Solutions Volume 6, Issue 1 by The Solutions Journal

January-February 2015, Volume 6, Issue 1

For a sustainable and desirable future

Solutions Claim the Sky! by Robert Costanza Food Security in DC: The Urban Food Hubs Solution by Sabine O’Hara 10 Years to Learn: Watershed Restoration Strategies by Todd Reeve and Robert Warren Big Data: A Glimpse into the Future of Climate Change by Brian R. Pickard, Jeremy Baynes, Megan Mehaffey, and Anne C. Neale Urban Resilience by Arka Pandit and John C. Crittenden

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Umaña, A. (2015). Who Owns the Sky? Solutions 6(1): 1. https://thesolutionsjournal.com/article/who-owns-the-sky/

Editorial by Alvaro Umaña

Who Owns the Sky?

he idea that anyone could own the sky seems absurd, and therein lies the problem. We would not consider paying for the air we breathe, and neither do the 90 corporations currently responsible for about two thirds of global emissions. Presently, there are no property rights over the atmosphere, which is being utilized as a kind of planetary cesspool for billions of tons of waste. Ultimately, we are all responsible because we are not paying for the social and environmental costs of these emissions, but are not all equally liable. The only way to change this scenario is to establish property rights over the atmosphere as a first step to dealing with global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The United Nations has been trying to deal with rising GHG emissions since the adoption of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Rio in 1992. The first meeting of the parties took place in Berlin in 1995. Subsequently, the Kyoto Protocol was adopted in 1997, but stalled after the first commitment period expired in 2012, without a second commitment period. Hopes are focused on the pledges of COP15 in Copenhagen and on negotiating a universal agreement that is fair, durable, and effective in addressing this issue. At the present time, average citizens, non-governmental or community organizations, churches, schools, and other civic organizations do not have a direct role in international negotiations, but they have to suffer the consequences of climate change and of very slow progress in reaching effective accords.

Ultimately, they have to pay the costs to our environment and suffer the consequences. Therefore, citizens have the right to question the abuse of global common resources, like the atmosphere and the oceans, over which there are no clear property rights and that are being destroyed by polluters. These resources are common to all humanity and their ownership should be exercised by all of us as planetary citizens. We need to take the necessary legal actions to establish our rights—an essential first step to being able to manage this resource sustainably. The idea of viewing the atmosphere as a common property resource was raised by Peter Barnes and others in 2009, who argued that an Earth Atmospheric Trust Fund (EATF) could be established to hold the revenues coming from the pricing of GHG emissions, and that these could be viewed as compensation to the resource owners for environmental services rendered (see Costanza’s piece in this issue). Since GHG emissions are so uneven throughout the world, and if the EATF were to be owned equally by all human beings, the pricing of GHG emissions could provide significant resources for redistribution from high to low emission societies, and help diminish the trend toward higher global inequality. In recent years, efforts to control emissions have focused on carbon exchanges that allow companies to buy emission rights from those who emit less. However, most have struggled due to the lack of an international framework and the collapse in the price of carbon. The EATF proposal would still require a global structure, but by handing over property rights to the sky to the earth’s citizens it would avoid some

of the pitfalls of trying to artificially create a market for carbon. The San Jose Declaration on Claiming the Sky, adopted last year by members of the Ecosystems Services Partnership Assembly, aims to get one billion people to support this effort and take our collective claim as citizens to the International Court of Justice to establish our property rights over the resource, and to demand effective governmental action. Citizens’ organizations, with the power of the internet and social media, are a new critical force in the world arena and could have an enormous impact on policies to address climate change. This was demonstrated by recent synchronized marches of millions of citizens in major cities throughout the world demanding action related to climate change. We support the efforts of the United Nations to bring about a universal agreement on climate change that is effective, fair and durable. This is essential for our survival. However, the time is long overdue to establish new principles for proper care and management of the Earth’s common resources. This has to do with how we exercise our right as human beings to inhabit a healthy and ecologically sustainable planet. We should also keep in mind that with rights also comes the responsibility for proper management of the only planet we have, whose care and maintenance is entrusted to us for a brief time, and which we bequeath to future generations. Over sixty years ago, French scientist and philosopher, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin put it best: The Age of Nations is past. The task before us now, if we would not perish, is to build the earth.

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Contents

January/February 2015

Features

Food Security: The Urban Food Hubs Solution by Sabine O’Hara

Urban food hubs are bringing sustainable food production systems to Washington, DC’s “food deserts.” In the city with the highest rate of food insecurity for children, the University of the District of Columbia is working closely with communities to increase localized food production.

Are We Doing Our Best To Restore Watersheds? Lessons from a 10-Year Watershed Restoration Strategy by Todd Reeve and Robert Warren Seeing the repeated flaws of short-term investment, the Bonneville Environmental Foundation has implemented a 10-year funding strategy for community-based watershed restoration.

Translating Big Data into Big Climate Ideas by Brian R. Pickard, Jeremy Baynes, Megan Mehaffey, and Anne C. Neale

An innovative new tool developed by the US Environmental Protection Agency promises to translate large and complicated amounts of data on climate change to easily accessible information by allowing users to explore future climate scenarios.

Resilient Urban Systems: Where We Stand Now and Where We Need to Go by Arka Pandit and John C. Crittenden

Growing urban centers require more resilient design strategies to endure against environmental and outside threats. Innovative approaches from Italy, India, and South Korea show promising examples of more resilient urban infrastructures. 2 | Solutions | January-February 2015 | www.thesolutionsjournal.org

On the Web

Perspectives

www.thesolutionsjournal.org Explore the Solutions website for more content and interactivity. What are your solutions? Share your vision for a sustainable and desirable future and learn more about the Solutions community.

Envisioning

Claim the Sky! by Robert Costanza

Sharing Cars: The Future of Road Transport by Oliver Brown

Paying Overwork: What it’s Worth by Mark Fabian

Many Small vs. a Few Big: Alternatives to Megadams in the Chilean Patagonia by Nicolas Salgado

Personal Carbon Trading: Motivating Better Climate Behavior in Canberra by Fiona Lord

On the Ground

Redesigning a Design Program: How Carnegie Mellon University is Developing a Design Curricula for the 21st Century

by Terry Irwin Design faculty at Carnegie Mellon University put what they preach to practice as they redesigned their program to create a more holistic curriculum for students facing design challenges unique to the 21st century.

Civic Populism: The People’s Politics of Geno Baroni by Harry C. Boyte The year

Solutions in History

The Eco-Illogical Cycle and the Politics of Climate Change by Gary Flomenhoft Historically,

is 2030, and the inaugural address for the opening of the Geno Baroni Center for Democracy celebrates the return of civic populism and the emergence of civic environmentalism after a period of deeply divided politics in the United States.

attempts to address environmental problems with policies for effective change have revealed an “eco-illogical” cycle of halfhearted attempts until a catastrophic event triggers the emotional response of the masses. Can we break this cycle to address climate change before a large scale disaster threatens human wellbeing?

Idea Lab In Review

82 Interview

Getting from Here to There

Keeping Climate Change to a Two Degree World: An Interview with Sir Robert Tony Watson Interviewed by Christina Asquith The British

by Gord Stewart

Noteworthy

chemist and former chair of the IPCC discusses making the political commitment to effective climate policies, successful movements towards low carbon economies, and the path to a world that has come to terms with climate change.

A Whale of a Comeback Building a Paris for the People Scrubbing Up Global Hygiene Green Generation Restaurants in Turkey

Editorial

Who Owns the Sky? by Alvaro Umaña The time is now for global citizens to claim collective property rights over one of our greatest shared resources: the atmosphere.

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Solutions

Contributors

Editors-in-Chief: Robert Costanza, Ida Kubiszewski

Associate Editors: David Orr, Jacqueline McGlade

Managing Editor: Colleen Maney Senior Editors: Christina Asquith, Jack Fairweather History Section Editor: Frank Zelko

Book & Envisioning Editor: Bruce Cooperstein Editor: Naomi Stewart Graphic Designer: Kelley Dodd

Copy Editors: Maria Hetman, Hana Layson, and Barbara Stewart Interns: Audrey Pence, Maisam Alahmed Editorial Board: Gar Alperovitz, Vinya Ariyaratne, Robert Ayres, Peter Barnes, William Becker, Lester Brown, Alexander Chikunov, Cutler Cleveland, Raymond Cole, Rita Colwell, Robert Corell, Herman Daly, Thomas Dietz, Josh Farley, Jerry Franklin, Susan Joy Hassol, Paul Hawken, Richard Heinberg, Jeffrey Hollender, Buzz Holling, Terry Irwin, Jon Isham, Wes Jackson, Tim Kasser, Tom Kompas, Frances Moore Lappé, Rik Leemans, Wenhua Li, Thomas Lovejoy, Hunter Lovins, Manfred Max-Neef, Peter May, Bill McKibben, William J. Mitsch, Mohan Munasinghe, Norman Myers, Kristín Vala Ragnarsdóttir, Bill Rees, Wolfgang Sachs, Peter Senge, Vandana Shiva, Anthony Simon, Gus Speth, Larry Susskind, David Suzuki, John Todd, Mary Evelyn Tucker, Alvaro Umaña, Sim van der Ryn, Peter Victor, Mathis Wackernagel, John Xia, Mike Young

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On the Cover The “Hand of God,” sculpted by Carl Milles and currently on display at the Millesgården in Stockholm, Sweden. Photo by Pete Teoh. Solutions is subject to the Creative Commons license except where otherwise stated.

1. Alvaro Umaña—With more than

3. Robert Costanza—Robert

30 years’ experience working with governmental and nongovernmental organizations, Umaña has held leadership positions with international organizations such as the World Bank, where he was founding member and chairman of the World Bank Inspection Panel; the International Monetary Fund, where he has served since 2007 as senior adviser to the Office of the Executive Director for Central America, Mexico, Spain and Venezuela; and the United Nations, including UNESCO and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), where most recently he was principal adviser and leader of the Energy and Environment Group in the Bureau for Development Policy. From 2006 to 2007 he was an adviser for Costa Rica to the Inter-American Development Bank in Washington. As Costa Rica’s first minister of energy and environment from 1986 to 1990, Umaña was internationally recognized for his groundbreaking contributions to conservation. Under his leadership, Costa Rica implemented the largest commercial debt-for-nature program of any developing country.

Costanza is a Chair of Public Policy at the Crawford School of Public Policy at Australian National University. Costanza is cofounder and former president of the International Society for Ecological Economics. He has authored or coauthored over 350 scientific papers and reports on his work have appeared in Newsweek, U.S. News and World Report, the Economist, The New York Times, Science, Nature, National Geographic, and National Public Radio.

2. Terry Irwin—Terry Irwin is the Head

of the School of Design at Carnegie Mellon University. She has been a practicing designer for more than 40 years and was one of the founding partners of MetaDesign, an international design firm. Irwin holds Master’s degrees in Design from the Basel School of Design and in Holistic Science from Schumacher College. Irwin also has a PhD from the Centre for the Study of Natural Design at the University of Dundee. Terry has held faculty positions at Otis Parsons School of Design, California College of Arts & Crafts, and the University of Dundee.

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4. Todd Reeve—Todd Reeve is CEO of

the Bonneville Environmental Foundation (BEF). He has over fifteen years’ experience building partnerships and pursuing innovations around watershed restoration and freshwater sustainability solutions. Under Todd’s direction, BEF developed both the 10-year Model Watershed Program and BEF’s Water Restoration Certificate Program—the first national program that allows companies to balance the amount of water they use with an equal amount of water restored to a critically dewatered ecosystem. In addition, Todd is cocreator of Change the Course, a national water sustainability initiative designed to change the ways that society values, uses, and manages freshwater. 5. Sabine O’Hara—Dr. Sabine O’Hara

is Dean and Director of Landgrant Programs for the College of Agriculture, Urban Sustainability and Environmental Sciences of the University of the District of Columbia. She is known for her expertise in sustainable economic development, global education, and executive leadership. Dr. O’Hara is the founder of Global Ecology LLC, the 10th President of Roanoke College in Salem,

Contributors 7

10 6

Virginia, and has held faculty and administrative positions at: Concordia College, Green Mountain College, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and has served as the Executive Director of the Council for International Exchange of Scholars. Dr. O’Hara has a doctorate in environmental economics and a Master’s degree in agricultural economics from the University of Göttingen. She is the President Elect of the International Society for Ecological Economics and an International Advisory Board member of King Abdul-Aziz University in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

that time he taught natural resources, international development, macro and ecological economics, and public policy, including a history of Environmental Policy in the US. Gary is currently a PhD student studying the commonwealth at the University of Queensland, Australia. 9. Nicolas Salgado—Nicolas is

a doctoral candidate in economics at the Crawford School of Public Policy at The Australian National University. His research interests are life satisfaction modelling, overwork, time poverty and other issues in household labor and income dynamics. He first trained as a philosopher (existentialism, ethics, and political theory) but then moved to international and development economics as a postgraduate. He blogs at markfabian. blogspot.com.

an Australia Awards Scholar at the Australian National University. He recently completed a Master’s degree and Graduate Diploma of Environmental Management & Development at the Crawford School of Public Policy, and he is currently working toward a combined Master’s degree at the College of Diplomacy. He has previously worked as a public officer in Chile on issues of water resource management, sustainability, and development, and has also served as a researcher at the Ministry of Public Works in Chile. His research interests include environmental management and development, water resource management, energy and natural resource policy, and ecological economics.

7. Oliver Brown—Oliver Brown

10. Harry C. Boyte—Harry C. Boyte

recently completed a Master’s in Environmental and Resource Economics, with a focus on the sharing economy, at the Australian National University. Prior to this, he worked as an IT consultant at KPMG, advising private and public sector clients across a range of industries.

is a Senior Scholar in Public Work Philosophy at Augsburg College, and a Senior Fellow at the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey School of Public Affairs. In 2012 he served as Coordinator of the American Commonwealth Partnership, created on invitation of the White House Office of Public Engagement. The Partnership worked to develop strategies to strengthen higher education as a public good in the anniversary year of the Morrill Act, creating land grant colleges. Boyte’s most recent book is Democracy’s Education, a collection of essays on how educators can

6. Mark Fabian—Mark Fabian is

8. Gary Flomenhoft—Gary

Flomenhoft is a graduate in Ecological Economics and Public Policy from the program founded by Robert Costanza and Herman Daly at the University of Maryland. He was a faculty member at the University of Vermont and Gund Institute Fellow from 2002-2013. During

revitalize the democratic narrative and purpose of higher education. 11. Gord Stewart—Gord Stewart

is an environmental sustainability consultant based in Matamata, New Zealand. He does research, planning and communication work for government, industry, and non-profit organizations. His “Taking the Long View” monthly column on environmental issues is distributed to regional daily and community newspapers around New Zealand. He lives on four acres in the country and is trying to practice what he preaches. 12. Arka Pandit—Arka Pandit is a

Research Faculty at the Brook Byers Institute for Sustainable Systems in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He received his Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 2014. His primary field of research is in the area of resilient and sustainable urban infrastructure systems with particular focus on the resilience and sustainability of urban water systems. He received his MS in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth and his Bachelor of Engineering in Civil Engineering from the Bengal Engineering and Science University, India. 13. John C. Crittenden—John C.

Crittenden is the director of the Brook Byers Institute for Sustainable Systems and a Professor in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He holds the Hightower Chair and is a Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar in Environmental Technologies. He is the Associate Editor of the journal

Environmental Science and Technology. He has been elected to the National Academy of Engineering, USA and the Chinese Academy of Engineering. Crittenden has been invited to speak and present around the world on sustainable urban systems and water treatment infrastructure. His current research focus is on sustainable urban infrastructure systems. 14. Brian Pickard—Brian Pickard is

an Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education Research Fellow with the U.S. EPA, Landscape Ecology Division. He currently works as part of a team developing the EnviroAtlas. Brian’s research focuses on modeling and forecasting ecosystem services based on future climate and land use/land change scenarios. He is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Forestry and Environmental Resources at North Carolina State University. He received his MS in Forest Resources from Oregon State University and his BA in Natural Resource Management from Western Washington University. 15. Fiona Lord—Fiona Lord is a public

policy professional, currently working at the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. In 2008-10, Fiona worked for Australia’s Department of Climate Change on the international climate change policy agenda. In 2011, Fiona joined AusAID and worked on the South Asia program, including on investments in water management, food security, energy infrastructure, and regional economic integration. In 2013, Fiona moved to a multilateral policy role in AusAID and is currently providing policy advice on the Post-2015 Development Agenda. Fiona has a Bachelor of Environmental Management and Law from Macquarie University.

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Noteworthy. (2015). Solutions 6(1): 6-10.

Idea Lab Noteworthy

Tom Benson

The California blue whale population has returned to nearly maximum population capacity after dwindling as a result of whaling in the 20th century.

A Whale of a Comeback by Colleen Maney

Good news from off the coast of California in the United States: once ravaged by whaling, the California blue whale population has rebounded to 97 percent of historic levels. Researchers from the University of Washington had to get creative to prove this promising upswing. Before whaling was banned in 1966, most of the hunting in the Pacific Ocean where these whales reside was carried out by Russian fleets. As such, much of the data surrounding their catches was kept secret under Soviet rule. Even once they had gained access to these documents, the scientists were still unable to calculate accurate historic populations. Pacific blue whales are categorized as two distinct populations: California

blue whales, and those that live off the coasts of Japan and Russia. To distinguish between the two populations, the researchers studied the songs the two groups used to communicate. Learning the different tunes allowed research teams to demarcate a boundary between the two populations that was then compared to data from Soviet records. Once the research team was able to accurately calculate the numbers of each population lost to whaling, they were then able to establish a historic population size, against which the sizeable California rebound was measured. While the California blue whales are no longer threatened by whaling, they are still vulnerable to modern society. In an effort to protect the whales from fatal ship strikes, of which there are on average 11 per year,

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Californian authorities have taken to paying merchant ships to slow their speeds off of the coast. These ongoing conservation efforts hope to support the blue whales’ return to carrying capacity in the Pacific Ocean. Cole Monnahan, a researcher and lead author on the resulting paper, recognized the human influence on the whales’ rebound, saying, “California blue whales are recovering because we took actions to stop catches and start monitoring. If we hadn’t, the population might have been pushed to near extinction—an unfortunate fate suffered by other blue whale populations.” One such population is the Antarctic blue whale. At a frighteningly low one percent of their historic numbers, drastic solutions are needed to protect the survival of this dwindling population.

Idea Lab Noteworthy

David McKelvey

One project included in Paris’ city investment budget is the transformation of the historic Place de la République into a pedestrian zone. Other projects were voted upon in the participatory budget.

Building a Paris for the People by Colleen Maney

Paris’ first female mayor began her term with a dramatic democratic move: opening the city budget to public participation. Mayor Anne Hidalgo set aside €426 million, 5 percent of the city’s investment budget for 2014 to 2020, for this budget participatif project. With this being the largest amount ever dedicated to such a scheme, Hidalgo proclaimed she was, “handing the keys of the budget to the citizens.” As Parisians prepared to partake in this unprecedented project, Hidalgo entrusted the public with the franchise to decide how to improve their city.

During the last week of September 2014, Parisians of all ages and nationalities were invited to vote on 15 potential city improvement projects for inclusion in the city’s 2015 spending plan. Nearly 41,000 citizens voted, with polls distributed both online and at 200 physical locations throughout the city. Nine projects were proclaimed winners, with a total cost of just under €20 million. The winning projects largely reflect environmental concerns. Collecting the most votes was a proposal to create at least 40 vegetation walls to improve biodiversity in local areas. Coming in second place was a plan to introduce “learning gardens” in primary schools, and, in third place was a scheme to transform derelict and abandoned

areas around the city’s ring road into spaces for arts performances and community events. Other winning projects include mobile trash collection points to encourage recycling and co-working spaces for young entrepreneurs. The project encouraged meaningful participation in local governance for Parisians of all ages, backgrounds, and political identities. Hidalgo said of the revolutionary project, “We wanted to give Parisians a voice. Democracy is not only a word in the dictionary, it’s something that must be practiced.” With plans to conduct a similar vote in 2015, Parisians are being encouraged to suggest their own project ideas. New public submissions are already being accepted at https:// budgetparticipatif.paris.fr/bp/.

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Idea Lab Noteworthy Scrubbing Up Global Hygiene by Colleen Maney

Sometimes, powerfully innovative solutions are as simple as a bar of soap. Science has already proven that regular hand washing with soap and water can reduce mortality from preventable diseases, such as diarrhea and pneumonia, by almost 50 percent. Every year, these two diseases alone are responsible for the deaths of 1.7 million children under the age of 5. Washing ones’ hands with soap is one of the easiest and cheapest ways to minimize the spread of such deadly germs. Dow and Lifebuoy soap from Unilever have capitalized on this simple hygiene solution to make soap even more effective. Through a research and development collaboration, the two companies have produced an enhanced germ protection soap. Using Dow Polyox Water-Soluble Polymers, the formulation takes advantage of controlled release technology to produce a longer lasting and better quality bar of soap. The result is a more affordable hygiene product. The new technology has been used in products released in markets in India, Brazil, Thailand, and Indonesia, to a widely positive consumer response. Sales of these products are accompanied by a hand-washing campaign by Unilever targeting lowincome market areas, with the goal of increasing a regular hand-washing culture. Dow has proclaimed this new technology a “Breakthrough to World Challenges,” as part of a commitment to highlight innovative products and technologies with the potential to address significant global problems. In order to be recognized in this category,

UNICEF Ethiopia

Regular hand washing with soap and water can reduce mortality from preventable diseases, such as diarrhea and pneumonia, by 50 percent.

products are evaluated based on their potential impacts on human lives and on the environment. Unilever has also made commitments to social impact. The company’s Sustainable Living Plan outlines a goal of helping to improve the health and wellbeing of one billion people by 2020.

