Lester Brown

Lester Brown is the well-renowned author of the Plan B series and recent book World on the Edge: How to Prevent Environmental and Economic Collapse.  His distinguished career, spanning agricultural policy, international development and environmental analysis, has seen him found two major environmental research institutes – the WorldWatch Institute in 1974 and the Earth Policy Institute in 2001 – and author or co-author 50 books. He is currently the President of the Earth Policy Institute based in Washington D.C.

He speaks to  Professor John Wiseman who is currently Professorial Fellow at the Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute and Melbourne School of Population Health, on 31st July 2012.

JOHN WISEMAN: If you had just a few sentences to summarise the key messages you most wanted to get across in writing Plan B and World on the Edge, what would you say?

LESTER BROWN: The two biggest challenges, I think, that the world faces right now are the need to stabilise the climate and to stabilise population. Neither of these are easy but we’re well on our way to stabilising population. There are now 46 countries that have, essentially, zero population growth and a large part of Asia that is China, along with Korea, and Japan’s already stabilised its population. China’s going to be there in a matter of years so that’s a big chunk of the world. Then Europe,Western and Eastern Europe, have already stabilised their populations.

North America is moving in the right direction. Latin America is doing surprisingly well. Brazil’s population is projected to grow by 12% between now and 2050, only 12% which means they’re getting the brakes on pretty nicely, too. So the two big areas we have to concentrate on now are the Indian subcontinent, which has a total of 1.6 billion people. That’s India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal and so forth, and Sub-Saharan Africa. Those are the two big population growth areas. They are also the two areas where most of the poverty is concentrated so we need to really concentrate on getting the brakes on population growth in those two regions of the world.

If we can do that, and it’s a combination of, of course, making sure reproductive healthcare and family planning services are available but it’s also education, making sure that children everywhere get at least an elementary school education, girls as well as boys. Then, we can begin to bring the birth rate down in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Indian subcontinent. Then, we’ll be on the way home.

JOHN WISEMAN: And in relation to climate?

LESTER BROWN: Climate is a much more difficult issue. In contrast to population where 46 countries have already stabilised populations, there aren’t too many countries that have stabilised carbon emissions yet so that’s really a global challenge for us.

The good news is that in the United States, carbon emissions are starting to drop and I think are going to continue to drop very substantially during this decade.

The two big sources of carbon emissions in the US, as in most of the world, are coal and oil. We have, currently, 492 coal-fired power plants in the United States. Of those, 109 are scheduled to close within, if not this year, next year or very soon and there are more coming. We have a national campaign now that’s led by the Sierra Club called the Beyond Coal Campaign and the goal is to close every coal-fired power plant in the United States. Sierra’s working with many local groups, health groups, environmental groups, hundreds and hundreds of them across the country to close these plants. Mayor Bloomberg of New York in July of last year gave the Sierra Club Beyond Coal Campaign $50 million. This is important, not just because it’s $50 million, although that, obviously, is important in and of itself, but it’s because Michael Bloomberg, one of the most successful businessmen of his generation, almost a household name, is the one who’s fuelling this effort. So I’m very optimistic on closing coal-fired power plants.

Now, with gasoline use, we have a number of trends coming together, some economic, some social, some political. One is that the US automobile fleet has started to shrink. In 2008, it was 248 million. 2009, it dropped to 246 million, 2010, to 242 million. That’s the last year for which we have complete data but I think it continued in 2011 and is going to continue in 2012. So in the United States, the growth of the automobile fleet’s been underway for a century now, is starting to decline.

Beyond that, the fuel efficiency of cars is increasing very fast in the US and this is partly because of the goals created by President Obama. When he was bailing out Detroit a couple of years ago, he got some commitments from them and one was to double the fuel efficiency of new cars sold by 2025 or, stated otherwise, new cars sold in this country in 2025 will use only half as much gasoline as those sold in 2010. So in 15 years, we’re cutting fuel use per car in half.

Beyond that, there’s now a cultural shift occurring in this country with young people. They are not part of the car culture in the way that my generation was and we, particularly growing up in a rural community, the car was how we socialised. When you’re 17 you’ve got a driver’s licence and you’ve got a car, or a pick-up truck, something you could drive, and that’s how you got around and got to see your friends in a rural community.

Today, we’re a largely urban society and so young people aren’t part of the car culture in the way that we were. There’s a real shift going on. They live in cities, most of them, and they use public transportation, they use bicycles. The Bike-Share Program, if you look at the people on these bikes, they’re between 20 and 40. They’re not between 60 and 80. No, it’s young people who are really taking to bikes and seeing them as their transport mode. So the combination of bikes and public transportation is where young people are today.

Two generations ago, the dream was to have a house in the suburbs and a car and so forth. That dream doesn’t exist anymore for young people. They’re not going to the suburbs. They don’t really want anything to do with the suburbs. They want to live in town.

JOHN WISEMAN: You’ve described some extremely optimistic indicators around energy efficiency and the shift from fossil fuel to renewable energy. If I was to ask you the biggest obstacles – the one or two biggest roadblocks in relation to solving the climate challenge, how would you describe them? 

LESTER BROWN: It would be the vested interests of big oil, and big coal and the influence they have, particularly in the Republican Party. They put a lot of money in political campaigns and now there are no limits on what they can put in so they’re just buying everything in sight.

Nonetheless, the trends are pretty clear and the gains in fuel efficiency, the cultural shift in young people regarding cars, is happening and it’s very difficult for them to alter that.

I saw an article about NASCAR recently…you know, automobile racing, car racing, and they’ve suddenly begun to panic because young people aren’t going to the races and so they’re seeing a shrinking audience. It’s an interesting question because I don’t think NASCAR’s going to last forever. Years, maybe, but not forever because the idea of having a powerful car with a lot of horsepower under the hood, it’s just not where young people are today. So these cultural shifts are more difficult to measure, usually, than economic shifts and they’re more difficult to anticipate as well but we’re clearly seeing a cultural shift and young people in this country are not, most of them, not part of the car culture.

