By Barret Hudson
What does the green movement mean to you? This may seem like a silly question, but it's a question I have been asking myself lately. There is really no rite answer to this question; it is simply a way of thinking about the hundreds of different things that have become part of the green movement and what is most important in them. An interesting experiment I did was to Google the terms green movement and my home town and sees what comes up. Here in Austin Texas this Google search brings up an interesting series of results.
The first thing that comes up is an article about a concert celebrating the green movement in Austin. If you know about Austin this makes some sense, as the self proclaimed music capital of the world we have a concert for just about everything. The sponsor of this green concert was the Yellow Bike Collective, a local group that advocates for bicyclist rites and increasing the ease of transit by bicycle around town. They are a great organization and have done good things for the local biking community here in Austin, but I don't know that they would qualify as the epitome of the Austin green movement in my mind. While increase the number of people using bikes as a primary means of transportation does take cars of the road and decrease pollution, it is just one piece of a large puzzle.
Second on the list is the Travis Count Green Party. Clearly they should be high on the list as they appear to be leaders in the local green movement from a government standpoint. However I was disappointed when I looked at their sight and found out that none of their top three key values are related to the environment or environmental concerns. Shouldn't this movement be about the environment more than anything else? Several of their other key values are environmentally related but are very vague on exactly what their stance is on important environmental issues. The green party seems to be taking it's namely loosely and not sticking to a platform of environment first, more like environment fourth. While none of its key values are anti-environment, the green party is perhaps not as green as I would have liked.
All in all someone trying to find out what the green movement in Austin is all about wouldn't get a very good picture from the first page of search results on Google. They would certainly understand that there are several local groups supporting bike transportation and delivery to reduce emissions. They will also find responses from Realtors to the recent home energy regulations put in place, most of which are critical of the city's plan to increase energy efficiency. What does this say about our lovely little city that likes to think of itself as a haven for green living in Texas?
I think the Austin green movement is more than these search results would tell you, and I did skip over one brief article that talks about Austin as a leader in the green building sector, but the fact still remains that the information available online largely doesn't match up with what I think of when I think of the green movement. This is a symptom of an ever increasing ambiguity in the movement and this problem is only going to get worse. With the predictions for a coming "greenconomy" and more money being pumped into anything that can spin itself as part of the green movement by the day, the race is on to get in on the green goodness.
The green movement, whatever it is, is growing. The zeitgeist of the times is more environmentally minded then anytime in recent history and it shows. I encourage you to think critically about what the green movement is, what it means, and what it should be. Let us not forget in the rush that the movement should be about the environment above everything else.
About the Author: Barret Hudson is a representative of Green Collar Operations, a home weatherization company in Austin, TX. We specialize in home energy efficiency improvements. More information at http://www.greencollaroperations.com.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Barret_Hudson
http://EzineArticles.com/?What-Does-the-Green-Movement-Mean-to-You?&id=2599285
Sunday, October 4, 2009
ENVIRONMENTAL POLITICS: The Importance of Developing Countries in Climate Change Initiatives
By Barret Hudson
There has been a lot of talk surrounding the recent G8 summits and the unwillingness of developing countries to join in on environmental programs. It may not seem that important to include these developing economies in a climate control plan. Given the current statistics about energy use and pollution creation in which the US and other developed countries top the list it stands to reason that what the developing world is doing isn't that important. However, there are several key factors that are not being considered that make the developing countries of the world a very important part of any global climate change discussion.
First off, as we in the US are seeing now, once you have an established method of power generation, it becomes more difficult to change. The life cycle of a power plant is very long and it takes much of this lifecycle to recoup the costs of development. This means that power plants being developed today in developing countries to meet their growing electrical needs will still be in use 25 years from now. It is much easier to start out producing clean energy then it is to transfer to it after the fact. If developing countries continue to use dirty power generation to meet demand today, everyone will pay the price in the long run.
The second reason that we must be concerned about power generation in developing countries is the size of the populations in many of these countries. As countries like India and China start using more energy on a per-capita basis and approach the levels of more developed countries there is going to be a huge demand for electricity generation due to the massive size of their populations. If allowed to continue to meet this demand with dirty power generation methods they will over time create a huge pollution problem, the effects of which will be felt everywhere in the world.
If allowed to continue unchecked, the increase in dirty power generation in the developing world will offset any reductions in pollution made in developed countries. The world cannot afford to continue producing pollution at current levels, the goal of any environmental plan as to be to reduce global emissions. These developing countries are therefore a huge threat to any environmental program that is really trying to fix the problem. This is not to say that the developed countries in the world shouldn't reduce their emissions if developing countries don't agree to as well. Any effort to reduce emissions is better than none. However, it is important to get the support of developing countries in stopping global climate change. Without their help, nothing we do can truly stop the problem, it will just put it off.
About the Author: Barret Hudson is a representative of Green Collar Operations, a home weatherization company in Austin, TX. We specialize in home energy efficiency improvements. More information at http://www.greencollaroperations.com.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Barret_Hudson
http://EzineArticles.com/?The-Importance-of-Developing-Countries-in-Climate-Change-Initiatives&id=2599266
There has been a lot of talk surrounding the recent G8 summits and the unwillingness of developing countries to join in on environmental programs. It may not seem that important to include these developing economies in a climate control plan. Given the current statistics about energy use and pollution creation in which the US and other developed countries top the list it stands to reason that what the developing world is doing isn't that important. However, there are several key factors that are not being considered that make the developing countries of the world a very important part of any global climate change discussion.
First off, as we in the US are seeing now, once you have an established method of power generation, it becomes more difficult to change. The life cycle of a power plant is very long and it takes much of this lifecycle to recoup the costs of development. This means that power plants being developed today in developing countries to meet their growing electrical needs will still be in use 25 years from now. It is much easier to start out producing clean energy then it is to transfer to it after the fact. If developing countries continue to use dirty power generation to meet demand today, everyone will pay the price in the long run.
The second reason that we must be concerned about power generation in developing countries is the size of the populations in many of these countries. As countries like India and China start using more energy on a per-capita basis and approach the levels of more developed countries there is going to be a huge demand for electricity generation due to the massive size of their populations. If allowed to continue to meet this demand with dirty power generation methods they will over time create a huge pollution problem, the effects of which will be felt everywhere in the world.
If allowed to continue unchecked, the increase in dirty power generation in the developing world will offset any reductions in pollution made in developed countries. The world cannot afford to continue producing pollution at current levels, the goal of any environmental plan as to be to reduce global emissions. These developing countries are therefore a huge threat to any environmental program that is really trying to fix the problem. This is not to say that the developed countries in the world shouldn't reduce their emissions if developing countries don't agree to as well. Any effort to reduce emissions is better than none. However, it is important to get the support of developing countries in stopping global climate change. Without their help, nothing we do can truly stop the problem, it will just put it off.
About the Author: Barret Hudson is a representative of Green Collar Operations, a home weatherization company in Austin, TX. We specialize in home energy efficiency improvements. More information at http://www.greencollaroperations.com.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Barret_Hudson
http://EzineArticles.com/?The-Importance-of-Developing-Countries-in-Climate-Change-Initiatives&id=2599266
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