Waste Not Want Not

Before I sat down to watch "Dirty Business" Clean Coal and the Battle For Our Energy Future" at the David Brower Center in Berkeley, the audience was treated to a nice spread of food. Not all of the food was eaten, and despite that the fact that it was vegetarian, and might be composted, it would undoubtedly end up costing us all some energy, including the energy to grow food, process it, package it, transport it, and then process it again or dump it. Not an insignificant number of steps along the life cycle of food production.

I start out with this observation because at the end of the film I had a chance to speak with Rebecca Tarbotton, Executive Director of the Rainforest Action Network. She advocates creating a grassroots effort to place a moratorium on domestic coal production and limit current coal shipments to other countries. I thoroughly believe in this strategy, since, as Rebecca blatantly concludes during a Q&A session, and I paraphrase here, the real question is "What has the government done for me lately?"

As people filed out of the theater, someone asked her a question regarding scaling up of the Chinese economy, and its increased demand for energy supplied in the form of cheap, accessible coal. She replied, and again I paraphrase, that there is a slippery slope when we connect standard of living with energy use. I get this. As the Chinese shift from being producers to consumers, they'll undoubtedly increase their standard of living. While we'd like to tell the Chinese not to buy Hummers we can't really complain unless we look at our own backyards or driveways. For that matter, it's not just about purchasing a Hummer, but also that 4th pair of Patagonia pants, the fifth case of Clif Bars, or that additional iPad. We need to take a page out of the 3Rs: Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle, and advocate for an increased standard of living while reducing consumption.

How do we force the issue of less consumption? If we internalize the true cost of goods, they become expensive. Would it promote source reduction? What if a carbon price was tied to the degree of recycled content in a product? Would this cause manufacturers to increase the recycled content in their products? What if a price on carbon is applied to goods that are manufactured in distant economies, would the relative cost of labor becomes more attractive domestically?

There are of course several wrinkles (i.e. China doesn't promote organized labor, pricing for energy and resources are dictated by world markets) in this thread of what ifs . Does this lock people out who shop at Wal-Mart, who can't afford higher priced products? (Aside from the fact that Wal-Mart would never internalize the true cost of goods in its prices) These what ifs are dependent upon a carbon based regulatory system that requires agreement amongst stakeholders and enforcement. A big whopping problem.

We are then brought back to the issue of less consumption and less spending not imposed by costs but other incentives. I'm going to list my incentives. You undoubtedly have your own.

(a)Unclogging my closet. I myself have don't have a need for a lot of my clothes that other people would be happy to have. I'd also take me less time to get dressed.

(b) Making my daughter less confused. She has a bunch of gadgets that she never uses. Quite frankly when she's searching for that toy that she does like she has to negotiate around dusty stuff that is just in the way. Less stuff, less whining, better for her and better for me :)

(c) Feeling blah. Did I really need to buy that bag of croissants that I'll eat and feel guilty about?

(d) A stinky fridge. I've got a bunch of moldy items that are pretty nondescript hairy blobs that inhabit my fridge. I don't think I need to expand upon this.

This last incentive gets us back to that issue of the food leftovers at the screening of "Dirty Business" Clean Coal and the Battle For Our Energy Future". While we can't always predict what and how much stuff we need, if we just remembered what happens when we choose unwisely we'd go a long way. Like that stinky fridge, shirt I can't find, blah blah feeling, and having a anxious, whiny pre-schooler we'd get the picture. Believe it or not, we'd probably also end up using less coal.