JOHN WISEMAN: So do you feel, therefore, that the cultural shifts that you’ve talked about are sufficient to overcome the vested interest roadblocks that you’ve mentioned? 

LESTER BROWN: They are. The automobile industry, behind the scenes, do things… to prevent heavy investment in public transportation…they insist that we need to repair the roads and not build new transit facilities, so they’re behind the scenes and they’re doing things but the tide is pretty strong and it’s clear.

John Wiseman: Which leads me to a question about urgency. Many people will say that, yes, there are many good things happening in relation to energy efficiency and renewable energy, but we also know how quickly greenhouse gas emissions are rising and what the science tells us about the global temperature changes locked in and so on. When people say to you, “that’s all good …but it’s too late” what do you say to them? 

LESTER BROWN: When we use the term “Is it too late,” we have to say, “Is it too late for what?” Is it too late to prevent climate change from spiralling out of control? I don’t think anyone knows. We have to hope it’s not and then act accordingly with the urgency that that implies.

We’re seeing evidence now, almost every day, that the climate system is changing and this is obviously affecting the food prospects because agriculture, as it exists today, evolved over an 11,000 year period of rather remarkable climate stability. I mean, there were a few blips here and there and a mini ice age in the 13th century, but basically 11,000 years of pretty stable climate. So agriculture systems are designed to maximise production with that climate system but that climate system is now changing so with each passing year, the climate system and the agricultural system are more and more out of sync with each other and that is a very difficult thing to analyse and anticipate.

We know it’s happening. It’s inevitable and the question is can we get carbon emissions coming down soon enough to avert the worst consequences of climate change? We’re not going to avert all of them. We’re already experiencing them. I guess the question is, can we keep climate change from spiralling out of control? I don’t know the answer to that question but we certainly have to try.

JOHN WISEMAN: Returning to the point you’ve made about energy efficiency and the transition from fossil fuels to renewables, how much do you also think that the third element in that transition that needs to change is a reduction in the aggregate growth of the consumption of goods and services? How important is that in the mix? 

LESTER BROWN: Well, another interesting thing about the cultural shift is that the idea of acquiring property…starting with a small house and getting a bigger one and so forth, that acquisition of material things doesn’t exist with young people in the way it did with an earlier generation; the generations that were shaped by the Depression and World War Two, for example.

There was a period when growth was everything and more material possessions was everything but I think we’re beginning to leave that behind now. Values and attitudes are changing. The acquisition of material wealth is not something that looms very high in the minds of young people today. They don’t want to be bothered with it.

JOHN WISEMAN: How much of that is true, do you think, outside of the developed world – in China, Korea and India, where there is still considerable poverty and – many people would say – considerable need to expand material consumption?

LESTER BROWN: Well, the interesting question is what these countries are facing. I mean, their desire is to be like us and so they’re trying to adopt a 20th century economic model in the 21st century. Now, what if we sat back and said, “If you were designing an economy for the world today or some component like a transport system, if you were designing that for the 21st century, what would it look like and how would it be different from the one we’ve inherited from the 20th century?” The answer is it would be very different. If you were developing a new economy today, you’d have to take into account land scarcity, water scarcity, carbon emissions, a whole series of things that were not of particular importance in decades past but now they are.

So the question is how fast that rethinking will come.I remember doing a seminar for graduate students at Tsinghua University which is sometimes referred to as the MIT of China. It’s located in Beijing, and we were talking about cars and the future and I said, “Well, you know, you’re not going to be able to do what we did.” One student said, “But that’s our dream. That’s what we want, we want to do that,” and I said, “You know, in the United States, we have three cars for every four people. If you get three cars for every four people in China, you will have nine hundred million cars. If you get all the cars in the world today squeezed into one country, one third of one country because two thirds of China is uninhabitable,” I said, “that will not be a dream. That will be a nightmare.”

These are engineers, they should be thinking about how you design a transportation system for the 21st century, not how do you copy one that evolved during the 20th century. Forget the imitation. Be original. Be yourselves. Ask the relevant questions for today. Don’t ask how could we do what they did in the last century. That’s not where you want to be.

JOHN WISEMAN: I’m interested in your views about theories of change – how change happens. Can you talk a bit more about your view about the importance of cultural and social change as opposed to the importance of technological innovation? 

LESTER BROWN: Well, Malcolm Gladwell pioneered the concept of social tipping points, of political tipping points, and the interesting thing about tipping points is almost by definition, they’re difficult to anticipate, at least to anticipate accurately. Sometimes we don’t even see them coming. I mean, who saw the Berlin Wall coming down, you know, until it actually went down or I look at the Arab Spring of 2010 and it changed the government in almost every country in a large part of the Arab world and it happened in sort of several countries simultaneously.

These weren’t sort of random events. They’d reached a kind of tipping point suddenly. Things began to change. Partly it’s political, part of it is demographic; a lot of young people in the 15 to 30 age group. It’s technological; they have the internet now so they can organise, they can exchange information. It changes the whole ballgame. It’s not just a few adjustments here and there. It really fundamentally changes things.

We have an effort in Italy right now, led by a comedian, Beppe Grillo, to challenge the existing political structures, not of any particular party, just the traditional political structures, and they’ve begun running candidates for office just a week ago, two weeks ago. A 31-year old was elected Mayor of Palma, for example. They’re running candidates for all the local elections and everything. I mean, it’s amazing to see it happen and we’re going to see more of that.

We’re really on the edge of some fundamental changes that we can’t anticipate associated with the internet and information moving on the internet. It will override some of the traditional constraints of the systems but in ways that we cannot now easily imagine.