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David Blanchard, Chief Research and Development Officer at Unilever, commented on the success of the companies’ combined effort, saying, “Dow’s polymer technology is a great example of how collaboration can result in leading innovation and outstanding results.”

Idea Lab Noteworthy

Pablo Pecora

Turkey’s new Green Generation Restaurant initiative will allow the country’s many restaurants to become to become “green” certified.

Green Generation Restaurants in Turkey by Maisam Alahmed

Turkey, a rapidly growing economy with a booming tourist industry, now has approximately 77,000 restaurants (230 of those are McDonalds), and wastes almost 325,000 tons of food every year. However, it is not alone—many countries with emerging economies are growing so fast that they are not creating the infrastructure to do so responsibly. With that in mind, Ugur Bayar, Chairman of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) in Turkey, has recently announced the launch of the Green Generation Restaurants in Turkey. This project, developed and supported by the WWF in Turkey, Bogaziçi University, the Turkish Restaurant

Association, Besiktas Municipality, and Unilever Food solutions, aims to reduce food waste. It does so by certifying a restaurant through a similar criterion to the Green Restaurant Association. This includes six different categories a restaurant must adhere to: water efficiency, waste reduction and recycling, sustainable food, energy, disposables, and chemical and pollution reduction. Additional ideas require the collaboration of both restaurants and customers to implement such change. Transforming waste into fertilizers and changing plates and utensils only as needed are only a few of the many ways a restaurant and its customers can go green in Turkey. The project will begin in Turkey’s most chic and privileged areas, all in the hopes of improving the future of Turkey’s environment.

Getting restaurants to reduce waste is a worldwide movement, and one of the objectives of the Milan Protocol, a global agreement expected to be ratified at the upcoming Milan Expo in 2015. The Expo aims to address the issues of food sustainability through three objectives: the promotion of healthy lifestyles and fighting obesity, the promotion of sustainable agriculture, and the reduction of food waste by 50 percent by the year 2020. Turkey did not join the Protocol until very recently, and therefore does not have much to offer nor a plan of action to present at the Expo. However, Turkey’s Green Generation Restaurants project is one way of prompting food sustainability, and specifically the reduction of food waste.

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Idea Lab Noteworthy

Caroline Gluck/EU/ECHO

Yazidi women and girls have been targeted by ISIS factions overtaking their villages. These Yazidi women are now living as refugees in Turkey after fleeing from ISIS attacks in Northern Iraq.

Hope for Female Victims of ISIS by Maisam Alahmed

Founded in 1992, WADI is an IraqiGerman association that launches and supports various programs focused on empowering women in the Middle East. The organization works to fight for women’s human, political, social, and educational rights, and equality. One of their most renowned campaigns is targeting Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in the Kurdistan area, where local authorities are responding positively, slowly initiating the first laws in the region prohibiting FGM.

What distinguishes and strengthens WADI’s credibility as an aid organization, and this particular campaign, is a Northern Iraqi staff comprised of local individuals, including survivors who know and understand the complexity of the situation and the conditions of the region. Ever since the breakout of the Arab Spring and its repercussions, WADI members have had their work cut out for them while attempting to extend a helping hand to all those affected by the civil war in Syria, and to the minorities who are suffering tremendously from terrorist group violence, such as that perpetuated by ISIS.

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The brutality within the ISIS community has resulted in the unfortunate re-establishment of the slave trade. When ISIS fighters take over a village, they systematically collect and execute nearly all of the men. Women are generally allowed to live, but face a fate that may be worse than death. Many horror stories have been documented about the women of the Yazidi minority group, a Kurdish ethno-religious community with a large part of its population located in Iraq and Syria. The news agency NBC recently reported on a series of stories of women who managed to escape their ISIS captors, bringing back horrific tales of continuous sexual and physical abuse. WADI officials have stated that over 650 girls have escaped from ISIS and are now seeking refuge in Northern Iraq. Officials are also predicting that the number of escaped girls will continue to increase, and will soon reach the thousands. With the growing influx of escaped women and girls, the organization and its aid workers are finding themselves in a race to absorb these wounded victims, and are working quickly, but efficiently, to rehabilitate them back into society. Chemen Rasheed, a WADI aid worker since the early 2000s, has worked on several cases and programs targeting violence against women. She is now dedicating all of her efforts towards helping victimized Yazidi women and girls get back on their feet. Her role is primarily in the supervision of a new center, near the refugee area, where female victims take their first steps in dealing with the trauma they have experienced at the hands of ISIS. Rasheed has grown close to these girls, some of whom have come to call her ‘Mama,’ while awaiting the return of their real mothers who remain captives of ISIS.

Boyte, H.C. (2015). Civic Populism: The People’s Politics of Geno Baroni. Solutions 6(1): 11-16. https://thesolutionsjournal.com/article/civic-populism-the-peoples-politics-of-geno-baroni/

Envisioning

Civic Populism: The People’s Politics of Geno Baroni by Harry C. Boyte

This article is part of a regular section in Solutions in which the author is challenged to envision a future society in which all the right changes have been made.

am honored today, October 24, 2030, to be chosen as storyteller by the Smithsonian Institution’s Council of American Peoples at the opening of the Geno Baroni Center for Democracy, a satellite institution of the Smithsonian in Acosta, Pennsylvania. Geno Baroni was born here 100 years ago, on October 24, 1930, as the son of Italian immigrants. Guido, his father, worked in the Somerset coal mine here in Acosta. Josephine, his mother, survived Geno’s early death at the age of 53 in 1984. Geno Baroni battled the cancer mesothelioma. In his last years, Monsignor Baroni organized cancer patients as he had organized others for more than two decades. “People who are organized,” he said, “will be able to move from powerlessness to power because power is the ability to act.” The Baroni Center has been established by the Smithsonian’s Council of American Peoples to recognize his commitment to “people’s politics,” what can be called civic populism. Baroni’s brand of politics honored the diversity of peoples and cultures on this continent and what they contribute to the work of a more democratic, inclusive, and just society. In the vein of his funeral, which drew political and civic leaders from across the political spectrum, many candidates from various parties are citing the legacy of

Monsignor Baroni in their campaigns this fall. Indeed, we are witnessing a rebirth of people’s politics. We are now in the midst of a large process of building and rebuilding a democratic society through such politics. We don’t know where it will lead—as the first African American federal judge William Hastie was fond of saying, “Democracy is a journey, not a destination.” But we do know that people’s politics has generated substantial changes in the tone and direction of politics in the past 15 years. People’s politics, understood as a civic populist politics, has created a much more egalitarian and inclusive ethos in our nation’s public life than once seemed imaginable. Sometimes also called “recommunalizing the world,” civic populist politics has brought images and stories, memories and markers, in a word, culture, back into public spaces of all kinds: from schools to government agencies and businesses—spaces once stripped of distinguishing characteristics that anchored them in particular locations. It has begun to reground professional identities and practices— and educational processes that shape them—in the civic fiber of places. It has created democratizing alliances, institutional transformations, and innovations in myriad settings, none more important than the wide adoption of civic environmental approaches to address climate change and mitigate its effects. In the process, civic populist politics has been a school for democracy, teaching, and cultivating capacities for productive citizenship to millions of people. Civic populist politics is helping to reverse what the sociologist

Max Weber saw as the irreversible disenchantment of the world through the spread of instrumental rationality. Weber also called the process the “polar night of icy darkness.” A mere 15 years ago, in 2015, politics seemed most certainly headed toward that polar night, full of bitter polarizations and poisonous recriminations based on monocultures of epistemic enclosure and purification. The ever-worsening polarizing politics of the early 21st century led Americans on all sides of the political spectrum to deny, suppress, and forget that those different from themselves were also human beings of immense complexity, with potential for democratic and generous action as well as mean-spirited and antidemocratic action. So, too, whole swaths of the social landscape were portrayed in monochromatic terms as good or evil—conservative Christians, liberals, Muslims, government bureaucrats, white working class, black teenagers…the list is endless. Most people despaired of ever seeing the society change, convinced that its institutions and structures had an insidious life of their own, beyond reform. In those years, political leaders and trendsetters alike scorned places like Acosta and figures like Monsignor Baroni as hopelessly out of date, relics of a past best forgotten. Ironically, the effort to purify political positions and polarize the society was widespread among environmentalists who championed ecological diversity. In the 1970s, environmental groups pioneered in a new technology of polarization called “the canvass,” in which activists went door to door to raise money and solicit support for

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Envisioning

Light Brigading

A rebirth of civic environmentalism and civic science has the potential to revitalize democratic practices and promote scientific values to mobilize existing knowledge across sectors to address challenges such as climate change.

issues. While its motivation was easy to understand—environmentalists, like other progressives, were searching for ways to meet the challenge of large scale efforts to roll back environmental protections and other policies affected by 1960s social movements—it produced unanticipated civic damage on a large scale and resulted in activist monocultures. The canvass approach became ever more widespread from the 1970s onwards, using advanced communications techniques based on a formula: find a target or enemy to demonize, develop a script that defines the issue in goodversus-evil terms and shuts down critical thought, and convey the idea that those who champion the victims

will come to the rescue. This formula spread rapidly across the political spectrum, turning electoral and issue campaigns into battles of good versus evil. The Manichean dynamic also reflected the erosion of civic spaces where people of diverse views and interests had previously interacted in open-ended ways on public problems. As early as the 1920s, for instance, YMCAs began to trade in their identity as a movement of citizens served by civic-minded “secretaries” for a new identity—institutions comprised of huge buildings and scientifically trained exercise professionals who provide “programs” for paying members. More generally, schools, colleges, businesses, congregations, and

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government agencies lost civic roots. What were once anchoring institutions through which people developed a sense of agency in the world turned into service providers for customers and clients. An important countertrend called “civic environmentalism,” an alternative to polarizing politics, was gaining some momentum in the 1990s. In civic environmentalism, groups with different interests and views develop plans for collaborative public work. Some government policy-makers recognized a need to shift from top–down regulation to setting broad goals on air quality and other environmental questions, providing resources for communities

Envisioning

Service Employees International Union

Door to door canvassing, popularized in the 1970s, inadvertently contributed to the polarization of American politics by spreading a “good vs. evil” dialogue.

to work out strategies themselves. As the sociologist Carmen Sirianni discovered through interviews with the Environmental Protection Agency, a large number of leaders in the agency were enthusiastic about the potential of civic environmentalism to address challenges of all kinds, from dumping of hazardous wastes in low-income communities to the challenges of climate change. Leading conservatives like William Schambra were also championing civic environmentalism. But civic environmentalism lost significant ground inside government in both the Bush and Obama years, mirroring conflicts in the society as technocratic policymaking came to dominate.

Civil society took up the baton and organized around climate issues, but this was as polarizing as ever, with huge numbers of citizens “in the middle” unmotivated to work for change. Disruption, the promotional film for the New York People’s Climate March of 2014, provided a dramatic example of the problem. The film claimed the legacy of the civil rights movement March on Washington in 1963: “All the big social movements in history have had people in the streets,” said one leader. But Disruption, seeking to polarize people against conservatives and fossil fuel industries, bore little resemblance to the inclusive message of the March on Washington.

The 1963 March was based on the strategy of Bayard Rustin, March organizer, who believed that the task was precisely not to polarize but rather to “win over the middle.” A third of the nation was behind the goals of the movement. A third was opposed. Most Americans, focused elsewhere, had to be convinced. Martin Luther King’s brilliant “I Have a Dream” speech embodied this strategy, coupling his challenge to Americans to make real the promise of democracy with an inclusive dream and a call to discipline anger. If it had followed the approach of the March on Washington, the narrative of Disruption would have made visible business owners, Pentagon officials,

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Envisioning

Light Brigading

The New York People’s Climate March in September of 2014 only served to further polarize people against conservative politics.

Evangelical Christians, civic leaders in Middle America organizing sandbag lines to protect their towns from flooding, as well as poor people, racial minorities, and progressive climate change activists. Many outside progressive ranks joined the march in New York, but not in Disruption.1 The march’s message, belying the diversity of participants, reflected not only the good-versus-evil style of polarizing politics but also was associated with a default positivism that settled in across society, detaching progressive professional cultures from civic life. A sign in the Denver airport in 2013 illustrated the point, trumpeting the message that Colorado State University, not

far away, wanted to communicate to the world: “Local problems, university solutions.” This message was operationalized in hundreds of millions of dollars each year spent on translational science by the National Institutes of Health, based on translating scientific discoveries into “evidence-based solutions” to be uniformly applied in vastly different contexts. Triumphalist science produced the cult of the expert, championing the authority of scientific knowledge as the only valid form of knowledge. In this view, outside experts bring solutions to the masses who are seen as ignorant, passive, and needy. If the masses fail to listen, the remedy is to

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turn up the volume. Much climate science in the early 21st century illustrated this pattern. Thus, an editorial in Nature, a leading scientific journal, called for scientists to get into the fray. “Where political leadership on climate change is lacking scientists must be prepared to stick their heads above the parapet.” The editorial observed that greenhouse gases were continuing to rise and “climate change contrarians [were] multiplying in numbers.” Their solution: “Climate scientists must be ever more energetic in taking their message to citizens.” Scientists “taking their message to citizens” assumes that the scientists have the answer—and are different than citizens.

Envisioning But there were stirrings of people’s politics of the kind that had been championed earlier by Geno Baroni. About the time of the Climate March, a group of public intellectuals, scientists, and community organizers with support from the National Science Foundation organized a conference on “civic science,” aimed at reconceptualizing the relationship between science and society. In civic science, science is understood as a knowledge resource for action in the world, a source of empowerment, not a description of the state of the world from the outside. Scientists come to understand themselves as citizens, with useful knowledge, but not all the answers, and develop skills of collaborative work. Civic science, revitalizing the democratic practices and values of science like cooperation, open inquiry, and commitment to the commonwealth of knowledge, began to attract support from leading scientists and also from STEM teachers, tribal colleges, cooperative extension systems and many others who suffered from “expert knows best” approaches. Civic science, like other strands of civic populism, drew on rich histories of practice and philosophy of the popular movements of the New Deal. Geno Baroni’s family had been active in such movements, leaders in union organizing and other efforts to create a “Catholic New Deal” in the 1930s. Baroni absorbed their spirit and values. He was passionately concerned with bridging the racial gap between blacks and white ethnics. He understood power. He had deep respect for the democratic potentials of the multitude of American cultures. Baroni became a Catholic priest in 1956, served in white ethnic working class parishes, then transferred to an inner city African American parish

in Washington. He was Catholic coordinator for the 1963 March on Washington, and led the Catholic delegation to the 1965 Selma to Montgomery March. In the late sixties, Baroni argued for a third way in politics, which he called the new populism. New populism differed from universalist liberalism focused on rights and redistribution and contemptuous of white ethnics whom liberals saw as bastions of bigotry. It also differed from neo-conservatism with its Burkean, defensive perspective. This is how Baroni described his vision: The organizer has to believe that ordinary people can build bridges across racial and ethnic lines. The organizer has to get ordinary people in touch with their roots, their heritage, their best. The organizer has to give ordinary people hope. Baroni was a key architect of the Campaign for Human Development in the Catholic Church, for decades the most important funder of organizing work that empowers the poor. He founded the National Center of Urban Ethnic Affairs, which worked with hundreds of ethnic and community groups. He also understood that government can be an empowering partner with communities and lay citizens— neither the enemy nor the solution. Baroni was the force behind policies like the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act, which required banks to make public their lending practices, a tremendous resource for grassroots organizing. An architect of Jimmy Carter’s “ethnic campaign” strategy in the 1976 presidential race, Baroni was appointed Assistant Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, where he

changed government programs into resources for citizen self-help and empowerment. Baroni lay the groundwork for the civic environmental approaches in the Clinton years. Believing that democratic organizing could be practiced anywhere—and needs to be practiced everywhere—he took heat from community organizers who saw “big institutions” like government or higher education as targets, not as sites for democratic change. For three decades after his death, there was growth in broadbased community organizing, mainly in religious congregations. But democratic organizing in settings like professions, higher education, and government was rare. Just when it seemed Baroni’s civic populism was on the verge of extinction in mainstream politics, it resurfaced in 2015 and 2016. A group of tenured and adjunct faculty organized by the Service Employees International Union picked up the mantle of college presidents who had been calling for the revitalization of higher education’s democratic narrative. Successfully waging a campaign to dismantle the “national rankings,” whose variables in US News and World Report put a premium on exclusivity and detachment from communities, the movement revived the idea that colleges are “part of” places, not simply “partners with” places. A national conversation on “the changing world of work” and how colleges can be a resource for communities reinforced this movement, educating the public about the multiple roles and contributions higher education can play in society—forgotten in the “race to the top” focus on education as a ticket to individual success. In 2016, both Republican and Democratic presidential candidates touted civic environmentalism as

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Envisioning

Archives Foundation

The 1963 Civil Rights March on Washington strove for inclusivity, embracing diversity and the political middle ground. These ideals are the basis of civic populism.

the way forward on climate change and other environmental challenges, building on cross-partisan, practical, collaborative climate change initiatives in many cities. In 2018, the “People’s Alliance for a Cooperative Commonwealth” had its founding convention as a cross-partisan civic populist movement aimed not only

at electoral changes but at democratic transformations in the social and economic life of the nation. As we all know, the People’s Alliance has had enormous impact. Geno Baroni embodied the democratic genius of America. He is an ancestor of the People’s Alliance. We celebrate his legacy—and the fact

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that people have brought his people’s politics back on a grand scale. Reference 1. Boyte, HC. Democracy and the People’s Climate March. Huffington Post [online] (September 10, 2014). http://www.huffingtonpost.com/harry-boyte/ democracy-and-the-peoples_b_5790444.html.

Asquith, C. (2015). Keeping Climate Change to a Two Degree World: An Interview with Sir Robert Tony Watson. Solutions 6(1): 17-20. https://thesolutionsjournal.com/article/keeping-climate-change-to-a-two-degree-world-an-interview-with-sir-robert-tony-watson/

Idea Lab Interview

Keeping Climate Change to a Two Degree World: An Interview with Sir Robert Tony Watson Interviewed by Christina Asquith

ir Robert Tony Watson is a British chemist who has been described by The New York Times as “an outspoken advocate of the idea that human actions— mainly burning coal and oil—are contributing to global warming and must be changed to avert environmental upheavals.” He has chaired, co-chaired or directed national and international scientific, technical, and economic assessments of stratospheric ozone depletion, biodiversity and ecosystems, climate change, and agricultural science and technology, including the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

You were the chair of the IPCC. What is your prognosis for the links between climate change science and policy going forward? I haven’t been involved since the Third Assessment Report. The link between science and policy is a strong one in that most governments do look to see what the latest scientific knowledge is, and IPCC provides that knowledge, whether understanding how humans are acting is affecting the climate, the limitation on ecological systems, food, water, and human health, and how can we transition to a low-carbon economy and the economic implications. So no doubt, government and private sector do have roles in providing the most important understanding. However there’s also a political debate—there’s a lot of politics here and issues around equity. For example, what is a fair distribution of emissions rights and to what degree should

Steve Rhodes

Sir Robert Tony Watson speaks at the 2012 fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union.

China, as the single largest emitter of gases, have obligations compared to the USA and Europe? And what are the obligations of smaller countries? Clearly there is the issue also of financing and then there’s the sticking point of whether the developing world should pay for this effort, and who should pay for the impact of climate change given that the industrialized world is causing the problem. IPCC is a solid foundation for this complex political debate. What do you think of President Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping’s bilateral climate agreement, announced at the Group of 20 Summit recently? How will it affect the negotiations leading up to Paris?

It’s an important step, but unfortunately still inadequate. If you look at the US commitment—a 25 percent reduction, relative to 2005—that’s only a 12 to 14 percent reduction in relation to 1990 by 2025. That’s not adequate to putting us on a pathway to a two degree world. The Chinese commitment is a major first step. For a country like China to say we have a commitment is good, but how much will those emissions grow between now and 2030, when they peak? So when I look at the commitments, I don’t believe it’s consistent. It’s putting the world on a two degree path. So I applaud it; but they could both go much further. So then the question is: will it encourage other counties who are large emitters in an absolute sense,

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Idea Lab Interview like growing economies in India and elsewhere? Will it encourage them to take strong action? And what came out of Lima recently does not make me greatly optimistic that we’ll get commitments from other countries. We’re more likely to be on a path of 3 to 4 degrees Celsius. The political commitment is to limit human-induced climate change to two degrees Celsius, but now we’re looking at even with that there will be adverse effects on people and ecological systems, and biodiversity, which will adversely affect food and water security as well. Especially in places already water and food insecure, like Africa. And clearly sea level rise even in a two degree world will flood lowlying countries like Bangladesh.

