Ideas for Change: A National Strategy for Sustainability

by Emily Gertz

Published January 12, 2009 @ 04:33PM PT

I've invited finalists of the Ideas for Change in America competition with ideas relevant to stopping global warming to tell us more about her or his idea. I'll be posting their responses between now and the end of the voting: 5 pm Eastern on Thursday, Jan. 15.

This post is by Rob Wheeler of the Citizens Network for Sustainable Development. Rob's idea is to Develop and Implement a National Strategy for Sustainability. Take it away, Rob:

If America wants to prevent global warming it can't be done with piecemeal efforts, but will instead require a full scale campaign that involves all Americans in the effort.

We need to make a rapid transition to renewable energy, beginning by meeting Al Gore's challenge of producing all of our electricity from renewables within ten years. The same is true with any number of growing environmental challenges. Taking responsible action is indeed a necessity. In the past 100 years resource depletion, species extinction, and the build up of toxic wastes in the environment have increased more than ten-fold.

The US, with 5% of the world's population, uses 27% of the natural resources; while only recycling 10-15% of our wastes.

Since 1940, we Americans alone have used up as large a share of the earth's mineral resources as all previous humans put together. The average American uses 120 pounds of natural resources each day and consumes twice as much energy as the average German, 6 times as much as Mexicans, 12 times the Chinese, 29 times the average Indian, and 117 times as much as a Bangladeshi. In short, we need to urgently adopt more sustainable practices. Which is why the Obama administration needs to invite all Americans to join it in developing and implementing a National Strategy for Sustainability.

I have posted a Proposal on the Change.gov website that urges the Obama Administration to do just this. Please vote for it today. It may be our best hope for ensuring that our kids, and their kids, can have the same quality of life as we enjoy today.

Anyone who truly thinks about it will realize that we are in real trouble in terms of our energy problems and global warming. The greenhouse gases that we have produced are already having a significant impact on the natural environment. We have to quit producing them as quickly as possible. This will not be easy because we already have hundreds of millions of automobiles that almost no one wants to give up; and we produce 50% of our electricity from coal plants that the power companies don't want to shut down. So, we have to come together as a country and figure out the best ways to prevent global warming and to make a complete transition to renewable energy as rapidly as we can.

Fortunately, we have already discovered many ways that this could be done. Carbon-Free and Nuclear-Free: a Roadmap for US Energy Policy, by Arjun Makhijani, sets out a goal and recommendations for completely eliminating C02 emissions in the US by 2050. The report and book are must reads if you care about solving our energy problems.

Similarly, the New Energy Congress has developed a promising list of 100 new energy technologies which may be key to our future. Many of these technologies could be profitably produced within two or three years with additional funding for marketing, development, production, and distribution. The New Energy Congress is working on a paper that looks at how we could meet Al Gore's challenge; and the US should join in this effort by developing and implementing a plan to achieve it. This could be done in conjunction with the development and implementation of the National Strategy for Sustainability. See: http://www.citnet.org/leadership/LFS-Wheeler.aspx

Alan Dechert also posted an interesting proposal for making a rapid transition to a renewable energy future as a part of the Ideas for Change competition that he calls the Renewable Model Communities.

Hundreds of thousands of American's have good ideas for how we can make the needed transition to sane and renewable energy technologies and a sustainable future. As a country we need to welcome their ideas and participation in developing and implementing a National Strategy for Sustainability. We need to involve as many of the American people as possible - so we'll all understand what must be done to confront and prevent climate change and global warming; to protect and restore the natural environment; and to create a sustainable America.