JOHN WISEMAN: So, given that, I’d like to ask you to put on your most optimistic hat and imagine we are sitting here in 2030 and we are discussing a world in which a really serious shift has begun towards the kind of changes which would have a real chance of preventing runaway climate change. Bearing in mind your point about how unpredictable the future can be, can you tell me how that change has occurred? 

LESTER BROWN: Most of us don’t like to change. I don’t like to change and I’ll go to great lengths to avoid changing sometimes but you reach these tipping points and then everything changes.

The United States before World War Two, if you’d conducted a poll on December 6th 1941, the day before the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbour, and said, you know, “Should we go to war?” probably 90% would have said, “No, we don’t want to get involved in another world war.” If you’d conducted that poll on Monday, December 8th, probably 90% would have said, “Yes, we’ve got to go,” and so it was just one event, that surprise attack. It was very successful from a military point of view on Pearl Harbour. I mean, the Japanese sunk half our Pacific fleet there in just one fell sweep but everything changed and we mobilised, we totally restructured the US industrial economy, not in decades, not in years but in a matter of months. Part of the key to that was banning the sale of automobiles.

President Roosevelt, early 1942, I think it was April 1st, and it wasn’t April Fool’s Day, I mean, it wasn’t an April Fool’s joke, he said, “We ought to ban the sale of automobiles in the United States.” Then the car companies realised that they weren’t going to be making cars for a long time; they were going to be making tanks and planes. It created an extraordinary military machine and turned the tide in the process.

So it’s these tipping points that are difficult to anticipate but I think within the next five years, we’re going to be surprised at how fast things have changed and how fast we have changed, whether it’s in response to climate change and recognising the need to stabilise climate. I mean, up until now, climate change has mostly been someone else. You know, we see it on TV. It’s a flood or a heatwave in Moscow but suddenly this past summer was sort of like that.

In this country, we started with a drought and then the wildfires in Texas and then flooding in the Mississippi and then Hurricane Irene and so forth; the tornado in Tuscaloosa and then in Joplin. I mean, it largely destroyed two middle-sized towns. I realised that the news channels were becoming weather channels. set aside on a Saturday afternoon, 1.30 to 3.00, to watch the world track and field championships in Korea on NBC. This was on a Saturday. I turned on NBC channel at 1.30 and I didn’t get the track and field championships. I got Hurricane Irene. This is a major news network that had gone into around-the-clock coverage of the hurricane. It was a huge hurricane and it affected a lot of people on the East Coast. That, I think, is a sign of the times when news channels become weather channels and if you look at channels now and sort of think about it, they spend a lot more time on weather than they used to and people are interested in it. They’re concerned about that.

JOHN WISEMAN: Although the challenge then becomes how to join the dots between the weather and climate. Do you think people are starting to join those dots?

LESTER BROWN: They are. I liken it to recognising the link between smoking and health 20 years ago and the tobacco company CEOs are under oath saying, “There’s no proof of a link between smoking and health,” and get away with it. Then, within a year or two, everything had changed and they couldn’t say anything because no one would listen to them and no elected member of Congress would be seen in public with a tobacco company CEO. It just changed that fast. The Tobacco Institute used to be here in town, staffed by 300 people. Totally dismantled; forced to dismantle by NGOs and public opinion. I mean, it was amazing to see it happen. It happened very quickly…it had reached the tipping point and suddenly it was an entirely new ball game.

JOHN WISEMAN: Bearing in mind everything you’ve said about tipping points and given that at the end of the day tipping points are, by definition, to some extent, unpredictable, what’s your view about the highest priorities for action by people who would like to ensure, that when the tipping points occur, that responses can be as effective as possible? What are the most important things to be doing at the moment?

LESTER BROWN: The question I get most often as I travel around the world is, people ask me, “What can I do, what can I do?” and I think they expect me to say, “Recycle your newspapers, change your light bulbs,” and so on. Those lifestyle changes are important but we now have to change the system and that means becoming politically active, not for one party or another but to support the Beyond Coal campaign, for example. And be prepared to write letters to your Congressman to lobby, to demonstrate, you know, in front of a coal-fired power plant if necessary or in front of a utilities office. It can embarrass companies. There are banks in New York, investment banks, that if you threaten them with a demonstration, they’ll almost certainly think twice about going ahead on something because whether it’s Goldman Sachs or Bank of America or whoever, they don’t want their image smirched.

Having demonstrations and people with signs walking around creates that image that something is wrong and for people to start thinking something is wrong with a bank is not healthy for the bank. So we see environmental groups getting investment banks to agree not to invest in coal or any company that supports the development of coal. These things can become important and the coal-mining companies can’t raise capital as easily as they used to. No one wants to be associated with it. So those are the kinds of things that have happened and they happen quickly and they can have extraordinary consequences.

My bottom line feeling is things are going to change much faster than we realise and I think that change is probably more evident here in the United States right now where carbon emissions are dropping very fast as coal-fired power plants are closed and as gasoline use drops. Another interesting linkage between the two…42% of the diesel fuel used in the freight sector, rail freight sector, is used to move coal. If we’re not moving coal anymore, suddenly the demand for diesel is going to drop markedly.

JOHN WISEMAN: I’m very interested in what you’ve been saying about the United States because, certainly in the Australian media and to some extent in Europe, the story is sometimes told that, “Well, look, you’ve got a congress that’s controlled by very conservative forces, Tea Party Republicans and so on. There’s no sign of Cap and Trade coming back…the United States is not in a leadership position.” You’re telling, to some extent, a different story there, at least about the level of cultural change and, indeed, the harder indicators of shifts in energy usage and so on.

LESTER BROWN: Yeah, and the interesting thing is it’s happening because of a mix of things. If I were to pick the two most important things underway right now, one would be reducing gasoline use by cars, of new cars sold, by half, between 2010 and 2025. That’s the US government-designed policy.