An analogy there is Australia. When Kevin Rudd was prime minister, Australians took a proactive view. But now climate change is off the agenda. In many countries, when there are changes in administration, no one knows if the new administration will live up to the climate commitments of a previous administration. Stability in a country is very important. Germany or the UK, they both had a fairly consistent policy over the last 20 years. Since Margaret Thatcher, the UK has had a consistent attitude, and in Germany since Chancellor Kohl. That sends a strong message to the private sector that these countries do want to decarbonize, so they should follow suit. But in a country where one minute it’s a serious issue and then the next it’s not,

The biggest successes are that some countries have accepted that climate change is a serious issue and done something about it. How will these commitments affect the negotiations leading up to Paris? Clearly it will give it a positive impetus that the US has said, “We will limit our greenhouse gas emissions,” and China says the same—there’s no question it’s positive. But the question is whether that will put us on a two degree rather than a 3 to 4-degree path. The question for me however is will a Republican-controlled Congress try its best to undermine that in the next few years, depending on the next election cycle. Were it to be dominated by Republicans in the House and Senate. I believe they’ll do everything in their power to undo what Obama has committed to.

the private sector has no idea what the policies will be over 20 years, and what the private sector needs is consistency and a level playing field. As a career scientist who has been talking about human impact on climate change for almost 40 years, what have been some of the biggest successes for the climate? The biggest successes are that some countries have accepted that climate change is a serious issue and done something about it. In particular, the EU and within that, Germany stands out as the most successful in trying to start that significant transition to a low-carbon economy. So Germany

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is a leading light. But you could argue that those two countries now will argue against climate change being a serious issue, but the challenge they have is how to reach that two degree goal. And there are all these equity issues. The fear of most developing countries is that if we’re forced to go to a low-carbon economy, the cost today of renewable energy is higher than fossil fuel and that will hurt our fight against economic growth and antipoverty efforts. But overall, we do have an agreement that climate change is a serious issue, and the question is how to make that transition in the energy sector and the land-use sector in trying to limit greenhouse gas emissions, and the two big issues in the land use sector: how do we reduce the rate of deforestation, which is a major contributor to emission gases, and how do we reduce emissions in the agricultural sector—methane from livestock and methane from rice products and nitric oxide from fertilizer. So there is the real challenge in the agriculture and forestry sectors. Where do the greatest challenges still lie? On the other side, there still are major climate deniers, certainly in the US and in the emerging voice in the UK, who are trying to protect the interests of the coal, oil, and natural gas lobbies. So while all countries have signed up, there are still major climate deniers who have vested interests. You have been deeply involved in the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) process. What effect will this process have on the path of human development? The UN commitment to try to develop a series of sustainable development goals to build on and follow

Idea Lab Interview

United Nations Photo

United States President Barack Obama speaks at the UN Climate Summit 2014. In November 2014, the US and China announced a joint climate change agreement, with both countries committing to curb emissions over the next two decades.

millennium goals is a major positive step. The big difference between the Millenium Development Goals, which were very important, and the Sustainable Development Goals is that they will be applied to all countries, whereas the Millennium Development Goals only deal with limited issues for developing goals. I like very much the final report of the working group—food, water, energy, human security and human health, and biodiversity in our natural

world, bringing gender, education, governance, and so on. If indeed the world tries to adopt these sustainable development goals with well-defined targets with monitoring, it will be a major step forward in both developing countries and for sustainable development in industrialized countries. Some people are critical there are 17 goals, with hundreds of targets. It’s possible by the time they have finally adopted, they may have to combine some of them. They have to recognize

that most goals are interrelated—food security is dependent on water, and climate change, and general issues, and education and governance issues, human health, all these issues are interrelated and the challenge will be some indicators that recognize that interrelationship between one sustainable development goal and another. But overall I’m pleased we’re moving in that direction. Time will tell if they get developed and implemented, but it’s a major step in the right direction.

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Idea Lab Interview

UN Climate Change

The UN Climate Change Conference held in Lima in December 2014. Greater political commitments will be necessary to stay on the path to a two degree world.

You have been skeptical of scientist’s bias towards overstating the connection between human activity and climate change—why? If you overstate an issue, and the science later turns out to show the issue is overstated, the policy makers I govern and decision makers in private sector and civil society will never trust us again on climate change or anything else. If we bring up biodiversity or water security, if we overstate the climate issue, we will lose the trust of those we’re trying to convince. And the other reason is that climate change is serious enough anyway. We don’t need to overstate the issue. Changes will have a major effect on sea level. And an increase in extreme events will have effects on

different societies, so we don’t need to overstate and we will lose the trust. Envision a world where we had finally come to grips with climate change. What would that world look like and how did we get there? The world will be somewhat different from today. We will have seen adverse effects. Even now, if we achieve a two degree world, we would still lose species and have affected ecosystem functioning. Food will be more difficult to grow in parts of the world and more water shortages. But it will be manageable. But it will be a world that is not as good as today’s world, but it won’t be so severely affected by diversity and food insecurity and others. To get to that world, we need an urgent transition away from fossil

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fuel and a move to more renewable energy. We need more energy efficiency in our transportation and in our buildings and our industry. In some parts, the world will need nuclear energy and we need to see if the technology and fossil fuels can still emit but we capture that carbon and we store it in the deep ocean or in wells or in coal mines. So we need a major reduction in emissions from energy. And also from our land, so we have to stop deforestation, and we want to do that anyway if we want to protect our biodiversity, and so slowing deforestation and limiting it is good for biodiversity and climate change. And we need an agricultural system that minimizes greenhouse gas emissions. We need to reduce emissions in energy, agriculture, and forestry.

Costanza, R. (2015). Claim the Sky! Solutions 6(1): 21-24. https://thesolutionsjournal.com/article/claim-the-sky/

Perspectives Claim the Sky! by Robert Costanza

he atmosphere is a community asset that belongs to all of us. The problem is that it is currently an open access resource—anyone can emit carbon dioxide into the atmosphere with no consequences to themselves—but with huge cumulative consequences to the climate and the global community. Many agree that charging companies and individuals for the damages their emissions cause, for example, a comprehensive carbon tax or cap/auction/dividend/ trade system, would drastically cut emissions. However, despite some interesting regional experiments, implementing this kind of system via international negotiations at the global level has proven close to impossible. A few critical governments, influenced too much by fossil fuel interests, have been blocking binding commitments and effective economic instruments. Global civil society can change this if it claims property rights over the atmosphere. By asserting that all of us collectively own the sky, we can begin to use the legal institutions surrounding property to protect our collective rights, charge for damages to the asset, and provide rewards for improving the asset. This idea has been proposed by Peter Barnes and others.1,2 The Public Trust Doctrine is a powerful emerging legal principle that supports this idea.3 In her book, Nature’s Trust: Environmental Law for a 4 New Ecological Age, legal scholar Mary Wood describes how the Public Trust Doctrine has its roots in ancient Roman law and occurs in the many legal systems derived from it. The doctrine holds that certain natural resources are to be held in trust as

Martina Yach

The atmosphere is a common asset of the global community.

assets to serve the public good. It is the government’s responsibility, as trustee, to protect these assets from harm and maintain them for the public’s use. Under this doctrine, the government cannot give away or sell off these public assets to private parties. The public trust doctrine has been used in many countries in the past to protect water bodies, shorelines, fresh water, wildlife, and other resources. However, as Wood forcefully argues, the time has come to expand the purview of the doctrine to cover all of the critical natural capital and ecosystem services that support human well-being, including the atmosphere, the oceans, and biodiversity. She argues that governments have been shirking this responsibility to protect ‘nature’s trust’ and need to be required to fulfill their duty, including claiming damages. This problem is complicated by the fact that the atmosphere is a global asset. However, from the perspective of Nature’s Trust, the fact that nations are co-trustees makes them no less responsible for protecting the asset

than individual sovereigns are for protecting assets like shorelines or open water bodies that occur exclusively within their borders. The Nature’s Trust idea significantly changes the whole discussion about how to deal with climate disruption. Rather than national governments negotiating with each other about emissions reductions, governments should see themselves as co-trustees with a fiduciary responsibility to protect the atmospheric trust. To do this, they can claim damages from the private interests that are causing the problem. As Wood notes, ‘Trustees have an affirmative obligation to recoup monetary damages against third parties that harm or destroy trust assets’ (p. 185). If an oil spill occurs in the oceans, governments collect natural resource damages for cleaning up the mess. Yet they sit idle in the face of a catastrophic ‘spill’ of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Holding climate polluters accountable for their damage is more straightforward than it might seem. Approximately 90 companies globally

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Perspectives

350.org

An Earth Atmospheric Trust would engage citizens across global civil society, from children, to adults, to celebrities, and well established organization such as 350.org to hold corporations accountable for their carbon emissions.

are responsible for introducing two-thirds of the carbon emitted into the atmosphere.5 This means that damage claims could target a relatively small number of private interests. In addition, all governments would not need to agree in order to employ this tactic. Since all governments are co-trustees in the global atmospheric asset, a subset of nations could bring the damage claims. Damages achieved from these legal actions could fund restoration projects in those same countries, provided that they are certified to draw down atmospheric carbon or expedite the transition to non-nuclear, renewable energy. In addition, governments could charge for ongoing damages via a carbon tax or other mechanisms.

But, given that governments have not acted on their own, well planned civil-society pressure will be required to support governments to act, and to counteract the inevitable corporate resistance. A concerted effort to ‘claim the sky’ as a public trust on behalf of all of global society, in combination with the solid legal framework provided by Wood’s work on the public trust doctrine, may just do the trick. The Civil Rights Movement in the US was based on equally solid legal principles, but required coordinated social activism to achieve success. Let’s establish a broad coalition of individuals and groups and publicly declare on the web and in other venues that the atmosphere belongs to us and our descendants, and that we demand

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that the polluters pay for recovering and maintaining our atmosphere. Let’s establish an Earth Atmospheric Trust to charge for damages to the atmospheric commons and to qualify restoration projects (projects that achieve carbon drawdown through soil sequestration and reforestation, or that promote transition to a renewable energy infrastructure). These are not ‘carbon offset projects’. We have to go beyond offsets to demand cleanup of the atmosphere.6 The Trust can maintain a financial accounting and carbon accounting of projects funded by corporate polluters to carry out their liability to the citizen beneficiaries. A public outreach campaign to build pressure can start by sending invoices to the polluters themselves for past and ongoing damages (see box).

Perspectives

INVOICE Date: [Soon] To: [Company XX] Under the Public Trust doctrine, you are hereby assessed for damages to the Global Atmospheric Commons: $[X,XXX] per cumulative ton of CO2 equivalent introduced into the global economy from date to date (based on the latest IPCC estimates of damages), plus ongoing damages: = $[X,XXX.00] Deposit this amount to the Global Atmospheric Trust Fund within 90 days or face legal action and sanctions by the shareholders of the Trust—the people of Earth. Monies in this fund will be used exclusively to maintain and improve the atmosphere for the benefit of all shareholders, present and future. These uses include, but are not limited to: 1. Investment in community owned, low-carbon emitting renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar. 2. Investment in carbon sequestration projects including forests, soils, and wetlands. 3. Investment in urban infrastructure improvements to reduce car use and improve building energy performance. 4. Investment in technology development to enhance and accelerate the above. As an alternative to paying this invoice in full, you may invest an equivalent amount in projects that have been approved and monitored by the Trust in one of the categories above. Signed,

Shareholders in the Earth Atmospheric Trust

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Perspectives

Jacqueline Wachell

Global civil society can claim property rights over the atmosphere as an asset to serve the public good with the support of the Public Trust Doctrine.

Imagine the following: • An Earth Atmospheric Trust is established to collect past and ongoing damages and to certify and track restoration projects funded by corporations who are liable for carbon emissions, and to directly fund restoration projects. • Groups of school children deliver invoices to the corporate headquarters of major fossil fuel companies with major media coverage (see box). • 350.org and other groups take up the campaign to finally get movement toward their goal. • The Occupy movement reinvigorates itself around this campaign. • Major international NGOs, such as Conservation International, and

the World Resources Institute, lend their support to the campaign. • Major media personalities, like Robert Redford, Harrison Ford, Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio, Cameron Diaz, and others (http://www.examiner.com/ article/42-celebrities-who-careabout-the-environment) join the campaign. • Michael Moore makes a documentary about the campaign. Nature’s Trust has the potential to be a significant new legal and social force in the battle to bring human activities on the planet into compliance with ‘nature’s laws’. It is far past the time for the people of planet Earth to claim the future by claiming the sky.

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References 1. Barnes, P. Capitalism 3.0: A Guide to Reclaiming the Commons (Berrett-Koehler, San Francisco CA, 2006). 2. Barnes, P, et al. Creating an Earth Atmospheric Trust. Science 319:724 (2008). 3. Sax, JL.. The Public Trust Doctrine in Natural Resource Law: Effective Judicial Intervention”. Michigan Law Review 68:471–566. doi:10.2307/1287556. JSTOR 1287556 (1970). 4. Wood, MC. Nature’s Trust: Environmental Law for a New Ecological Age (Cambridge University Press, New York NY, 2013). 5. Goldenberg, Suzanne. Just 90 companies caused two-thirds of man-made global warming emissions. The Guardian [online] (2013). http://www. theguardian.com/environment/2013/nov/20/90companies-man-made-global-warming-emissionsclimate-change. 6. Moomaw, W. From Failure to Success: Reframing the Climate Treaty. Fletcher Forum of World Affairs http://www.fletcherforum.org/2014/02/10/ moomaw/ (2014).

Brown, O. (2015). Sharing Cars: The Future of Road Transport. Solutions 6(1): 25-29. https://thesolutionsjournal.com/article/sharing-cars-the-future-of-road-transport/

Perspectives Sharing Cars: The Future of Road Transport by Oliver Brown

n most industrialized countries, households depend on personal vehicles for getting around. In the US, for example, there are two cars for every household.1 Society pays a high price for this inefficient system of transport in the form of pollution, congestion, and other societal costs. But in cities that are densely populated, where alternative transport options are available and where everyone is connected through the web, does it make sense for the majority of households to own a car? The emergence of new business models that facilitate carsharing and ridesourcing are leading many to ask themselves this question.

The Problem with Car Ownership The list of societal costs from road transport is long. They include the effect of carbon dioxide emissions on climate change, local air pollution, traffic congestion, road accidents, road damage, and noise pollution, to name a few. These costs are significant. For example, road transport accounts for more than a fifth of global carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels,2 making it a key contributor to global climate change. Road congestion is expected to cost Europe and the US a total of US$293 billion by 2030.3 But the prevailing ‘car ownership’ model of transport has a number of characteristics that make road transport more damaging than it need be. One such characteristic is the cost structure of car ownership over time.4 Owning a car involves large fixed costs, including the car purchase, registration, and insurance. However, the costs of using the car—the most visible of which is

Cristina

While most cars can seat multiple passengers, the majority of car trips in wealthy nations are completed without passengers.

fuel—are relatively low. Such a cost structure fails to provide a sufficient incentive for car owners to minimize driving and results in excessive car use, along with the associated societal costs. A second problematic feature of the car ownership model is the inefficiency of owned vehicles. Indeed, while most cars are designed to seat five individuals, the majority of trips in industrialized countries are completed without passengers.5 Low vehicle occupancy requires additional cars on the road, further contributing to excessive car use. Another factor contributing to the inefficiency of owned vehicles is the inability of the car ownership model to filter out old, fuel-inefficient vehicles. In a world where each household owns one or more vehicles, cars are only utilized during a small part of the day. Personal vehicles therefore depreciate slowly and are often driven decades after their year of manufacture. Consequently, too many old, fuel-inefficient cars continue to operate, further exacerbating the pollution impact of personal vehicles.

From Ownership to Access Improvements in technology are driving a shift in the way people access goods and services. The emerging ‘sharing economy’ is seeing businesses and households exploit advances in technology by renting out underutilized assets. This is providing an opportunity for the road transport sector to shift away from the existing model of car ownership towards a model of car access. Already, new business models like carsharing (short-term car hire) and ridesourcing (on-demand ride services) are providing low-cost alternatives to car ownership. These services can save many households money by avoiding the large upfront costs of owning a car, while providing a moderately higher cost per trip that incentivizes travellers to take public transport, cycle, or walk when possible. These business models also have the potential to improve the efficiency of vehicles. Carsharing achieves this by providing access to newer, more fuel-efficient cars, while ridesourcing has the potential to increase vehicle occupancy through carpooling.

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Perspectives Carsharing Carsharing programs provide access to private vehicles at an hourly rate. Members use a card to swipe into cars that are parked at central locations around the city like university car parks or city streets. Hourly rates are often US$20 or less, and can be as low as US$5 an hour.6 Carsharing is most common in large urban areas where alternative modes of transportation are accessible. Access to carsharing significantly reduces the number of cars required in a city and incentivizes carsharers to limit their driving. A recent study of carsharing in North America found that each carsharing vehicle takes 9 to 13 cars off the road, since many

at least one vehicle with a usage pattern that is economically conducive to carsharing.11

Ridesourcing Ridesourcing is another emerging business model that is providing an efficient alternative to car ownership. Ridesourcing platforms allow individuals to use their personal car to transport others for a fee. Customers use a smart phone application to request a ride and to track the location of the requested vehicle. After the ride, payment is processed automatically via the app, and the customer rates the quality of service provided by the driver. The largest ridesourcing company to date is currently Uber,

The emerging ‘sharing economy’ is seeing businesses and households exploit advances in technology by renting out underutilized assets. people joining carsharing either sell their car or forego purchasing a car.7 The average carsharer reduces their annual driving by 43 percent.8 As a result of less driving and of switching from old, inefficient vehicles to newer, more efficient carsharing vehicles, for each household joining carsharing, greenhouse gas emissions are reduced by 0.84 tonnes per year.9 Carsharing has seen strong growth over the past decade. As of 2012, carsharing was operating in 27 countries, with an estimated 1.8 million members,9 up from approximately 350,000 members in 2006.10 Strong future growth is forecasted, with global membership expected to reach 12 million by 2020.10 One recent study found that a third of San Francisco Bay Area households (800,000 households) have

which operates in 45 countries and is now valued at US$40 billion,12 fast approaching General Motors’ US$53.2 billion market capitalization.13 Lyft is another major player in the US market, having facilitated 170,000 rides in the 12 months from June 2013.14 Ridesourcing services are similar to that offered by taxis. Taxis, however, have not been a viable alternative to owning a car because they are relatively expensive and less convenient than owning a car. Ridesourcing, on the other hand, is beginning to rival ownership on both price and convenience. Since ridesourcing is usually cheaper than taking a taxi,15,16,17 a number of websites have already begun estimating the potential cost savings of moving from owning a car to relying on ridesourcing services.18 In terms of

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convenience, a survey conducted in San Francisco—where ridesourcing was first introduced—estimated an average wait time of 2.5 minutes in comparison to 15 minutes for taxis.19 Ridesourcing has a number of advantages over owning a car, including avoiding the need for parking and the ability to relax or catch up on work rather than driving. Travellers for whom ridesourcing is a superior alternative to owning a car pay a higher per-trip price for car travel, which provides an incentive to reduce car usage in the same way as carsharing. An exciting prospect for ridesourcing is the potential to transition towards carpooling, whereby multiple passengers are picked up and dropped off along similar routes. Companies like Uber and Lyft now have large user bases in a number of cities, providing a critical mass that could allow carpooling to reach the mainstream. According to Lyft, 90 percent of rides could be shared if travellers are willing to wait an extra five minutes.20 Uber, Lyft, and Sidecar all recently announced carpooling features that allow customers in selected cities the option of collecting other passengers en route, cutting fares by 40 to 50 percent.21 Lyft recently announced that after only two months, one-third of rides are carpools.22 As the take-up of this new feature expands, the cost of ridesourcing is likely to decrease further, making it increasingly competitive with owning a car. In addition to reducing the price of ridesourcing, carpooling has the potential to significantly improve the fuel efficiency of ridesourcing by increasing car occupancy. Ridesourcing companies are uniquely placed to tap into what has been called the world’s greatest untapped source of transportation capacity.23 They have a strong incentive to do so since every additional seat filled represents additional revenue at little additional cost.

Perspectives

Bryan Katz

Offering carpooling could allow New York City taxis to reduce total distance driven by 40 percent.

Why Will Carsharing and Ridesourcing Continue to Grow? There are a number of long-term societal trends that are creating increasingly favorable conditions for the growth of carsharing and ridesourcing. First, many large cities in developed countries are seeing a ‘reversal of urban sprawl.’24 Urban sprawl refers to the geographical expansion of cities that has accompanied the growth in car use over the past 50 years, which has led to a decrease in city population densities. As cities have grown larger, however, many are now coming back in faster

than they are going out, leading to an increase in population densities. This rise in population densities increases traffic congestion and makes carparks scarcer, favoring the expansion of carsharing and ridesourcing. Another important factor driving the growth in carsharing and ridesourcing is changing attitudes towards ownership and sharing. The sharing economy is seeing people use technology platforms to share virtually everything from accommodation—through sites like AirBnB and Couchsurfing.com—to less tangible assets like personal photos and music through social media, as well as skills

via sites like TaskRabbit. Even in the US, which is known for its love of cars, a recent study has shown that young people now value technology over cars and car ownership.25 Indeed, around the world, young people are driving significantly less than they used to.26

An Evolving Car and Taxi Industry The emergence of carsharing and ridesourcing creates challenges but also opportunities for competing industries like car manufacturing, car rental, and taxi businesses. While these services are establishing new competition for car manufacturers

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Perspectives

Raido Kaldma

Lyft is a popular ridesharing company operating in the United States. Drivers such as this one in San Francisco, California can be identified by the hallmark pink mustache.

and car rental companies, some manufacturers and rental companies have already begun making their own investments in carsharing. Similarly, taxi companies have the opportunity to implement the same technologies as ridesourcing companies to become more efficient and competitive. A recent MIT study found that offering carpooling could allow New York cabs to serve the same population of customers while reducing total distance driven by 40 percent.27 A number of taxi companies have already released smart phone applications in an attempt to improve their quality of service but have yet to introduce carpooling.

Incentivizing Carsharing and Ridesourcing A key limiting factor to the expansion of carsharing is the development of a dense network of parking locations.28 An effective way of incentivizing carsharing is therefore through parking policies. Most countries where carsharing is available already provide free or discounted on-street parking for carsharing vehicles. A number of countries also have dedicated carsharing parking zones. Ridesourcing companies have been controversial because they have largely escaped existing regulations applied to the taxi industry,

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despite the similarities between the two services. This year Uber was banned in a number of countries, including Germany, India, Spain, and Thailand.29 Given the significant benefits of providing an alternative to car ownership, these services should be regulated such that the benefits can be realized, while minimizing adverse side effects. The technology now exists to create a more efficient, less damaging model of road transport. It is important that governments are aware of, and react appropriately to, the opportunities presented by emerging shared-access business models.

