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Burn Baby Burn - Managing the Carbon Cycle

We need to understand the whole system of natural resources to innovate sustainably.  There are many layers to understanding complex natural relationships -- ecosystems.  Start with energy conversion.  From soil and water to living plant.  From living plant to caterpillars to a bird's stomach - protein conversion.  Then burn those plants. And the complex nutrients in the soil.  You get fuel for our cars and energy for our homes, but the net loss to the natural systems is...?




Will carbon credits solve this challenge to a stable natural eco-renewal-system?

The Carbon Market for Carbon Credit Profits


Biosphere 2 Learnings -- Earth Matters

The Environmental Protection Agency of the US federal government is in the center of many controversial actions because, well, they are at the center of many controversial, unknown, unclear problems.  No group of people gets "it" right all the time, and the EPA certainly has had its share of political and economic woes.  I've met a number of employees of the EPA and have found them to be concerned, competent, and committed to their purpose of protecting people and the environment.  And they face a lot of pressure.  Like we all face.

The following blog entry from Dr. Barbara Karn about how important and "big" the environment plays in our survival is worth noting.

Sustainability is often described as a three-legged stool, with one leg each for the environment, the economy, and society.

The Biosphere experiment taught us that the legs are not even, and our major support comes from the environment. Without the natural capital provided by our environment, we'd have no society or economy.

Convincing evidence for the importance of the natural environment came from the Biosphere 2 project.

In the early 1990's, a huge structure called Biosphere 2 was built in the Arizona desert. Over 3 enclosed acres housed a variety of ecosystems with manmade recycling systems designed to imitate earth's natural systems.

The project, however, could not independently sustain humans or the other organisms inside. There were problems with oxygen and food, and outside electricity had to be used.  Biosphere 2 taught us that people don't have the ability to design a self-sustaining ecosystem for human life.

The Reality is... Reality

If we lose our natural ecosystem by failing in environmental protection, in the words of Dr. Gro Brundlant, chair of the first World Commission on Environment and Development, there will be no sanctuary.

EPA's mission, protecting the environment and human health, is key to our sustainability and survivability.


Read more at EPA Blog

Released 2009

Plan B 4.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization

Lester R. Brown

Brown argues that food may be the issue that convinces the world of the need to cut carbon emissions 80 percent by 2020. Every major environmental trend from climate change to deforestation and water scarcity affect food supplies. In this completely revised edition, Brown focuses on details of the plan and how it is already emerging in the energy economy.

 
 
Plan B 4.0 is now available for
free downloading at www.earthpolicy.org

Spread the word:
Become a fan of EPI on Facebook.
www.facebook.com/pages/Earth-Policy-Institute/17045240901

Lester R. Brown, Plan B 4.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2009), available on-line at www.earthpolicy.org/index.php?/books/pb4

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