected area. After all, insurance companies are now refusing to provide services in areas prone to wildfires and flooding from hurricanes and rising sea levels, halting new construction and giving pause to current residents who face the possible, indeed likely, scenario of having to rebuild their homes with no <a href="https://abc7ny.com/feature/flood-insurance-am-i-at-risk-for-will-my-home/13816334/" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">financial</a> relief from insurers. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">This growing crisis of climate-induced migration is not just a local or national issue: it's a global challenge that demands international cooperation and a reevaluation of existing legal frameworks. As climate change redraws the map of habitable zones and pushes populations across borders, the world faces a pressing need to redefine and expand the legal protections for those displaced. Current international refugee law, primarily <a href="https://www.voanews.com/a/explainer-world-refugee-day-2023-/7139284.html" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">grounded</a> in the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 protocol, offers protections based on persecution due to race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion. But this definition does not encompass those <em>forced</em> to move because of  environmental reasons, and so individuals fleeing their homes due to rising sea levels, extreme weather events, or deteriorating environmental conditions often find themselves in a legal limbo, lacking the status and protections afforded to traditional refugees. In other words, current international law makes a clear distinction between <em>migrants </em>and <em>refugees</em>.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">We have made some inroads. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Recognizing this gap, international bodies are beginning, or at least attempting, to address the issue. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), through mechanisms like the Task Force on Displacement, is <a href="https://www.devex.com/news/can-this-high-level-task-force-drive-a-debate-on-climate-migration-105364" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">exploring</a> ways to protect and assist those displaced by climate impacts. (Incidentally, it was a United Nations office, the UN Environment Program, that first used the term “environmental refugee” in the mid-80s.) The Task Force's mandate includes developing recommendations for integrated approaches to avert, minimize, and address displacement related to the adverse effects of climate change. More recently, the Paris Agreement, a <a href="https://www.vox.com/2015/12/12/9981020/paris-climate-deal" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">landmark</a> in international climate policy, acknowledges the need for a global response to the impacts of climate change, including displacement. While it doesn't explicitly mention climate refugees, it lays the groundwork for future policies by calling for the strengthening of adaptive capacities and reducing vulnerability to climate change.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/2migrants_depositphotos.jpg" /></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">We now also have the advantage of modern technological solutions for this modern problem; in the face of escalating climate-induced migration, technology and innovation are playing an increasingly crucial role. <a href="https://www.americancityandcounty.com/2023/07/18/before-the-storm-using-data-to-predict-and-manage-climate-risk/" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">Advancements</a> in data science and predictive analytics are proving invaluable in anticipating and managing migration flows. High-resolution satellite imagery, combined with AI algorithms, can track environmental changes and predict areas most likely to experience climate-induced displacement. Organizations like NASA and the European Space Agency are utilizing satellite data to monitor climate patterns, land use changes, and their effects on human populations. These insights can enable governments and humanitarian organizations to prepare more effectively for migration trends and implement targeted interventions.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Likewise, innovations in sustainable housing and infrastructure can help accommodate displaced populations. Architects and urban planners are <a href="https://www.wsj.com/us-news/climate-environment/to-combat-climate-change-builders-create-greenerand-tougherhomes-2cf0a675" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">exploring</a> eco-friendly building materials and designs that are both resilient to climate impacts and sustainable for the environment. <a href="https://grist.org/equity/how-mobile-home-co-ops-provide-housing-security-and-climate-resilience/" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">Examples</a> include modular homes that can be quickly assembled in response to displacement, and floating houses designed for flood-prone regions. These solutions could not only provide immediate relief but also contribute to long-term sustainability goals. Alongside this architectural modernizations, integration of renewable energy sources is another key aspect of innovative responses to climate migration. For instance, solar and wind energy projects in refugee and displacement camps not only reduce carbon footprints but also <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN19E1CA/" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">improve</a> living conditions by providing reliable and clean energy, and these are already being used in several refugee camps around the world. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">But, really, none of this is easy. While international agencies and technology offers promising solutions, challenges such as accessibility, affordability, and the digital divide must be addressed to ensure that these innovations and policies reach the most vulnerable populations. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Despite the steps that the UNFCCC is taking, for example, creating new legal definitions and frameworks is a complex process that requires consensus among nations with diverse interests and priorities. One of the foremost challenges is the absence of this legal <a href="https://www.unhcr.org/news/stories/refugees-or-migrants-how-word-choices-affect-rights-and-lives" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">framework</a> to specifically address the needs of climate refugees. But there's also the need to balance the sovereignty of states with the rights and protections of displaced individuals, given the fluid scope of “culpability” and responsibilities any given country may have. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">For instance, should the United States provide broader protections for climate refugees for being one of the biggest polluters in the world? Looking ahead, the international community faces the task of not only extending legal protections to climate refugees but also ensuring these policies are effectively implemented and funded, even if and especially when they can get thorny. But these effective responses to climate-induced migration demand coordinated international efforts, which are <a href="https://www.vox.com/climate/23864312/climate-change-stocktake-cop28-dubai" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">slow</a> to come by at best (see the Paris Agreement) or completely <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/11/03/930312701/u-s-officially-leaving-paris-climate-agreement" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">fail</a> at worst (remember when the U.S. pulled out of the Paris Agreement?). This includes shared strategies for disaster response, sustainable development, and humanitarian aid, even if achieving such coordination is a series of complex political maneuvers involving multiple <a href="https://www.axios.com/2022/01/07/wall-street-buys-climate-modeling-firms-data" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">stakeholders</a> with varying perspectives and goals. Another significant challenge lies in securing adequate funding and resources to implement effective migration management and climate adaptation strategies, which should include financial support for developing countries, as they are often the most affected by climate change yet have the least resources to cope with its impacts and contribute less to greenhouse emissions.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/2climate_depositphotos.jpg" /></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">We can also try to work with novel solutions beyond the technological ones. Integrating local and indigenous <a href="https://theweek.com/environment/how-indigenous-knowledge-could-help-tackle-climate-change" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">knowledge</a> into climate and migration policies, for example, could prove to be crucial. Local communities often have a deep understanding of their environment and can offer valuable insights into sustainable living practices and resilience-building strategies. Their traditional practices in land management, agriculture, and ecosystem preservation can provide some long-term sustainable solutions. For instance, indigenous techniques of controlled burning have been recognized for their effectiveness in preventing larger wildfires, a practice gaining attention in places like Australia and North America. Local communities, particularly in regions highly vulnerable to natural environmental changes or that face natural extreme conditions, have <a href="https://alaskapublic.org/2023/12/18/a-network-of-arctic-observers-is-centering-indigenous-knowledge-in-climate-research/" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">developed</a> unique ways to adapt to their changing environments: These adaptations include building homes that can withstand extreme weather, conserving water through traditional methods, or <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/stories/thousands-years-indigenous-tribes-have-been-planting-future" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">cultivating</a> crops suited to altered climatic conditions. By creating a dialogue between local knowledge and scientific research, it can lead to more comprehensive and effective adaptation strategies that are both scientifically sound and culturally sensitive. And for local and indigenous knowledge to have a broader impact, it must be included in national and international policy-making processes to ensure that policies are not only environmentally effective but also, importantly, socially equitable, as inequity oftentimes manifests in cultural differences and institutional biases. Overcoming these barriers requires concerted efforts to provide platforms for these communities and integrate their knowledge into mainstream climate and migration discourse to acknowledge their rights and contributions in managing their resources and ancestral lands.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">On the other hand, while much focus is on managing the consequences of climate-induced migration, equal attention must still be given to mitigating the root causes of climate change. This includes global efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, transition to renewable energy sources, and protect and restore natural ecosystems, a path that involves a balanced approach that addresses both immediate migration challenges and long-term climate action. Scientists have already been hard at work and given us myriad possible solutions, so this will mostly require strong political will and an unwavering commitment to international cooperation. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">The primary driver of climate change is the increase in greenhouse gas emissions, particularly carbon dioxide, from burning fossil fuels. Global efforts to reduce these emissions, though crucial, have been lax. This includes <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/08/12/climate/clean-energy-us-fossil-fuels.html" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">transitioning</a> to renewable energy sources such as wind, solar, and hydro power, and improving energy efficiency in industries, buildings, and transportation (international treaties like the Paris Agreement can play a key role in setting targets and fostering <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-35073297" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">cooperation</a> among nations to lower emissions).<strong> </strong></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Deforestation and unsustainable agricultural practices also contribute significantly to climate change. Promoting sustainable land use involves protecting and restoring forests, which act as carbon sinks, and implementing sustainable farming practices that increase biodiversity, enrich soil, and reduce carbon emissions. Indigenous and local knowledge can be particularly valuable in developing these practices.<strong> </strong>Preventing displacement due to climate change also involves building resilience in communities most at risk. This means not only strengthening physical infrastructure but also supporting economic and social resilience. Initiatives like community-based disaster risk <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/environment/new-york-city-record-rainfall-flooding-climate-change-cop28/" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">management</a> and resilience-building in urban planning are key components, as they can integrate climate action into localized economic and development policies in a more holistic approach.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/1earth_depositphotos.jpg" /></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Now, continued investment in climate research is essential for understanding and mitigating the impacts of climate change, including migration caused by it. This includes <a href="https://climate.nasa.gov/news/3285/nasa-led-study-pinpoints-areas-of-new-york-city-sinking-rising/" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">studying</a> climate patterns, developing new technologies for carbon capture and storage, and innovating in climate-resilient infrastructure. Such research can provide the knowledge base for informed policymaking and effective action. In the wake of climate disasters, immediate funding is required for rescue operations, temporary shelters, and basic amenities for displaced populations. But securing this funding can be challenging, especially in a rapidly unfolding crisis. International aid and humanitarian organizations play a pivotal role, but their resources are often stretched thin.  And beyond immediate relief, significant <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/saleemali/2023/08/21/the-global-environment-facility-gef-aspires-for-greater-impact/?sh=b8ce9b3aba2c" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">investment</a> is needed in long-term adaptation measures like building climate-resilient infrastructure, developing sustainable livelihood options for displaced populations, and protecting vulnerable ecosystems. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Developing countries, which are disproportionately affected by climate change, face particular challenges in funding adaptation and mitigation efforts. These countries often lack the financial resources to adequately prepare for and respond to climate-induced displacements, which is why international financial <a href="https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/sustainable-finance-reporting/us-announce-3-bln-into-green-climate-fund-sources-familiar-with-matter-2023-12-02/" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">support</a>, such as grants and low-interest loans from developed countries and international financial institutions, is crucial in bridging this gap. Instruments like the Green Climate Fund and Global Environment Facility are designed to assist developing countries in their climate adaptation and mitigation efforts, but there is a need for greater and more consistent funding from the international community to ensure these mechanisms can meet the growing demand. Even when funding is available, <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/054a529c-e793-489b-8986-b65d01672766" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">challenges</a> remain in ensuring it is used efficiently and equitably. Corruption, lack of transparency, and bureaucratic inefficiencies can hinder the effective allocation of resources. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">The transboundary nature of climate-induced migration is a global issue that goes beyond geographical lines and socioeconomic divides. The stories of displacement from the Pacific Islands to sub-Saharan Africa, from South Asia to North America, are not just isolated tales of hardship but are interconnected threads in the larger narrative of our changing planet. They serve as a poignant reminder that the impacts of climate change are not a distant threat but a present reality, reshaping lives and communities across the globe. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">The challenges in addressing climate-induced migration are as diverse as they are complex. From the need for international legal frameworks that recognize and protect climate refugees, to the implementation of national policies and strategies that focus on adaptation and resilience, the path forward requires a concerted effort from all sectors of society. It calls for a synergy between technology and tradition, between international cooperation and local action, all underpinned by a commitment to sustainable development and a deeper respect for our natural world. The journey to effectively manage climate-induced migration is steeped in both challenge and opportunity. It offers a chance to redefine our relationship with the environment, to innovate and collaborate in ways that uplift the most vulnerable, and to forge a future that is not only sustainable but also equitable. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>Author Bio:</strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong><em>Angelo Franco is</em> Highbrow Magazine’s <em>chief features writer.</em></strong></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>For Highbrow Magazine</strong></span></span></p> <p><br /> <em><strong><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Photo Credits: <a href="https://depositphotos.com/stock-photography.html">Depositphoto</a></span></span></strong></em><a href="https://depositphotos.com/stock-photography.html"><em><strong><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">s.com</span></span></strong></em></a></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/climate-change" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">climate change</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/climate-migration" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">climate migration</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/climate-displacement" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">climate displacement</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/refugees" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">refugees</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/migrants" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">migrants</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/climate-hazard" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">climate hazard</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/carbon-emissions" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">carbon emissions</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/industrialization" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">industrialization</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/migration" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">migration</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/environment-0" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">the environment</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Angelo Franco</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">In Slider</div></div></div> Mon, 22 Jan 2024 16:46:15 +0000 tara 12966 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/24412-climate-displacement-already-crisis#comments Welcome to the World’s Greenest Building https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/24239-welcome-world-s-greenest-building <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Tue, 12/12/2023 - 12:00</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1greenbuildings_depositphotos.jpg?itok=NZZoxiPI"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1greenbuildings_depositphotos.jpg?itok=NZZoxiPI" width="480" height="318" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">The cantilevered solar roof of the Bullitt Center, which has been billed as the world’s greenest building, is like the flight deck of an aircraft carrier or a giant mortarboard. Some call it a baseball diamond in the sky. Although metropolitan Seattle is the cloudiest major city in the United States, this award-winning six-story commercial office building manages to produce all its own energy via solar power and to supply its own water through rainwater harvesting. In addition, it treats all its own kitchen and bathroom waste, uses no toxic materials, requires little artificial day lighting, and is built to last two-and-a-half centuries. Geothermal heat from the ground beneath the building radiates through the concrete floors to warm the interior. These exceptional features are seamlessly blended into an affordable, ultramodern, energy-efficient structure that is as inviting and beautiful as it is revolutionary. Its very existence is a powerful affirmation of clean energy’s potential for urban transformation. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><img src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/2greenbuildings_depositphotos.jpg" /></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>Using High Tech to Go Low Tech </strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Unlike conventional buildings, the Bullitt Center responds actively to its environment. As with the nerves of an organism, sensors detect and transmit the temperature, wind speed, sunlight, and precipitation outside the building’s skin into its computerized brain. Then, custom software factors in the building’s interior conditions and sends appropriate control impulses to adjust its heating, cooling, and water systems. Yet this super-high-tech, high-performance building actually uses only 17 percent as much energy as a comparable commercial office building. Over its lifetime, it will generate more than $13 million in carbon-reduction benefits. The building gets energy from the sun, water from the sky, heat from the ground, and daylight and ventilation through its windows. It thus models how people can prosper in harmony with nature. The building designers, in effect, used high tech to go low tech. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">To find out how the Bullitt Center came to be, I spoke with the man most responsible for it: Denis Hayes, president of the nonprofit Bullitt Foundation. For a half-century, he’s been one of the nation’s leading environmental thinkers—and doers. With an MBA and a law degree from Stanford already under his belt, Hayes saw his career really take off when former Wisconsin governor and senator Gaylord Nelson selected him as national coordinator for Earth Day 1970. Hayes made the event a worldwide success that helped put the modern environmental movement on the map. A post as head of the Illinois state energy office followed, and soon after, he was named director of the Solar Energy Research Institute (now the National Renewable Energy Laboratory). In 1992, he became president of the Seattle-based Bullitt Foundation, whose mission is to protect the environment and help build sustainable communities in the Pacific Northwest. The Bullitt Center headquarters building might be his crowning achievement. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><img src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/3greenbuilding.jpg" /></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>The Birth of a Living Building</strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">The inspiration for Hayes’s extraordinary career and the Bullitt Center originated in a 1964 epiphany in the desolate Etosha Pan region of northern Namibia, a vast and usually dry lakebed that, after heavy rains, is sometimes flooded by the ephemeral Ekuma and Oshigambo Rivers. Ten-thousand miles away from Etosha Pan, Hayes grew up in a working-class family in the tiny town of Camas, Washington, on the Columbia River. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">It was the rainy season in Namibia, and the rivers had flooded into Etosha Pan. The scene was like being in the midst of a <em>National Geographic</em> special, yet it was far from idyllic. “It was very hot during the day. It was freezing at night. I was starving. I’d been alone for a very long time,” Hayes said. The previous evening, he had just had a scarring emotional experience when he stumbled across the first German concentration death camp ever, in the coastal town of Lüderitz, a site marked by an obscure little plaque. “It’s not much known, but they did there at a smaller scale what they later did at Auschwitz,” he said. More than two thousand people of the Herero and Nama tribes who had fought back against German colonization of their land died in the camp due to overwork, disease, starvation, exposure to the elements, and medical experimentation. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">After seeing the camp, Hayes spent the following day crossing the desert and then paused in the evening to look back toward the coast. “Suddenly, the combination of my desire for some kind of a unifying explanation of how things operate on earth and <em>should </em>operate on earth, and how we could redesign societies . . . led me to believe that there was something to be learned from nature and from the way that it had sustained itself so well for so long.” He realized then that some principles of ecology—for example, predator-prey relationships—operated in ways that would be destructive in human society. He was looking for natural principles that could make good templates for humanity. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Hayes decided that he would return home and focus the rest of his life on trying to find ways to apply the principles of natural ecology to the human prospect—to figure out how we could prosper in harmony with nature, instead of imposing our will on it. Back in the States, he returned to school, eventually turning his talents to environmental causes and the advancement of solar energy. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><img src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/4greenbuilding.jpg" /></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>Design With Nature </strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Now in his 70s, walking slowly and unpretentious in jeans and a gray sweatshirt, Hayes captains the Bullitt Foundation from an airy office atop the Bullitt Center. The building “exceeded my hopes, not just my expectations,” he confided to me. Back in 2007, the foundation needed a new home, and Hayes had seen this as an opportunity to create a commercial building that would reflect the foundation’s commitment to clean energy and climate protection. He wanted nothing less than to demonstrate the best sustainable energy performance possible in an urban environment in a way that was affordable and replicable, a model to inspire the creation of sustainable and resilient cities. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">The standards for certification that the Bullitt Center had to meet were developed by the International Living Future Institute’s Net Zero Energy Buildings program. According to program director Brad Liljequist, the average net-zero building uses only 60 to 65 percent as much energy as a conventional building. A fully certified Living Building, however, has to do more. For full Living Building certification, a building must pass an independent audit to confirm that, on an annual basis, it uses net-zero energy, consumes net-zero water, and meets the world’s highest energy efficiency and green building standards—that is, 20 stringent “imperatives,” each with its own formal criteria, for performance areas that include water use, energy, health, materials, equity, and beauty. Achieving the health standard, for example, means the structure must be toxin-free and supportive of its occupants’ health; hundreds of common construction materials must be avoided just to clear this bar. All energy used must be produced on-site, without combustion, which means it must come from renewable energy sources. Buildings thus must simultaneously meet high aesthetic, efficiency, equity, construction, and durability standards. The standards range beyond the nuts and bolts of the building to include imperatives like “biophilia,” or the nurturing of a sense of connection with nature. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Of 400 buildings currently registered for the “Living Building Challenge,” 75 have met some of the standards, but only a few have achieved them all. “The Bullitt Center is a world champ in its class,” says Liljequist—one of only 10 fully certified living buildings on the planet. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><img src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/1earth.jpg" /></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>Slashing Building Energy Use </strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">How much energy could be saved across the nation if net-zero-energy buildings were the norm rather than the exception? “About 40 percent of the energy [in the United States] is currently being used in buildings,” Brad Liljequist reminded me. “So, we’re talking about taking that down toward zero percent.” </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Of course, no one’s going to wave a magic wand and suddenly transform the entire building stock of the United States to operate on net-zero energy. But if zero-energy buildings became the norm in new construction through economies of scale, they likely wouldn’t be any more expensive than current buildings, except for the installation of on-site solar power or other clean-energy generation systems. Zero-energy buildings are already starting to catch on: In 2021, the United States and Canada had 700 net-zero-energy commercial building projects and thousands of net-zero-energy and energy-positive single- and multi-family home projects. Now that net-zero-energy and ultra-low-energy buildings are feasible virtually everywhere, federal, state, and local governments could establish ambitious annual goals for retrofitting existing buildings and requiring all new buildings to employ cost-effective efficiency measures and use 100 percent renewable energy. Whereas it isn’t generally possible or cost-effective for high-rise office buildings to generate all their own power on-site, they could acquire 100 percent of their energy from off-site clean-energy power plants. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">The United States has about 6 million commercial and industrial buildings and 105 million residential buildings. Could the nation set an ambitious deadline for ensuring that they all meet high energy efficiency standards? The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s voluntary energy efficiency program, Energy Star, established in 1992, has to date certified only thirty-thousand or so commercial and industrial buildings as Energy Star compliant. At that rate, it will take almost six thousand years to get all of those buildings certified. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/6greenbuilding.jpg" /></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>A Trillion Saved, a Trillion Earned </strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Roughly $4 trillion is spent every decade to provide energy in U.S. commercial and industrial facilities where a third or more of that energy ($1.3 trillion worth) is wasted. So, not to have an effective national program in place to certify all U.S. buildings for energy efficiency is a notable policy failure. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">I discussed this problem with Steven Nadel, current director of the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE). Not many people can say that their organization was instrumental in saving the U.S. public a <em>trillion </em>dollars, but the ACEEE did so through the impacts of the national appliance efficiency standards it helped establish. Nadel would like to see states and localities adopt the French system of promoting energy conservation with building energy ratings. “In France, they have these A-to-G labels,” and a ban on selling or renting G- rated buildings took effect in 2020, to be followed by others: “You can’t sell or rent an F [-rated building] after 2025,” Nadel said. “People had many years to prepare. . . . I use that as an example of what may be needed to help generate impetus for the [energy] savings we need and the jobs.” To retrofit all existing U.S. commercial and industrial buildings by 2045, about 5 percent of them would need to be fixed annually, starting in 2025. That would mean retrofitting nearly 300,000 buildings a year. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Absent the widespread use of a mandatory building energy rating system to drive retrofitting, federal loan guarantees and tax incentives could be mustered. Retrofits are labor-intensive, Nadel reminded me, and that means an ambitious national building energy efficiency program could be a big source of new, well-paying domestic jobs that could not be offshored. Although states and cities can provide building codes, their ability to provide financing is limited. The federal government, however, could provide leadership and ample, predictable financing for a major national building retrofitting campaign to address the climate crisis. According to ACEEE, not only do such efficiency investments repay themselves more than three times over, dollar for dollar, but they also boost GDP, create new jobs and, as an added bonus, often make buildings more comfortable and healthier for occupants while saving those occupants money on utility bills. Meanwhile, the reduction in energy use curtails pollution, improves public health, and protects the climate. Energy efficiency even improves social equity in a nation with vast disparities in income and wealth: greater efficiency means that low-income households that spend disproportionately on energy are relieved of some burdensome costs. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>Adapted from </strong><a href="https://bookshop.org/p/books/solving-the-climate-crisis-frontline-reports-from-the-race-to-save-the-earth-john-j-berger/19609365?ean=9781644213223" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline"><strong><em>Solving the Climate Crisis: Frontline Reports from the Race to Save the Earth</em></strong></a><u><strong><em>.   </em></strong></u><strong>Published with permission. </strong></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>Author Bio:</strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong><em>John J. Berger<em> </em>is an environmental science and policy specialist, prize-winning author, and journalist. His latest book is Solving the </em></strong><a href="https://bookshop.org/p/books/solving-the-climate-crisis-frontline-reports-from-the-race-to-save-the-earth-john-j-berger/19609365?ean=9781644213223" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline"><strong>Climate Crisis: Frontlines Reports from the Race to Save the Earth</strong></a><strong> <em>(Seven Stories Press, 2023).</em></strong></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong><em>Photo Credits: </em></strong><a href="https://depositphotos.com/stock-photography.html" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline"><strong><em>Depositphotos.com</em></strong></a><strong><em>; Joe Mabel (</em></strong><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Seattle_-_Bullitt_Center_03.jpg" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline"><strong><em>Wikimedia</em></strong></a><strong><em>, Creative Commons); </em></strong><a href="https://pxhere.com/en/photo/1264940" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline"><strong><em>Pxhere</em></strong></a><strong><em> (Creative Commons); Peter Alfred Hess (</em></strong><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/peterhess/26479915154" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline"><strong><em>Flickr</em></strong></a><strong><em>, Creative Commons).</em></strong></span></span></p> <p> </p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/john-j-berger" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">john j. berger</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/solving-climate-crisis" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">solving the climate crisis</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/bullitt-center" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">bullitt center</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/green-buildings" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">green buildings</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/climate-change" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">climate change</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/green-architecture" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">green architecture</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/environment-0" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">the environment</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">John J. Berger</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">In Slider</div></div></div> Tue, 12 Dec 2023 17:00:35 +0000 tara 12852 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/24239-welcome-world-s-greenest-building#comments Green Capitalism Will Not Solve Climate Change https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/24135-green-capitalism-will-not-solve-climate-change <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Mon, 10/16/2023 - 15:49</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1capitalism_depositphotos.jpg?itok=Zq9UxoSH"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1capitalism_depositphotos.jpg?itok=Zq9UxoSH" width="480" height="239" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p><em>(Photo credit: <a href="https://depositphotos.com/stock-photography.html">Depositphotos.com</a></em>)</p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Many Americans – even those who recognize capitalism’s destructive impacts – find the idea of discarding capitalism for a more just system unimaginable. Yes, capitalism is part of the problem. But, they think, realistically, the world is not going to invent anytime fast a visionary postcapitalist system. Meanwhile we barrel toward environmental destruction. If we’re going to be pragmatic, as millions of concerned Americans believe, we should listen to the growing number of capitalist leaders and companies who are taking climate change seriously and proposing their own solution: green capitalism. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Capitalist companies are already responding to market incentives promoting green technologies that are important in slowing climate change. In fact, Big Tech leaders such as Bill Gates are beginning to focus on climate change, with Gates writing a 2021 book on how to transform the world to save the environment. But a closer look shows that Gates, like most corporate leaders in the United States and around the world, sees climate change as mainly a technological problem to be solved not by system change or politics but by innovative technologies. Gates starts off saying he is not a political guy but a tech expert. New technologies can get carbon emissions way down, without needing to distract ourselves with the giant and disagreeable task of changing our economic system. In fact, in his view, it is the Big Tech capitalist companies, as well as the smaller tech capitalist entrepreneurs that will solve climate change; capitalism is not the problem but the solution.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/1greentechnology_depositphotos.jpg" style="height:383px; width:670px" typeof="foaf:Image" /></p> <p>(<em>Photo credit: <a href="https://depositphotos.com/stock-photography.html">Depositphotos.com</a></em>)</p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Gates’s technological approach to the climate crisis typifies the “progressive” capitalist factions, including powerful capitalist groups in Europe and the developing world, willing to acknowledge a deep climate crisis. Technological innovation on a grand scale, subsidized by states when necessary, makes “green” capitalists like Gates believe even more fervently in capitalism because they see it as the only system generating and rewarding technological initiatives of the kind necessary to stop climate change. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Moreover, because they see markets as rational and responsive to consumers, increasing public concern about flooding, drought, and extreme heat, are likely viewed as providing the “market signals” that will presumably increase the profitability of green investments. Twenty-first-century capitalist entrepreneurs – people like Elon Musk who have already made a fortune from electric cars – see this as the wave of the future. And even big corporations will end up on the global green capitalist wave. GM has announced it plans to stop producing gas engine cars by 2035 and go fully electric. Ford is building its electric F-150 Lightening trucks – one of the most popular vehicles in America – and plans to dramatically increase its electric truck and car fleet, President’ Biden’s 2023 executive order that half of all new US cars and trucks must be electric by 2030. Many other huge global companies are promising to drastically reduce their carbon emissions; Amazon has pledged to reach net-zero emissions by 2040 and Walmart promises to eliminate emissions by 2035. Their expectation is that the entire global capitalist system will follow – and save the planet. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">This “capitalist solution” is seductive but deeply flawed. “Green” technology, such as wind turbines, solar panels, and electric cars, incurs grave environmental costs: </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/1bill_gates_depositphotos.jpg" style="height:450px; width:674px" typeof="foaf:Image" /></p> <p>(<em>Photo credit: <a href="https://depositphotos.com/stock-photography.html">Depositphotos.com</a></em>)</p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Every stage of the life cycle of <em>any manufactured product </em>exacts environmental costs: habitat destruction, biodiversity loss and pollution (including carbon emissions) from extraction of raw materials, manufacturing/ construction, through to disposal. Thus, it is the increasing global material footprint that is fundamentally the reason for the twin climate and ecological crises. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">As material or resource costs escalate, both climate change and material depletion imperil survival and the environment. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Since unlimited growth is in the DNA of capitalism, the shift to green technology is not enough to prevent environmental destruction. The tech-based vision, by focusing simply on technology, ignores all the other aspects of capitalism – from profit maximization to the public goods deficit to commodity fetishism as well as unlimited growth – that cause environmental destruction. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/2greentechnology_depositphotos.jpg" style="height:549px; width:670px" typeof="foaf:Image" /></p> <p>(<em>Photo credit: <a href="https://depositphotos.com/stock-photography.html">Depositphotos.com</a></em>)</p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">The green tech capitalist solution actually protects the wealth and power of Big Tech and other corporations, and is likely to accelerate environmental destruction by deflecting focus from the underlying systemic aspects of capitalism fueling climate change. But this doesn’t mean we should ignore technology nor that capitalist innovation and reforms can’t play a role. Technology obviously has a major role to play in solving climate and other environmental crises. Where capitalist corporations seek to invest massive amounts of capital into non-carbon energy sources, this may help with the larger economic, social, and political changes that will need to ultimately transcend the capitalist-driven forces that green capitalists such as Gates claim to champion. The greening that is possible within capitalism is hugely important, when not used as a substitute for crucial system change. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">The key is to accelerate the green innovation possible within capitalism while making larger systemic changes where these technologies can truly prevent extinction. In the current corporate order, despite the importance of electric cars and other green products, the purely technological approach de-linked from systemic change will not create a sustainable world. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Green capitalists’ reforms may be a step forward, but their claims of social responsibility should not be confused with actual solutions to the climate crisis. Even the biggest global corporate emission-spewers – Exxon, Royal Dutch Shell, BP, Chevron, and other large oil and gas companies – now advertise themselves as green companies, promoting a brand mixing renewables and fossil fuel together as the only road to prosperity and survival in a green capitalism. But these same companies used their money and political clout to prevent the necessary systemic changes that would solve the climate change crisis. In the United States, the American Petroleum Institute, the leading oil and gas lobbyist, put Exxon and Chevron’s money to work opposing Biden-proposed climate policy changes. Nevertheless, these companies brand themselves as “green.” </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/1capitalismbook.jpg" style="height:600px; width:400px" typeof="foaf:Image" /></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Green brands, according to extensive research, are most likely to create “green-washing” rather than sustainability. Global auto manufacturers are talking aspirations rather than committed realities to electric cars; and the US auto firms, also talking a good green story like Big Oil, tried in 2021 to limit stricter carbon emission standards introduced by the Biden Administration. As one <em>Forbes </em>commentator noted, the greenwashing temptation is inherent to work of industry leaders, “The allure of greenwashing sustainability initiatives often taps into what CEOs are best at: projecting confidence, managing risk, and creating followership.” Again, this does not mean that we should not use all the reforms in capitalism that actually contribute to mitigation. But we should also not confuse those reforms with solutions that will save humanity. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong><em>Adapted from <a href="https://bookshop.org/p/books/dying-for-capitalism-how-big-money-fuels-extinction-and-what-we-can-do-about-it-charles-derber/19631919?ean=9781032512587" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">Dying for Capitalism: How Big Money Fuels Extinction and What We Can Do About It</a></em></strong><u><strong><em>. </em></strong></u><strong><em>Published with permission. </em></strong></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>Author Bios:</strong></span></span></p> <p><strong><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Charles Derber is Professor of Sociology at Boston College and has written 25 books. Most recently he is the coauthor of <a href="https://bookshop.org/p/books/dying-for-capitalism-how-big-money-fuels-extinction-and-what-we-can-do-about-it-charles-derber/19631919?ean=9781032512587" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline"><em>Dying for Capitalism: How Big Money Fuels Extinction and What We Can Do About It</em></a>.</span></span></strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Suren Moodliar is editor of the journal <em>Socialism and Democracy</em> and coordinator of <em>encuentro5</em>, a movement-building space in downtown Boston. He is the coauthor of <a href="https://bookshop.org/p/books/dying-for-capitalism-how-big-money-fuels-extinction-and-what-we-can-do-about-it-charles-derber/19631919?ean=9781032512587" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline"><em>Dying for Capitalism: How Big Money Fuels Extinction and What We Can Do About It</em></a>.</span></span></strong></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>Highbrow Magazine</strong></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><strong><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Image Sources:</span></span></strong></p> <p><em><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">--<a href="https://depositphotos.com/stock-photography.html">Depositphotos.com</a></span></span></em></p> <p><em><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">--Routledge</span></span></em></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/green-capitalism" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">green capitalism</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/capitalists" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">capitalists</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/bill-gates" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">bill gates</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/elon-musk" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">elon musk</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/green-technology" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">green technology</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/greenwashing" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">greenwashing</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/climate-change" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">climate change</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/saving-environment" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">saving the environment</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/electric-cars" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">electric cars</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/greening" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">greening</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Charles Derber and Suren Moodliar</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">In Slider</div></div></div> Mon, 16 Oct 2023 19:49:04 +0000 tara 12677 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/24135-green-capitalism-will-not-solve-climate-change#comments After Maui Fires, Human Health Risks Linger https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/24103-after-maui-fires-human-health-risks-linger <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Wed, 08/16/2023 - 14:00</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1maui.jpg?itok=4spkmZJN"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1maui.jpg?itok=4spkmZJN" width="480" height="311" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">People returning to what remains of the beach-side town of Lahaina, Hawaii, and other Maui communities after one of the nation’s deadliest wildfire disasters face more dangers, beyond the 2,700 buildings destroyed or damaged and dozens of lives lost. The fires also left lingering health risks for humans and wildlife.