The other is the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign, closing coal-fired power plants. Now, there’s some overlap because EPA issues, restrictions on mercury emissions from coal plants, what-have-you, that makes it more difficult for them to stay in business. So we have two major initiatives, one primarily government, the other primarily in the NGO sector.

John Wiseman: If you had a minute or two with the world’s key decision-makers and you had two or three sentences in which you really wanted to convey very sharply, the most important priorities in relation to climate and ecological challenges, what would you say to them in two or three sentences?

LESTER BROWN: I’d say the biggest challenge we face is stabilising climate and that means closing coal-fired power plants, replacing the coal with wind and solar and geothermal energy.

The second big challenge we face is stabilising population and that’s a challenge that’s really concentrated in the Indian sub-continent and Sub-Saharan Africa and what we need to do there is to eradicate poverty, which we have the resources to do now, eradicate poverty and make sure that women everywhere have access to reproductive healthcare and family planning services.

John Wiseman: Thank you very much.

ABOUT THE INTERVIEWER:

Professor John Wiseman is currently Professorial Fellow at the Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute and Melbourne School of Population Health.

This interview originally appeared in Post Carbon Pathways, a website which aims to strengthen the understanding of the actions needed to create rapid, large-scale transitions to a just and sustainable post carbon future. 

Photo Courtesy: Lester Brown from Wikipedia/Creative Commons

FURTHER LINKS on EWTT YOU MAY BE INTERESTED IN:

EWTT: Dr Tom Crompton: Intrinsic vs Extrinsic Values in Environmental Communication
EWTT: Joe Brewer: An interdisciplinary approach to understanding complex issues
EWTT: Aubrey Meyer: Contraction & Convergence: An urgent global imperative to tackle climate change
EWTT: Pen Hadow: Melting Arctic Ice and How it will affect Asia
EWTT: Whither Go Climate Refugees?
EWTT: Who cares If Bangalesh drowns?

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Singapore has urban forests with trees that provide refreshing shade for its citizens. Beginning in the 1960s, the country’s modern founding father, Lee Kuan Yew, had the foresight to promote tree-planting as a means to transform Singapore into a tropical garden city-state.  Anyone who comes here today is impressed by the millions of mature trees and the large number of green spaces that make Singapore a very special place to live and work.

Examples of the honor given to its famous Tembusu tree on Singapore’s currency and postage

In this Eco Walk the Talk article, specifically, we wish to draw our readers’ attention to some key scientific aspects of tree shade that highlight its oft-overlooked importance to urban living. While the current state of this science is still limited and not yet definitive, we hope what we are able to present here will help you understand and appreciate the variety of benefits that city-dwellers receive from shade trees.

Environmentalist Jenny Indian observes that, “We seriously underestimate the impact of [tree] shade – it cools, calms and softens the light, makes hostile spaces useable, and allows us to embrace the outdoors.”  She suggests that we should “think about the absolute beauty of filtered light – light filtered through leaves or tracery is wonderful.  Areas of uniform lighting create dull, uninteresting spaces with direct light casting strong shadows, resulting in harsh images with strong contrasts.”

An under-appreciated human influence factor of shade trees is thе shadow pattern cast upon thе ground, sidewalks, οr thе walls οf уουr residence bу different tree foliage types.  We encourage уου to begin to consciously note these subtle, yet mood-altering differences between trees. The Rain Tree (Samanea saman) аnd the Senegal Mahogany (Khaya senegalensis)  tree аrе instructive examples οf common Singapore trees thаt cast іntеrеѕtіnɡ shadows. Aѕ уου grow in your awareness of the shade trees in your local environment, we think уου wіll discover thаt уου actually derive deep aesthetic satisfaction frοm seeing thеse patterns.

Leaf patterns cast on the walkway by sunlight

Some benefits of tree shade are less obvious than others. For example, you might be unaware that tree shade increases the life of tarmac road surfaces—which can get as hot as 130 degrees Fahrenheit in full sun. Research has shown that more tree shade means extended pavement life and lower road reconstruction costs. Just 20% tree shade falling upon on a tarmac road surface was shown to reduce pavement surface deterioration by 11%, which constituted a 30% resurfacing cost-savings over 30 years!

A mature tree can offer a canopy of 100,000 chlorophyll-laden leaves, each partially absorbing and filtering the light we experience beneath the tree when we occupy its shade.  Children often prefer to remain inside and inactive, rather than play outdoors when the mid-day sunlight is hot and glaring–making it uncomfortable for them to see things and raising their body temperature.  Researchers have found that tree-shaded environments increase the number of hours children typically spend playing outdoors, as well as the number of hours adults spend outdoors enjoying nature.

Sunlight is filtered by a shade tree leaf

Trees offer shade, shelter, habitat, beauty, and food–while requiring little more than sunlight, soil, water, and a place to grow. At present, 3.5 billion of the world’s people live in urban areas, and that number is growing rapidly. Cities with inadequate green spaces can seem to be overcrowded and oppressive places for humans to live.

Cities also form urban heat islands, while shade trees help to provide valuable indirect cooling that serves to partially mitigate these islands’ environmental impact. Unchecked, the heat island effect  can add up to 8% to a city’s energy consumption. It can also have a negative local effect upon a city’s weather.

Diagram of the urban high island concept

The kind of shade that trees provide differs from the shade of a human-made structure, such as a building. Not only do trees shield people and buildings against the intense direct rays of the sun, they also cool the surrounding air through the biological process of evapotranspiration. Both are important to people’s quality of life. About 45% of a tree’s shading effect comes from its trunk and branches that block solar radiation—the rest comes from its leaves.

