Better Ways: A Gentle Nudge Toward Sustainability

Let’s be honest—we’ve built a world that doesn’t quite work for the long haul. From single-use everything to commutes that eat up our day (and our atmosphere), a lot of what we call “normal” just isn’t sustainable.

But here’s the good news: we can change that. And many of the best changes save money, reduce stress, and improve our quality of life. This isn’t about guilt. It’s about growing up as a species. We’ve learned, innovated, and adapted before—we can do it again. Together.

Start with what matters: energy efficiency, working smarter (hello telework), rethinking food systems, or just remembering your reusable bag more often. You don’t have to be perfect. You just have to start somewhere better.

Oh Frack... Ain't no such thang clean oil n gas!

You've heard that there ain't no such thing as "Clean" Coal. Maybe scrubbing some of the sulpher and removing some of the heavly metals. But certainly not clean. And then there's the dirty little secret of Coal Ash!.

But this article sums up the current research related to fracking. Ouch. Evidense keeps mounting about the down-side of oil fracking. This article really sums it up. 

Link to the Ecologist article on Fracking.

Of course, our argument here at SustainZine, is focused around the sustainability nature of fossil fuels in general. It's okay, kinda, to use fossil fuels, but only do so when you have a long term plan that is sustainable, and this is the bridge to the future.

Don’t Confuse Sustainability with CSR | Ivey Business Journal

Don’t Confuse Sustainability with CSR | Ivey Business Journal:

Definition of sustainability -- essentially not imposing additional costs on the future -- is quite different from Corporate Social Responsibility, which looks at balancing the needs of all current constituents.

This is a very cool article that addresses the key issues that differentiate sustainability from CSR. Even though sustainability is overused and frequently missuses, it is a better term to use and a better utopia to aim for.

"It is time for organizational leaders to stop confusing responsibility with sustainability, which hinders businesses from thinking deeply enough about the inequities created by their actions over time. Simply put, some activities are either responsible or they are sustainable, not both."

The article talks about resources, but does not frame things in terms of the process of resource depletion, like the consumption of fossil fuels. Sustainability identifies the issue. CSR aims to offer some restitution, kind of. Neither really addresses the issues of non-sustainable natural resource consumption well.

Unintended consequences happen with CSR, with sustainability, and especially with non-sustainable activities. Lot's of unintended consequences happen with non-sustainable actions.

'via Blog this'

Invest Yourself - Roaches, Never Just One

Free Investment Newsletter | Invest Yourself:

I really like what they (Robert B. Rinear) say on the currency. That all seems very very
true.  The currencies in the world are
all crap. The best may be Japan and they can’t keep the Yen low enough to be a competitive exporter so it is wreaking havoc on their economy…

The Yankee Dollar is a piece of crap. But we are less crappy then the
Yuan or the Euro.  We are the best house
in a slum-blighted neighborhood. 

You can only have all the currencies in the world artificially low for
so long. Especially if all the effects are compounding, year over year. I
really do think that real assets, like land and gold, will slingshot into the
stratosphere sometime rather soon, say 1 to 3 years.

But the same thing that they complain about, the talking heads at CNN,
they did themselves. Go look at any of the databases, since recorded history,
on any of the measures you chose, and you will see that the global warming is
very real, and accelerating. It also coincides well with populations explosion and industrialization.  And it is a compounding effect. Panicking certainly doesn't make
sense, but ignoring facts and data supporting global warming means the “hoax”
is on you.

Give a look at: https://www.skepticalscience.com/
(Real science and no crap, discussing the real facts and actual data about
Climate Change & Global Warming. It is very real by every measure that is
measurable.)

Also see: http://theconsensusproject.com/

Want to know about Sustainability, look at my book (www.TinyURL.com/SustainYBook/) created
from live Wikipedia links on Sustainability. The Intro is by Elmer Hall and created the
dynamic links to carefully selected Wikipedia articles (pages). The pages in
this book represent the best, most current and most accurate single source of
information related to sustainability and climate change in the world.

Sustainability. The world currencies are not!... 

Ever growing greenhouse gas emissions,  sustainable we are not.

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Sustainability Business Success Hinges on CEO Mindset Change · Environmental Management & Energy News · Environmental Leader

Sustainability Business Success Hinges on CEO Mindset Change · Environmental Management & Energy News · Environmental Leader:

"Some 67 percent of CEOs in the study believed business is not doing enough to address global sustainability challenges. . .  While 84 percent believed business should lead the way in addressing those challenges"

Sustainable Leaders... Seems like something that Hall and Knab were talking about in their 2012 article/chapter.

For businesses and business leaders (CEOs) not to take an active roll in sustainability would be, well, irresponsible (Hall & Knab, 2012).

Reference

Hall, E., & Knab, E.F. (2012, July). Social irresponsibility provides opportunity for the win-win-win of Sustainable Leadership. In C. A. Lentz (Ed.), The refractive thinker: Vol. 7. Social responsibility (pp. 197-220). Las Vegas, NV: The Refractive Thinker® Press.
(Available from www.RefractiveThinker.com, ISBN: 978-0-9840054-2-0) 

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Wisdom for Kids from Warren Buffet. Even the Gov might understand.

Warren Buffet had these pearls of wisdom to share with Kids:

1. Never spend more than you have.
2. Save for the unexpected
3. Never borrow without a payback plan

I like it. Short. Sweet. Accurate. Simple... Sustainable even.

So simple even a caveman could understand it.

I'm thinking that we need to transmit this repeatedly up to our friends in the Federal Government (and maybe even to the States).

Never spend more than you have. Boy do we break this rule. And we have broken it so long that it somehow seems normal. Over decades, there has only been a couple years during the Clinton era that we haven't run an annual deficit. Of course, debt builds over time (unless you go bankrupt).

Make no doubt about it, there are any number of things that will make our current level of borrowing infinitely worse than it is right now. Slower, lower or negative economic growth. Interest and inflation could sink us based on the percentage of government revenues that goes to interest on the debt (debt-servicing). On average we are probably paying about 1% interest on government debt, and that represents about 9-10% of the government revenues. (I hate to use the word revenues for the intake of taxes, let's call it government inflows.)

Sooo, if interest rates go up to 10% that would mean that almost all of the gov inflows would immediately become outflows to service the debt.

That brings us to #2, save for the unexpected. Ops. Didn't do that, did we!

That brings us to #3, never borrow without a payback plan. Ops. Didn't do that, did we!

Now we are in a sequester situation. That is a lot like your parents cutting off your credit cards. . . Painful. Not very sophisticated. Only partially effective. Lot's of side effects.

And that is our after-the-fact payback plan? It's not even a plan; it was the trap door contingency that legislators came up with for the unlikely event that they couldn't come up with a plan.

Keywords: Sustainable and non-sustainable (gov) spending, deficit, interest, payback, funding, budgeting.
(See vECOcity.BlogSpot.com.)