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">When fires spread through communities, as we’ve seen more often in recent years, they burn structures that contain treated wood, plastics, paints and hazardous household wastes. They can burn vehicles and melt plastic water pipes. All of these items release toxic gases and particles.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Many airborne pollutants fall to the ground, and when debris or dust is stirred up, hazardous particles can enter the air, where people can easily breathe them in.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Chemicals can also contaminate water supplies. On Aug. 11, 2023, Maui County issued an “unsafe water” alert for areas of Lahaina and Upper Kula that were affected by wildfires, warning residents to use only bottled water for drinking and cooking, and not rely on boiling tap water because of the risk of harmful chemicals.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">As an environmental engineer, I work with colleagues to help communities respond to and recover from wildfires and other disasters, including the Marshall Fire in Boulder County, Colorado, and the Camp Fire that destroyed Paradise, California. Lahaina and other Maui communities face similar risks ahead.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/2maui.jpg" style="height:440px; width:660px" typeof="foaf:Image" /></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>Chemical hazards in fire debris</strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Residents returning to their burned neighborhoods will likely find themselves surrounded by hazards. Some are obvious, such as broken glass, nails and damaged natural gas containers. Broken power lines and gas lines may be live or leaking.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Less obvious are the chemical hazards that can reach well beyond the fire zone.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Black smoke from a fire is a sign of incomplete combustion that can produce thousands of chemicals when wood and plastics burn.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Chemicals like benzene, lead, asbestos and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs, are common in ash, runoff and sometimes water systems after fires.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Exposure to high levels of chemicals can sometimes cause immediate harm, such as nausea, vomiting, dizziness, rashes and respiratory issues. For these reasons it is critical to protect people, especially children and people with health conditions, from exposure.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">State health officials recommended that residents wear close-toed shoes, N95 respirators, chemical resistant gloves and other protective equipment while looking through property debris.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">When disaster debris is eventually removed by professionals, the contractors will be wearing Tyvek suits and possibly respirators to protect their health.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/3maui.jpg" style="height:434px; width:660px" typeof="foaf:Image" /></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>Buildings that didn’t burn can still have hazards</strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Even buildings deemed structurally safe may have pollutants that make them unsafe for human health.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Particles and vapors can enter buildings through cracks, doors, windows and other portals. Some of these pollutants settle onto surfaces, while others penetrate fabrics, stick to walls and enter air ducts.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Often buildings must be professionally cleaned or decontaminated by wildfire remediation companies. Cleaning surfaces and ducts, replacing air filters and installing HEPA filters can also help.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Drinking water is another serious concern after urban fires.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Wildfires can make the plumbing outside or inside the building itself unsafe in a couple of ways. Loss of water pressure can allow pollutants to enter pipes. Maui County cited this risk in issuing its “unsafe water” alert on Aug. 11. When plastic pipes heat up, they can also decompose and then directly leach chemicals into water.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">My colleagues and I have documented benzene levels that exceeded hazardous limits for drinking water after several previous fires. PAHs can also be present, as our research has shown.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">These and other chemicals pose an immediate health risk to water users, even if the water smells fine. Simple water flushing can fail to remove severe contamination. Proper inspections and testing in buildings and for private wells and larger water systems are important.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Outside, the ground can also become contaminated in a fire. Once the debris is removed, testing is necessary to ensure that the soil where people will replant their gardens, yards and fruit trees is free of hazardous chemicals and safe for humans and pets.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/4maui.jpg" style="height:440px; width:660px" typeof="foaf:Image" /></p> <p><em>Photo credit: <a href="https://depositphotos.com/stock-photography.html">Depositphotos.com</a></em></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>Protecting waterways and aquatic life</strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">During firefighting and clean-up, and when it rains, pollutants can wash into waterways and end up in the ocean.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Lahaina stretches along Maui’s west coast and has long been a popular site for seeing sea turtles and other marine life. That sea life may now be at risk from pollutants from burned coastal buildings and runoff. The fire burned to the shoreline, destroying boats, docks and other vehicles, some of which sank.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Debris and sunken boats will need to be removed from the nearshore waters to protect corals. Similar to wildfires near lakes, rivers and streams, water testing will be necessary.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Communities can avoid more harmful runoff during the cleanup process by placing pollution-control barriers near storm drains, around properties and near waterways. These can help intercept pollutants flowing toward the ocean.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/5maui.jpg" style="height:440px; width:660px" typeof="foaf:Image" /></p> <p><em>Photo credit: <a href="https://depositphotos.com/stock-photography.html">Depositphotos.com</a></em></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>What happens to all the debris?</strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">How to safely dispose of all the debris as the community is cleaned up and recovers is another question.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">After the 2021 Marshall Fire in Colorado, where about 1,200 structures were destroyed, the cleanup generated 300,000 tons of waste. In Maui, debris may have to be taken off the island for disposal.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Cleanup and recovery from a disaster of this magnitude takes years. In the process, I recommend residents reach out to public health departments for advice to help them stay healthy and safe.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/6maui.jpg" style="height:375px; width:560px" typeof="foaf:Image" /></p> <p><em>Photo credit: <a href="https://depositphotos.com/stock-photography.html">Depositphotos.com</a></em></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong><em>This article was updated Aug. 13, 2023, with new damage estimates from Maui County officials.</em></strong></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>Author Bio:</strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong><em>Andrew J. Whelton is Professor of Civil, Environmental and Ecological Engineering, and Director of the Healthy Plumbing Consortium and Center for Plumbing Safety at Purdue University.</em></strong></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>This article was originally published in <a href="https://theconversation.com/after-maui-fires-human-health-risks-linger-in-the-air-water-and-even-surviving-buildings-211404" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">the Conversation</a>. It’s republished here with permission under a <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">Creative Commons license</a>.</strong></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>Highbrow Magazine</strong></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>Image Sources:</strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><em>--<a href="https://depositphotos.com/stock-photography.html" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">Depositphotos</a></em></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><em>--U.S. Coast Guard Hawaii Pacific District 14 (<a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:2023_Maui_fires_-_Lahaina_damage_via_Coast_Guard.jpg" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">Wikimedia.org</a>, Creative Commons)</em></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><em>--U.S. Civil Air Patrol (<a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Maui-fire-1.jpg" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">Wikipedia.org</a>, Creative Commons)</em></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><em>--U.S. Coast Guard Hawaii Pacific District 14 (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:2023_Maui_fires_-_Lahaina_damage_via_Coast_Guard_2.jpg" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">Wikipedia.org</a>, Creative Commons)</em></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/maui-fires" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">maui fires</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/lahaina" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">lahaina</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/maui" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">maui</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/hawaii" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">hawaii</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/climate-change" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">climate change</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/marine-life" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">marine life</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/environment" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">environment</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/climate-disaster" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">climate disaster</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/wild-fires" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">wild fires</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Andrew J. Whelton</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">In Slider</div></div></div> Wed, 16 Aug 2023 18:00:59 +0000 tara 12049 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/24103-after-maui-fires-human-health-risks-linger#comments About One-Third of the Food Americans Buy Goes to Waste https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/23027-about-one-third-food-americans-buy-goes-waste <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/food" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Food</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Mon, 12/12/2022 - 15:09</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1foodwaste.jpg?itok=WzyfPrSc"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1foodwaste.jpg?itok=WzyfPrSc" width="320" height="480" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">You saw it at Thanksgiving, and you’ll likely see it at your next holiday feast: piles of unwanted food – unfinished second helpings, underwhelming kitchen experiments and the like – all dressed up with no place to go, except the back of the refrigerator. With luck, hungry relatives will discover some of it before the inevitable green mold renders it inedible.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">U.S. consumers waste a lot of food year-round – about one-third of all purchased food. That’s equivalent to 1,250 calories per person per day, or US $1,500 worth of groceries for a four-person household each year, an estimate that doesn’t include recent food price inflation. And when food goes bad, the land, labor, water, chemicals and energy that went into producing, processing, transporting, storing and preparing it are wasted too.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Where does all that unwanted food go? Mainly underground. Food waste occupies almost 25 percent of landfill space nationwide. Once buried, it breaks down, generating methane, a potent greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change. Recognizing those impacts, the U.S. government has set a goal of cutting food waste in half by 2030.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/2foodwaste.jpg" style="height:652px; width:435px" typeof="foaf:Image" /></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>Do experts have something to add to the public debate?</strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Reducing wasted food could protect natural resources, save consumers money, reduce hunger and slow climate change. But as an agricultural economist and director of the Ohio State Food Waste Collaborative, I know all too well that there’s no ready elegant solution. Developing meaningful interventions requires burrowing into the systems that make reducing food waste such a challenge for consumers, and understanding how both physical and human factors drive this problem.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>Consumers and the squander sequence</strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">To avoid being wasted, food must avert a gauntlet of possible missteps as it moves from soil to stomach. Baruch College marketing expert Lauren Block and her colleagues call this pathway the squander sequence.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">It’s an example of what economists call an O-ring technology, harking back to the rubber seals whose catastrophic failure caused the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster in 1986. As in that event, failure of even a small component in the multistage sequence of transforming raw materials into human nutrition leads to failure of the entire task.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">MIT economist Michael Kremer has shown that when corporations of many types are confronted with such sequential tasks, they put their highest-skilled staff at the final stages of production. Otherwise the companies risk losing all the value they have added to their raw materials through the production sequence.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Who performs the final stages of production in today’s modern food system? That would be us: frenzied, multitasking, money- and time-constrained consumers. At the end of a typical day, we’re often juggling myriad demands as we try to produce a nutritious, delicious meal for our households.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Unfortunately, sprawling modern food systems are not managed like a single integrated firm that’s focused on maximizing profits. And consumers are not the highly skilled heavy-hitters that Kremer envisioned to manage the final stage of the complex food system. It’s not surprising that failure – here, wasting food – often is the result.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Indeed, out of everyone employed across the fragmented U.S. food system, consumers may have the least professional training in handling and preparing food. Adding to the mayhem, firms may not always want to help consumers get the most out of food purchases. That could reduce their sales – and if food that’s been stored longer degrades and becomes less appetizing or safe, producers’ reputations could suffer.