Cooling derived from evapotranspiration can equal the cooling produced by a tree’s sun-blocking capacity. A mature tree with a 30-foot crown transpires approximately 40 gallons of water per day into the surrounding atmosphere. This leaf-based evapotranspiration is a heat-absorbing process which cools the surrounding air.

According to research from the US Department of Agriculture, “The net cooling effect of a young, healthy tree is equivalent to 10 room-size air conditioners operating 20 hours a day” and “trees properly placed around buildings can reduce air conditioning needs by 30%.”

What kind of shade tree is planted, how far from a building it is planted, and the side of the building where it is planted all affect its cooling effect. Trees growing  on the west and east sides of a building, respectively, have been found to reduce the amount of electricity used for air conditioning the building the most.

Aerial photographic surveys of urban tree cover can be helpful in determining where the planting of trees can yield the greatest energy savings.  It is important that a tree canopy’s shadow intersect the targeted building’s surface—which illustrates how important the distance a tree is planted away from a building is to its cooling effects and the resultant energy savings.

From an energy conservation perspective, the ideal shade tree is said to be one that is 25- to 50-feet high, has comparatively dense foliage with a high canopy, and exhibits a spreading growth habit.

Cities are often notorious for their poor air quality. Shade trees can help to filter the air and mitigate smog. One research study showed that the air immediately under the canopy of a large urban shade tree was less polluted with noxious gases and particulates, and thus significantly more healthful than the air 100 feet away from the tree.

Trees have also been shown to be capable of stripping from 9%  to 13% of total suspended particulates from the air that passes over their boughs. Exhaust from internal combustion engines and smokestacks in big cities can be a major contributor to human allergies and respiratory illnesses. Particles of ash in the air along with the fumes from burning fuels can also cause serious harm to the human throat and lungs.  Thankfully, shade trees are natural air filters.

Way back in 1844, the New York City Board of Health recognized shade trees as “improvers of city air” and it highly recommended their planting.  Today’s research has shown that the trees are a city’s lungs metaphor is far more apt than simply figurative. One research study found that children who live on tree-lined trees suffer from asthma less often than children who live in treeless neighborhoods.

Trees are the lungs of the Earth

The year 2011 was declared the International Year of Forests by the United Nations. Today, the only forests that more than half of the world’s population experience are urban forests. The National University of Singapore has predicted that: “By 2050, Asia is likely to have over 60% of its population living in cities. Asia will also have the largest number of megacities (over 10 million people) this century. We contend that trees are the most important green infrastructure that a big city needs.”

Once shade trees are planted in a city, they need to be maintained and replaced over time. For example, the city of Paris, France, has ~95,000 street shade trees.  Each has one has an affixed radio frequency ID tag (RFID tag)  with Geographic Information System  (GIS) data so city foresters can keep track of each tree—as to its planting, watering, fertilizing, transplanting, pruning, phytosanitary condition, over-all health, felling management, stump and root removal, and replanting status.

RFID- tagged tree data collection

Shade trees are, indeed, a vital investment a city makes for its people and the quality of the environment in which they live. Singapore knows it is much wiser to be a little green dot than a little red dot!

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 About our Guest Writers:

DR. JAMES H. WANDERSEE — botanist, FLS, FAAAS–is the W.H. LeBlanc Alumni Association Professor of Biology Education in the College of Education at Louisiana State University and Chair of the Teaching Section of the Botanical Society of America. His website is EarthScholars.com

DR RENEE M. CLARY—geologist, FGS–is the Director of the Dunn-Seiler Geology Museum and Assistant Professor of Geoscience Education in the Department of Geosciences at Mississippi State University. Her website is EarthScholars.com

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By the  authors James H. Wandersee & Renee M. Clary on EWTT:

1. How can I convince my friend to use the stairs?

2. Have You Thrown Something Away Today?

3. Plant Blindness: What research says

4. The Bridge Between Ecological Knowledge and Green Living

5. Teach Me About Soil

6. A Green Lesson from Mumbai about Food Packaging 

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By Jeremy Torr

Just a dozen of the 50, 000 city rental bikes in Hangzhou, China.

If you thought Paris had a lot of city rental bikes at 20,000, think again. The city of  Hangzhou in China beats that hands down with 50,000 – and that makes it the biggest city bike hire system in the world.  But typically of Chinese vision, that’s just the start. The plan is to expand to 175,000 bikes by 2020.

Hangzhou’s riders make an average of 240,000 trips every day, which is pretty impressive. According to Bike-Sharing blog, Lu Zhihong, Deputy General Manager, Hangzhou Public Transport Corporation says that public bicycle outlets will become as popular as public telephone booths along city streets. “In the future, residents will largely ride bicycles to go shopping in food markets and supermarkets, or to go to the office,” he says.

The city elders decided to implement the system – and make it easy and attractive – after realising that the national move to car ownership and usage was clogging up the roads, destroying the purity of the air and even more importantly to the world’s manufacturing engine, making people late for work.

There are more than 2,000 bike-share stations in Hangzhou

The Hangzhou Public Bicycle Service (HPBS) system’s popularity and success have set a new standard for bike-sharing in Asia. There are more than 2,000 bike-share stations that are dotted about the city, and the scheme that started in May 2008 has around 30,000 individual rentals on a typical day and is underwritten by the local government to keep costs low and locals pedaling. To rent a bike, people simple swipe their ID card and pay 200 Yuan as a deposit. After that, the service is free for the first hour, and then riders pay one yuan ($.30) for up to two hours. They can keep the bike out for up to 24 hours, but that costs three yuan per hour so the accent is on short trips.

And it’s working. Earlier this year, HPBS claimed each bike was used an average of 5 times each day by different riders. Additionally, in contrast with many European bike-share systems, HPBS has embedded a paypoint directly into the bikes. This makes it easier for a user to end a rental by slotting a bike into a bike rack, swiping their local transport card over the bike itself, and walking away.

