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In the Fight Against Fossil Fuel Addiction, Bring What You Can
The Heinz Award and What I Plan to Do With It
I was thrilled recently to receive a Heinz Award in recognition of my research and writing on environmental health. This is work made possible by my residency as a scholar within the Department of Environmental Studies at Ithaca College. Many past and present Heinz Award winners are personal heroes of mine--and Teresa Heinz herself is a champion of women's environmental health--so this recognition carries special meaning for me. 
And it comes with a $100,000 unrestricted cash prize. Which is stunning.
As a bladder cancer survivor of 32 years, I'm intimately familiar with two kinds of uncertainty: the kind that comes while waiting for results from the pathology and radiology labs and the kind that is created by the medical insurance industry who decides whether or not to pay the pathology and radiology bills. Over the years, I've learned to analyze data and raise children while surrounded by medical and financial insecurities. It's a high-wire act.
But as an ecologist, I'm aware of a much larger insecurity: the one created by our nation's ruinous dependency on fossil fuels in all their forms. When we light them on fire, we fill the atmosphere with heat-trapping gases that are destabalizing the climate and acidifying the oceans (whose plankton stocks provide us half of the oxygen we breathe). When we use fossil fuels as feedstocks to make materials such as pesticides and solvents, we create toxic substances that trespass into our children's bodies (where they raises risks for cancer, asthma, infertility, and learning disorders).
Emancipation from our terrible enslavement to fossil fuels is possible. The best science shows us that the United States could, within two decades, entirely run on green, renewable energy if we chose to dedicate ourselves to that course. [1] But, right now, that is not the trail we are blazing.
Instead, evermore extreme and toxic methods are being deployed to blast fossilized carbon from the earth. We are blowing up mountains to get at coal, felling boreal forests to get at tar, and siphoning oil from the ocean deep. Most ominously, through the process called fracking, we are shattering the very bedrock of our nation to get at the petrified bubbles of methane trapped inside.
Fracking turns fresh water into poison. It fills our air with smog, our roadways with 18-wheelers hauling hazardous materials, and our fields and pastures with pipelines and toxic pits.
I am therefore announcing my intent to devote my Heinz Award to the fight against hydrofracking in upstate New York, where I live with my husband and our two children.
Some might look at my small house (with its mismatched furniture) or my small bank accounts (with their absence of a college fund or a retirement plan) and question my priorities. But the bodies of my children are the rearranged molecules of the air, water, and food streaming through them. As their mother, there is no more important investment that I could make right now than to support the fight for the integrity of the ecological system that makes their lives possible. As legal scholar Joseph Guth reminds us, a functioning biosphere is worth everything we have. [2]
This summer I traveled through the western United States and saw firsthand the devastation that fracking creates. In drought-crippled Texas where crops withered in the fields, I read a hand-lettered sign in a front yard that said, “I NEED WATER. U HAUL. I PAY. “ And still the fracking trucks rolled on, carrying water to the gas wells.
This is the logic of drug addicts, not science.
I also stood on the courthouse steps in Salt Lake City while climate activist Tim DeChristopher was sentenced to two years in federal prison for an act of civil disobedience that halted the leasing of public land for gas and oil drilling near Arches National Park. Before he was hauled away by federal marshals, Tim said, “This is what love looks like.”
After two months of travel, my children and I arrived home to the still unfractured state of New York. After stopping at a local farm stand to buy bread, tomatoes, cheese, and peaches for dinner, we celebrated our return along the vineyard-and-waterfall-lined shore of Cayuga Lake. I watched my son skip stones across its surface. Under his feet lay the aquifer that provides drinking water to our village.
This is what security looks like. Please join me in the struggle to defend the economy and ecology of upstate New York. Bring what you can.
Sources:
1. M.Z. Jacobson and M.A. Delucci, “A Path to Sustainable Energy by 2030,” Scientific American 301 (2009): 58-65.
2. “The Earth's biosphere seems almost magically suited to human beings, and indeed it is, for we evolved through eons of intimate immersion within it. Many of us are animated by moral and religious impulses to treasure and respect the creation that sustains us. We cannot live well without a functioning biosphere, and so it is worth everything we have.” Joseph H. Guth, “Law for the Ecological Age,” Vermont Journal of Environmental Law, vol. 9.
16 Comments so far
Show AllI recommend an excellent book: 'Game Over, How you can prosper in a shattered economy.' by Stephen Leeb. Leeb is an investment analyst (natch). He predicted the 2008 meltdown (in another book called 'The coming economic collapse'), so that puts him in my good graces. His short book's basic thesis is that our basic resources that run our economy, energy, water, and minerals, are all in much shorter supply than we think, especially when you factor in an exploding population that is hell-bent on becoming 'more American' in resource usage. There simply isn't enough resources to satisfy this hunger, so war and hunger are the probable result, starting in about 10 years. (in the meantime, you can prosper by investing in resources and, of course, gold, hence the title).