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Reducing household food waste is a step that everyone can take to help slow climate change – but consumers may not know where to start.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/3foodwaste.jpg" style="height:435px; width:652px" typeof="foaf:Image" /></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>Three paths to squash the squandering</strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">What options exist for reducing food waste in the kitchen? Here are several approaches.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><em>Build consumer skills.</em></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">This could start with students, perhaps through reinvesting in family and consumer science courses – the modern, expanded realm of old-school home economics classes. Or schools could insert food-related modules into existing classes. Biology students could learn why mold forms, and math students could calculate how to expand or reduce recipes.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Outside of school, there are expanding self-education opportunities available online or via clever gamified experiences like Hellman’s Fridge Night Mission, an app that challenges and coaches users to get one more meal a week out of their fridges, freezers and pantries. Yes, it may involve adding some mayo.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Recent studies have found that when people had the opportunity to brush up on their kitchen management skills early in the COVID-19 pandemic, food waste declined. However, as consumers returned to busy pre-COVID schedules and routines such as eating out, wastage rebounded.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><em>Make home meal preparation easier.</em></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Enter the meal kit, which provides the exact quantity of ingredients needed. One recent study showed that compared to traditional home-cooked meals, wasted food declined by 38 percent for meals prepared from kits.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Meal kits generate increased packaging waste, but this additional impact may be offset by reduced food waste. Net environmental benefits may be case-specific, and warrant more study.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><em>Heighten the consequences for wasting food.</em></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">South Korea has begun implementing taxes on food wasted in homes by requiring people to dispose of it in special costly bags or, for apartment dwellers, through pay-as-you-go kiosks.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">A recent analysis suggests that a small tax of 6 cents per kilogram – which, translated for a typical U.S. household, would total about $12 yearly – yielded a nearly 20 percent reduction in waste among the affected households. The tax also spurred households to spend 5 percent more time, or about an hour more per week, preparing meals, but the changes that people made reduced their yearly grocery bills by about $170.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/4foodwaste.jpg" style="height:652px; width:435px" typeof="foaf:Image" /></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>No silver bullets</strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Each of these paths is promising, but there is no single solution to this problem. Not all consumers will seek out or encounter opportunities to improve their food-handling skills. Meal kits introduce logistical issues of their own and could be too expensive for some households. And few U.S. cities may be willing or able to develop systems for tracking and taxing wasted food.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">As the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine concluded in a 2020 report, there’s a need for many solutions to address food waste’s large contribution to global climate change and worldwide nutritional shortfalls. Both the United Nations and the U.S. National Science Foundation are funding efforts to track and measure food waste. I expect that this work will help us understand waste patterns more clearly and find effective ways to squelch the squander sequence.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong><em>This article was originally published by <a href="https://theconversation.com/about-one-third-of-the-food-americans-buy-is-wasted-hurting-the-climate-and-consumers-wallets-194956" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">the Conversation</a>. It’s republished here with permission under a Creative Commons license. </em></strong></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>Author Bio:</strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong><em>Brian E. Roe is Professor of Agricultural, Environmental, and Development Economics at The Ohio State University.</em></strong></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>Highbrow Magazine</strong></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>Image Sources:</strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><em>--Anna Shvets (<a href="https://www.pexels.com/photo/person-carrying-a-plastic-bag-full-of-fruits-3645591/" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">Pexels</a>, Creative Commons)</em></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><em>--Sarah Chai (<a href="https://www.pexels.com/photo/crop-unrecognizable-housewife-throwing-waste-while-cooking-in-kitchen-7262910/" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">Pexels</a>, Creative Commons)                        </em></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><em>--Peggy Marco (<a href="https://pixabay.com/photos/market-fruit-selection-to-buy-4749215/" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">Pixabay</a>, Creative Commons)                </em></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><em>--Yente Van Eynde (<a href="https://www.pexels.com/photo/man-decorating-food-2403391/" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">Pexels</a>, Creative Commons)</em></span></span></p> <p> </p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/food-waste" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">food waste</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/wasting-food" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">wasting food</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/climate-change" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">climate change</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/environment-0" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">the environment</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/shopping-food" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">shopping for food</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/cooking-food" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">cooking food</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/saving-food" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">saving food</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/eating-right" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">eating right</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/grocery-stores" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">grocery stores</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/shopping-groceries" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">shopping for groceries</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/eliminate-waste" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">eliminate waste</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Brian E. Roe</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">In Slider</div></div></div> Mon, 12 Dec 2022 20:09:09 +0000 tara 11525 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/23027-about-one-third-food-americans-buy-goes-waste#comments The Fight for a Clean Environment: The New Sacrifice Zones https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/21950-fight-clean-environment-new-sacrifice-zones <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Tue, 11/15/2022 - 16:25</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1pollution_fotoblend-pixabay.jpg?itok=WF9kZUP3"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1pollution_fotoblend-pixabay.jpg?itok=WF9kZUP3" width="480" height="320" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">During the Cold War, experts coined a powerful euphemism to describe areas damaged irreparably by nuclear radiation. They called them “sacrifice zones.” These places were so devastated by the manufacture of nuclear weapons that they became inhospitable to life—humans, animals, plants. They were areas that the US government had literally sacrificed for the sake of the nuclear arms race. Since the Cold War, many communities have been knowingly sacrificed, this time in service not to national security, but to industry. Toxicity is so pervasive in Manchester, Texas, that it has become a permanent health hazard. And so the people of the city are being sacrificed—knowingly, intentionally, and with the full blessing of the law—ostensibly for the sake of local and national economies.      </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Perhaps you don’t live in a clearly identified sacrifice zone. Does that mean your area is safe? The available scientific data demonstrates that widespread environmental catastrophe is underway throughout the country and the world. As former NASA researcher and professor of mathematics Dave Pruett observes, environmental degradation is so widespread that “we’re all in the sacrifice zone now.” Indigenous communities, communities of color, and low-income communities already suffer disproportionate environmental pollution and degradation—too often imposed by the intentional acts of government officials, or as the result of the knowing design and/or implementation of our system of laws and government. So at the same time that mounting environmental degradation and a spiraling climate crisis are expanding the scope of environmental harm, this damage also perpetuates, and grows, the footprint of environmental racism. </span></span></p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/pollutionbook.jpg" style="height:600px; width:400px" typeof="foaf:Image" /></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">                       </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Most people believe that the United States of America is a nation of laws, and that these laws are adequate to protect us from environmental harm. We have the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act, and the National Environmental Policy Act, to name a few. These federal statutes are complemented by an array of state laws also focused on issues of air, water, species protection, habitat preservation, toxic contamination, and more. In fact, we have so many environmental laws that developers, industry representatives, and conservative politicians complain loudly about them. They take to the airwaves, contending that environmental laws are unnecessary and interfere with their ability to carry out their operations, manufacture their products, extract targeted resources, turn a profit, and create jobs.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">This could not be further from the truth. Corporations are fully pursuing their operations and creating jobs, but our environment and health are not being fully, fairly, properly, or equitably protected. Environmental degradation of all forms is underway in every part of every community in the United States of America. We’re loading our water, air, and soils with pollution. We’re allowing construction to take place in wetlands, old-growth forests, streams, and rivers. We’re shattering the earth’s geology and turning formerly bucolic areas into pollution-spewing industrial sites so as to extract every last drop of fossil fuel. We’re changing our climate in deadly ways. All of this is occurring despite the system of federal, state, and local environmental laws we have in place. It’s occurring despite the existence of environmental protection agencies at the local, state, and federal levels.</span></span></p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/2pollution_sdpictures-pixabay.jpg" style="height:439px; width:659px" typeof="foaf:Image" /></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong><em>This is an excerpt from <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Green-Amendment-Peoples-Healthy-Environment/dp/1633310647" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">The Green Amendment: The People's Fight for a Clean, Safe, and Healthy Environment</a> by Maya K. van Rossum (Disruption Books). It’s published here with permission.</em></strong></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>Highbrow Magazine</strong></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>Image Sources:</strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><em>--SDPictures (<a href="https://pixabay.com/photos/industry-sunset-pollution-dusk-1752876/" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">Pixabay</a>, Creative Commons)</em></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><em>--Fotoblend (<a href="https://pixabay.com/photos/garbage-can-waste-tin-pollution-3745004/" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">Pixabay</a>, Creative Commons)</em></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><em>--Disruption Books</em></span></span></p> <p> </p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/maya-k-van-rossum" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">maya k. van rossum</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/green-amendment" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">the green amendment</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/environment-0" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">the environment</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/climate-change" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">climate change</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/pollution" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">pollution</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/global-warming" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">global warming</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/healthy-environment" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">healthy environment</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/air" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">air</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/indigenous-communities" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">indigenous communities</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Maya K. van Rossum </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">In Slider</div></div></div> Tue, 15 Nov 2022 21:25:01 +0000 tara 11452 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/21950-fight-clean-environment-new-sacrifice-zones#comments Are Airlines or Hotels Greenwashing? https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/20087-are-airlines-or-hotels-greenwashing <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/travel" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Travel</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Fri, 07/22/2022 - 16:17</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/2hotel_tiyana-pixabay.jpg?itok=3HUVIFav"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/2hotel_tiyana-pixabay.jpg?itok=3HUVIFav" width="480" height="320" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Is the travel industry serious about protecting the environment? Or is it just hyping negligible environmental efforts — otherwise known as greenwashing — to make a quick buck off your next vacation?</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Y. Murat Ozguc has started to wonder. As the owner of Travel Atelier, a Turkish tour operator, he regularly inspects hotels in Europe that claim to be environmentally friendly. He asks them pointed questions about how they’re protecting the planet.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">The answers he gets are disappointing. Hotel managers will wave at a lone solar panel on the roof or mention a recycling program, often mandated by local authorities, he says. “If even that.”</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">As for the cards in the bathroom that urge him to reuse his towels “for the environment,” he says he complies. But the housekeepers often remove his towels anyway.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Greenwashing — when a company says it is environmentally conscious for marketing purposes but isn’t making any notable sustainability efforts — is rampant in the travel industry. Many travel companies relaxed their sustainability efforts during the pandemic, adding sanitizing programs that increased the use of disposable or non-recyclable materials. Even today, everything seems to be wrapped in plastic.