From: wolfone@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Patrick Chester)
Newsgroups: talk.politics.misc,sci.environment,talk.environment
Subject: Re: Sustainable lifestyles
Date: 16 Oct 92 01:32:16 GMT
Followup-To: talk.politics.misc
Organization: The University of Texas at Austin, Austin TX

In article <1992Oct7.171803.12454@beaver.cs.washington.edu> pauld@cs.washington.edu (Paul Barton-Davis) writes:

=
=A sustainable lifestyle might have the following attributes:
=
=	1) doesn't reduce topsoil depth
=
=RATIONALE: all life on this planet relies on a rather thin layer of soil.
=           Its dispersal and denudation are reversible only in the
=	   long term, and perhaps not even then.
You can, of course, replace topsoil at a rate faster than natural means.

= 
=	2) doesn't have more than a <XXX>% effect on atmospheric
=		composition
=
=RATIONALE: there is evidence that atmospheric composition represents
=                a dynamic equilibrium amongst producers and consumers
=		of its contents. I don't know what <XXX> should be.
I hope you leave room for breathing. :)

=
=	3) doesn't redirect or restrict more than 1% of water flow
=		in a given watershed 
=
=RATIONALE: ecosystems are generally close to dynamic equilibrium and/or
=		carrying capacity. 
I presume that you are talking about dams, and other engineering projects that
alter water flow like dredging?

=
=	4) doesn't use heavy metals
=
=RATIONALE: we do not yet have ecosystems capable of dealing with
=		most heavy metals in significant quantities.
Uh, hold on a minute. What do you mean by "heavy metals?" Anything above iron
on the Periodic Table? Transuranics? Either way, high-tech civilization is 
dependent on metals to run itself. I would not recommend trying to live without
technology either, since the usual answer I've heard to this dependency is to
abandon high technology or try something called "appropriate technology." 
What exactly is appropriate tech and who defines it?

=
=	5) leaves contiguous stretches of any given ecosystem
=		connected to original (pre-human) neighbors
=
=RATIONALE: the strength of ecosystems relies heavily on diversity,
=                which in part relies on corridors connecting
=	        inter-dependent components.
It seems that the only way to get that is for there to be no humans around
to muck things up. Time to leave the nest...
=
=	6) avoids petrochemicals, in general
=
=RATIONALE: we don't yet have ways of dealing with plastic waste; most
=                current uses of plastic are for reasons of cost,
=                not irreplaceability.
Plastics are recyclable. The main problem w/plastics is that no one has bothered
to recycle them. We can also improve on recycling methods. Also, I saw some 
news item on plastics made from vegetable oils. Perhaps we should also try 
that. Petrochemicals are too valuable to burn.

=
=	7) recycles biomass through a given ecosystem, rather
=		than dispersing it
=
=RATIONALE: model natural ecosystems
=
=	8) uses biomass to form products that last and are used for as
=		long as the biomass takes to be regrown
=
=RATIONALE: the obvious criterion for sustainable manufacture and consumerism.
=
=	9) does not use products whose production uses
=		more energy than they save, either in terms of
=		food or existing non-human energy supply.
=
=RATIONALE: encourage comfort and leisure through efficiency, not
=                through expanded use of energy sources.
If you are advocating mass human labor, remember that slavery is a form of
mass human labor. Something to think about. Besides, the second law of 
thermodynamics makes this somewhat impossible since there is always an energy 
loss.

Anyway, in you never mentioned developing resources in space. That would help
Earth's environment by not having mining/industrial processes on the planet
in the first place. We have the technology available today to reach the 
asteroid belt. The saying "only one Earth" is misleading. We have only one
Solar System for now. All we have to do is grab it.
=
=-- 
=There is hardly anything in the world that some man cannot make a
=little worse and sell a little cheaper, and the people who consider
=price only are this man's lawful prey.
=						John Raskin
How do you make that judgment?


-- 
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Patrick Chester            |"The earth is too fragile a basket in which to keep
wolfone@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu |  all your eggs." Robert A. Heinlein
Politically Incorrect      |"The meek shall inherit the earth. The rest of us
Future Lunar Colonist      |  are going to the stars." Anonymous
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