Leeb recommends a Marshall Plan for alternative energy, so that our dwindling resources can be channeled toward creating a sustainable future before they run out. He doesn't say how, exactly, but my recommendation would be a stiff revenue-neutral carbon tax with import tarrifs on countries that don't do likewise. If we can get the G20 to go along (shouldn't be hard with Europe), we may solve this issue before we have to bite the bullet. Once the tax is in place, market forces should channel demand to solutions like alt energy, carbon sequestration, sustainability, and efficiency.
Pipelines filled with tar sand oil (the dirtiest oil on the planet), fracking, drilling in the Arctic, wars to control Iraqi oil, wars to control Central Asian oil pipelines through Afghanistan, deep water drilling: these are all signs that we passed Peak Oil some time ago, and are running on fumes. We better get wise, and quick, before the easy fossils and minerals are gone, and nothing is left to build a green energy infrastructure. If we allow that to happen, it would be 'game over' in Leebs parlance. Our civilization would grind to a halt.
And I didn't even mention Global Warming yet. That's got to be the scariest thing about my whole post. Civilization is in a death struggle, even without considering Global Warming.
An excellent, heart felt article- and a poignant reply. Thank you both for your ideas, passion and work. I am right beside you.
"This is the logic of drug addicts, not science."
You hit the nail on the head there!
Excellent article, Sandra! Love that you cite studies properly, too! You are an inspiration, and congratulations on your award!
Good on you, Sandra! Congratulations to all those rearranged molecules of yours!
Great article but I propose that instead of just bringing what we can bring that we also make what we can as free of fossil fuels as possible. It's possible to make most products petroleum free and not too difficult once you hear about hempseed oil, jute, bamboo, and other organic and natural substitutes. Don't let any naysayer fool you otherwise.
I regularly read Sandra Steingraber's essays in Orion and agree with her that we must fight fossil fuel addiction, but any of us who are able to comment on this website are compromised. I am typing these words on a computer made largely of plastic, plugged into an electrical outlet in West Virginia, where most of the electricity is coal-generated. My eyesight is very poor, and the special lenses necessary for me to function effectively are also made of plastic. I live in a small sixty-year-old house heated with natural gas, and while we have tightened up everything we can, use the oven as little as possible, and keep the thermostat at 68 in the winter, we are dependent on fossil fuels to cook our food and keep from freezing. The school where I teach is outside the city limits, and our limited bus service ends before my work day does, so I drive--only ten minutes each way, and in a hybrid--but without using fossil fuels, I would be unable to support myself. I feel like a hypocrite, but can't see a way for me to live a "no-impact" life. Honestly, I've no idea how to separate myself from the need for fossil fuels.
According to Bill Kunstler, Robert Heinberg, & The Oil Drum, et. al., really what we need is about an 80% reduction in fossil fuel use.... & they mention that it's unlikely to happen easily... Also they say that the alternative energy possibilities are not going to really deliver much..... I suppose if we, as a nation (usa) & world were to devote itself to those aims (with conservation being the #1 weapon) maybe, we could keep civilization kinda goin'....
Regrettably, I'm predicting a few billion human creatures prematurely dying in this century....
...just hope it's not my kids......
Oh well!
Fracking poisons the water table.
A poisoned water table means we all die. The end.
Fracking is evil. Fracking must be stopped. Fracking kills the Earth beneath our feet.
Pass it on.
Good movies: Dirt! The Movie, FLOW, and of course Gasland. Must see if you haven't already... better yet, buy, and share these films with others. Give them to people who need to see them. Force it on them.
Be a love pusher.
I heat my house, cook my meals, and heat my water with wood. I use about 8 cords of wood each year. It's a lot of work and I'm not sure how many people are prepared to forego the modern convenience of a thermostat on the wall in exchange for cutting, splitting wood and feeding the stove.
I have a friend who produces biodiesel and will sell it for $2/gal. It has to be blended with #2 diesel, but it will power my tractor.
However, my old Buick requires gasoline, and I see no viable alternative on the horizon.
Fortunately, I read today that we have a 200 year supply of oil in Alaska, and a lot more in N.Dakota so we've got plenty of time to invent something that will get us off the fossil fuel addiction, and I eagerly await that discovery.
Let's be totally clear - there is NO WAY we can support our current Wars,
Auto Addiction, energy wasting madness with renewable energy.