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">So how can you tell if a travel company means business?</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">“Greenwashing is not always easy to spot,” says Joshua Zinder, managing partner of JZA+D, which focuses on sustainable design. “We’ve all seen those little cards in the bathrooms in guest rooms suggesting that you may decline to have housekeeping provide clean towels. Who really benefits from this practice? The hotel operator does, of course, since they stand to save on the energy, water and manpower related to laundry. This is a cost-saving strategy with little impact on the environment.”</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/3hotels_david_lee-pixabay.jpg" style="height:454px; width:650px" typeof="foaf:Image" /></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">The problem is that there’s no Good Housekeeping seal of approval for green travel companies. The closest may be LEED certification, which focuses on a building’s energy and environmental design. But experts note that a hotel could be LEED certified and still fall flat when it comes to other environmental initiatives.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">“There are practices that generally signal that a hotel or an airline is more sustainable, or at least earnestly trying to be,” says Ashlee Piper, author of “Give a Sh*t: Do Good. Live Better. Save the Planet.”</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">For hotels, this can mean offering more recycling and composting options. A resort could serve more plant-based and local foods, install environmentally friendly heating and cooling systems, or use alternative energy sources. In bathrooms, water-saving measures such as low-flow shower heads and faucet aerators are telltale signs that a property is serious about helping the environment.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Airlines that offer transparent carbon offset programs are making a legitimate effort to be sustainable. It’s also a positive sign when airlines are experimenting with sustainable fuels.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Don’t trust the stickers on the door that say the hotel or tour operator is environmentally certified.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">“Look at their corporate disclosure documents on their websites,” says Nneoma Njoku, general manager of Labrador U.S., a global corporate disclosure communications firm. “It’s one of the best ways to determine if an organization is environmentally conscious and implements true sustainability efforts.”</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/1tourists_pexels.jpg" style="height:399px; width:600px" typeof="foaf:Image" /></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">For instance, Booking Holdings, which owns Priceline, Kayak, OpenTable and Rentalcars.com, claimed to be carbon-neutral in 2020 and 2021. If you look at its proxy statement, it points readers to a dedicated area of its website that explains sustainability efforts.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Or consider the recent announcement that IHG Hotels &amp; Resorts would work with Unilever to replace mini-toiletries with bulk amenities in more than 4,000 hotels. It’s a key step in the hotel chain’s pledge to eliminate single-use items throughout guests’ stays by 2030, according to the company.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Is it real or greenwashing? The IHG announcement contained several specific and verifiable promises. It noted that Unilever’s brand Dove will begin supplying full-size hand wash and lotions to Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Avid Hotels, Staybridge Suites and Candlewood Suites in certain locations. IHG says switching to full-size bathroom amenities is expected to save at least 850 tons of plastic annually. The company also has a dedicated page for its green initiatives.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">How do you ferret out greenwashing?</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">“The most obvious way that you can see this is through the excessive use of plastic,” says Larry Snider, vice president of operations of Casago Vacation Rentals. “It’s individually wrapped soaps, plastic cups, which are often also wrapped in plastic, and plastic garbage bags.”</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">There’s also corporate culture. Are employees driving their cars to work or riding bikes? Do they talk about sustainability in a meaningful way or just repeat recycled slogans about sustainability? Do they volunteer in their local communities? Those are all ways of determining whether a company is serious about sustainability, experts say.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Trouble is, most of the time, you don’t know until you’re at your destination. And by then, it’s too late. Experts say it will probably stay that way until the travel industry can develop an enforceable and widely recognized certification program. But time is running out.</span></span></p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/2airplane_blende-pixabay.jpg" style="height:410px; width:650px" typeof="foaf:Image" /></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>Author Bio:</strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong><em>Christopher Elliott is the chief advocacy officer for Elliott Advocacy. Email him at </em><a href="mailto:chris@elliott.org" style="color:blue; text-decoration:underline"><em>chris@elliott.org</em></a><em> or get help with any consumer problem by contacting him at </em><a href="http://www.elliott.org/help" style="color:blue; text-decoration:underline"><em>http://www.elliott.org/help</em></a><em>. This story originally appeared in the Washington Post. It’s republished here with permission. </em></strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong><em>© 2022 Christopher Elliott.</em></strong></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>Highbrow Magazine</strong></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>Image Sources:</strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><em>--Tiyana (<a href="https://pixabay.com/photos/water-outdoors-sky-travel-3292794/" style="color:blue; text-decoration:underline">Pixabay</a>, Creative Commons)</em></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><em>--David Lee (<a href="https://pixabay.com/photos/hotel-room-new-product-door-1330850/" style="color:blue; text-decoration:underline">Pixabay</a>, Creative Commons)</em></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><em>--Blende (<a href="https://pixabay.com/photos/aircraft-sunset-silhouette-clouds-1362586/" style="color:blue; text-decoration:underline">Pixabay</a>, Creative Commons)</em></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><em>--Asad Photo Maldives (<a href="https://www.pexels.com/photo/man-and-woman-walks-on-dock-1268855/" style="color:blue; text-decoration:underline">Pexels</a>, Creative Commons)</em></span></span></p> <p> </p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/greenwashing" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">greenwashing</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/being-green" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">being green</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/carbon-neutral" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">carbon neutral</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/hotels" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">hotels</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/airlines" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">airlines</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/environment-0" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">the environment</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/climate-change" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">climate change</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/staying-hotels-0" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">staying at hotels</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/sustainable-fuels" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">sustainable fuels</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/carbon-footprint" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">carbon footprint</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/traveling-plane" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">traveling on a plane</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/vacation" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">vacation</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Christopher Elliott</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">In Slider</div></div></div> Fri, 22 Jul 2022 20:17:50 +0000 tara 11218 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/20087-are-airlines-or-hotels-greenwashing#comments Forecasting the End of Cold in Porter Fox’s ‘Last Winter’ https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/20073-forecasting-end-cold-porter-fox-s-last-winter <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/books-fiction" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Books &amp; Fiction</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Wed, 07/13/2022 - 18:17</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/2winter_michael_taggart_photogrraphy-flickr.jpg?itok=r28OvR0u"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/2winter_michael_taggart_photogrraphy-flickr.jpg?itok=r28OvR0u" width="480" height="384" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>The Last Winter: The Scientists, Adventurers, Journeymen, and Mavericks Trying to Save the World</strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>By Porter Fox</strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>Little Brown </strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>306 pages</strong></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">In his new book, <em>The Last Winter</em>—an artful blend of memoir, science and travel writing—Porter Fox doesn’t have a lot to offer by way of good news.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">The size and scope of wildfires in the U.S., for example, has doubled in the past 50 years and “the rate of <em>winter </em>warming in the West had tripled [since the 1970s], replacing snow with rain and reducing western snowpacks by 20 to 50 percent—drying out boreal forests in the process.”</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Of course, damage to the environment doesn’t start or end with the U.S. The fabled Alps in Switzerland “is one of the fastest-warming ranges on the planet”—losing 20 percent of glacial ice since the dawn of the industrial age. According to the European Geosciences Union, nearly 100 percent of current glacier volume “could be gone in eighty years.”</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/1winterbook.jpg" style="height:650px; width:419px" typeof="foaf:Image" /></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">To explore what’s happening to weather patterns and the onset of the “Big Melt,” Fox travels to numerous, sometimes remote locales. He accompanies a diverse range of climate experts—glaciologists, explorers, mountaineers—in Alaska and Greenland, Switzerland the Pacific Northwest. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">What he conveys clearly to readers adds to a growing array of dire global scenarios, wherein mankind must somehow learn to live with huge spikes in the frequency of forest fires and, among other things, higher sea levels because of the unrelenting release of carbon into the atmosphere.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">In his reporting, Fox isn’t motivated solely by a general anxiety about where the planet is headed. His very young daughter Grey, whom he anticipates growing up to have her own family sometime around 2060, will face a world of frightening change:</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/4winter_marc_soller-flickr.jpg" style="height:432px; width:650px" typeof="foaf:Image" /></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">“Sea levels will have risen by more than one and a half feet, flooding coastal cities from New York City to Shanghai. Most of the Amazon rain forest will be dead, along with the world’s coral reefs. Half of the earth’s population will experience three weeks of lethal heat every year, displacing a billion people from equatorial regions, radically increasing freshwater scarcity, and cutting crop production by a fifth. With billions of migrants forced to look for a new home, mass migration and resulting armed conflict could very well consume Asia, Europe, and the Americas.”</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">The cautious optimism voiced by some of these experts offers perhaps a ray of hope and light to Fox’s story and our own weather-beleaguered dilemma. Based, however, on their cumulative outlook, the act of recouping our losses and bringing back some sense to the handling of environmental concerns looks like a steep uphill climb.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">The basic question posed by the “mavericks and adventurers” of <em>The Last Winter</em> is: <em>Can anything be done to change our downward slide</em>? Hard to say. Collectively, we’ve made our bed and now, God help us, we must lie in it.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>Author Bio:</strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong><em>Lee Polevoi, </em>Highbrow Magazine’s <em>chief book critic, is the author of </em>The Moon in Deep Winter <em>and </em>The Confessions of Gabriel Ash, <em>forthcoming in 2023.</em></strong></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>For Highbrow Magazine</strong></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong><em>Image Sources:</em></strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><em>--Michael Taggart Photography (<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/14681861@N00/6657057979" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">Flickr</a>, Creative Commons)</em></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><em>--Little Brown</em></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><em>--Marc Soller (<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/8231585@N06/1800419798" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">Flickr</a>, Creative Commons)</em></span></span></p> <p> </p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/porter-fox" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">porter fox</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/last-winter" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">the last winter</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/new-books" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">new books</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/alps" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">the alps</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/cold-weather" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">cold weather</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/global-warming" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">global warming</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/melting-glaciers" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">melting glaciers</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/climate-change" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">climate change</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Lee Polevoi</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">In Slider</div></div></div> Wed, 13 Jul 2022 22:17:13 +0000 tara 11201 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/20073-forecasting-end-cold-porter-fox-s-last-winter#comments The Rise of Greenwashing https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/19723-rise-greenwashing <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Tue, 03/29/2022 - 14:46</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1makeup_pxfuel.jpg?itok=LVn_5KRI"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1makeup_pxfuel.jpg?itok=LVn_5KRI" width="480" height="309" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Early last year, Korean beauty brand Innisfree found itself embroiled in environmental <a href="http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20210408000987" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">controversy</a> and was accused of greenwashing. They had recently <a href="https://www.allure.com/story/innisfree-intensive-hydrating-serum-paper-edition-review" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">launched</a> an eco-friendly version of their bestselling green tea serum as part of their “Less Plastic” initiative: The serum now came wrapped in a paper bottle and the container was 100 percent recyclable. Then a user cut one of the paper containers up and discovered a plastic bottle inside. They shared their discovery on Facebook, prompting the public outcry. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Innisfree apparently did not mean to suggest that the package was made entirely of paper, never mind the fact the packaging was cheekily labeled “Hello, I’m Paper Bottle.” Instead, it was the label what was made of paper and the bottle itself was made with 50 percent less plastic. In fact, the box the serum came in provided <a href="https://uploads.ifdesign.de/entry_ex_media/award_346/309272_62126_large_entry_medium.jpg" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">instructions</a> on how to separate the paper outer layer from the plastic bottle so they can be recycled separately. But it may be difficult to argue that the “paper” bottle and the labeling itself made that clear enough. And the implication is that the brand deliberately tried to deceive consumers with intentionally vague and unclear labeling, to the point where a buyer purchasing their serum would have assumed they were indeed buying a product inside a bottle made entirely out of paper.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Greenwashing is a broad term, though it defines some specific tactics. It’s generally attributed to the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/greenwashing" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">practice</a> of brands and corporations of overstating their environmental impact insomuch as the way they are supposedly helping the environment. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">One of the most infamous modern cases of greenwashing that many may remember is perhaps the Volkswagen emissions <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/analysis-and-features/volkswagen-emissions-scandal-forty-years-of-greenwashing-the-welltravelled-road-taken-by-vw-10516209.html" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">scandal</a>, where the carmaker admitted to cheating by installing a software in their engines that could detect when it was being tested so it could change its performance and appear to be more environmentally friendly than it really was. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Greenwashing is also relatively new; the term was coined in the 1980s (even though its practice has been around before then, knowingly or not) and the Oxford Dictionary only <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/1999/jul/21/guardiansocietysupplement5" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">recognized</a> it as an official term in 1999. It’s widely believed that Jay Westerveld <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2016/aug/20/greenwashing-environmentalism-lies-companies" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">coined</a> the term “greenwash” around 1986 in an essay he wrote criticizing a popular resort’s tactic of urging its guests to reuse towels to help save the environment. That may prompt a doubtful double-take by today’s standard, when it would be clear to anyone that the hotel is just trying to cut costs by not washing as many towels. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">But in the mid-80s, the term “climate change” had only just begun making the rounds in science journals (the term in this iteration <a href="https://cambioclimatico-regatta.org/index.php/en/latest-news/item/when-global-warming-became-climate-change#:~:text=The%20term%20%22global%20warming%2C%22,Wallace%20Broecker%2C%20according%20to%20NASA." style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">appeared</a> for the first time in 1979), so anything that sounded like it was doing <em>something</em> for the environment was taken at face value. In fact, just one year prior to the publication of Westerveld’s essay, Chevron had run its widely successful “People Do” <a href="https://fair.org/extra/tv-lets-corporations-pull-green-wool-over-viewers-eyes/" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">campaign</a>, an Effie Award winner ad strategy that showed how Chevron was helping the wildlife in its native habitat. This included an <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpm00Z9PXzk" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">ad</a> about how a tiny butterfly species that lived in lands owned by the oil giant was protected and was able to thrive in the sanctuary that was part of the Chevron refinery off the cost of California. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/1butterfly_pxfuel.jpg" style="height:400px; width:600px" typeof="foaf:Image" /></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Now, not only is referring to a land that was part of an oil refinery as a “sanctuary” for endangered species widely deceiving, award-winning campaign or not, but many have also pointed out that the pains Chevron was going through to “protect” these wild lands were <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2010/10/the-failure-of-chevrons-new-we-agree-ad-campaign/64951/" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">mandated</a> by law, and did not come from an altruistic sense of environmentalism. Plus, it’s not true, as <a href="https://www.sightline.org/2021/10/20/direct-impacts-of-northwest-refinery-pollution/" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">many</a> <a href="https://wildlife.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Oil-and-Gas-Technical-Review_2012.pdf" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">studies</a> have <a href="https://www.pgc.pa.gov/Wildlife/Wildlife-RelatedDiseases/Pages/OilToxicity.aspx" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">shown</a> the devastating side effects of oil and oil refineries in wildlife and its habitat. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">This may seem like an extreme example of greenwashing on Chevron’s part, certainly by today’s standards with the information we now have, but the practice is still widely used today: Coca-Cola <a href="https://www.coca-colacompany.com/sustainable-business" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">openly</a> claims that it aims to collect and recycle a bottle or can for each one it sells, even though it was still <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/trevornace/2019/10/29/coca-cola-named-the-worlds-most-polluting-brand-in-plastic-waste-audit/?sh=123e0f9474e0" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">found</a> to be the world’s most polluting brand in plastic waste. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">There are several reasons that caused this “booming” in greenwashing, including nonexistent  laws to codify and define the practice; consumers’ enthusiasm to do anything that may remotely sound or look like it’s helping the environment during these times of irreversible climate change; and corporations’ use of more strategic, vague language in marketing, which has made greenwashing harder to spot and why it is more prevalent than we think.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Something as simple as a green package, for example, may be enough to give the impression of a product being environmentally friendly and trigger consumers’ expectations of what usually comes in green packaging. This is especially true in the case of known brands which presence is ubiquitous in supermarkets and home pantries, like Huggies diapers, for example. Known for its eye-catching red wrapping, Huggies also has a “green” line that’s billed as “pure and natural” that, obviously, comes in a green packaging. There’s nothing impactfully <a href="https://www.businesspundit.com/the-top-25-greenwashed-products-in-america/#:~:text=12.-,Disposable,-Diapers" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">different</a> in the “Pure and Natural” Huggies diapers except that they’re made with organic cotton – this “green” diaper will still <a href="https://blogs.cofc.edu/envt-200/2017/03/21/huggies-greenwashing/" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">take</a> 450 years to decompose in a landfill. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Another tactic brands use is the well-known line of “now 50 percent greener” or some variations thereof. It sounds impressive, but if a product was only 2 percent green before, being 50 percent greener means it is now only 3 percent green. And of course, there is the beloved “carbon neutral” line that big brands love to throw around, although it can mean different things to different corporations depending on how they arrive at being carbon neutral. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">The term “carbon neutral” itself is questionable. It’s a synonym for net zero, another favorite and overused expression that provides more insight into what it actually means because it is in its name. “Carbon neutral” and “net zero” don’t actually mean “zero”; they mean “net.” In other words, corporations can offset their carbon footprint to arrive at “net zero.” When Coca-Cola supposedly recycles one can or bottle for every can or bottle it sells, Coca-Cola is <em>offsetting </em>in order to arrive at “net zero” or “carbon neutral.” </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/1cokebottles_mike_mozart-flickr.jpg" style="height:449px; width:600px" typeof="foaf:Image" /></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><a href="https://www.hopper.com/trees" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">Hopper</a>, for example, the popular travel-booking site and app, has a carbon offset program that promises that the company will plant up to four trees for every flight booked on Hopper. Planting more trees is, of course, always a good thing. But the viability of planting trees to thwart the effects of climate change is dubious at best. In fact, scientists seem to agree that planting more trees is a principled quest, but not one that will holistically <a href="https://climate.nasa.gov/news/2927/examining-the-viability-of-planting-trees-to-help-mitigate-climate-change/" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">address</a> the root causes of climate change. The best way to address it remains the <a href="https://www.sciencenews.org/article/planting-trees-climate-change-carbon-capture-deforestation" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">reduction</a> of emissions humans produce—emissions, say, from all those flights we’re booking on Hopper.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">That brands are racing to prove their commitment to the environment (or the appearance of, at least) is perhaps not surprising. With consumers’ newfound predilection for greener alternatives, brands have had to readjust their strategies, from sourcing to production to getting their products off the store shelves. But these changes are costly, and corporations have to be able to show them off and brag about how they are doing the most to court consumers, this with various degrees of transparency. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">For instance, on their events introducing some new product, Apple likes to assert that the company is <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66XwG1CLHuU" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">currently</a> 100 percent carbon neutral, and all its product will be carbon neutral by 2030. This is a worthy goal, to be sure, and it sounds impressive that it’s already 100 percent carbon neutral, especially for one the most profitable companies in the world and the largest seller of electronic goods. What it doesn’t specify during its event, however, is that it is carbon neutral in its <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/18/apple-amazon-exxon-and-the-toughest-carbon-emissions-to-capture.html" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">direct</a> operations (meaning, in its offices, stores, etc.). You have to find the nitty-gritty <a href="https://s2.q4cdn.com/470004039/files/doc_downloads/additional_reports/Apple_GreenBond_Report_2020.pdf" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">data</a> on sustainability to get these details, which is also where the company explains that its direct operations have reduced its carbon footprint to 2 percent of the company’s total; which is really just another roundabout way of saying that Apple’s direct operations account for <em>only</em> 2 percent of the company’s carbon footprint (Apple has at least, to its credit, reduced its carbon footprint by 40 percent since 2015). </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Meanwhile, “green” lines of entire industries have popped up everywhere to try to meet consumer demand, with one of the clearest examples of this being the beauty industry. Proclaiming to be “all natural” and “non-toxic” or free of “harsh chemicals” is a pervasive type of branding for beauty products, from moisturizers to sunscreens. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">But because there is no standard definition for “clean” or even for what <a href="https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/chemical-is-not-a-bad-word/" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">constitutes</a> a “harsh chemical,” these sustainability claims can vary wildly. It’s easy to be “clean,” which is just another word for “green,” just for the sake of “clean” beauty. The brand “<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/meggentaylor/2022/02/23/meet-the-high-performance-beauty-brand-that-puts-a-premium-on-ingredient-safety/?sh=422955976a74" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">Crunchi</a>” can demonstrably be called a green brand, as it does use organic, vegan, natural ingredients. It has a whole list of banned ingredients that the brand won’t use in their products, like <a href="https://www.crunchi.com/explore/banished-ingredients#:~:text=Phenoxyethanol%20(Additional%20Names%3A%202%2Dphenoxyethanol)" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">phenoxyethanol</a>, a synthetic ingredient that is commonly used as a preservative. This ingredient is banned supposedly because phenoxyethanol is a known allergen and may therefore cause irritation on the skin (and probably also because it has a chemical sounding name and if we can’t pronounce it then we’re supposed to think that it’s likely toxic). But in its “toxin-free” products, Crunchi also uses ingredients like orange extract, lemon extract, and <a href="https://www.crunchi.com/get-crunchi/night-cream" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">lavender</a> oil, all of which are much more likely to cause irritation to the skin than the maligned phenoxyethanol – even when watered-down, lavender oil is a <a href="https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/lavender-oil-skin-care-safety" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">common</a> allergen, organic or not. In other words, just because it’s “natural” doesn’t mean it’s better or even safer. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/1lightbulb_singkham-pexels.jpg" style="height:400px; width:600px" typeof="foaf:Image" /></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">To be clear, many of these brands do try to have ethical, ingenious programs in place to try to reduce their carbon footprint. The Australian beauty brand Kevin Murphy, for instance, made a <a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/90241520/this-beauty-brand-will-source-100-of-its-packaging-from-ocean-plastic" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">commitment</a> a couple of years ago to use only plastic pulled from the ocean to manufacture the packaging of its products. When that proved to be impossible, Kevin Murphy was <a href="https://kevinmurphy.com.au/choices-we-make/ocean-waste-plastic/" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">transparent</a> about its failure and pledged to a more realistic timeline and sourcing strategy. Even Crunchi uses little plastic in its packaging, opting instead for glass packaging (although while glass is a giant step up from plastic and infinitely recyclable, it doesn’t necessarily <a href="https://tappwater.co/en/glass-vs-plastic-vs-aluminium-what-is-the-most-sustainable-choice/" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">solve</a> the “single use” problem that most packaging presents, especially when they are small containers for skincare products and, indeed, glass may not be <a href="https://ecochain.com/story/case-study-packaging-plastic-vs-glass/" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">more</a> climate-friendly than plastic). </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Instead, it’s the marketing of these products that oftentimes feels deceitful because it’s doing what marketing does best: sell us something, this time by making a company or product appear more environmentally friendly than it really is. Brands are defining “green” to fit into their narratives, thereby reshaping what a green product even is. For Crunchi, that is banning a common synthetic preservative; for Kevin Murphy, that’s using more recycled material in its packaging, since “clean” and “sustainable” often go hand in hand.