Perspectives 15. Schwartz, EH. Uber makes part of its UberX summer discount permanent. Streetwise [online] (August 25, 2014). (http://dcinno.streetwise.co/2014/08/25/uberpart-uberx-summer-discount-permanent/). 16. Shankland, S. Uber brings cheaper UberX taxi alternative to London. Cnet [online] (July 11, 2013). http://www.cnet.com/au/news/uber-brings-cheaperuberx-taxi-alternative-to-london/. 17. Uber [online] (May 28, 2014). http://blog.uber.com/ my-plan-b. 18. Manjoo, F. With Uber, less reason to own a car. The New York Times [online] (June 11, 2014). http://www. nytimes.com/2014/06/12/technology/personaltech/ with-ubers-cars-maybe-we-dont-need-our-own. html?_r=0. 19. Rayle, L, Shaheen, S, Chan, N, Dai, D & Cervero, R. App-based, on-demand ride services: comparing taxi and ridesourcing trips and user characteristics in San Francisco (University of California Transportation Center, 2014). 20. Goldwyn, E. Pretty soon, ‘ride-sharing’ services could actually help you share a ride. Citylab [online] (October 8, 2014). http://www.citylab.com/ tech/2014/10/pretty-soon-ride-sharing-servicescould-actually-help-you-share-a-ride/381141/. 21. Khaw, C. Save money on Uber by sharing rides with strangers. The Verge [online] (August 6, 2014). http:// www.theverge.com/2014/8/6/5973591/uberpoolcarpooling-feature-in-private-beta. 22. Wadhwa, T. Could Lyft and Uber put public

Peter Rukavina

Zipcar is a carsharing company gaining popularity in the United States. Here, a Zipcar is parked in downtown Boston. Zipcar members can use the car for an hourly rate.

transit out of business? Forbes [online] (November 11, 2014). http://www.forbes.com/sites/ tarunwadhwa/2014/11/13/will-lyft-and-ubersshared-ride-service-put-public-transit-out-ofbusiness/.

References 1. Report No. UMTRI-2013-20 (Transportation Research Institute, University of Michigan, 2013). 2. OECD & ITF 2010, Reducing Transport Greenhouse Gas Emissions: Trends and Data. 3. Annual cost of gridlock in Europe and the US will Increase 50 percent on average to $293 Billion by 2030. (INRIX, 2014). 4. Cairns, S. Accessing cars: different ownership and use choices. RAC Foundation (2011). 5. Schäfer, A. Transportation in a Climate-Constrained World (MIT Press, Massachusetts, 2009). 6. Birdsall, M. Carsharing in a sharing economy. ITE Journal 84(4) (2014). 7. Martin, E, Shaheen, SA & Lidicker, J. Impact of carsharing on household vehicle holdings. Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board 2143(1), 150–158. (2010). 8. Martin, EW & Shaheen, SA. Greenhouse gas emission impacts of carsharing in North America. IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems 12(4), 1074–1086 (2011). 9. Berman, B, Jerram, L & Gartner, J. Carsharing

23. Deakin, E, Frick, KT & Shively, K. Dynamic

membership and vehicle fleets, personal vehicle reduction, and revenue from carsharing services: global market analysis and forecasts. Navigant Research [online] (2013). http://www. navigantresearch.com/research/carsharing-programs. 10. Zeng, H. On the move: car-sharing scales up. The City Fix. (2013). 11. Duncan, M. The cost saving potential of carsharing in a US context. Transportation 38(2), 363–382 (2011). 12. Hoge, P. Uber doubles reach to 200 cities in four months. San Francisco Business Times [online] (August 29, 2014). http://www.bizjournals.com/ sanfrancisco/blog/techflash/2014/08/uber-doublesreach-200-cities.html. 13. Saitto, S. Uber valued at $40 Billion in $1.2 billion equity funding. Bloomberg [online] (December 5, 2014). http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-1204/uber-valued-at-40-billion-with-1-2-billion-equityfundraising.html. 14. DeAmicis, C. Credit-card data suggests Uber has far more revenue and customers than Lyft. Gigaom [online] (September 11, 2014). https://gigaom. com/2014/09/11/credit-card-data-suggests-uber-hasfar-more-revenue-and-customers-than-lyft/.

ridesharing. ACCESS Magazine 1(40) (2012). 24. Newman, P & Kenworthy, J. Peak car use: understanding the demise of automobile dependence. World Transport Policy and Practice 17(2), 31–42 (2011). 25. Dutzik, T, Inglis, J & Baxandall, P. Millennials in Motion (2014). 26. Goodwin, P & Van Dender, K. ‘Peak car’—themes and issues. Transport Reviews 33(3), 243–254 (2013). 27. Santi, P et al. Quantifying the benefits of vehicle pooling with shareability networks. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 111(37), 13290– 13294 (2014). 28. Shaheen, SA & Cohen, AP. Growth in worldwide carsharing: an international comparison. Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board 1992(1), 81–89 (2007). 29. Akpan, N. Alleged rape of passenger raises concerns about how Uber runs abroad. NPR [online] (December 10, 2014). http://www.npr.org/ blogs/goatsandsoda/2014/12/10/369589675/ alleged-rape-of-passenger-raises-concerns-abouthow-uber-runs-abroad.

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Fabian, M. (2015). Paying Overwork: What it’s Worth. Solutions 6(1): 30-33. https://thesolutionsjournal.com/article/paying-overwork-what-its-worth/

Perspectives Paying Overwork: What it’s Worth by Mark Fabian

ndesirably long work hours are an increasingly ubiquitous feature of contemporary Anglophone countries despite steadily rising productivity over the last century. For example, the Australian Bureau of Statistics found that 1.7 million Australians were working 50 or more hours per week in 2002—nearly twice as many as two decades earlier.1 The growing prevalence of these long work hours is problematic as they are psychologically, socially, and environmentally unsustainable. To date, most policies to address this issue have revolved around bans or other limits on the ability of firms to request long hours. Yet recent research findings suggest such policies would be damaging to firms and unappealing to at least a third of workers. As an alternative, firms could be required to pay employees on permanent or ongoing contracts for any overtime they do. Psychologists have noted that long work hours are implicated in a range of mental health problems including stress, depression, anxiety, high blood pressure, and insomnia.2 Several studies have also pointed out the deleterious impact of overwork on competence, notably in nursing and other care professions.3 Sociologists have implicated long work hours in the emerging care deficit in developed countries, especially in East Asia and Anglophone countries where there is a steady trend of declining time spent with children and the elderly.4 They have also noted the rising discourse around work–life balance and the decline of leisure, which has emerged in step with the increase in working hours over the course of the last

Lena Vasiljeva

The increasing prevalence of longer work hours and unpaid overtime requires effective policy action to address this unsustainable trend.

half century.5 Finally, scholars have recently identified the high-carbon intensity of long work-hour lifestyles.6 More work hours increase economic throughput, and individuals pressed for time are more dependent on services like take-out and childcare that involve intensive transport networks than more leisured individuals. Four policy responses to overwork have received the lion’s share of attention in the literature—banning overwork, compulsory flextime (as in France for a period), right to request, and the four-day working week (or sixhour working day).7 Banning overwork is fairly self-explanatory—society could

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legislate to illegalize working for more than 40 hours per week. The four-day working week is also self-explanatory: reducing the standard full time contract to 32 hours a week from 40 would allow people to take a three day weekend. ‘Right to request’ involves legally empowering workers to ask for flexible work-time arrangements from their employers if they have a care responsibility, such as for children. The rights of employers to refuse are circumscribed by the legislation. Compulsory flextime involves establishing a legal requirement for employees to accrue leave whenever they work more than their contracted base hours.

Perspectives

Janne Moren

If employers had to pay workers for overtime hours, they would have to consider the opportunity cost of using tired workers.

These policies, at least in the unsophisticated forms outlined above, would be ineffectual if not harmful to aggregate well-being. Individuals already work well beyond legislated hours, so there is no reason to believe further reducing legislated hours would decrease actual hours worked. Right to request, while a sensible policy that would potentially result in better work–life balance, would not reduce total work hours and is likely to lead to more transit between care and work responsibilities. It is thus unlikely to reduce the environmental impact of long work hours. An Australian study of the relationship

between work hours and life and job satisfaction found that 34.9 percent of individuals sampled working 50 or more hours were ‘matched’ in the sense that they were working the number of hours they wanted.8 Overtime bans would thus make a third of the affected workforce less satisfied. Mandated flextime is more reasonable, but the issue here is that around a third of overworkers fulfill managerial roles in firms, often as owners of those firms, and these roles are typically very difficult to share.9 Firms cannot operationally afford to have these people take three months

off annually to make up for all of their overtime. This would make firms significantly less functional and therefore less profitable, leading to job losses. Moreover, a forthcoming study found high average job satisfaction among these overworking managers and among overworkers in general, suggesting that they are compensated in some way for this overtime, perhaps through wages, agency, responsibility, or social status.10 It further found that those who were dissatisfied with their jobs simply changed jobs. There is therefore little reason to believe that a blunt state intervention is necessary.

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Perspectives

Esther Gibbons

If firms are incentivized to minimize overtime hours, full time workers will have more time to spend with their children, the elderly, and in leisure activities.

What’s needed is a policy to tackle overwork that offers some flexibility to firms and workers and does not compromise efficiency. One idea is to institute compulsory overtime pay. In Australia in 2010, 80.1 percent of overworkers were working on a permanent or continuing basis and averaging 62 hours a week.11 Given that the standard full-time contract in Australia is 38 hours, this implies an average of 24 hours of unpaid overtime per week. At present, firms have no reason not to extract these

hours from their employees because they are not required to pay anything extra for them beyond the base salary. If contracts were required to specify an overtime rate, then for overtime to be profitable the additional revenue generated by an hour of overtime would have to exceed the overtime rate. Given that productivity declines with fatigue, we could reasonably foresee firms reducing their reliance on overtime under these conditions as they would be paying high rates for ineffective labor.12 If sharp decreases

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were desired, penalty rates could apply whereby overtime rates rise rapidly as the length of overtime increases. This approach has several appealing features. First, it shouldn’t lead to job losses. While it may reduce firm profits, firms will need to hire more workers to offset the declining productivity of employees who are overworked and charging overtime. To complete these hires without curtailing profitability, firms will probably need to reduce the size of base salaries. But studies have found that overworkers would

Perspectives be happy to forego income in order to work less, so this would not reduce total welfare.9,11,13 Second, requiring overtime pay should not lead to any complications for managers, as they can still work longer and be compensated with higher wages, as they are currently. Third, there should be no cost to flexibility in general, because the policy enshrines simple provisions for extending work hours on a needs basis. Most importantly, the policy will lead to a more efficient allocation of resources across an economy that is in-society-in-nature. Fundamental microeconomic theory suggests that efficiency requires that inputs like labor be paid their marginal products. It is thus inefficient to have

least overtime cost. More problematic is that the policy will encourage some workers to shirk during regular hours and rack up overtime. It may be difficult for some businesses to monitor workers to ensure this doesn’t happen. The view that unpaid overtime is good for the economy can only be sustained through a blinkered emphasis on throughput and the interaction between labor and built capital. When we fold the other three important capitals—natural, social, and human— into the calculus, we can immediately see that unpaid overtime is not only economically inefficient but also detrimental to aggregate well-being. Unpaid overtime harms natural capital by increasing the carbon intensity of life,

References 1. Australian social trends 2003. Paid work: longer working hours. The Australian Bureau of Statistics [online] (2014). http://www.abs.gov.au/ AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/46d1bc47ac9d0c7bca256c47 0025ff87/923EC292ABA44932CA2570EC00006EE 7?opendocument. 2. Iwasaki, K, Takahashi, M & Akinori, N. Health problems due to long working hours in Japan: working hours, workers’ compensation (Karoshi) and preventative measures. Industrial Health 44, 537–540 (2006). 3. Rogers, A, Hwang, WT, Scott, L, Aiken, L & Dinges, D. The working hours of hospital staff nurses and patient safety. Health Affairs 23(4) (2004). 4. Nock, SL & Kingston, PW. Time with children: the impact of couples’ work-time commitments. Social Forces 67, 59–85 (1988). 5. Hochschild, AR. The Time Bind: When Work Becomes Home and Home Becomes Work (Metropolitan Books, New York, 1997). 6. Knight, K, Rosa, E & Schor, J. Could working less reduce pressures on the environment? A crossnational panel analysis of OECD countries. Global

What’s needed is a policy to tackle overwork that offers some flexibility to firms and workers and does not compromise efficiency.

Environmental Change 23, 691–700 (2013). 7. Coote, A & Franklin, J (eds). Time On Our Side: Why We Need a Shorter Working Week (New Economics Foundation, London, 2013). 8. Golden, L. Flexible daily work schedules in US jobs: formal introductions needed? Industrial Relations 48(1) (2009). 9. Wooden, M, Warren, D & Drago, R. Working time

individuals working unpaid. While firms might be more profitable and GDP rising when overtime goes unpaid this is because the costs of this unpaid labor are externalized onto the informal economy, households, and the community, who are off-books. As overwork has increased in prevalence, there has been a noted decline in household hours, care hours, community involvement, and volunteer work.14 Real efficiency requires optimization across all of these dimensions. There are at least two shortcomings of the policy. First, firms often use long work hours as a form of screening to overcome adverse-selection problems.15 The policy should not have too deleterious an affect here, as spotting top workers should be simple under the policy—they get work done for the

social capital by reducing time for care, leisure and community, and human capital through psychological harm. It increases the output of firms, but this is uneconomic because the firms externalize the costs of overtime labor onto the informal economy, households, and the community. If firms were made to pay for these externalities when calculating their labor demand through a charge for overtime, the cost of labor to firms would more accurately reflect the opportunity cost of using tired workers. Firms would then minimize overtime hours as this labor would be more expensive. More short work hour contracts would become available and full-time workers would have more time to allocate to the informal economy as parents, carers, volunteers etc., thus increasing aggregate well-being.

mismatch and subjective well-being. British Journal of International Relations 47(1) (2009). 10. Greef, A & Nel, P. Employment transformation and enhancement in South Africa: establishing a job-sharing model to promote employment equity. South African Journal of Labour Relations 27(2) (2003). 11. Fabian, M. (forthcoming). Draft available by request: mark.fabian@anu.edu.au. 12. Shepard, E, Clifton, T & Kruse, D. Flexible work hours and productivity: some evidence from the pharmaceutical industry. Industrial Relations 35(1) (2008). 13. Drago, R, Wooden, M & Black, D. Long work hours: volunteers and conscripts. British Journal of International Relations 47(3). 14. Leigh, A. Disconnected (UNSW Press, Sydney, 2011). 15. Putnam, R. Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community (Simon and Schuster, New York, 2000). 16. Landers, R, Rebitzer, J & Taylor, L. Rat race redux: adverse selection in the determination of work hours in law firms. The American Economic Review 86(3) (1996).

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Salgado, N. (2015). Many Small vs. a Few Big: Alternatives to Megadams in the Chilean Patagonia. Solutions 6(1): 34-39. https://thesolutionsjournal.com/article/many-small-vs-a-few-big-alternatives-to-megadams-in-the-chilean-patagonia/

Perspectives Many Small vs a Few Big: Alternatives to Megadams in the Chilean Patagonia By Nicolas Salgado

International Rivers

On March 13, 2011, activists gathered at El Manzano on the Río Baker in Patagonia, Chile for the International Day of Action Against Dams and For Rivers.

n recent years, the performance of large dams has been challenged in different regions of the world especially due to their environmental and social impacts. Extensive conversion of land, major alteration of the hydrological systems, and disruption of freshwater ecosystems are some of the identified effects of megadams on natural resources.1 In Chile, the government has recently rejected the ‘HidroAysen’ project, a megadam proposal in the southern territory. The project intended to construct five

dams in the Aysen Region with a total flooding area of 5,910 hectares and a transmission line of 2,000 kilometers.2 The likely environmental impact of the project was the subject of a strong dispute between the government and civil society because of the potential hazards imposed on the valuable biodiversity of the Chilean Patagonia.3,4 Yet, the growing energy consumption of Chile has led the government to continue its efforts to find energy sources with low environmental impacts.5 Chile has an enormous

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hydropower potential estimated at more than 16,000 megawatts (MW) due to its particular geography of mountains and valleys,6 which represents a clear opportunity for future energy policies. Because the implementation of several small-scale hydroelectric schemes (SHS) rather than megadams has not been explored as a possible alternative in Chile, I would like to present a groundbreaking approach comparing large versus small hydropower performance in order to inform present and future water resource management.

Perspectives

Alejandro Vega

Regions with the highest annual rainfall should be considered for SHS, such as Los Rios, pictured.

Large Dams: The Best Option? International concern about the environmental and social performance of large-scale dams has been increasing since the beginning of the present century. In the year 2000, in its last report, the World Commission on Dams highlighted that the benefits provided by dams to society cannot be compared with the price paid by the environment and disadvantaged groups.7 Biodiversity loss, extensive conversion of land, climate modification, and irreparable alteration of hydrological flows are some of the impacts that large-scale dams have on natural resources.1 Planetary boundaries on biodiversity loss, climate change,

and nitrogen cycles have been largely transgressed in the last few years,8 which is another reason why the development of large-scale dams has been challenged. In addition, dams represent a significant flood risk in several regions of the world under threat of natural hazards such as seismic activity.9 In Chile, the ‘HidroAysen’ project was partially approved by the government in 2008 as a possible option to address the increasing energy demand, which is expected to double by 2030.5 With an approximate investment of US$3.2 million, the project was supposed to provide a total installed capacity of 2,750 MW by constructing five dams in the Baker and Pascua Rivers.

Yet the large flooding area of the project (5,900 ha) as well as the length of its transmission line (2,000 km) encouraged civil society, scientific groups, and several environmental NGOs to appeal the primary approval of the government.11 Finally, the project was officially rejected in June 2014. In this scenario, the government has started a campaign to boost alternative energy sources with low environmental impact. According to the National Energy Strategy (2012–2030) minihydraulic, wind, biomass, solar, and geothermal energy are the best options for present and future development.5 Considering the geographical characteristics of Chile, each of these renewable energy sources has a special

www.thesolutionsjournal.org | January-February 2015 | Solutions | 35

Perspectives Even though there is no official valuation of these services, it is obvious that both the government and civil society had to prioritize the conservation of the biodiversity of southern Chile. From an ecological economics perspective, human welfare cannot be measured only through economic growth and development, but also should consider the current ecological limits of the planet, allow for fair distribution, and promote an efficient allocation of resources.21,22

The Proposal: Many Small Rather than a Few Big

International Rivers

A window sticker in the town of Caleta Tortel reads “Chilean Patagonia Without Dams.” The town was firmly against the HidroAysen project.

potential to be implemented in different regions: solar and geothermal in the north, biomass and wind in the central valley, and minihydraulic in the southern territory.

Small-scale Hydroelectric Schemes as a Possible Approach Recently, run-of-river hydropower plants have been implemented in several countries as new alternatives to the exploitation of water resources. Because they do not require water storage or large tracts of land, their environmental impact is almost negligible on land and aquatic ecosystems.12,13,14,15 According to the European Small-Scale Hydropower Association (ESHA), this type of technology does not interfere with the hydrological flows of a basin system

due to the low discharge required for their operation, allowing for the conservation of fishery resources.16 Regarding social impacts, run-of-river schemes do not involve land conversion or resettlement issues, the reason why they have the overall support of local communities.17,18 As SHS do not create a disruption on hydrological systems, they do not affect agriculture or irrigation practices. At the economic level, SHS will probably involve a higher investment than large-scale dams. An SHS costs around US$2 million per MW of installed capacity versus the value of the ‘HidroAysen’ project,20 which is US$1.2 million per MW of installed capacity.2 However, the value of the unique ecosystem services of the Aysen Region is not included in the neoclassic economic equation.

36 | Solutions | January-February 2015 | www.thesolutionsjournal.org

Considering the environmental, social, and ecologically economic advantages of SHS as well as the recent governmental rejection of the megadam proposals in southern Chile, I would like to introduce the idea of implementing several run-of-river schemes as a possible alternative to the ‘HidroAysen’ project. To achieve this, it would be necessary to analyse the hydraulic potential of the rivers of southern Chile and determine the hydroelectric feasibility of this approach according to the following methodology: • Determination of the study site: In order to ensure constant operation of SHS, it is necessary to consider the regions of Chile with the highest rainfall patterns. According to the Meteorological Agency of Chile, the regions with the highest annual average rainfall are the BioBio, Araucania, Los Rios, Los Lagos, and Aysen.23 • Identification of hydroelectrical requirements of SHS: There are different classifications of the SHS schemes, but taking into account the significant hydropower potential of Chile as well as the latest available technologies, an

Perspectives No.

Name of the river or canal

Flow (m3/seg)

No.