If you want to read more about that I suggest you read http://theoildrum.com ,
or the Limits to Growth.
We need to do the following long repeated Environmental Credo:
REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE!!
First off, we need to reduce our energy use period.
That means STOP THE WARS which last year consumed 5.5. Billion gallons of fuel as the Pentagon was the biggest institutional oil user on the planet.
Next we have to STOP THE AUTO ADDICTION which leads the US to waste
3 times the oil per capita of Europe or Japan.
Transportation in the US accounts for 70% of oil usage and 38% of greenhouse emissions most of that for CARS and TRUCKS.
It is telling that an earlier commenter here would like to take the bus but it offers no service. In fact a Brookings 2 year in depth study of 100 US Metro areas and their transit, census data and jobs found that already 70% of
working age Americans in those US Metro areas only live 3/4 ths mile from
a Transit Stop. BUT if they want to get to a job even during the maximum serviced peak commuting hours only 30% could reach a job in under 90 minutes. Instead of increasing Green public transit, actually 150 public transit systems around the US have been cut since the 2008 crash.
Teabaggers are cutting Amtrak, Hi-speed Rail, and building ever more highways in some mad dash over the cliff like Lemmings to the sea.
We can think of other things - do you use a gas lawnmower to cut your grass?
Why? I have been using a manual push mower which requires no gas, no maintenance and costs a pittance of a gas mower or even worse riding lawn mower.
The number 1 thing to stop using fossil fuels is to stop anything which wastes
energy in the first place.
We need to SHARE instead of everybody having their own drill, power saw,
2 story ladder etc. How much stuff does the typical suburbanite have which
gets used only a few times a year? Why not share with neighbors and start sharing clubs?
And besides of course solar/wind/microhydro and other new energy, we need
to restore the US 233,000 miles of Rail which goes all over the USA.
I would be willing to bet most of the readers of CD will find train tracks
within a few miles of their house. Get those going again and then
stop endless highway expansion with strategic building lightrail or rail down the median of Interstate highways.. Actually that WAS the original purpose of
the median but very seldom used...
Good post. Might I add, "Eat Less Meat" (or even, god-forbid, go vegetarian!), and research the fish species you eat before buying!
Support only Organic and sustainable agriculture!
Peace
It used to be the case that meat production took up less fossil fuels until corn feed was used more heavily. I recall Two Americas, JenniferBedingfield, and cassandra proving that even labeling it organic doesn't necessarily guarantee the best and that the "organic" label never existed a century ago yet all was naturally organic.
Hi max,
Good to say 'hi' again. I agree that in some cases, the standard has been weakened — but we are no longer in a world where 'conventional' has anything to do with natural... and there is no God-ordained standard to go by either. 'Organic', whether perfect or not, is still our best standard by which to monitor and ensure the closest standard to 'natural' is followed. And if it is not stringent enough, the solution is not to do away with the standard, but to improve it and make it more stringent. At least as from my pov, this was the conclusion I reached after my interactions with TA and cassandra.
I also agree that there are methods to raising meat for food that are less of a burden on essential resources, but what's wrong with having compassion both for the animals of the world, and your body, which may crave meat, but which benefits by intaking far less than the average American currently does?
Cheers
"what's wrong with having compassion both for the animals of the world, and your body, which may crave meat, but which benefits by intaking far less than the average American currently does?"
You already have my support there. I'm already a long convert to vegetarian have learned the art of cooking oriental lentils of all kinds. I can't tell you what a difference it made in over 10 years going from animal protein to plant protein. My thinking improved and my hair loss reversed. When someone tries to stuff a burger up my face, metaphorically speaking, the smell is much worse. Maybe it's just me staying away from meat and rarely touching it or it's just processing of meat gone worse. Cheers to you too.
orbit7er,
Yes, yes, and yes!
"We need to SHARE..." YES!
This includes the land.
China can support a huge population because they are rural agrarian and their diet is predominately grain and vegetable. To add to SS's call for less meat, it should be noted that meat production is energy intensive. There is a 90% loss of energy on each step up the trophic levels. This loss of energy also consumes available arable land for the production of feed.
On transportation: people must live closer to their work. Commuting from town to town is nuts. And, air transport is the least efficient mode of transportation. Save the planes and helicopters for emergencies until flight can be achieved as eco-friendly as the birds.
Also, the manufacturing of the technological tools is energy intensive and contributes to our polluted world. Simpler tools can be used for most tasks. A brace and bits can replace that electric drill, handsaws and axes used instead of chain and skill saws, etc.
It's nice to hear voices of reason.