605 Elm Street
Seguin, Texas 78155-4827
October 30, 2019
Honorable Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
U.S. House of Representatives
229 Cannon HOB
Washington, DC 20515
Dear Representative Ocasio-Cortez:
Subject: The Green New Deal and a Need for Ecology across Curricula & Campuses and for Ecological Values Which Would Move Us toward Light Ecological Footprints
• -I just finished a wonderfully tasty & nutritious meal of local wild venison & greens which I quickly prepared from a buck my wife sustainably harvested and processed late season and from an organic community garden.
-Yet several years after I started building a rain-water catchment system here for our home, I still haven’t gotten around to completing it. And we don’t have a composting toilet.
• -Several evenings ago, I arrived home from here in south Texas via Amtrak from a board meeting in Garden City, Kansas of a wonderful NGO which was started to help save dying human populations in rural ecological communities across much of the Great Plains.
-This NGO does seem to be doing much good for a sector of humanity. However, at times I have been frustrated that the board of this NGO hasn’t actually established a goal of true sustainability … NOR measurable sustainability indicators of social justice or ecological soundness.
• -During this November & December I am being honored with various opportunities to work with some fantastic youth & adults on insect ecology & other ecological activities here in Seguin & San Antonio, Texas at our Outdoor Learning Center & at Friedrich Wilderness Park.
-Yet I generally feel my hands are tied with respect to teaching ECOLOGICAL VALUES of consuming less, having a lighter ecological footprint, using appropriate technologies, and living in concert with nature.
The point is that I am rarely satisfied with my/our progress in transforming what Bill McKibben calls the Eaarth of the Anthropocene to a neo-Earth of quality life for all for as long as possible.
…………………………..
You, Representative Ocasio-Cortez, and Senator Sanders, in particular, are good leaders of amazing energy, intelligence, and integrity in the political arena and in attempts to move us toward sustainability, i.e., social justice, humaneness, and ecological sanity … or what I call Positively Ethical Applied Community Ecology (PEACE). Moreover, I very much appreciate the Green New Deal resolutions you and Senator Edward J. Markey submitted in February of this year.
The most important component of your resolutions was the statement that a Green New Deal will require …
“providing resources, training, and high-quality education, including higher education, to all people of the United States, with a focus on frontline and vulnerable [ecological] communities, so that all people of the United States may be full and equal participants in the Green New Deal mobilization.”
However, there are two glaring problems with your resolutions.
1. There is entirely too much emphasis on technological fixes through so-called “renewable energy”. Renewable energy is diffuse and generally of low quality and takes inputs of transformed (embodied) energy (in today’s world … oftentimes fossil energy) to be realized as useful … and there is relatively little to no energy returned on investment. Renewable energy is not necessarily Green Energy.
2. Moreover, within your resolutions are a subtle (false hope) suggestion that “renewable energy” will allow us to continue to sustain high input, high throughput artificial systems, and even growth in these systems, while maintaining quality life here on Earth (or Eaarth). This is even though this would continue our processes of overshoot; and drawdown of the natural resource base of topsoil and quality air, quality water, and biodiversity and dynamic homeostatic symbioses, or “nature” (and severe exploitation of humans who are relatively powerless and disenfranchised). … Herman Daly’s steady-state economy and H.T. Odum’s “prosperous” way down is a must.
My personal mantra, which I wish were the mantra of all people and peoples, is:
• “Live Sabiamente*, Simply, Smally, Slowly, Steadfastly, Sharingly, Sustainably” (i.e., “Live the 7 Ss”). [*Wisely]
In keeping with that mantra and a goal of quality life for all, including other species, we must level off human population growth, and reduce consumption and power of the Haves by perhaps as much as two-thirds (2/3rds) while sharing that power with the have-nots, including other species. I depict this process with this symbol: “VV->^^”.
Therefore, some major points you must seriously consider in further development of Real Green New Deals are:
1.”Renewable” energy is of low quality and requires much embodied energy in order to be “usefully” transformed. It is important but is definitely not close to being the ultimate answer!
2.High input/high throughput systems are destructive of our social fabric and dynamic homeostatic symbioses, or nature. Sufficiency is much more important than efficiency. And
3.We desperately need to educate toward PEACE, or “positively ethical applied community ecology” through continuing education using ecological curricula across and integrated into the campuses of all human organizational entities.
Now after this “scolding” I have done herein these immediately previous paragraphs, at his point I must interject that I do realize you have collaborated with and listened closely to Naomi Klein (e.g., A Message from the Future) as well as worked with and learned from various climate scientists, scholars & academicians, and policy experts who have emphasized the points I have made herein (and much more … and much more credibly and eloquently). Moreover, I am certain that you agree with Ms. Klein when she says (in On Fire: The Burning Case for a Green New Deal) that–
“The bottom line is that an ecological crisis that has its roots in overconsumption of natural resources must be addressed not just by improving the efficiency of our economies, but also by reducing the amount of material stuff that the wealthiest 20% of people on the planet consume.”
and when Ms. Klein quotes Vandana Shiva that—
“the roots of our crisis lie ‘in an economy which fails to respect ecological and ethical limits.’”
……………………………………
Representative Ocasio-Cortez, you are a wonderfully important person who is facilitating real and good change. I do wholeheartedly support your efforts!! … But I also do hope you will continue to seriously consider what I have touched upon herein concerning ecology across the curricula & campuses, limits & dramatically reducing our ecological footprints, and “so-called” renewable energy.
Thanks.
paul b. martin, ph.d.
[ 7 Ss / VV->^^ ]
Retired, Biology-Natural Sciences, St. Philip’s College
and volunteer for PEACE
(Positively Ethical Applied Community Ecology) …
focusing primarily on youth
cc. Senator Edward J. Markey
Senator Bernie Sanders
David Orr
Naomi Klein
Bill McKibben