Bio-Bio Region

Name of the river or canal

Flow (m3/seg)

Cautin Almagro

Ñuble San Fabián

73.172

Chillan

17.420

Diguillin

22.352

Calle Calle

Itata Balsa Nueva

418.708

Pirihueico

144.446

Itata Paso Ondo

630.544

Leufucade

85.488

Itata Colemu

906.844

Cruces rucaco

386.599

Bureo en Mulchen

58.27

Nilalhue

53.605

Bio-Bio Llanquén

80.140

Llollehue

55.036

Bio-Bio Ralco 1

28.596

Puelo basilio

995.076

Bio-Bio Huiri

126.478

Rahue

144.893

Bio-Bio Pangue

242.500

Negro

349.154

Bio-Bio Hulquecura

438.428

Futalefu

Bio-Bio Rucalhue

429.403

Bio-Bio Culebra

488.749

Palena

614.290

Bio-Bio Puente Piulo

295.894

Cisnes Junta Rio Moro

32.501

Bio-Bio Longitudinal

721.451

Cisnes Puerto Cisnes

35.68

Bio-Bio Coihue

912.751

Magniguales

150.690

Renaico en Pan

68.27

Bakes Chacabuco

612.560

Vergara

46.15

Ibanez

43.874

Nicodahue

21.58

Baker L Bertrand

544.578

Huequecura

38.606

Baker Colon

733.314

Duqueco

103.418

Baker Nadis

720.140

Lonquimay

56.65

Mayer

238.888

Antuco

50.792

Nefantes

93.123

Abanico

23.340

Pascua Des Lago

742.116

Laja Tucapel

19.735

Pascua Jta Quetru

847.299

Curanilahue

15.465

Blanco

300.258

Leiva

32.208

Aysen

Araucania Region

Tolten Schmidt Los Rios + Los Lagos Region

Aysen Region

Simpson

Cautin Cajon

371.035

Nirehuao

44.75

Cholchol

730.660

Emperador

27.22

Cautin Rariruca

128.862 Adapted by the author from the 2014 Water Agency Hydrological Report

Figure 1. Potential sites for SHS development. www.thesolutionsjournal.org | January-February 2015 | Solutions | 37

Perspectives adequately installed capacity for SHS corresponds to 50 MW, and the minimum flow for its operation is equal to 13 m3/sec.20,24–27 • Analysis of the hydraulic characteristics of the rivers of the study site: To select the rivers of

the study site that have enough flow (m3/sec) for the operation of SHS. According to the data available in the Hydrological Report 2014 of the Chilean Water Agency of Chile, there are 61 monitoring stations with a flow rate higher than 13 m3/ sec (see Figure 1).28 Each of these monitoring stations represents a different river, except for larger rivers that have more than one monitoring station through their extensions. Each of these monitoring stations represents a potential site for the development of SHS. • Comparison of the total installed capacity of small and large-scale schemes: The megadam proposal

for ‘HidroAysen’ was intended to provide a total installed capacity of 2,750 MW. According to the findings of this report, there are 61 potential sites for the development of SHS. Because each SHS plant can provide an installed capacity of 50 MW, 61 SHS plants can provide a total installed capacity of 3,050 MW, which represent a higher hydroelectric performance than the ‘HidroAysen’ project.

Concluding Remarks For a long time, large-scale hydropower has been considered the best alternative for the exploitation of water resources in Chile. Although large dams have generated many economic and energy benefits for the country’s development, this type of hydropower has caused irreparable

damage to the valuable biodiversity of central and southern Chile as well as significant social conflicts. Due to growing environmental awareness in the country, both civil society and the government have recently rejected the ‘HidroAysen’ project, a megadam proposal in the Aysen Region because of its high impact on the natural resources of the proposed construction site. In order to address this situation, I have introduced a possible alternative for the management of water resources in Chile. According to the findings of this research, several small-scale hydropower schemes (SHS) in Southern Chile can provide even more electricity than the rejected ‘HidroAysen’ project, with a negligible impact on the social and environmental spheres. As mentioned before, the implementation of a number of SHS will probably require a higher investment than the construction of a few large-scale dams under a neoclassic economic approach; yet ecological economics could certainly provide a different perspective through the valuation of the ecosystem services jeopardized by the construction of megadams. Considering the current crisis of our ecological support system, it is crucial that the society focuses on a sustainable human well-being rather than just economic growth, incorporating the conservation of the natural capital and allowing social and intergenerational fairness. In this scenario, SHS deployment could represent a feasible environmental, economical, and social alternative for the management of water resources in Chile. Further research is necessary to determine the value of the ecosystem services in southern Chile, and therefore, incorporate this approach in the present and future decision-making arena.

38 | Solutions | January-February 2015 | www.thesolutionsjournal.org

Acknowledgements: Special thanks to Sara Beavis, Ida Kubiszewski, and Maria Amenabar. References 1. Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. Ecosystems and Human Well-being: Wetlands and Water Synthesis (World Resources Institute, Washington DC, 2005). 2. Evaluation impact assessment of Hidroaysen project. Ministry of Environment, Government of Chile [online] (September 29, 2014). http:// www.eseia.cl/expediente/ficha/fichaPrincipal. php?modo=ficha&id_expediente=3103211. 3. Habit, E, Belk, M & Parra, O. Response of the riverine fish community to the construction and operation of a diversion hydropower plant in central Chile. Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems 17, 37–49 (2007). 4. Ponce, R, Vasquez, F, Stehr, A, Debels, P & Orihuela, C. Estimating the economic value of landscape losses due to flooding by hydropower plants in the Chilean Patagonia. Water Resource Management 25, 2449–2466 (2011). 5. National Energy Strategy 2012–2013. Ministry of Energy, Government of Chile [online] (October 10, 2014). http://www.minenergia.cl/estrategianacional-de-energia-2012.html. 6. Goodwin, P, Jorde, K, Meier, C & Parra, O. Minimizing environmental impacts of hydropower development: transferring lessons from past projects to a proposed strategy for Chile. Journal of Hydroinformatics 8, 253–270 (2006). 7. World Commission on Dams. Dams and Development: A New Framework for Decision-making (World Commission on Dams, Capetown, 2000). 8. Rockstrom, J et al. Planetary boundaries: exploring the safe operating space for humanity. Ecology & Society 46, 472–475 (2009). 9. Pittock, J. Viewpoint: Better management of hydropower in an era of climate change. Water Alternatives 3, 444–452 (2010). 10. Proposed dams in the Aysen region of Chile. BBC News [online] (October 9, 2014). http://www.bbc. co.uk/news/world-latin-america-13445300. 11. Vince, G. Dams for Patagonia. Science 329, 382–385 (2010). 12. Aggidis, G, Luchinskaya, E, Rothschild, R. & Howard, D. The costs of small-scale hydro power production: impact on the development of existing potential. Renewable Energy 35, 2632–2638 (2010). 13. Balat, H. A renewable perspective for sustainable energy development in Turkey: the case of small hydropower plants. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 11, 2152–2165 (2007). 14. Bernesson, S, Nilsson, D & Hansson, P. A limited LCA comparing large-and small-scale production of rape methyl ester (RME) under Swedish conditions. Biomass and Bioenergy 26, 545–559 (2004).

Perspectives

Steffen Sauder

The Río Baker in the Aysen region of southern Chile. The HidroAysen project included proposals for 2 dams on the river.

15. Paish, O. Small hydro power: technology and

19. European Small Hydropower Association.

current status. Renewable and Sustainable Energy

Environmental Integration of Small Hydropower Plants

Reviews 6, 537–556 (2002).

(European Small Hydropower Association, Brussels,

16. Kosnik, L. The potential for small-scale hydropower development in the US. Energy Policy 38, 5512–5519 (2010). 17. Rojanamon, P, Chaisomphob, T & Bureekul, T.

2012).

24. Small hydro. Hydro Equipment Association, Brussels [online] (October 17, 2014). http://www. thehea.org/hydropower/special-focus/small-hydro/. 25. Huang, H & Yan, Z. Present situation and future

20. Small Hydro Project Analysis, RETScreen Clean Energy Project Analysis. Natural Resources Canada, Government of Canada [online] (September 13,

prospect of hydropower in China. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 13, 1652–1656 (2009). 26. Prakash, R & Bhat, I. Energy, economics and

Application of geographical information system

2014). http://www.retscreen.net/download.php/

environmental impacts of renewable energy

to site selection of small run-of-river hydropower

tl/107/1/Course_hydro.ppt.

systems. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews

project by considering engineering/economic/ environmental criteria and social impact. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 13, 2336–2348. 18. Energy Sector Management Assistance Program. Best Practices for Sustainable Development of Micro

21. Costanza, R et al. Building a Sustainable and Desirable Economy-in-society-in-nature (ANU E-Press, Canberra,

13, 2716–2721 (2009). 27. United States Environmental Protection Agency. Renewable Energy Fact Sheet: Low-Head Hydropower

2013). 22. Daly, H & Farley, J. Ecological Economics: Principles and Applications (Island Press, Washington DC, 2004). 23. Rainfall report 2014. Meteorological Agency of

from Wastewater (United States Environmental Protection Agency, Washington DC, 2013). 28. Hydrological report. Chilean Water Agency,

Hydro Power in Developing Countries (World Bank,

Chile [online] (October 12, 2014). http://www.

Government of Chile [online] (October 2, 2014).

Washington DC, 2000).

meteochile.gob.cl/inf_precipitacion.php.

http://dgasatel.mop.cl/filtro_paramxestac.asp.

www.thesolutionsjournal.org | January-February 2015 | Solutions | 39

Lord, F. (2015). Personal Carbon Trading: Motivating Better Climate Behavior in Canberra. Solutions 6(1): 40-41. https://thesolutionsjournal.com/article/personal-carbon-trading-motivating-better-climate-behavior-in-canberra/

Perspectives Personal Carbon Trading: Motivating Better Climate Behavior in Canberra by Fiona Lord

ustralia’s big attempt to tackle climate change by introducing a carbon tax didn’t last long. The country’s conservative party repealed the law shortly after coming to power in 2013, despite overwhelming evidence that it was succeeding in lowering carbon emissions from large-scale producers. While environmentalists are once again urging for the law to be re-instated, it’s worth pointing out some of its shortcomings—namely, that the increased costs to generators was often passed onto consumers, who were, in turn, subsidized by the government. What was missing from these equations was an effort to promote behavioral change among consumers that the law was intended to promote. Introducing the notion of personal carbon trading could make a major contribution to shifting climate behavior in Australia because it provides direct economic incentives for individuals to make less carbon-intensive consumption choices. Several models have been developed so far and each succeeds in making individuals directly responsible for the carbon they produce. The basic concept is a cap on emissions (at a regional or national scale), with emissions allocations or allowances distributed to the population. Carbon-intensive behavior requires individuals to acquire more carbon allowances to offset their consumption; those with less carbon-intensive behavior can sell their excess allowances on the market.1 The tracking of behavior and emissions activity would be managed through applications on smartphones for more active citizens—or for the less engaged or less

Greg Wass

Canberra, the capital of Australia and recently named best city in the world to live in by the OECD, would be an ideal site to pilot personal carbon trading programs.

technology-savvy citizens, tracking could be embedded through electricity bills, at the petrol pump, and at the supermarket counter. Citizens would be rewarded for choosing to ride their bike, take public transport, energy efficient housing, and consuming less carbon-intensive food. Serious consideration was given to the introduction of personal carbon trading in the United Kingdom in 2008. However, the House of Commons concluded that due to public perception and implementation challenges it was “a policy ahead of its time.”2 Since 2008, two significant global shifts make this policy more viable: (1) significant improvements in data management and the increased uptake of personal smartphones, resulting in an unprecedented level of personal connectivity and access to information; and (2) enhanced private sector engagement in sustainable

40 | Solutions | January-February 2015 | www.thesolutionsjournal.org

development, where companies that have a greater focus on sustainability are more profitable and are increasingly becoming the ‘norm.’3 These shifts can make personal carbon trading feasible today with technology and private-sector partnerships available to support its implementation. A first step would be to trial personal carbon trading in Australia’s capital, Canberra. It’s a community with ambitious mitigation and renewable energy targets,4 and was recently nominated best city in the world to live in by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).5 Introducing the scheme would require a contract between the business sector and local government on how the system would operate, backed by legislation. Compliance and the associated risk of fraud could be a challenge but one that could be managed and mitigated.

Perspectives For example, fraudulent misreporting by individuals of their transportation method could occur without any penalty. However, ‘peer-to-peer’ verification schemes borrowed from successful ‘collaborative consumption’ businesses could be introduced.6 For example, AirBnB’s peer-to-peer appraisal system maintains trust and credibility in the system. This appraisal system could be adapted to help monitor individuals tracking their consumption patterns within the personal carbon-trading system. Information availability on the impact of various consumption choices is fundamental to the success of personal carbon trading. A smallscale pilot of personal carbon trading in the United Kingdom demonstrated that information was the major barrier to better carbon behavior.7 Through the pilot, the participants learned the extent to which relatively minor changes in their consumption patterns could result in significant reductions in their personal carbon emissions. Another small-scale trial of personal carbon trading at Norfolk Island has demonstrated a direct link between better climate behavior health benefits, particularly in tackling obesity.8 This is due to the correlation between better transport choices and more physical activity, alongside less carbon-intensive food products, which are generally healthier. Moreover, the citizens in this trial became more active in their local community, improving their social and cultural capital. Another key benefit of personal carbon trading is that it is a progressive policy, benefiting low-income earners more, and will therefore help to address inequality.9 The key challenge facing the scheme is negative public attitudes and the idea that their privacy is being impacted.10 Resistance from business is also possible, due to the implementation

potentially becoming an additional administrative burden. In balance with political and business leadership support for the policy and careful consultation in the policy’s design and implementation, personal carbon trading is likely to be successful in Canberra. Personal carbon trading has the potential to spur genuine climate behavioral change, and become a critical driver in the overall shift in global production and consumptions patterns required to avoid dangerous climate change. With the major shifts required over the next decade, the world cannot wait for a global climate deal without implementing local solutions. Canberra is ripe for championing better climate behavior through being the first city to introduce personal carbon trading at scale.

3. Sustainable Development Goals and the Post-2015 Agenda. UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network [online] (September 21, 2014). http:// unsdsn.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Businessmanifesto.pdf. 4. A new climate change strategy and action plan for the Australian Capital Territory. ACT Government [online] (2012). http://www.environment.act.gov. au/_data/assets/pdf_file/0006/581136/AP2_Sept12_ PRINT_NO_CROPS_SML.pdf. 5. OECD Regional Well-being index. Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development [online] (2014). http://www.oecdregionalwellbeing.org. 6. Botsman, R & Anderson, L. Collaborative consumption: sharing reinvented through technology. Collaborative Consumption [online] (October 22, 2014). http://www. collaborativeconsumption.com/tag/trust/. 7. CarbonTrust Ltd & Coca Cola Ltd. Personal Carbon Allowances White Paper: How to help consumers make informed choices. Carbon Trust [online] (2012). http://www.carbontrust.com/resources/ reports/footprinting/personal-carbon-allowanceswhite-paper (accessed 22 October 2014). 8. Eggar, G. Dissecting obesogenic behaviours: the development and application of a test battery for targeting prescription weight loss. Obesity Reviews

References

8(6), 481-486 (2007).

1. Fawcett, T & Parag, Y. An introduction to personal carbon trading. Climate Policy 10(4), 329–338 (2011). 2. Environmental Audit Committee, House of

9. Starkey, R. Personal carbon trading: a critical survey— Part 1: Equity. Ecological Economics 73, 7–18 (2012). 10. Parag, Y & Eyre, N. Barriers to personal carbon

Commons, UK. Personal carbon trading. Fifth

trading in the policy arena. Climate Policy 10(4),

Report of Session 2007–08 (May 13, 2008).

353–368 (2010).

Paul Krueger

A personal carbon trading scheme would reward citizens for making less carbon-intensive consumption choices, such as choosing to ride their bike. www.thesolutionsjournal.org | January-February 2015 | Solutions | 41

O’Hara, S. (2015). Food Security: The Urban Food Hubs Solution. Solutions 6(1): 42-53. https://thesolutionsjournal.com/article/food-security-the-urban-food-hubs-solution/

Feature

Food Security: The Urban Food Hubs Solution by Sabine O’Hara

CAUSES

The Urban Food Hubs are centered on high efficiency food production systems, such as this hydroponics system located in a small greenhouse at the Muirkirk Research Farm.

In Brief Food security demands a diversified food system that includes urban communities as locations for food production, food preparation, food distribution, and waste reduction/reuse. The Urban Food Hubs concept of the College of Agriculture, Urban Sustainability and Environmental Sciences (CAUSES) of the University of the District of Columbia (UDC) tests the feasibility of small-scale urban food systems that include these four key components. The heart of the CAUSES Urban Food Hubs are high efficiency food production sites that utilize bio-intensive, aquaponic, and hydroponic production methods. Co-located with these urban food production sites are commercial kitchens that serve as business incubators and training facilities for food processing and nutritional health related activities. Given their location in urban neighborhoods, the Urban Food Hubs also focus on waste reduction and reuse through composting, water management, and related approaches to minimizing pressure on urban land and infrastructure systems. In addition to improving food security, the Urban Food Hubs thus also contribute to job creation and urban sustainability in its economic, social/cultural, and environmental/physical dimensions. 42 | Solutions | January-February 2015 | www.thesolutionsjournal.org

ood security is a top priority for the United States and countries around the world. The U.S. Department of Agriculture defines food security as “…access by all people at all times to enough nutritious food for an active, healthy life.”1 Low food security refers to a diet of reduced quality, variety, and desirability for some populations. To achieve food security, food must be (1) readily available at all times to all people, and (2) be of sufficient quality and nutritional value to sustain a healthy and active life. The U.S. food system is vulnerable by both measures. Some households do not have access to enough food and many others lack access to the right kind. In addition, the nutritional value of food has declined by almost 25 percent over the past 15 years.2 One reason is that food is traveling across increasing distances. To accommodate the weeks spent in transport, produce is harvested long before it ripens and thus well below its peak nutrient density. Populations in urban areas on the east coast of the U.S. are especially vulnerable to this phenomenon. The top food producing states are Texas (for animal products) and California (for produce). In addition to distance, local decisions related to purchasing power drive the access to nutritious food. Using Washington, D.C. as an example, there are eight census tracks in the city that qualify as outright food deserts (defined as fresh food being unavailable within a one-mile radius), partially due to distances from these top-food producing states. Of the 520 food retailers in D.C., 88 percent do not offer any fresh produce and only 12 percent offer an adequate variety of fresh food to support a healthy diet. Not surprisingly, nutrition-related health problems like diabetes, hypertension, and obesity are especially high in these food desert neighborhoods.3 As in most U.S. cities, Washington D.C.’s food deserts are not evenly distributed across the eight wards that make up its territory. The deserts are

primarily located in Wards 5, 7, and 8, which are the wards with the lowest household incomes and the highest concentration of African-Americans. They are home to 32 percent of the D.C. population but less than 10 percent of its grocery stores. Ward 8 has the lowest median income with US$32,000 per year and 90 percent African-American residents. In comparison, Ward 3 has a median income of US$110,000 per year and

Key Concepts • Food security demands a diversified food system that includes urban communities as locations for food production, food preparation, food distribution, and waste reduction/ reuse. • The Urban Food Hubs concept of the College of Agriculture, Urban Sustainability and Environmental Sciences (CAUSES) of the University of the District of Columbia (UDC) tests the feasibility of small-scale urban food systems that include these four components. • The Urban Food Hubs are centered on high efficiency food production systems including bio-intensive, aquaponic, and hydroponic production, commercial kitchens that serve as training facilities, and business incubators. • In addition to improving food security, the Urban Food Hubs contribute to job creation and urban sustainability in its economic, social/cultural, and environmental/physical dimensions.

an African-American population of 5 percent. Unemployment is 3.5 percent in Ward 3, compared to 24 percent in Ward 8. Food security levels across the U.S. are monitored through the annual Household Food Security Survey.4 It indicates that 13 percent of D.C. households are food insecure and struggle with hunger; 19 percent experience food hardship and did not have enough

money in the past year to buy food for themselves or their family; and 37 percent of households with children are unable to afford enough food. This is the highest rate of food insecurity among children across the entire U.S. Among the damaging effects of food insecurity are the following: impaired cognitive development, reduced school readiness, lower educational attainments, slower physical, mental, and social development, and overall health deficits.5 The U.S. food system is also highly centralized, which further adds food security risk. Of the two million farms in the U.S., less than half operate full time, 75 percent are considered ‘very small’— cultivating five acres or less—and approximately 140,000 farms produce over 80 percent of all sales in agricultural products. Food processing statistics show even higher concentrations, with just a handful of companies processing the bulk of U.S. grain and produce. This centralization also demands energy.6 Eleven percent of greenhouse gas emissions associated with the US food supply chain are transportation-related,7 and global estimates suggest that agriculture is responsible for 25 percent of all CO2, 65 percent of methane, and 90 percent of nitrous oxide emissions.8 To advance food security for the U.S. capital region, the College of Agriculture, Urban Sustainability and Environmental Sciences (CAUSES) of the University of the District of Columbia (UDC) developed its Urban Food Hubs concept. As one of the fastest growing cities in the U.S., and one of the most bifurcated, Washington, D.C. was an ideal location to develop and test the viability of urban solutions to food insecurity. The Urban Food Hubs consist of four components: (1) urban food production, (2) food processing, (3) food distribution, and (4) waste reduction/reuse. The aim is to increase urban food production, establish local food processing and food preparation to ‘add value’ to locally grown food, expand food-related business opportunities, improve nutritional health through

www.thesolutionsjournal.org | January-February 2015 | Solutions | 43

CAUSES

Hydroponics systems, such as those pictured at the Muirkirk Research Farm, grow vegetables in nutrient-rich water instead of the traditional soil medium.

access to fresh food via innovative distribution systems including farmers’ markets, food trucks, and collaborative models, and to improve productivity through composting and waste reduction and reuse. Beyond the applicability within D.C., the Urban Food Hubs concept can serve as a model to address national and global needs for improved food security. Eighty percent of the U.S. population and over 50 percent of the world’s population now live in urban areas. Food security therefore cannot be addressed without solutions that reimagine the food system as decentralized and urban. Such a distributed urban food system can offer better nutritional value and be more energy efficient and resilient.