This, says HPBS, reduces time to check the bike in from about five minutes to just one minute, something riders in London, Barcelona and Paris will appreciate. The system is currently not turning a profit, but the local government hopes to turn that round with the provision of advertisements on the bikes and at bike return spots.

To rent a bike, people simple swipe their ID card and pay 200 Yuan as a deposit.

And what about “losses”? According to HPBS, not a single bike was stolen in the service’s first year of operation, and very few have been damaged or vandalised. In contrast, London’s Boris Bikes suffered from six docking stations being hit by motor vehicles and six more vandalised in the first six months with up to third of the fleet needing some kind of refurbishment or repair. Likewise Paris’s Velib bike-share program has reported that almost half of the original Velibs were stolen, or damaged. So much for the French being bicycle lovers!

For a great video of the system see:


Video link here

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About our Guest Writer:
Jeremy Torr, the managing editor of Gaia Discovery, is a lifelong cyclist, traveller, and keen greenie now residing in Singapore. He has written for and edited international publications like PC Magazine, SilverKris and Discovery Channel Magazine.The independent publication Gaia Discovery promotes responsible travel, eco-living, and heritage. It is a platform for subject experts to voluntarily contribute articles to for greater awareness of important social and environmental issues in Asia. Follow Gaia Discovery on Facebook and  Twitter.

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Further links you may be interested in:

EWTT: Making Singapore Bicycle Friendly

EWTT: Bike the Talk: The green solution to urban transport 

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URA Building, Singapore

Singapore brings out a Concept Plan every 10 years to map out the long term directions for the city’s land use and transportation plans over the next 40 to 50 years. The next Concept Plan is scheduled for 2011. With this in mind, one of the focus groups that Singapore’s urban planner, the “ Urban Redevelopment Authority” (URA) set up was on the issue of “Sustainability and Identity.”  

The focus group has come up with recommendations that they will be making to the URA. Yesterday, May 6th, 2010 was the Public Forum where the group sought feedback from the public on its draft proposals.

One of the two main thrust areas according to the focus group is :

BUILDING A SUSTAINABLE CITY: “For Singapore to be a highly liveable city, the focus group felt that we need to build a sustainable city where we are all geared up for sustainable living.”  The recommendations (shown in block) and public feedback are as follows:

“1. Strengthening our green infrastructure

1a) ‘Greening the building lifecycle’

• ‘Green’ the entire lifecycle of a building from planning and design, resources used, to operations and maintenance.
• Have more policies and incentives to encourage the ‘greening’ of building lifecycles.
• Include sustainability building considerations as criteria for award in land tenders.
• Encourage more owners to retrofit their existing buildings with green features.” 

Feedback & Comments:

A Panel member noted that all new buildings in Singapore subscribe to the BCA Green Mark standard, but there was scope for improving the standard by incorporating the entire lifecycle of a building.

One audience member questioned the presence of so many glass panelled buildings in the city and the subsequent use of airconditioning. The idea of Green roofs came up in the slides shown by the panelists, and encouragement of urban farming was suggested by the audience. Mr. Shawn Lum, President of the Nature Society of Singapore hopes to see such concepts become a reality in Singapore.

“1b) Promoting ‘green’ mobility

• Public transport, walking or cycling should be our default means to get around.
• Encourage greater use of public transport by making it even more convenient, frequent, and comfortable, along with cheaper fares and season passes.
• Discourage private transport by reviewing car parking policies, such as reducing parking lots, or charging higher parking fees in the city and town centres.
• Provide a dedicated network of cycling lanes and complimentary facilities.”

Feedback & Comments:

It was encouraging to note the emphasis on public transport, and the importance of making it convenient and cost effective.  The panel members noted that we need improved cycling lanes and covered areas for cycling - considering the city is hot and humid. Public education is also required to ensure the successful use of this means of public transport. 

Reducing the number of cars on the road is also the way to make the city greener, and that entails a possible reduction of car park spaces.

“1c)‘Greening’ our habits

• All should become  ‘green’ citizens and make recycling and reducing waste part of our daily lives.
• Deploy an island-wide recycling infrastructure at community level to make recycling convenient
• Strengthen programmes to inculcate a ‘green’ mindset and raise public awareness about recycling and reducing waste.”

Feedback & Comments:

Panelists noted that green behaviour has to be a community wide action, with top-down and bottom-up initiatives supporting this.  Green behaviour is more likely to evolve if it is convenient, and people are given both incentives and disincentives. 

EWTT pointed out to the panelists that there are some practical issues in reducing plastic bag consumption. People still need to use it to put things down the building chute.  However much we try to reduce waste, in addition to recycling bins, there needs to be a community provision for composting.  Another audience member mentioned that having chutes in buildings makes people lazy when it comes to recycling.

The panel suggested that higher waste disposal fees depending upon the amount of garbage collected from households could reduce wastage. Recycling could be encouraged by placing recycling bins closer to public transport points like MRT stations.

On the issue of green behaviour, EWTT noticed that the URA had to start green behaviour at home, and pointed that there was no veggie food as refreshments, which were served on plastic disposables. Bottled water was provided at the forum. A request was made for introducing one Meat Free Day a week in Singapore.  

One audience member mentioned there is way too much packaging in many products, and that companies should also take responsibility for reducing the packaging.  The Semakau landfill that houses the incineration ash from Singapore is likely to be filled up by 2030.

 ”2. Foster more sharing and ownership of  ‘green’ practices

Empowering the community to go green

• Empower residents to take ownership and improve our living environment
• Grow demand for green products and cleaner or renewable energy
• Have a reliable accreditation system for ‘green’ products to encourage ‘green’ consumerism
• Share ‘green’ knowledge and tools amongst grassroots, non-government organisations, schools and businesses.
• Recognise our ‘green’ heroes.”