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Early last year, a government <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/global-sweep-finds-40-of-firms-green-claims-could-be-misleading" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">study</a> from the United Kingdom, in conjunction with the Netherlands, found that as many as 40 percent of green claims made on websites by global brands are misleading customers. Also only last year, the Dutch government finally <a href="https://www.acm.nl/en/publications/rules-thumb-sustainability-claims-have-been-finalized-serving-basis-acms-enforcement" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">published</a> “rules of thumb” guidelines to assist businesses from making false or misleading green claims. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Meanwhile, in the U.S., these guidelines were first published in 1992 and they have not been <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2012/10/ftc-issues-revised-green-guides" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">updated</a> since at least 2012, when Lyft and cheap LED lightbulbs did not even exist. With so little oversight, it is not surprising that greenwashing has been able to propagate so easily and broadly. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Even Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) criteria that investors try to use to gauge a company’s environmental stewardship has no set <a href="https://hbr.org/2022/02/we-need-universal-esg-accounting-standards" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">standards</a> – companies come up with their own. As with most things in a capitalist society, the best consumers can do is be smart and <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/business-59119693" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">informed</a> buyers: Be on the lookout for green buzzwords like “all natural,” “non-toxic” or “carbon offsetting;” question green claims that choose verbose and opaque language over direct and transparent statements; and all in all, approach all sustainability claims made by corporations with at least a little bit of cynicism, especially when they continuously <a href="https://www.popsci.com/environment/greenwashing-net-zero-climate-goals/" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">fail</a> at making true on their promises.  </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>Author Bio:</strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong><em>Angelo Franco is</em> Highbrow Magazine’s <em>chief features writer.</em></strong></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>For Highbrow Magazine</strong></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>Image Sources:</strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><em>--Ivan Radic (</em><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:VOLKSWAGEN_badge_on_a_car.jpg" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline"><em>Wikimedia</em></a><em>, Creative Commons)</em></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><em>--</em><a href="https://www.pxfuel.com/en/free-photo-oipoq" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline"><em>Pxfuel</em></a><em> (Creative Commons)</em></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><em>--</em><a href="https://www.pxfuel.com/en/free-photo-jrakd" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline"><em>Pxfuel</em></a><em> (Creative Commons)</em></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><em>--Mike Mozart (</em><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/jeepersmedia/13933194990" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline"><em>Flickr</em></a><em>, Creative Commons)</em></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><em>--Singkham (<a href="https://www.pexels.com/photo/clear-light-bulb-planter-on-gray-rock-1108572/" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">Pexels</a>, Creative Commons)</em></span></span></p> <p> </p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/greenwashing" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">greenwashing</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/green-products" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">green products</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/green-brands" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">green brands</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/climate-change" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">climate change</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/environment-0" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">the environment</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/fossil-fuels" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">fossil fuels</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/carbon-neutral" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">carbon neutral</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/net-zero" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">net zero</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/plant-based" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">plant based</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/reducing-emissions" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">reducing emissions</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/human-produce" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">human produce</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/harsh-chemicals" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">harsh chemicals</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/recylcing" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">recylcing</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Angelo Franco</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">In Slider</div></div></div> Tue, 29 Mar 2022 18:46:05 +0000 tara 11005 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/19723-rise-greenwashing#comments It’s Time to Reduce Our Carbon Footprint https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/19703-it-s-time-reduce-our-carbon-footprint <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Tue, 03/15/2022 - 18:50</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1environment_chris_leboutilillier-pexels.jpg?itok=eilEGioi"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1environment_chris_leboutilillier-pexels.jpg?itok=eilEGioi" width="480" height="320" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>Opinion:</strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">In the past 10 years or so, the discussion about global warming, what is causing it, its short and long-term implications, and what we can do about it has moved from a causal discussion to one of critical concern.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">More and more countries are looking to see what can be done to reduce their carbon footprint. One area that has recently received a lot of interest is the automobile industry. Only five years ago, most people would have never given much thought to owning an electric automobile. A hybrid maybe, but the all-electric car never really entered the conversation. Now, certain European countries have announced that gasoline-powered vehicles will not be allowed to be sold in their country possibly as early as 2030 or even sooner. As we all know, the market for all electric vehicles and the public interest for electric vehicles in the U.S. has recently expanded at an exponential rate.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">As a mechanical engineer, I am trying to understand in which direction we are headed regarding the use of gasoline and all fossil fuels but, more specifically, what the U.S. long-term plan. Around the world, each country is taking its own steps to address this concern and the direction of some countries is quite different than others. Some have plans to increase the use of solar and wind farms to provide at least some percent of their energy needs. Others are in the midst of construction of nuclear power plants. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/2environment_lara_jameson-pexels.jpg" style="height:600px; width:400px" typeof="foaf:Image" /></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">At the start of 2022, it was reported that at least 55 nuclear power plants were under construction with more in the works. As many of 15 of those are in China alone. Still, other countries are reporting shutting down nuclear power plants. The U.S. has already shut down almost 40 of its nuclear plants. Other countries are looking at ways to extend the life of some of the aging plants still in operation. Still, others are trying to increase coal production and increasing fossil fuel storage in large underground natural bunkers and by other means.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">In the United States, the push towards more electric vehicles is being promoted as a means to reduce emissions and cut down on our carbon footprint which, in theory, will begin to slow down global warming or at least slow down the rate of increase. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">As a mechanical engineer whose firm designs many types of buildings such as educational facilities, laboratories, libraries, office buildings and others, we often have to make decisions in conjunction with our clients on which types of mechanical systems to design for a building and specifically what type of heating system to design. These systems range from all electric, electric heat pumps, AC units with gas heat, and several different hydronic systems, such as electric boiler and gas boiler systems. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Sensing that the direction in which many in the U.S. want is to reduce our carbon footprint, I put the question out there on an engineering online forum asking if we, the engineers, architects and owners, will be asked to reduce the carbon footprint in buildings by eliminating equipment using fossil fuels such as boilers and water heaters. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/3environment_mike-pexels.jpg" style="height:337px; width:600px" typeof="foaf:Image" /></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">I received, as you might expect, a mixed response. Some engineers said that their state or their county was already not allowing the use of fossil fuels in building heating systems. Others argued that to eliminate gas heating systems, for example, was not really practical in colder climates as some systems such as heat pumps have poor performance in cold climates. Overall, I believe that with the exception of a few isolated instances, no consensus exists in the engineering community on how we should be moving forward. However one feels about the issue, it would make sense to have those discussions now rather than later. The systems put in buildings can last 30 years or longer, so many of the systems being installed or planned now will be in operation for a long time.  </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">There are many ideas being tossed around on how we should address the reduction of carbon footprints around the world, which would benefit our environment and hopefully have an impact on global warming. One such idea in the U.S. is to develop  more and better mass transportation systems in some of the larger and mid-sized cities which would get more vehicles off the road. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">However, it seems to me that the government does not seem to want to take an active role -- at least in the mid-sized cities. In Columbia, South Carolina, where I work, there were some groups as long as 30 years ago pushing for a light rail or other type mass transportation system. This idea received very little traction. Recently, the government has committed approximately $1.6B to primarily upgrade one major intersection into the city and add additional lanes on some of the interstates. It does not seem that much thought was given to mass transportation to reduce the number of vehicles on the road. I know that there is a great need to fix roads and bridges around the country, but wonder how much effort is being done to actually reduce the number of vehicles on the road. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/4environment_tomasso_sansone-wikimedia.jpg" style="height:600px; width:473px" typeof="foaf:Image" /></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Another suggestion is to have utility companies charge a base for a homeowners’ energy bills -- whatever is deemed average for an average-sized home. The government would then add a surcharge for each homeowner that exceeded that consumption. For example, if an average-sized home was something like 2,400 square feet and its consumption was 800 kwh per month, a surcharge would be added for consumption over that amount, which could be increasingly higher the greater the baseline was exceeded. For obvious reasons, as attractive as this might sound to reduce the carbon footprint of a residential home, I don’t think this idea will garner interest among government officials or the utility companies. A parallel idea was one where a demand charge was added to the residential bill. This might have a similar effect on a homeowner’s carbon footprint, and I imagine would receive a similar response to the energy surcharge.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">What we have now in the U.S. and most parts of the world is a lot of interest and ideas on how to address our carbon footprint to reduce global warming. While we cannot dictate to the rest of the world what we think needs to be done, we can certainly lead by example if we want to take those necessary steps. It seems to me that if we look where we should be in the future, we need to start coming together now and discuss the best ways to move forward. These are difficult issues potentially impacting all of our lives. We are creatures of comfort and generally don’t like drastic changes to our lifestyles. We may not have to make drastic changes, but if we are going to address this issue, some changes need to be made and they need to be made soon, instead of being put on hold for future generations to tackle.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>Author Bio:</strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong><em>Dan Reider is a contributing writer at</em> Highbrow Magazine <em>and a mechanical engineer based in Columbia, South Carolina.</em></strong></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>For Highbrow Magazine</strong></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>Image Sources:</strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><em>--Chris Boutillier (<a href="https://www.pexels.com/photo/black-ship-on-body-of-water-screenshot-929382/" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">Pexels</a>, Creative Commons)</em></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><em>--Lara Jameson (<a href="https://www.pexels.com/photo/man-in-black-crew-neck-t-shirt-holding-the-beach-signage-9324406/" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">Pexels</a>, Creative Commons)</em></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><em>--Mike (<a href="https://www.pexels.com/photo/white-and-orange-gasoline-nozzle-110844/" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">Pexels</a>, Creative Commons)</em></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><em>--Tommaso Sansone (<a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Carbon_footprint_icon.png" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">Wikimedia</a>, Creative Commons)</em></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/environment-0" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">the environment</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/carbon-footprint" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">carbon footprint</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/global-warming" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">global warming</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/climate-change" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">climate change</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/electric-cars" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">electric cars</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/nuclear-power-plants" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">nuclear power plants</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/saving-environment" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">saving the environment</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Dan Reider</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">In Slider</div></div></div> Tue, 15 Mar 2022 22:50:02 +0000 tara 10989 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/19703-it-s-time-reduce-our-carbon-footprint#comments