What are the Urban Food Hubs? The Urban Food Hubs are anchored in the five landgrant centers of CAUSES. In the tradition of the U.S. landgrant universities, the centers offer a range of community education programs including nutrition education, food safety certifications, master gardening and urban agriculture certificates, soil and water quality testing, assistance with farmers’ markets, entrepreneurship classes, etc. The CAUSES landgrant centers partner with public schools, faith communities, nonprofits, and community volunteers to reach populations in all eight of D.C.’s wards.9

44 | Solutions | January-February 2015 | www.thesolutionsjournal.org

As part of their outreach, the Urban Food Hubs are designed to form a network of food security islands throughout D.C. In addition to improving food security, the network also aims to improve nutritional health and lower unemployment by supporting business development in the most underserved neighborhoods of the city. Each hub consists of four components: • Food production through efficient urban agriculture including hydroponics and aquaponics; • Food processing through commercial kitchens that serve as a business incubator;

CAUSES

The Muirkirk Research Farm produces over 50 varieties of vegetables and herbs.

• Food distribution through networked farmers’ markets, grocery stores, restaurants, etc.; and • Closing the loop through waste reduction and reuse. Since the food hubs form a network of urban sites, they stand in contrast to large-scale centralized urban agriculture concepts. For example, a recently launched 10-acre hydroponics facility on the outskirts of D.C. is slated to produce lettuce and create local jobs. The hubs create a network of skills, jobs, and business ownership that broadens local food production. Given their distributed intensive production methods, they also maximize the use of photosynthesis and minimize entropy relative to the kilocalories of food produced. In contrast, large scale multistoried facilities require substantial energy input in the form of heat, air conditioning, and lighting, and are typically net-energy negative even before the substantial energy inputs associated with transporting food over long distances are added.9

Food Production through Intensive Urban Agriculture The heart of the Urban Food Hubs is a highly efficient food production system that utilizes bio-intensive production methods including low-till box gardens, hydroponics systems, and neighborhood-based aquaponic systems. Box gardens can be installed on top of existing surface areas and can mitigate soil contamination in areas where soil quality may be an issue. One of the food hubs, which is located in a food desert neighborhood in Ward 7, uses 10 raised-bed gardens as the core of its food production system. By utilizing bio-intensive production methods, the gardens produced close to 10,000 pounds of produce and supplied a small farmers’ market throughout the growing season. A second food hub is in the process of installing two types of hydroponics systems in a small hoop house in addition to utilizing bio-intensive raised-bed gardens. Hydroponics refers to growing vegetables in nutrient-rich water rather than in soil. The method produces substantially higher yields

by supporting a larger number of crop rotations. The necessary nutrient levels are maintained by monitoring the nutrient level in the growing medium (the nutrient rich water), adding liquid fertilizer as needed. Adding CO2 to the hydroponic greenhouses can further increase efficiency. While the range of food plants that can be grown hydroponically is substantial, lettuce, leafy greens, and herbs tend to do especially well. The types of hydroponics systems utilized at the Urban Food Hubs were first successfully operated at the CAUSES research farm where they produced head lettuce, basil, Swiss chard, kale, cherry tomatoes, and cucumbers. Aquaponics refers to a food production system that combines growing fish (aquaculture) and growing vegetables without soil (hydroponics). By using the excrement from the fish as fertilizer for vegetable production, aquaponics systems eliminate the need to add fertilizer.9 To be usable as plant fertilizer, however, the nutrients in the fish waste must first be converted into plant-available nutrients. As the plants absorb nutrients, the water can also then be reused in the fish tanks.11 Alternatively, the plants can be grown in soil that is irrigated with the nutrient-rich water from the fish tanks, a technique known as fertigation. The coproduction of vegetables and protein creates a number of benefits: • Efficient water use: Aquaponics systems use only 10 percent of the water used to grow plants in soil, offering a 90 percent savings in water use. • High productivity levels: Aquaponics systems can produce large amounts of vegetables without the need for commercial fertilizers. • Reduced growing time: Consistent nutrient supply along with the greenhouse conditions enhance the growth of the vegetable plants and reduce growing time.

www.thesolutionsjournal.org | January-February 2015 | Solutions | 45

CAUSES

CAUSES supports farmer’s markets in food desert areas throughout the city in an effort to provide fresh, nutritious food to underserved areas.

• Reduction of waste: Because the fish waste is used as fertilizer for the plants, a minimal amount of waste leaves the facility. The aquaponics system pioneered by CAUSES is installed in the hoop house, which is an easy-to-construct 20 by 40-foot lightweight greenhouse. Ideally it houses six small fish tanks that comprise one unit, powered by a highly efficient aeration device, a filter system that separates liquids from solids, and a biofilter system. The aerator emulsifies atmospheric oxygen with the water that circulates through the aquaponics system. The patented Flo-Vex device thus eliminates the need for mechanical compression and can be

operated by a 3/4 horsepower pump. Given its high performance in maintaining the necessary oxygen levels in the fish tanks, the system can achieve a high fish stocking density that reduces water use per pound of fish, while maintaining the system’s health and fish quality. The plants in the aquaponics system are typically grown hydroponically in the nutrient-enriched water released from the fish tanks. To maximize flexibility, the system used for the Urban Food Hubs is configured as two connected loops: a fish loop and a plant loop. When the two loops are connected, the system resembles a common circular flow configuration. Since the two loops are connected manually,

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a wider variety of plants can be grown, including those that thrive when the flow beds are flooded less frequently rather than continuously. Furthermore, since one of the goals is to provide access to healthy food choices, the increased flexibility in vegetable production is an advantage. The system can support the sole production of lettuce as well as the production of a range of vegetables that are high in nutritional value. The flexibility of the system also reduces energy use and operating costs. Both fish and plants can be rotated from cold weather species/ crops in the winter months to warm weather options in the summer. Two variations of this highly efficient system, one using flow beds for

CAUSES

Figure 1. Urban Food Hubs Aquaponics System.

vegetable production and the other using fertigation, have been successfully operated at the CAUSES research farm. The flow bed version can produce 1500 pounds of fish in two 500-gallon tanks, and approximately 10,000 pounds of vegetables, depending on the selected varieties. It operated throughout the unusually harsh 2013 to 2014 winter with only a water heater for the fish tanks. There was no additional heat and no fertilizer was added beyond the nutrients produced by the fish. Figure 1 illustrates the urban aquaponics system. Water from a holding tank is pumped through a UV screen to kill bacteria that could be harmful to the fish; it then flows through the aeration device

to ensure sufficiently high levels of oxygen in the fish tanks, through a waste filter to separate solids from liquids, and then to a biofilter that assists in the nutrient conversion process. The nutrient-rich water is then circulated into flow beds that hold the plants; a degasser evacuates the stream of gases to a compost bin to accelerate the composting process. Various training events on high efficiency food production, including bio-intensive, hydroponic, and aquaponic techniques, are offered at the food hubs and at the CAUSES research farm. Training events range from short demonstrations to master gardening classes and certificate programs.

Food Preparation through Business Incubator Kitchens The food preparation component of the Urban Food Hubs is centered on a commercial kitchen that can serve as a teaching and training facility to improve information about healthy eating, healthy food preparation, and age-appropriate diets. To maximize the capacity building benefits of the cooking classes, food demonstrations, and nutrition classes offered at the Hubs, CAUSES uses a train-the-trainer model whenever possible. This means that training is first offered to staff members of community partner organization as well as local residents. The partners then assume responsibility for providing additional training and education to local residents.

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CAUSES

The food distribution model supported by CAUSES aims to bring fresh food directly to the customer through neighborhood farmer’s markets and produce trucks.

This train-the-trainer approach is especially valuable in a diverse community like D.C. Food is not only about nutrition but has social and cultural dimensions as well. It creates community and is often associated with cultural, ethnic, and class identities. By forming partnerships with neighborhood-based organizations and inviting their input and participation, the education programs and training events offered through the food hubs can address a broader range of cultural perspectives than what could otherwise be offered. To be successful, nutrition and food safety education must be culturally sensitive and aware of the social pressures and traditions associated with eating and food preparation habits. One successful approach is to modify family recipes and culturally significant dishes to meet improved nutrition standards and prepare them in a safe manner.

Another is to provide self-monitoring devices that offer frequent feedback to improve awareness of eating habits. Much work remains to identify successful strategies that utilize food preparation to improve both economic and public health conditions. In addition to serving as teaching facilities, the kitchens also serve as business incubators where those interested in launching food-based businesses can clean, process, and preserve the locally grown produce that can then be marketed to local farmers’ markets, restaurants, and grocery stores. The kitchens are designed to be functional, energy efficient, and food safety compliant. Demonstration areas also provide visible workspaces, and well-defined workstations for receiving, storage, preparation, recycling, and other functional areas to provide training for proper food handling,

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food safety, and food management. Activities of the kitchens include the following: • Nutrition counseling and nutrition education workshops • Cooking classes and food demonstrations • Certifications in food handling, food safety, and Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) • Entrepreneurship classes to launch food preparation and processingrelated business • Focus groups to identify determinants of safe food handling behaviors, risk perception, and beliefs that impede the adoption of safe food handling standards • Better eating habits and reduced food-related illnesses, including focus groups to assess behavioral changes related to eating and purchasing habits

Nutrition education can also offer viable business opportunities. For example, recent changes in legislation allow dietitians to prescribe therapeutic diets in addition to physicians. This shift is consistent with the growing focus on health prevention and community health that offers new opportunities to qualified dietitians and nutrition educators.

Food Distribution through Farmers’ Markets, Restaurants, and Food Retailers The District of Columbia is home to 650,000 residents, with an additional 1.5 million living in the Washington Metropolitan area. Washington D.C. is also home to 30 farmers’ markets and close to 50 community gardens. Yet there are many areas in the city that do not have access to affordable fresh fruits and vegetables. To reduce the number of food deserts and provide fresh, nutritious food to underserved neighborhoods, CAUSES supports several farmers’ markets in food desert areas. However, it has proven challenging to attract a sufficient number of vendors to offer locally grown food especially in low-income neighborhoods that may lack the necessary purchasing power. This presents a viable business opportunity for small urban growers, especially where farmers’ markets and ethnic food markets accept food stamps and WIC coupons. Neighborhood stores and restaurants also offer viable market outlets. Particularly promising are venues in D.C.’s ethnically diverse neighborhoods. Food tastings conducted through the CAUSES Centers for Sustainable Development and Nutrition, Diet and Health indicate significant market opportunities especially for African crops including kitale, garden eggs, and potato leaves. High-end restaurants are also showing growing interest in ethnic produce, as well as in locally grown fish, greens, and herbs that are extremely fresh.

A new addition to the Food Hubs and the CAUSES research farm are produce trucks that are operated by the college and by local business partners. The food trucks make fresh produce available in food desert neighborhoods that lack access to public transportation. The principle behind this food distribution model is to bring fresh food to the customer instead of expecting the customer to come to local markets. This points to another important function of food hubs, namely to connect small growers and producers of value-added food products with prospective buyers. The market research, marketing, presentation, packaging, and customer service skills necessary to successfully link producers and consumers can be offered at a hub. The hubs also serve as support networks, focus group facilities, and research bases to determine product mix, marketing and finance strategies, business plans, and data analysis to ensure proof of concept.

• Strategies to support local food retail through local and mobile markets • Web-based portal and networking tool to link food producers, processors, and buyers • Market research to assess opportunities in the food and hospitality industries • Focus groups to determine the education delivery preferences of local populations The food distribution component of the Urban Food Hubs adds muchneeded knowledge that is necessary to create a resilient urban food system. Skills of fish and produce production and the value added through food preparation, processing, and preservation are only of value if they can find viable markets to generate revenue and living wages. Given the density of urban markets, the revenue potential is substantial, although there is a range of revenue models that must

The hubs create a network of skills, jobs, and business ownership that broadens local food production. Other distribution models include direct marketing efforts like farmers’ markets and CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture), collaborative efforts with local food banks such as gleaning agreements and food collections, and seasonal delivery agreements with stores and restaurants. Food hubs therefore create an urban food network that offers both higher quality food to consumers and a more resilient food supply, which improves urban food security. Key food distribution activities include the following: • Support services and training to launch food related business

be considered in the context of each specific business plan. Maximizing revenue through hydroponic lettuce and herb production for high-end restaurants, for example, is one viable model; maximizing nutritional yield and embodied energy through a crop rotation that minimizes overall food imports is another model, and growing food that meets the therapeutic diet needs of a neighborhood with particularly high rates of diabetes is yet another model. The first model will most likely generate the highest monetary revenue; the second will reduce energy use and the indirect costs associated with transportation, CO2 emissions, and other externalities;12

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and the third may significantly reduce health-related expenditures. All three can be economically viable, but the revenue streams from private and public-sector sources necessary to support the three models will vary considerably. In addition to privatesector markets, food systems policies are therefore indispensable to improve food security and resilience.

Waste Reduction and Reuse Waste reduction and ‘closing the loop’ is an essential component of the food hubs. Urban soils generally need soil amendments and are rarely ideal for food production. Composting is key to improving the structure and organic content of the soil to create a sustainable food system. Even aquaponics and hydroponics systems generate some amount of plant material that can be composted, and each hub has some soil-based production along with the high-efficiency aquatic systems. Food waste from food preparation also forms a component of the waste stream. Compost Taxi, a recent business start-up in the D.C. area, is an example of a successful business model based on reusing food waste. Compost Taxi picks up food waste from residential households for a monthly fee. Households who opt to join the program are typically conscious of the benefits of reusing organic materials and their food waste is virtually free of contaminants. Food waste from school cafeterias and other institutional facilities can also provide organic material that can be composted at the hubs or at the larger composting facility that is under development at the CAUSES research farm. A pilot program that collected food waste from D.C. restaurants and cafeterias showed high levels of contamination with eating utensils, packaging materials, and other noncompostable waste. The pilot concluded that a comprehensive training program for food service staff is needed to get higher quality compost.

The patented aeration device that is used for the aquaponics systems also provides benefits for the composting component of the hubs. As the Flo-Vex induces a low-pressure gas into the circulating higher-pressure water, it can channel airflow through a degasser into compost bins. Initial research suggests that the effective aeration achieved through the device speeds up compost production while alleviating the need to turn the compost. This results in significant space savings, which is critical in urban neighborhoods. Water management is also an important focus of food hubs. By capturing rainwater and surface water run-off and by increasing permeable surfaces in urban neighborhoods, the hubs can contribute to improved storm water management. The aesthetic aspects of horticulture, rain gardens, and landscaping also add viable business opportunities and social benefits to urban neighborhoods. These broader benefits of food hubs can be significant and include neighborhood safety, walkability, and reduced storm water run-off.9 Benefits of the waste reduction component include the following: • Reduced waste generation and energy use • Improved soil quality • Reduced water use • Reduced flooding through increased permeable surfaces • Job creation for unemployed and underemployed populations Every Urban Food Hub will be equipped with an alternative energy source consisting principally of solar and small-scale wind energy generators. The model for this integrated approach is the CAUSES Research Farm, which features a solar-powered groundwater well as the centerpiece of its drip irrigation, hydroponics, and aquaponics systems.

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Community Partners of the Urban Food Hubs To date, four Urban Food Hubs are in various stages of implementation. Local partnerships anchor the four hubs in their respective neighborhoods to ensure their long-term viability. In the tradition of the landgrant universities, CAUSES provides design, implementation, startup support, capacity building training, and ongoing research and education for the hubs. The ongoing operation of the hubs will be the responsibility of the community partners. One of the hubs is operated in collaboration with Washington Parks & People (WPP), a D.C.-based nonprofit organization that began its work of reclaiming abandoned parks in 1990. WPP leads greening initiatives across the D.C. area, including city land reclamation, native species reforestation, watershed restoration, and green job training. The WPP Food Hub is located in Ward 7 in close proximity to a school and public housing complex. A second partner is Mercy Outreach Ministry International (MOM), a nonprofit organization with more than 20 years of experience in working in underserved neighborhoods in Washington, D.C. as well as in Haiti. MOM’s mission is to provide research, design, engineering, and self-sufficiency training to support economic development opportunities. MOM’s goal is to construct ‘Sustainable Urban Villages’ in underserved urban locations, providing health and educational services in wastewater management, food safety, sanitation, and gardening. The third hub is being developed in a residential neighborhood chiefly comprised of subsidized housing and easily accessible by Metro. The land was made available to CAUSES and its private-sector partner, Freedom Farms, by the District Department of Housing and Community Development for the purpose of developing an urban farm.

The location offers collaborative opportunities with local resident committees, a neighborhood school, and a local food bank. The location is also in close proximity to one of the satellite campuses operated by the UDC Community College. A fourth hub will be implemented at the Bertie Backus campus of UDC in Ward 5. This satellite campus also houses UDC Community College programs and is located in close proximity to a Metro station. Two other food hubs in Ward 8 are under negotiation. One builds on an existing collaboration with THEARC (Town Hall Education Arts Recreation Campus), a nonprofit organization and community center that offers educational, health, recreation, and social service programs through collaborative partnerships. THEARC already operates a farmers’ market and a youth gardening program, and the CAUSES Center for Urban Agriculture has installed a hydroponic system in one of the greenhouses operated by THEARC. Figure 2 shows the distribution of grocery stores across the District. The location of the Urban Food Hubs and the UDC Research Farm are shown in Figure 3. As Figure 3 shows, the Urban Food Hubs are located in some of D.C.’s most underserved food desert neighborhoods. The identified community partners bring long-standing relationships and diverse organizational characteristics to the project, which will also provide much-needed information about the characteristics of successful community partnerships that spur economic development and food security. Early indications suggest that the hubs can galvanize neighborhood activity and provide a sense of stability that goes well beyond their food security objectives. Support for local business startups, which is an integral part of the Urban Food Hubs concept, can also play an important role in enhancing

CAUSES

Figure 2. Grocery Stores by Ward.

CAUSES

Figure 3. Urban Food Hub Location. www.thesolutionsjournal.org | January-February 2015 | Solutions | 51

the social fabric of the Food Hubs neighborhoods. An added component under consideration is a communitybased revolving loan fund. Implementing such a fund can form a viable alternative to formal banking and development corporation options. This is especially relevant since by the end of the decade, 40 percent of the US workforce is expected to be made up of independent small business owners and freelancers, while the traditional model of work that relies on large-scale, centralized businesses will be in sharp decline. Food hubs can make a meaningful contribution in this changing landscape of work, while improving food security and related public health and urban sustainability goals.

innovative system is housed in an 8 by 40-foot standardized steel container. Six different types of hydroponics systems including pipe, ebb and flow, and drip systems are located in another small greenhouse. Apart from its research and teaching function, the research farm serves an important stabilizer role for the Urban Food Hubs and their future business startups. New businesses can be vulnerable and may initially lack the capacity to reliably supply their market. This is especially true for the agricultural sector, which tends to be more vulnerable to severe weather, pests, and other natural factors that are difficult to control. The research farm has developed the capacity to grow year-round and

The principle behind this food distribution model is to bring fresh food to the customer instead of expecting the customer to come to local markets.

The Role of Muirkirk Research Farm The CAUSES Research Farm serves as the backbone of the Urban Food Hubs. The farm is an exemplar of sustainable urban agriculture. Located less than 30 minutes from the main campus of UDC, it serves as a research, training, and coordination facility for small-scale highly productive agricultural systems. A solar-powered groundwater well is the heart of the farm. It supplies drip irrigation to the fields and feeds various aquaponics and hydroponics systems. The farm does not produce any traditional cash crops, but offers over 50 varieties of vegetables and herbs, a fruit orchard, berry patch and several ethnic crop fields. Two of the aquaponics systems are housed in greenhouses and another

to meet the needs of even highly specialized ethnic crops markets. It can therefore serve as a market buffer to ensure a steady supply of locally grown food while giving priority to small urban growers to meet local demand. The Food Hubs can thus connect local food producers and processors with urban markets with the Research Farm serving as a collaborative partner that reduces operational risk for small growers.

Conclusion Achieving food security must be a top priority for the United States and countries around the world. As more and more people live in urban centers, food security solutions must be urban as well. The Urban Food Hubs concept developed by the UDC College of Agriculture Urban

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Sustainability and Environmental Sciences (CAUSES) in D.C. are exemplars of a distributed food system that can make a meaningful contribution to food security while also improving urban sustainability and its economic, social/cultural, and environmental/physical dimensions. Figure 4 summarizes the conceptual framework of the Urban Food Hubs and their key components: food production (source), food preparation and processing (prepare), food distribution, marketing and customer service (distribute), and waste management (recycle).15 While the recent attention to food security is important, not everything that improves food security necessarily meets the test of sustainability. Highly centralized food systems, including vertical urban systems, may increase food production and accessibility, but at the cost of higher rates of non-embodied energy that goes to transportation, heating and cooling of production facilities, commercial fertilizers, and pest control, rather than to food production. The Urban Food Hubs advance both food security and sustainability by offering a model for distributed urban food systems that lower entropy and increase embodied energy. As the implementation and refinement of the Urban Food Hubs continues, dialogue with other urban communities will be of benefit. This is especially true for urban communities with highly prized land. These communities must meet food security and sustainability goals while competing for scarce land that is solely valued at its economic value without sufficient consideration of its social/cultural and environmental/physical value. Such urban communities face a far more intense battle for food security than shrinking urban centers where land is underutilized and where urban agriculture faces less intense land use competition.

CAUSES

Figure 4. Urban Food Systems.

