Pro-Life: Thoughts on Greening

For University Unitarian Universalist Society, by Gary Przyborski

09/19/07

To me, life on Earth is both wonderful and diverse, and as our planetary probes will attest- unique. Earth's skin teems with lifeforms that share and provide for one another in a strange dance of life and death. At the center of our solar system, the sun burns itself up to provide energy for all life on the planet. Our atmosphere and Van Allen Belt shields us from its deadly radiation. The whole system of plants, animals, water, ice, land, and sky interacts with each other through many different ways.

These interconnected webs of life are so complicated that James Lovelock, a climate scientist, coined the term Gaia (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaia_hypothesis) to describe how the Earth could be seen as a living life form. Yet, despite its appearance of stability, atmosperic changes occur regularly. Using ice cores with trapped air molecules, scientists have been able to determine the planet's atmosphere back millions of years into the past. This basic information tells us that Earth was very different in its past with periods that were very cool (where life is most abundant) or very warm (desert like with little life).

At present, the planet is in a warming trend, due primarily to manmade pollution through destruction of natural habitat, human over population, and the overuse of polluting technologies. In America, the largest part of our electrical energy for our homes and businesses and the power for our cars and trucks comes from fossil fuels (coal, oil and natural gas), which when combusted produce abundant quantities of greenhouse gases (CO2 and methane) that acts to trap heat in the atmosphere. The earth has been undergoing an experiment with man's pollution which started in earnest in the 1800s, but now threatens to throw the planet into its hot phase, where very little life will be able to survive.

It is obvious that little is being done to address this problem despite signs of the coming disaster as seen through record temperatures, melting glaciers and icebergs, expanding deserts, and rising sea water levels. Some doomsday scenarios have been overplayed, but what hasn't been hyped is the tipping point. Scientists believe that once the CO2 concentration reaches over 500 parts per million (ppm) that the atmosphere will shift toward a warmer average temperature that will not be reversible for thousands of years. Even stranger is that this tipping point number is not an absolute; some scientists believe the real figure may be much lower, perhaps 450 ppm. For reference, the current concentration is 385 ppm, whereas it was 315 in 1960 and 295 in 1900 (see http://www.environmentaldefense.org/page.cfm?tagID=1011).

Like slavery and racial discrimination, global warming was slow to be recognized as a significant threat. And like our former problems, the fault lies in the system itself. Large problems are often neglected through a combination of ignorance and the willful effort of those involved whose economic survival is threatened. No one is in jail or prison for contributed to the destruction of the atmosphere. Yet, we are each responsible, guilty if you wish, for what is happening. The good news is that greening our lives entails much more than reducing our CO2 footprint. Greening strikes at the core beliefs of our system that created this disaster and others through ignorance and living a distracted life, thinking that others should assert themselves to fix problems versus wrestling with them ourselves. It is easy to be cynical because there is too much hype about the environment, too much disinformation, and not enough action, but our goal is clear.

The task is enormous. It's easy to give up. One of mankind's worst traits is to act exclusively, identifying new enemies or shoving off responsibility to others, to look for a savior, either supernatural, business, government or tribal to solve our problems. The hard fact to grapple with is that the system itself is at fault. No one else will take this burden because it is ours. We are the responsible for conforming to a destructive system, for being on auto-pilot. And, it is here that mankind's best traits will come to play. Simply put, we each need to see this task as our own and to expand our sense of caring and welfare to the entire planet. We need to look to one another as resources, not impediments, to building a better culture.

The UUUS is undertaking measures to green our society. Each change is being recorded so that each of the society's members can learn from our success in reducing power and water use, and improving the UUU in lots of ways. Our efforts use a mix of new and old technology with a dash of common sense. Some pet projects may not be implemented at this time due to too much up front cost or lack of viable technology to show a significant energy savings. Like your own dwelling, all of the proposed changes would cost too much to implement at one time, and instead will be impletmented through phases. Yet, many changes are occuring now and in the coming months...

In September, all exterior incandescent lights were replaced with compact fluorescents (CFLs). One of our four thermostats has been changed to a programmable type set to reduce AC at night and then automatically cool the building in the morning. On September 21st, Progress Energy gave us an on site energy audit which we will begin implementing in the coming weeks. Despite these early successes, if all we accomplished is reducing the building (current and addition) energy use, then we will have failed. Going Green is a lot more than simply changing out light bulbs. It is a metamorphosis in our lives. It leads to a richer life where we concentrate more on what is important: building connections with one another and moving us toward a better world in which to live in. Living green is a seed, if you will, that takes root in the individual and expands outward through individuals, families, groups, whole communities, and yes, the world.

Look to the website for some big changes that are coming on our website to address these issues with practical efforts that you can apply in your own lives. If you are interested in learning or being part of this mission, please hookup with those active in Social Concerns to find out more about volunteering or greening your life. Soon, we will all be looking at the Earth through new eyes like the Apollo astronauts who were awestruck as their view changed from the lifeless moon to witness their first earthrise.