Feedback & Comments:

EWTT quoted to panelists, a recent study by University of Adelaide and National University of Singapore, which mentions the high ecological footprint of Singapore. It’s necessary to think of sustainability not only in terms of what it means for the island, but also the footprint elsewhere in the region and on the planet. The panel agreed, and said that better labelling for products, such as organic and fairtrade would help with this.

The other thrust area is MAKING SINGAPORE AN ENDEARING HOME , a place to “work, live and play.” It includes preserving our natural and architectural heritage, and enliven places that enhance our personal and collective memories of this city.     Some topics that came up for discussion were : providing more areas for children to play like the Jacob Bhalla’s Garden in Singapore, and increasing the current 5-6% land area reserved for Nature Parks to at least 10% which is the IUCN recommendation for conservation of biodiversity.

Some of these issues are new, and some have been raised before with the Government of Singapore.  The issues are very broad in scope, and many of the details, such as plans for green transport, renewable energy, or green labelling, for example, are not known.  It will be interesting to see which of these recommendations make it into the Concept Plan and to what degree and detail. 

The focus group has given a 3 week time window to take in more feedback from the public. So leave your comments on the Concept Plan 2011 website and see if you can shape Singapore’s future as a Sustainable City.

The 6 Panelists were:

Shawn Lum, Nature Society Singpore ; Tiew Chew Meng, South-West CDC ; Ganesh Kalynanam, Republic Polytechnic; Amb Ong Keng Yong, Institute of Policy Studies,  Lee Tzu Yang, Chairman of Shell Companies, Shirlena Huang, National University of Singapore.

Further links you may be interested in:

1. URA concept Plan 2011 Public Consultation Process

2.  Study ranks Singapore highest in relative Environmental Impact

3. Kawasaki Eco-Town (Mentioned by Shawn Lum, President of Nature Society as an example of a Zero Emissions, Zero Waste model, which we in Singapore must strive to better)

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ADMINISTRATION

• Get the school enrolled in a programme for environmental change such as the
  UNEP linked http://www.eco-schools.org/ connecting eco oriented schools.
• Going green becomes one of the key priorities of the school. This is by having a dedicated staff for the purpose and/or keeping it as an ongoing collaborative effort in the form of a committee comprising of various representatives of staff, parents and the student council to form an environmental code, do an environmental audit, review areas for improvement, have a goal oriented action plan and monitor improvements.

SCHOOLS AS ROLE MODELS

In terms of resource use, the school itself should become a working role model so it shows students how to minimise wastage, and use greener alternatives.

Waste Management

• Involve students to measure how much solid waste the school, particularly canteen waste, classify the waste and find solutions. A good audit list can be found at http://www.recyclezone.org.uk/library/docs/Waste_Watch_canteen%20waste.pdf
• Reduce the use of disposable cutlery in school canteens. They can substituted with biodegradable cutlery, or better, washable and reusable cutlery. For guidelines for green lunches, see https://www.wastereduction.gov.hk/en/materials/school/school_green_lunch_guideline.pdf
• Install recycling bins to separate paper, plastic, cans, and another for non-recyclable waste. Classrooms and staff rooms should have reusable paper trays for one sided paper
• Create a compost heap at school for garden and non-cooked canteen waste like fruit and vegetable peels. Here is a guide for doing composting at schools. http://www.ciwmb.ca.gov/Schools/Gardens/

Resource Use

• Encourage a non-toxic cleaning environment for the school. Usually the cleaning of the school is outsourced, but it is important to evaluate the synthetic chemicals used in day-to-day cleaning by the cleaners, as it is the children and staff who are breathing these for the bulk of the day, and can develop allergies. The school should influence what kind of cleaning solutions are used, and offer suggestions for non-toxic ones, as these affect human health and the water bodies that these go to finally.
• For better use of water, change tap-fittings, such as with flow regulators or aerators to conserve water. Ensure there are no leaking faucets and encourage students to close water taps properly.
• Explore installing a rainwater harvesting system within the school premises, if feasible, to collect rainwater and meet at least some of the water use.
• Conserve electricity, by switching to energy efficient lighting and certified energy saving appliances including airconditioning, photocopiers and printers. Encourage children to switch off appliances as they leave classrooms. Teachers and students should switch off their computer during breaks, and not just put it on sleep mode.
• Consider meeting some of the energy requirements through renewable energy like solar panels, wind power. These models will also give students real life examples of applications of alternative energy within the school campus.
• Reduce use of Styrofoam or disposable cups, by encouraging staff to bring a mug to school. Water filters could have paper or biodegradable cups. Minimise use of bottled water for staff and visitors which contributes to non-biodegradable waste. Bottled water is also a cause of depletion of underground water, and contributes to oil usage in plastic production and transport.
• Find ways to reduce paper use, which is one of the main resources of a school. Print of both sides, and cut down on font size and use half a sheet if necessary
• Go for green supplies with enlightened purchasing policies such as:

- Using recycled paper for letters, printing cards, brochures, study materials, tissue paper and paper towels or at least paper from sustainable plantations
- Encouraging use of rechargeable batteries, as they reduce the amount of harmful metals and compounds that go waste.
- Using the Website effectively as much as possible to reduce paper usage, and reduce physical storage requirements, with e-archiving. Send e-newsletters, weblinks and e-communication to parents. Consider using green data servers and webhosting

MOULDING STUDENT BEHAVIOUR

Resource Use

• Encourage children to use pencils from sustainable forests (eg. Stabilio brand), or other environmentally friendly alternatives like neem pencils. Similarly, older children should use refillable pens, so that they minimise plastic waste from throwaway pens
• Encourage children to bring in reusable bottles (preferably stainless steel like SIGG to reduce plastic use and risk of contamination)
• There are a lot of chemicals in glue sticks that harm the environment in production. Consider wherever practical, using flour and water instead. Engage children to come up with innovative ways to reduce resource use especially poster papers, glue, ink, paints. Let them become aware of the synthetic chemicals in these, and how to avoid or at least minimise usage, or find good substitutes
• Encourage children to check at the end of the period or the day (when they are leaving the room) that lights are off, water faucets are not leaking, fans, air conditioners or heaters are switched off.