References 1. Food security. United States Department of Agriculture [online] (July 10, 2014). http://www. ers.usda.gov/topics/food-nutrition-assistance/foodsecurity-in-the-us.aspx#.U77pLpRdXQg. 2. Agricultural Research Services, United States Department of Agriculture. National Nutrient

10, 2014). https://apps.ams.usda.gov/fooddeserts/

11. Halweil, B. Home Grown: The Case for Local Food in a Global Market (Worldwatch Institute. Danvers MA,

TractBreakdown.pdf. 6. Cook, J et al. Child food insecurity increases risks posed by household food insecurity to young children’s health. The Journal of Nutrition 136, 1073–76 (2006). 7. Canning, P, Charles, A, Huang, S, Polenske, KR,

2002). 12. Aquaponics. Growing Power [online] (July 10, 2014). http://www.growingpower.org/aquaponics.htm. 13. O’Hara, S. Aquaponics in urban neighborhoods—a

Database (National Agricultural Library, Beltsville

Waters, A. Energy use in the U.S. food system.

Washington D.C. experience. College of Agriculture,

MD, 2014).

United States Department of Agriculture. Economic

Urban Sustainability and Environmental Sciences

Research Service Report No. 94 (2010).

(CAUSES) (University of the District of Columbia,

3. District of Columbia community health needs. Government of the District of Columbia Department of Health [online] (April 10, 2014).

8. Carbon emissions. Food Carbon Footprint Calculator [online] (July 10, 2014). http://www.

http://doh(dot)dc(dot)gov/sites/default/files/dc/

foodcarbon.co.uk/carbon_emissions.html.

sites/doh/page_content/attachments/2nd%20

9. Weber, C & Matthews, H. Food-miles and the

Washington DC, 2014). 14. Richards, J. Why food waste is a good thing. Green Eatz [online] (May 12, 2014). http://www.greeneatz.com/1/ post/2013/01/how-to-feed-10-billion-people.html.

Draft%20CHNA%20%28v4%202%29%2006%20

relative climate impacts of food choices in the

04%202013%20-%20Vol%201(dot)pdf.

United States. Environmental Science and Technology

Partnership. Anacostia Pilot. Presentation for the

42(10), 3508–13 (2008).

Ward 7 Farm Workgroup, Executive Office of the

4. Nord, M. Household food security in the United States, 2009. United States Department of

10. College of Agriculture, Urban Sustainability and

15. O’Hara, S & Jones, D. Urban Waters Federal

Mayor, Washington, D.C., June 5, 2014.

Agriculture. Economic Research Service Report No. 108

Environmental Sciences (CAUSES). Landgrant

(2010).

programs impact and reach. A Report of the Activities of

entropy generation see Kakovitch, T & O’Hara,

the UDC Landgrant Centers (University of the District

S. Physics and the New Economy (HRD Press, Inc.,

of Columbia. Washington DC., 2013).

Amherst, MA, 2013).

5. Designated food desert census tracts. United States Department of Agriculture [online] (July

16. For a discussion of production strategies that reduce

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Reeve, T. and R. Warren. (2015). Are We Doing Our Best To Restore Watersheds? Lessons from a 10-Year Watershed Restoration Stratefgy. Solutions 6(1): 54-63. https://thesolutionsjournal.com/article/are-we-doing-our-best-to-restore-watersheds-lessons-from-a-10-year-watershed-restoration-strategy/

Feature

Are We Doing Our Best To Restore Watersheds? Lessons from a 10-Year Watershed Restoration Strategy by Todd Reeve and Robert Warren

David Merwin

The Upper Deschutes River in Oregon. The Upper Deschutes Watershed Council, the Deschutes Basin Land Trust, and the Deschutes River Conservancy have partnered with BEF to restore healthy trout and salmon populations.

In Brief For the past decade, the Bonneville Environmental Foundation (BEF) has explored ways to make community-based watershed restoration more effective. Through the application of an unconventional, 10-year funding strategy, BEF has identified important challenges and has also explored solutions that may increase the scale of impact produced by watershed restoration initiatives.

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or more than 10 years, the Bonneville Environmental Foundation (BEF) has explored ways to make community-based watershed restoration more effective. During this time, we have seen many well-meaning nonprofit watershed organizations struggle to match ambitious restoration goals with needed actions on the ground. Many groups operate on a shoestring budget, endure year-to-year funding uncertainties, experience high staff turnover, and lack key areas of technical expertise.1 However, the results of BEF’s work demonstrate that the challenges are bigger than just limited capacity and financial resources, and our experience reveals that there are opportunities for funders, government agencies, and NGOs to overcome restoration challenges by refining the way they support watershed restoration. It is counterintuitive to break ecosystem restoration into short-term, piecemeal projects and expect to achieve integrated, large-scale success on the ground. However, this is the model that pervades many watershed improvement efforts across the United States.2 Individual projects are designed, funded, completed and, in many cases, forgotten.3 It is rare that anyone, especially funders, return annually to assess whether restoration actions are reinforcing large-scale strategies and achieving measurable social and environmental benefits. Funding commitments are short-lived, projects are often scattered throughout large watersheds without intentional focus, and site selection (by necessity) is often driven by opportunity rather than long-term and strategic approaches.4 Committed and expert nonprofit staff work to sustain project implementation and adhere to a plan of action, but seldom have vested longterm partners to help them see where they have come and assess where they may need to go. Initially, BEF was part of this system. It made a series of

project-based grants with predictable results: little project evaluation or follow-up, projects that often stood alone without firm connections to a larger strategic plan, and no real idea about the overall impacts to the watershed.5

Key Concepts • A short-term and project-focused funding model does not provide the institutional foundation necessary to maximize long-term restoration impact. • Devoting resources to build and sustain social support will be necessary to achieve real and lasting watershed improvements. • Long-term funding commitments can alter the relationship between grantee and grantor, creating more transparency, a greater willingness to recognize and embrace learning from project shortcomings, and a stronger incentive to plan for longterm, large-scale outcomes. • There is often a gap between science and practice, but opportunities exist to engage scientists and practitioners as active partners in creative problem solving. • There are significant challenges that prevent organizations from implementing monitoring programs that effectively inform restoration strategy and action. However, practical and sustainable monitoring approaches (that do not strive to achieve an unrealistic level of precision) can generate useful data for community groups. • Funders, agencies, and other partners that support watershed restoration are often in a position to provide essential services that can significantly improve the effectiveness and scalability of restoration activity.

In 2003, BEF abandoned the project-based funding approach and established the Model Watershed program. Under this program, BEF offered a 10-year funding partnership that was built around a series of

one-year grants. We theorized that this long-term commitment would promote continuity and organizational stability, facilitate strategic implementation of priority actions, support effective monitoring and adaptation, and create a more open and transparent partnership between grantee and grantor.6–9

Our Partners Since the program’s inception, BEF has engaged with a diverse array of locally based nonprofit organizations across six western states and has committed support to a total of 15 Model Watersheds. Today BEF remains involved in 12 Model Watershed partnerships and also serves as an advisor, working with funders and agencies to support the design of restoration strategies in four additional watersheds. In a few cases where circumstances with Model Watersheds partners have changed significantly, BEF has amicably parted ways with partners prior to the end of a full 10-year period.

How It Works Each partnership is formalized with a 10-year Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). In close collaboration with BEF staff, partner groups develop a Model Watershed proposal that functions as a strategic restoration action plan. It includes an aspirational vision, long-term restoration goals, and a suite of strategies that partners commit to carry out. The plan also establishes a framework to track implementation actions and monitor progress towards achieving desired ecological outcomes. Grants to local organizations are renewed annually, and progress is measured against annual work plans and the long-term expectations put forth by grantees. An underlying tenet of the initiative is to continually hold partners accountable for the long-term restoration goals they set for themselves.

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BEF 2014

Watersheds in which BEF are actively engaged.

BEF does not ask for specifics regarding how grant funds will be used but rather expects partner organizations to report on the overall effort—including activities not directly supported by BEF and progress towards both near-term implementation objectives and longterm restoration goals. Funding is meant to help but not be the focus of

each partnership. This idea represents an attempt to move away from the project-focused funding paradigm and encourage a more holistic perspective and partnership by both grantee and grantor. BEF provides a broad range of support services and partners with both philanthropic organizations and government agencies to fund this work.10

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Annual grants to Model Watershed partners typically range from US $25,000 to $80,000 per year.

Solidifying Our Learning At the core of BEF’s Model Watershed approach is a desire to support an adaptive cycle of planning, doing, and recalibration. As the Model Watershed Program evolved over the past 10

years, BEF used the following methods to gather information and aggregate feedback about the strengths, shortcomings, and opportunities to improve the approach: • In 2004, BEF surveyed the results of 19 funded projects and collected information from site visits and interviews with project partners. • In 2009, BEF completed an online survey of 213 nonprofit watershed groups and conducted a formal series of in-person and phone interviews with project partners. • In 2014, BEF conducted a quantitative analysis of restoration progress in a subset of seven model watersheds.

Lessons Learned BEF’s collective analysis of Model Watershed partnerships indicates that some initial assumptions were well founded. However, other assumptions were off-base, and several program goals remain elusive. With 10 years of experience emerging from BEF’s Model Watershed experiment, we strive to share key components of our learning with the field and offer some solutions that promise to improve the efficacy of ongoing watershed restoration investments.

Long-term Commitments: Where It All Begins Those who have contemplated the complexities of restoring a degraded ecosystem know that it is a long-term undertaking, yet funding commitments typically come in short increments. This promotes a project-by-project focus and provides practitioners with little breathing room or incentive to assess if ongoing strategies are producing the desired long-term impacts. Surveys and experience indicate that longer commitments fundamentally alter the relationship between grantee and grantor, creating more transparency,

a greater willingness to recognize (or even embrace) learning from project shortcomings, and a stronger incentive to plan for long-term, large-scale results. Once an honest relationship is established, feedback and examples from the field suggest that grantees and grantors can become empowered to initiate the earnest discussions about what works, what doesn’t, and what it will really take to achieve ambitious restoration goals—or in many cases to discuss whether such goals are actually attainable.

Intentional Focus and Prioritization Watersheds are vast, complex landscapes where the relatively limited resources of local groups pale in contrast to the immensity of restoration needs. As a result, organizations are faced with difficult decisions of where and how to focus their restoration investments.11

point. The UDWC is charged with protecting and restoring a two-million acre watershed. Early in the group’s history, restoration efforts were spread broadly across the landscape, with projects sometimes located as much as 30 miles apart. Through a collaborative process, UDWC staff and several key partner organizations determined that a scattered approach across such a large area was unlikely to produce measurable improvements. As a result, the UDWC formed a partnership with several key local NGOs and made two critical decisions: a) they committed to focus their collective efforts on a very specific and manageable geographic area, and b) they defined specific organizational niches and delineated partner roles to avoid duplicating efforts. There initially was push-back from some stakeholders concerned that limiting the geographic focus of restoration would neglect some areas of the

The long-term commitment enabled us to do what’s right for the watershed instead of what keeps the door open for the watershed council. —Liz Redon, North Santiam Watershed Council As an example of this mismatch between scale and capacity, a BEF survey of restoration progress in select Model Watersheds located in Oregon and Washington found that during a 10-year period, some of the most wellfunded watershed groups will address just two to eight percent of identified restoration needs. This suggests that even very successful, high-performing initiatives will need to operate consistently for well over a half century to achieve large-scale impact. BEF’s partnership with the Upper Deschutes Watershed Council (UDWC) provides a useful case in

watershed. However, by focusing on areas with strong social support and high ecological value, the UDWC and its partners built a regional reputation around demonstrating restoration success. This has served to attract new funders, motivate stakeholders, and facilitate cautious expansion into new areas of the watershed. Without this tight geographic focus and efficient management of scarce resources, there is a distinct possibility that restoration in the upper Deschutes would today remain opportunistic, with disparate projects, few measurable impacts, and inefficient duplication of NGO roles.

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For the many ambitious and passionate individuals who support this work, it can seem counterintuitive to purposefully focus on one area only to ignore needs in another area. However, our experience suggests that this is a key solution necessary to avoid outstripping local organizational capacity. Funders, agencies, and others that support this work can encourage (or even insist on) such focus by empowering and supporting groups to prioritize and implement restoration actions in areas or ways where there is a chance of making and measuring a real impact.

strategic alignment among multiple organizations and broad expression of community appreciation for stewarding ecological values are useful indicators of potential. In several cases, BEF has become involved in watersheds where the prevailing interests of local stakeholders were not sufficiently aligned with the interests of our committed nonprofit partners. In such cases, we simply have not been successful—even with a 10-year approach. Early on, BEF initiated a Model Watershed partnership with a young watershed group located in

It is a dance…between knowing what needs to be done and then having the social capital to do it. —Amy Verbeten, Friends of the Teton River

The Importance of Social Infrastructure BEF initially theorized that the presence of a committed nonprofit watershed group with diverse board membership was adequate evidence of the community “buy-in” needed to advance restoration. However, it has become clear that the mere presence of an enthusiastic local watershed organization does not by itself assure that social conditions are adequate to advance real and sustained restoration progress. Through trial and error, BEF has learned that real and lasting watershed improvement has the highest probability of success in places where a broad range of community leaders embrace watershed restoration and social infrastructure is in place (or can be organized) to support and sustain restoration efforts over many decades. We have not established criteria to specifically define or quantify social attributes conducive to successful restoration. However, in a number of cases we find that collaboration and

southwestern Washington State. The group possessed professional staff, exceptional technical capacity, and was on track to implement one of the largest estuary restoration projects in the Pacific Northwest. The positive impacts for salmon and water quality were expected to be significant, and as a result, many external partners (including BEF) were attracted to this initiative. Over time, however, it became clear that the passion that the organization held for ecological restoration was not shared by a majority of community members. Eventually a vocal minority from the community raised concerns and effectively undermined much of the proposed estuary restoration work along with the reputation of the organization. Because the larger community was not sufficiently “bought in” to the overall vision for the watershed—and what would be required to achieve this vision—there was no attempt to overcome minority opposition. Given the complexity of watershed ecosystems and the improbability that

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a local group with limited resources and no regulatory authority can effect far-reaching improvements, it is clear that local buy-in, reasonable alignment of interests, and existing social infrastructure remain critical to achieving durable restoration results. Our experience suggests that vested funders, agencies, and restoration partners need to honestly scrutinize social conditions and assess alignment among key stakeholder groups. This level of assessment allows project partners to better understand social limitations and then make hard decisions around whether near-term project investments are likely to produce lasting change over many decades—or whether time and resources still need to be focused on building social infrastructure.

Institutionalizing Learning and Adaptation In our experience, grantees ultimately become willing to own and examine successes and failures when they know a funder is a committed partner dedicated to learning, adapting, and achieving real change on the ground. Thus, we continue to theorize that one of the biggest benefits of a longer funding horizon should be improved institutional learning and adaptation. Despite these expectations, frequent staff turnover in BEF’s Model Watersheds (and across the NGO sector in general) creates an everpresent challenge that often limits our partners’ ability to maximize institutional learning and adaptation.12 A 2013 analysis conducted by BEF, for example, documented a sobering 84 percent rate of staff turnover among seven Model Watershed groups during a five-year period. With this level of institutional change, it is mandatory that funders and other vested partners establish and support processes that can institutionalize knowledge of restoration history and make it a recurring requirement that partners collectively

Bureau of Land Management Oregon/ Washington

The Coos Bay watershed on the Oregon coast. The Coos Watershed Association has been highly successful as a BEF Model Watershed Program partner.

assess restoration progress and explore adaptations or course corrections. We have seen immense value result when institutional funding partners and stakeholders commit to make it a recurring priority to convene and document annual progress and lessons from the field. By routinely convening partners and comparing annual progress against longer-term restoration goals and theories for change, restoration organizations can be empowered to build on their rich history of experience and create a culture of learning, evaluation, and adaptation. External partners can play a key role in prioritizing and participating in this step and ensuring that adaptive management doesn’t fall victim to the pressing day-to-day needs of local organizations.

Integrating Science and Practice BEF initiated its watershed funding program with an underlying expectation that all aspects of the work should be “science-based.”13 To this end, BEF engages agency and academic scientists to review restoration strategies and provide periodic advice and recommendations to guide restoration and monitoring work undertaken by our partners. In some cases, independent review of our partners’ work has led to necessary adjustments of restoration goals and strategies. In one example, Model Watershed partners in Idaho were working hard to restore stream habitat with the belief that habitat improvements alone would increase abundance of native trout. Outside scientific reviewers, however, noted

that competition with—and predation from—non-native fish would likely negate any benefit generated by habitat restoration. Our partners, in turn, altered their approach and adapted restoration strategies to address (or at least begin to better understand) the role that non-native species play in the recovery of native trout. Despite the importance of infusing science into watershed restoration, several factors have prevented BEF from maximizing the value of independent scientific review and input. We have found, for example, that scientists rarely possess a full appreciation for the practical and social realities on the ground—and that practitioners often fail to fully comprehend the magnitude and complexity of ecological factors that restrict their progress

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Scientific Recommendation

On-the-Ground Challenge

Suppress non-native fish to benefit native species

Non-native fish are often prized by local communities and resource managers

Treat all restoration projects as experiments

Experimental inquiry is not a funder priority and thus resources needed to set up and adequately monitor restoration treatments are rare

Establish designated treatment and “control” areas to facilitate statistically valid monitoring

Permission to access control sites is unreliable, and landowners disdain using their land as a “control” because it can restrict desired restoration or recreation activities

Implement long-duration monitoring programs to assess and understand ecosystem scale responses over time

NGOs typically lack access to funding and resources needed to sustain effective monitoring programs over a sufficient period to detect ecosystem scale response

Eschew opportunistic restoration actions and instead focus on priority areas with the greatest ecological value for species of concern

Restoration priority areas often exist on private lands, and permission to implement projects on private property is often not obtainable

Table 1.

towards achieving aspirational goals.14 This disparity has made it difficult to immediately translate scientific wisdom into improved restoration practice. Table 1 draws on examples from BEF’s Model Watersheds to illustrate some of the gaps between science and practice. Based on BEF’s experience bringing scientists together with watershed groups, it has become clear that funders, agencies and other vested partners can play a role in facilitating a two-way dialogue between the science and practice of watershed restoration. This dialogue can be used to engage scientists and practitioners as active partners in creative problem solving to identify a middle ground where practical and recommended courses of action will guide increasingly effective allocations of time and money.15,16

Monitoring is Critical… but Difficult BEF expected that its long-term funding commitment and focus on measured outcomes would solve many of the challenges around monitoring and accountability. However, monitoring continues to be a challenge. Monitoring and evaluation programs that successfully contribute to adaptive management are rare among watershed restoration initiatives, and BEF’s own nation-wide survey of watershed restoration groups (n=213) confirmed that a majority of groups find it almost impossible to implement monitoring programs that detect the effects of their restoration work.17,18 There are many reasons that monitoring remains a challenge. Monitoring efforts typically are not a high priority (partly because of the project-focused funding environment),

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and funders rarely commit resources needed to sustain monitoring over sufficient time scales.19 However, through experimentation with our Model Watershed partners, we have found that the problem is bigger than just funding, expertise, or capacity. Lack of staffing continuity and monitoring consistency over time, long-term ecological response cycles, the sporadic pace of restoration implementation, and lack of access to private lands all create challenges that limit the applicability of many conventional monitoring solutions. Furthermore, after consulting with scientists, statisticians, and monitoring experts, we find very little agreement on how best to structure a monitoring program when resources (both financial and human) are limited and frequently in flux. To be sure, there is a trove of publications and protocols

Ron Cooper

Overlooking the city of Salem in the Willamette River Basin. BEF worked with partners in the area to contract the direct supply of native trees to restore degraded streamside areas.

outlining how to monitor all manner of watershed conditions, but we have found little agreement on how best to structure a monitoring program that both reflects the practical realities of community-based watershed restoration and contributes concrete information that can clearly and decisively inform management decisions. While effective adaptive management remains a goal of many institutions (including BEF), the challenges above have convinced us that a simpler approach is often better. Approaches, for example, that apply qualitative methods or employ the concept of an extensive posttreatment design rather than more complicated paired or “before-after” approaches appear better suited to the dynamic capacity and limited funding that drive many communityled watershed initiatives. To this end,

we have increasingly begun to test the utility of a “weight-of-evidence” approach where multiple sources of qualitative data can collectively be used to infer that environmental conditions are responding positively to restoration. We do not possess any universal solutions at this point; however, in a number of cases, simpler and more qualitative approaches have provided more useful information to our nonprofit partners than statistically rigorous designs that require significant funding and many years to generate useful feedback. There is little doubt that statistically based monitoring plays an important role in ecological restoration. However, our experience suggests that these approaches work best when watershed groups partner with agencies, universities, or other entities that

have resources and capacity to ensure that such efforts can be appropriately designed and sustained. We posit that funders, agencies, and other partners that support watershed restoration can and should encourage simple, practical, and sustainable monitoring approaches that are informed by science—but that do not strive to achieve a level of precision (or require implementation for a duration) that is unrealistic and unlikely to generate useful data for community groups.

Support Services: An Untapped Opportunity? Funding is often considered the primary factor necessary to expand the scale and results of watershed restoration. Often overlooked, however, are key partner support services that can increase organizational effectiveness and expand restoration impact.

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The Methow Restoration Council and Methow Salmon Recovery Foundation, in partnership with BEF, worked with federal, state, tribal, and local stakeholders to restore native fish populations and habitats along the Methow River in Washington.

