First Name | Muriel |
---|---|
Last Name | Strand |
Email Address | auntym@earthlink.net |
Affiliation | |
Subject | public education & early action measures |
Comment | please note that the text in this message box is reproduced in the attached file in a way that is formatted to highlight my comments as opposed to quotes from the staff report. 10/24/07 To: ARB From: Muriel Strand Re: Comments on Discussion of Additions to the List of Early Action Measures to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions Under AB 32 and Discussion of Concepts for Promoting and Recognizing Voluntary Early Actions I urge approval of the staff proposal. I urge the Board to consider and support substantial public education measures related to the Early Actions and the New Early and Voluntary Actions. As a graduate student in mechanical engineering and energy, about 20 years ago, I heard from professors such as John Holdren that the effectiveness of price signals and energy conservations measures had by that time substantially exceeded the initial expectations of the 1970s. I conclude that the elasticity of energy use and economic relationships is quite low in the short term, but fortunately quite high in the medium to long term. Thus, I think staff are right on track when they say that “Voluntary and educational efforts are prominent examples of non-regulatory actions that can deliver real GHG emission reductions, and staff plans to pursue these efforts aggressively.” I believe that educational outreach can have particular impact in the following Early Actions: 5. Consumer products 6. Truck Efficiency 7. Tire Inflation Program 8. Reduce PFCs in semiconductor industry 9. Green Ports ARB EARLY ACTIONS TO BE DEVELOPED BY 2012 New Early Actions recommendations to be considered by the Board: 1. Refrigerant Tracking, Reporting, and Recovery Program: 2. Cement (A): Energy Efficiency of California Cement Facilities: 3. Cement (B): Blended Cements: 4. Anti-idling Enforcement: 5. Collaborative Research to Understand How to Reduce GHG Emissions from Nitrogen Land Application: The power of individuals in the public as a whole has a great deal of momentum. As staff notes, leaders in business and government already play an important role. NEW FOCUSED EFFORT ON VOLUNTARY ACTIONS A common theme during the verbal comment period of the September 17, 2007 public workshop was the need for ARB guidance for voluntary actions. Staff believes that the leadership shown by many businesses and local governments in reducing GHG emissions needs to be acknowledged and supported. A key first step to acknowledge such actions is to quantify and document voluntary emission reductions that rise beyond “business as usual”. To that end, the ARB staff plans to propose at the October 25-26, 2007 Board hearing a framework for developing methodologies for the quantification of voluntary greenhouse gas emission reductions, and seek the Board’s direction. However I am not sure if staff or the Board appreciate the full potential of education of ordinary people that is implied in my graduate-school realization. And I think education of citizens and consumers is certainly one of the “traditional regulatory methods” that government staff have employed to implement legislative statute and intent. So I urge the Board to deeply support such outreach. Those who object that some ideas or recommendations included in such education are “social engineering” should acknowledge that social engineering is inevitable. Existing conditions simply represent the result of social engineering as it operated in the past – including PR, public education, class-based competition, and other forms of economic leverage and brainwashing. More to the point is the list of criteria and methods for evaluating any social engineering proposal. Moreover, if factual material is the centerpiece of public education measures, such objections may be minimized, as well as the creation of unproductive emotional reactivity and self-indulgent angst. However, many people have difficulty discussing controversial issues, such as whose grass constitutes blight, with their neighbors or with those who disagree with their political opinions. If we are ever to function on a relocalized, sustainable basis, I think we will have to learn to talk about basic issues, to ask and answer the really key challenging questions about our ideas and opinions. The rigorous approach common in the physical sciences must be applied to the social and political sciences, yet given he nature of these sciences new criteria are required, such as prohibitions on self-indulgence, wishful thinking, double standards, self-righteousness, and using one’s emotional upset to derail rational discussion. I recommend to the Board the subject of “blight” as a case study, and the role of the lawn as a prototype. As you may know, lawns consume large and rather irrational quantities of water, high-nitrogen fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides, and are too often ‘maintained’ by squads of noisy gasoline machines such as lawnmowers and leafblowers. Why? Because lawns are thought to indicate prosperity and reduce “blight.” But blight is extremely subjective and has been used to unjustly evict those without power from their residences. In my experience, public conversations about blight are fraught with violations of the criteria in the paragraph above. But if we cannot have a public discussion about an issue such as this where ecological sustainability is apparently so at odds with social sustainability, we are really sunk. But how should the Board step into this new arena and potential minefield? Judiciously and steadfastly. One possible approach would be to explicitly broaden the mission of the Board’s Environmental Justice Advisory Committee. Inspection of the Committee’s Recommendations on the Early Action Measures suggests that the Committee may be overlooking substantial benefits of rearranging our lives to replace driving by walking and bicycling, to replace processed preserved food manufactured in faraway factories with fresh local homecooking, and to replace electronic toys with simple games and community activities. Such changes can be expected to reduce health care costs for both physical and emotional ailments, as well as increasing economic and social security. It would be extremely beneficial if public education outreach included discussions of the shape, size, and organization of the sustainable society we will eventually reach, whether drastically or sensibly. As I watch the AB32 regulatory process unfold, I have become concerned that we are spending a lot of time and energy rearranging the deck chairs (of, say, commuting to work) on the Titanic of climate change that we could be spending on starting right away to return to traditional, sustainable, and simple lifeboat technologies. If we have a clear picture of where we want to end up, I think it far more likely that we will arrive there. |
Attachment | www.arb.ca.gov/lists/eamghg07/21-arb_comments-early_measures.doc |
Original File Name | arb comments-early measures.doc |
Date and Time Comment Was Submitted | 2007-10-24 09:36:29 |
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