Food

• Encourage children to bring wholesome lunches instead of junk or processed food. Let them be aware of the health and environmental implications of these less desirable foods. Get children to do an inventory of food consumed during the week and compare with the food pyramid, and allow them to suggest changes to improve
• Class parties should not be an excuse to bring junk or processed food, such as chips, biscuits from refined flours, chocolates with packaging. Instead bring fresh fruit, salads and homemade healthy foods. Classes can also have a healthiest snack competition
• Offer more vegetarian and organic snack choices in the canteen. Encourage children to eat a less meat oriented diet, for home made lunches, as it is more humane and has less environmental impact. Children should be able to relate what they eat to the larger impact on the environment such as deforestation and global warming, and that they can make a huge difference to the world by simply changing the content of their diet. Practical alternatives and food guides should be provided.
• Do not allow aerated drinks or soft drinks on campus, especially in the canteen or through vending machines. Only allow products without artificial colourings, preservatives and flavourings on campus. Promote “water is cool in school” and encourage children to drink plenty of clean filtered drinking water
• Encourage children to bring stainless steel lunch boxes as PVC in plastic may contaminate food

Consumerism

• There is a lot of peer pressure that translates into consumerism such as going after the latest design of clothes or electronic gadgets. Encourage children to think about the pros and cons of peer group pressure, unnecessary consumption and its effect on resource use of the world. Engage children in such discussions in class so they understand why they need not to succumb to this.
• Allow children to discuss and debate so as to understand implications of various ethical and environmental issues in

-what they eat, in terms of environmental impact of dairy, meat industrial farming, pesticides and fertiliser use on global warming, and air, water and soil quality

- what they wear- synthetic and natural fibres and alternatives
- what they buy- use of sweat shop labour, meaning of fair trade, impact of globalisation, buying local
- Older children can be taught to evaluate ingredients in cosmetics, household cleaners, pesticides, chemicals and research alternatives

CURRICULUM

• Impart practical Environmental education through hands-on eco-friendly projects, For some ideas see: http://www.edutopia.org/go-green
• Invite people involved in various environmental programmes and careers to talk to students on different environmental issues
• Organise competitions within the school and with other schools
  recycled materials, suggestions for eco-friendly school
• Organise Eco-friendly field trips, nature walks, nature tours and follow up with how learning impacts their actions and to make the connection with Nature
• Include a gardening period at least once a week. Children would love to get their hands dirty and also learn to nurture plants
• Make it a compulsory and regular part of the curriculum to evaluate an environmental book or video, as part of the library period or science or social studies period. Older children should review famous environmental books such as Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring or Jane Goodall’s Ten Trusts and environmental videos like the 11th hour, An inconvenient truth. The Eco WALK the Talk books section has lots of book ideas for teachers and students. Take a look at http://www.ecowalkthetalk.tv/videos.html for a sample of environmental videos on key topics
• Enlighten older children about careers in environmental sciences, environmental economics as well as entrepreneurial opportunities

AMBIENCE & ECO CULTURE

Indoor
Encourage plenty of indoor plants all over the school and classrooms. Children of all age groups, should be encouraged to each bring in a small pot or share pots if there is less space, which they plant, tender and look after throughout the year. It not only creates better quality indoor air, but also nurtures a love for Nature within the classroom. The learning can be extended by helping them label the botanical names of the different decorative plants or herbs, or even vegetables like tomatoes and chillis that they can grow in small spaces. Children are excited to participate in such projects and watch with patience the result of their activities.

Outdoor

• School playgrounds and walls convey messages of sensitivity to the environment, they should be well maintained, display works of recycling, environmental and social images
• Encourage children to recognise biodiversity around them by enjoying, naming and recognising the plants and trees in their locality. Plant a variety of shrubs and plants. An Environmental Club can take the initiative to list down all the botanic names and common names of the foliage and even the insects in the school premises. Encouraging plant and flower growth attracts birds, bees and butterflies. Children can be made aware how these are diminishing due to widespread pesticide use, and how even a small space can bring them back
• Encourage an organic herb garden which children should be encouraged to grow, use and learn from. Understand medicinal properties of herbs, and help create simple and varied salads from the herb garden. A small vegetable garden should be created within school premises for children to appreciate the plants that they often consume in processed form without knowing how the original plant, such as peanut, soy beans etc. Tips to create an eco garden can be found in http://www.edibleschoolyard.org/how_res.html . This will provide a hands-on learning experience for children about organic farming, as they learn to control pests, make and use organic fertiliser
• Encourage tree planting within the school premises. This is a valuable lesson for children to see how we often need to do something that we may not see the immediate results or benefits or reap the rewards, but children of the school 10 years from now will appreciate what we have done for them

Community Involvement

• Organise clean up campaigns of beaches and other parts of the wild. Organise various community projects for environment and social improvement. Get in touch with local environmental and social welfare agencies who would welcome students’ involvement
• Raise funds for a community project or cause through eco-events at school

 

 

Here is an inspiring video of a model eco-school in Bali, which highlights the philosophy of a green school. It is also able to incorporate green building features using local, renewable materials.

A truly green school “Eco WALKs the talk” and inspires a generation of students who become role models for enlightened behaviour, for it is they who will inherit our world. The children of a green school can readily make an emotional connection with Nature, and with their communities, local and global. They are thoughtful and conscious consumers of resources at school and at home. And when they step into the real world, they are inspired to become caring stewards of their communities, and of the entire planet.

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