In one example from Oregon’s Willamette River basin, BEF worked with seven nonprofit watershed groups to identify priority tributaries in which to focus and scale up planting of native trees to restore degraded streamside areas. After several years of focused efforts, the scale of planting began to outstrip the ability of regional nurseries to supply trees. BEF and our partners were faced with either capping restoration activity or building a new service model to increase the pace

and scale of restoration. BEF worked directly with nurseries to create a contract grow operation where firm supply contracts were established and upfront funding was provided several years in advance of actual planting needs. This provided nursery operators with the financial assurance needed to collect native seed stock and significantly increase production of native plants. In 2009 and 2010 (before the contract grow operation) Willamette Model Watershed partners planted an average

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of just over 20 acres per year. By 2014, these groups collectively were planting over 251 acres of streamside lands annually and had restored native vegetation to over 66 miles of streamside habitat. Many factors contributed to the success of this work, however, the support services provided by the contract grow operation were fundamental to achieving this ramp up in restoration output. This example showcases a type of solution not commonly considered (or undertaken) by funders or other

monitoring implementation, group facilitation, peer-to-peer learning, and project design. And while needs vary from watershed to watershed, the provision of these services has demonstrated that external partners have more to offer than just funding.

supporting partners. With the inherent limited capacity of many nonprofit groups, it is critical that agencies, tribes, municipalities, and others that support this work begin to scrutinize how they might use their unique capacity, resources, or influence to provide services and support that can expand restoration potential for on-the-ground partners. BEF has experimented with providing services and support for communication and public relations, technical review,

Watershed Enhancement Board (2010). 4. Roni, P et al. A review of stream restoration techniques and a hierarchical strategy for prioritizing restoration in Pacific Northwest watersheds. North American Journal of Fisheries Management 22, 1–20 (2002). 5. Reeve, T, Lichatwich J, Towey, W & Duncan, A. Building science and accountability into community-based restoration: can a new funding

Summary

Eli Duke

monitoring. Report prepared for the Oregon

Over the past 10 years, BEF has experimented with a range of unconventional strategies and support roles in an attempt to test how to increase the effectiveness of locally based watershed restoration initiatives and expand the impact of on the ground restoration investments. In spite of many remaining challenges, we are convinced that a long-term commitment should be the foundation of watershed restoration initiatives everywhere: transparency, accountability, community buy-in, and sustained levels of efficient restoration output all grow out of an approach that is not just project-based. BEF is certainly not the only institution doing this work, and the presence and restoration activity of dozens of innovative funders and hundreds of community-based watershed groups across North America provide great promise that local solutions are poised to play a vital role in improving North America’s watershed ecosystems. With this paper, we have sought to identify some readily implementable solutions that we believe are applicable across a majority of watersheds and also highlight a few areas where more exploration is needed to identify the best path forward.

approach facilitate effective and accountable restoration? Fisheries 31(1), 17– 24 (2006). 6. Bernhardt, ES et al. Restoring rivers one reach at a time: results from a survey of U.S. river protection practitioners. Restoration Ecology 15, 482–494 (2007). 7. Kondolf, GM. Five Elements for effective evaluation of stream restoration. Ecology 3(2), 133–136 (1995). 8. Bash, JS & Ryan, CM. Stream restoration and enhancement projects: is anyone monitoring? Environmental Management 29(6), 877–885 (2002). 9. Herbst, D & Kane, J. Responses of Aquatic Macroinvertebrates to Stream Channel Reconstruction in a Degraded Rangeland Creek in the Sierra Nevada. Ecological Restoration 27, 76–88 (2009). 10. Wiley, P, Reeve, T, Bierly, K & Smith, K. When local solutions aren’t enough: a strategic funding partnership to restore a large river system. The Foundation Review 5(1) (2013). 11. Beechie, T, Pess, G, Roni, P & Giannico, G. Setting river restoration priorities: a review of approaches and a general protocol for identifying and prioritizing actions. North American Journal of Fisheries Management 28, 891–905 (2008). 12. 2014 nonprofit employment practices survey. Nonproft HR [online] (2014). http:// www.nonprofithr.com/wp-content/ uploads/2014/03/2014NEP_SurveyReport-FINAL.pdf. 13. Lichatowich, JA & Williams, RN. Failures to incorporate science into fishery management and recovery programs: lessons from the Columbia River. American Fisheries Society Symposium 70, 1005–1019 (2009). 14. Cabin, RJ. Science-driven restoration: a square grid on a round earth? Restoration Ecology 15(1), 1–7 (2007). 15. Rhoads, BL, Wilson, D, Urban, M & Herricks, EE. Interaction between scientists and nonscientists in community-based watershed management: emergence of the concept of stream naturalization. Environmental Management 24(3), 297–308 (1999). 16. Palmer, MA. Reforming watershed restoration:

References 1. Lurie, S & Hibbard, M. Community-based natural resource management: ideals and realities for Oregon watershed councils. Society and Natural Resources 21, 430–440 (2008). 2. Kondolf, GM et al. Projecting cumulative benefits of multiple river restoration projects: an example from the Sacramento-San Joaquin river system in California. Environmental Management 42, 933–945 (2008). 3. Demeter Design. Riparian restoration effectiveness

science in need of application and applications in need of science. Estuaries and Coasts 32(1), 1559– 2723 (2008). 17. Monitoring investment strategy for the Salmon Recovery Funding Board. Stillwater Sciences [online] (2013). http://www.stillwatersci.com/. 18. Palmer, MA & Allan, JD. Restoring rivers. Issues in Science and Technology Winter (2006). 19. Kondolf, GM. Five elements for effective evaluation of stream restoration. Ecology 3(2), 133–136 (1995).

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Pickard, B.R., J. Baynes, M. Mehaffey, and A.C. Neale. (2015). Translating Big Data into Big Climate Ideas. Solutions 6(1): 64-73. https://thesolutionsjournal.com/article/resolving-the-increasing-risk-from-american-wildfires-in-the-american-west/

Feature

Translating Big Data into Big Climate Ideas by Brian R. Pickard, Jeremy Baynes, Megan Mehaffey, and Anne C. Neale

lobal climate change has emerged as the significant challenge of the 21st century. While discussions tend to center on greenhouse gases, other factors such as technological developments, land and energy use, economics, and population growth play a critical role in understanding climate change. As a result of the interconnected nature of these factors, traditional and often disparate science fields are joining together to tackle a set of extremely complex and compelling climate science questions. Scientists from such diverse fields as economics, engineering, forestry, health, and medicine are increasingly working together with climate scientists and modelers to improve understanding of how climate change will impact different sectors.1 To assess the risk of crossing identifiable thresholds in both physical change and impacts on biological and human systems, researchers must consider a range of climate change rates and magnitudes.2 Since 1990, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has released regular Assessment Reports that aim to “assess on a comprehensive, objective, and transparent basis the scientific, technical and socio-economic information relevant to understanding the…risk

of human induced climate change, its potential impacts and the options for adaptation and mitigation.”3 The IPCC recommends using a standard set of climate scenarios that apply uniform starting conditions, historical data, and projections for all future climate modeling efforts to facilitate consistent climate change research across the globe. These “future scenarios” describe plausible trajectories of different aspects of possible future climates and serve as a common method for passing global change science to other research foci to explore the implications in social, economic, political, and environmental fields.4 The scope and complexity of these scenarios has vastly increased since the first installment released by the IPCC in 1992. With this increasing complexity, the resources necessary to understand and translate IPCC information to nonclimate science research fields have also grown, creating a relative disconnect between climate science, the general public, and other interdisciplinary research. Recognizing the inherent role that climate change variables (e.g. temperature, precipitation, and potential evapotranspiration) can have on multiple sectors of interest, many research fields are now incorporating climate

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In Brief Climate change has emerged as the significant environmental challenge of the 21st century. Therefore, understanding our changing world has forced researchers from many different fields of science to join together to tackle complicated research questions. The climate change research community now faces the daunting task of disseminating massive amounts of information about possible future climates under differing scenarios to a broad audience. They also need to make the data readily accessible so that it can be used by scientists in other research fields. One potential solution for distribution and communication of the climate scenario information may be through the EnviroAtlas, a new geospatial application developed by the United States Environmental Protection Agency and its partners. This interactive mapping tool allows users to access and explore climate change modeling information in easily understandable formats while providing a range of information on different ecosystem goods and services, or the benefits people receive from nature. By incorporating future scenarios such as land use and climate change within EnviroAtlas, we can evaluate specific components of complex ecosystems within the context of forecasted futures. Linking climate change impacts to ecosystem services, such as clean air and water, allows for opportunities to demonstrate how climate change will impact ecosystems, societies, and human health.

research into their work. However, interdisciplinary scientists in these fields are not likely to be explicitly trained climate modelers. Therefore, two major challenges face climate change research: 1) the dissemination of voluminous amounts of future climate information to broad audiences in meaningful ways, and 2) the integration of climate model information with other research disciplines. Global change research that establishes and effectively conveys the interactions among the biological, physical, and social systems to broad audiences, both in the public and in the academic arenas, has the potential to influence future policy and personal choices. In this article, we discuss a possible solution for addressing the aforementioned challenges through the use of EnviroAtlas, a new application developed by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) and partners. EnviroAtlas is a web-based, geospatial tool that allows users to interact with climate change modeling information in easily understandable formats while simultaneously providing a range of information on different ecosystem goods and services. The benefits people receive from nature are broadly defined as ecosystem services,5–7 and when viewed in relation to future climate scenario information, meaningful forecasting and understanding can be achieved. Here, we first describe the evolution of the IPCC’s future climate scenarios, including the most recent modeling efforts, and their inclusion within EnviroAtlas. We then explain how EnviroAtlas provides a useful platform for interdisciplinary lines of inquiry and wide dissemination of information. Lastly, we acknowledge this is a first step in a large and complex solution and provide recommendations for future analysis and visualization tools that will be necessary to facilitate novel, interdisciplinary global change research.

Future Climate Scenario Modeling Research scientists have traditionally been the sole users of climate change information; however, resource managers have expressed a growing need and desire to access climate change scenarios and data to inform policy and decision making.8

Key Concepts • Climate change modeling provides the foundational information and data necessary to evaluate potential impacts to ecosystem services. However, the size and complexity of plausible “future climate scenarios” requires significant resources and expertise, making it difficult to communicate climate change information to nonclimate scientists. • Understanding climate change and its impacts on humans and ecosystems is an inherently difficult task and requires expertise from many different fields of research that transcend the typical science paradigms and disciplines. • EnviroAtlas is a web-based interactive mapping application that allows for the most recent climate change modeling and science to be explored while simultaneously providing information on ecosystem services for the entire United States. • When specific parts of the environment can be evaluated in the context of predicted land use and climate changes, it is possible to understand and disseminate the information of how those impacts will change in both space and time and what the affect to ecosystems and humans will be.

Recently, policy makers have begun to rely on future climate scenarios to craft alternative adaptation and mitigation strategies.8 The IPCC has published several sets of climate change scenarios, beginning with the first set in 1992, called IS92. Later, in 2000 the IPCC released a Special Report on Emission Scenarios (SRES) that provided the backbone for the

climate modeling research of the last decade. The SRES marked the beginning of an explosion of climate data as the IPCC began archiving and publicly sharing all climate model outputs that used the same scenario framework.9 The Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP) relied upon 16 international modeling groups using 23 individual global circulation models (GCMs) to simulate current and future climates based on the SRES.9–11 This project, named CMIP3, made all relevant data and information open to the public to facilitate greater accessibility, analyses, and new research.9 The SRES also specified socio-economic circumstances that were fixed for each scenario. Limitations to this method were later identified as some variables (e.g. social, economic, and policy) were proscriptive and inflexible in ways that emissions and climate change outcomes are not. The climate modeling community has continued to improve its numerical modeling based on recent scientific advancements, increased computational abilities, and development of greater spatial resolution of geographic information. Therefore, periodic developments of new future climate scenarios have, and will continue to be, required. Decision-makers and scientists alike will always require greater development in climate scenarios as they perpetually desire faster results, greater detail, better validation, and easier exchanges of data and information between climate modelers and other fields of research. In 2014, the IPCC released the CMIP5 as its updated climate modeling effort.12 Most importantly, they moved away from the SRES and developed the Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs) process. This process developed emissions and socio-economic scenarios in parallel, building on different trajectories of radiative forcing over time. Radiative

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EnviroAtlas

Figure 1. Example of the EnviroAtlas future scenario time slider widget displaying forecasted autumn precipitation for the years 2010 to 2100 (the year 2093 is displayed) based on the RCP 8.5 future scenario. Users can select from multiple options, including the number of years to represent in the time slider, specific RCP scenarios, climate variables and corresponding seasons.

forcing is a measure of the influence a factor has in altering the balance of incoming and outgoing energy in the Earth–atmosphere system and is an index of the importance of the factor as a potential climate change mechanism.2 In practice, radiative forcing can be thought of as the difference between the radiant energy (incoming sunlight) received by the Earth and the energy that is radiated back to space. Simply put, a positive forcing in energy (as in the RCPs) will cause temperatures to increase, while a negative forcing (more outgoing energy) will decrease global temperature. This forcing is usually measured in the amount of energy applied to an area (typically in watts per square meter).

Each RCP scenario makes certain assumptions about future land-use and energy development, population growth, and other socio-economic factors, which help to drive the emission scenario. Based on these assumptions, each scenario provides information on a different emissions pathway and total emission concentration in the year 2100. The RCPs represent current emissions scenario literature and span a wide range of radiative forcing levels (or CO2-equivalent concentrations).4 In contrast to the SRES, the RCPs allow for flexible socioeconomic options to provide a more realistic representation of changing political and economic influences at regional scales.

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Challenges Associated with Expanding Data Size and Complexity Several challenges accompany the RCP process, in particular, the steady expansion of climate data size requirements and the ease of accessing specific climate model information. These challenges are especially apparent in research that relies on climate modeling but is conducted by other fields such as economics, ecology, and social sciences. Overpeck et al. (2011) identified two major objectives that must be addressed with regards to this expansion of data: 1) the increasing data volume should be easily and freely available to

Greg McNevin

The IPCC meeting in Yokohama, Japan in March 2013. The IPCC releases regular assessment reports on the potential impacts of climate change and options for mitigation. The reports also recommend a standard set of future climate scenarios.

promote novel research, and 2) the data and results should be useful and understandable to broad, interdisciplinary audiences. The CMIP5 dataset is extremely big, estimated at approximately 2.5 petabytes (there are approximately one million gigabytes in a petabyte), and thus is problematic to visually represent.8 There is a pressing need for the development of software tools for accessing, sifting through, and visualizing the outputs of the climate models (e.g. temperature, precipitation, etc.) for each of the years provided in the RCP scenarios (2001–2100).8 Including future climate scenario information and a climate

variable viewer as components of the publicly available EnviroAtlas provides a preliminary solution for addressing the growing disconnect among climate science and other disciplines. As a web-based tool, the geospatial nature of EnviroAtlas allows users to access, view, and analyze diverse information focusing on the benefits that humans receive from the environment and how these benefits affect human health and well-being. Integrating the newest geospatial technologies and recent ecosystem service research, users with only an internet browser can access EnviroAtlas and its wealth of spatially explicit data and analysis tools. In response

to the growing demand for global change information, EnviroAtlas has invested considerable time and effort into the integration of future climate, population, and land cover scenarios. Using future scenarios, it is possible to understand the forecasted impacts of climate change, which can then be used to project impacts to ecosystem services. Tangentially, incorporating these scenarios into EnviroAtlas provides a visualization tool for climate data. By combining many fields of research through this easy-to-use interface, the result is a novel tool that is spatially and temporally explicit and enables better decision making across multiple sectors.

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United Nations Photo

The Climate Summit 2014, hosted at the UN headquarters in New York in September. Policy makers are becoming increasingly dependent on comprehensive future climate scenarios to draft policies and mitigation strategies.

EnviroAtlas Climate Data and Visualization Effective policy formation, mitigation, and resiliency strategies depend on the spatial scale of the information being used to inform these decisions. Often, decisions are made at localized scales that differ greatly from the coarse spatial resolution provided by climate projections of the GCMs. For example, GCM experiments conducted under the CMIP5 are run at spatial resolutions ranging from 150 to 300 square kilometers. If resource managers were concerned with climate impacts related to New York City, the entire city would fit into one grid cell of the CMIP5 model runs. However, using downscaling methods that combine empirical techniques with high resolution gridded historical climate data, fine-scale climate information

can be interpolated from the GCMs.13 The NASA Earth Exchange (NEX) scientific collaboration platform has made available downscaled CMIP5 climate projections for the conterminous United States with a spatial grid resolution of approximately 800 meters. Named the NEX-DCP30 Downscaled Climate Projections, this dataset was released in 2013 to support scientific inquiry of regional climate change impacts and to provide meaningful information to natural resource managers in the United States.12 This dataset is made freely available through multiple web services as Network Common Data Form (NetCDF) files, ASCII, and other formats. NetCDF files are data formats that support the creation, access, and sharing of array-oriented scientific data.14 While publicly available, this

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information can be difficult to work with without sufficient computer programming knowledge. Additionally, data storage requirements limit some users from actively using the dataset. A single climate variable for one year (12 monthly measurements) at 800 meter resolution for the U.S. needs approximately one gigabyte of storage. With three climate variables, over 90 future years, 34 climate models, four RCP scenarios, historical runs, and ensemble statistics, the storage requirements quickly become far too large for many users. As climate science spans diverse new research fields,1 there is a need to present this information without the programming prerequisite and large storage requirements necessary for analyzing conventional climate projections. EnviroAtlas contains one possible solution to this problem

by bringing climate data into its interactive mapping application. This eliminates the requisite for computer programming knowledge and provides a means to access the standardized NetCDF format. The interactive mapping application within EnviroAtlas (Figure 1) allows for viewing and manipulation of select data at multiple spatial resolutions and by geographic area. By March 2015, EnviroAtlas will provide in its mapping application all four RCP scenarios for the conterminous U.S., for every year from 2006 to 2100. Additionally, historical climate models will be available for every year from 1950 to 2005, providing 150 years of continuous climate information. Both the retrospective and future datasets are based on the NEX-DCP30 Downscaled Climate Projections. EnviroAtlas provides a time slider control bar that lets users manipulate and view temporal data converted from the NEX-DCP30 Downscaled Climate Projections. This time slider functionality can be used to query years or seasons of interest, zoom in to specific geographic locations, and show animations of multiple years or seasons in the web application. Through the use of web services, users can import this data and information directly into their own online and desktop applications. In addition, this information can be viewed in conjunction with ecosystem services data and information served in EnviroAtlas. Climate variables are summarized annually and seasonally (fall, winter, spring, and summer) and include maximum and minimum temperatures, precipitation, and potential evapotranspiration (PET). PET was developed by EnviroAtlas researchers based on the foundational climate data of the NEX-DCP30 Downscaled Climate Projections. Therefore, the initial release will include a total of 16 different variables for viewing (four scenarios x four climate variables), with additional climate related metrics

planned for future updates. Each of the climate variables are based on the ensemble mean, which is the average of the downscaled climate projections from 34 CMIP5 GCMs. There can be considerable variability among the different GCMs; therefore, EnviroAtlas serves the ensemble mean to represent a plausible forecasted trend. Each climate variable was chosen specifically for its broad, widespread use in a multitude of research fields. While EnviroAtlas focuses on general trends within the CMIP5 information, other web applications have concentrated efforts on providing information about the variability among the different GCMs. The best example is the National Climate

and analyzed in relation to the RCP climate information. EnviroAtlas and the NCCV aim to communicate and provide climate related science in very different ways. Users can access climate modeling trends and see their relationship to ecosystem services within EnviroAtlas, and use the NCCV to further investigate the spatial and temporal range of variability and uncertainties of the different individual modeling efforts. When used in support of one another, these two publicly available web applications make climate science easily digestible for broad audiences and facilitate the investigation of climate change effects in relation to ecosystem services.

Recently, policy-makers have begun to rely on future climate scenarios to craft alternative adaptation and mitigation strategies. Change Viewer (NCCV, www.usgs. gov/climate_landuse/clu_rd/nexdcp30.asp) developed by the United States Geological Survey, which includes future climate projections for each of the CMIP5 GCMs for the RCP 8.5 and 4.5. In addition to coarse scale visualizations of the two scenarios, the NCCV also has tools that allow for comparisons of the different model outputs. These tools allow users to understand the differences and range of variability among the different GCMs. While the NCCV tool provides a powerful resource for understanding individual climate model variability in relation to the ensemble average, it contains no geospatial component and does not allow for its data to be viewed in relation to other geospatial environmental data. In comparison, EnviroAtlas provides a wealth of geospatial ecosystem service data that can be viewed, queried,

Linking Ecosystems and Climate Change EnviroAtlas uses an ecosystem services framework that integrates data on ecology, demographics, economics, public health, and recently, climate change. The implementation of this framework relies on an ecosystem-based approach that allows for the evaluation of how humans and natural ecosystems influence and interact with each other. Data within EnviroAtlas are organized into multiple categories that characterize the production of ecosystem services, the benefits derived, and the attributes that may affect an ecosystem’s ability to continue producing those services. Maps and information are organized into seven benefit categories to maximize accessibility to a large volume of diverse data. There are three types of geospatial data provided: ecosystem services indicator data that have been summarized to standard EnviroAtlas

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Oxfam International

EnvirAtlas can identify climate vulnerable crop failures in relation to future climate change. For example, agriculture in the southwestern region of North America, such as this farmer in Mexico, may be impacted more by increased drought events.

reporting units, ecosystem services data in their native derived resolutions, and reference data (e.g. land cover and demographics) to help place the ecosystem services data into context. Due to their complexity, ecosystem services typically cannot be assessed at a single point in space or time, as they may be influenced by surrounding and distant patterns of land use, biophysical attributes, and changes in climate. Therefore, by incorporating future scenarios such as landscape and climate change into EnviroAtlas, assessments can be made that evaluate specific components of an ecosystem within the context of forecasted futures. Housing a variety of data in one publicly available online tool encourages users to think in new, transdisciplinary ways. By including the IPCC climate scenario information

in EnviroAtlas, users will be able to explore the interconnectedness of climate and physical conditions of anthropogenic and natural systems. Analyzing the location and distribution of climate vulnerable crop failures in relation to future climate change is one example of the transdisciplinary work that EnviroAtlas facilitates. Biophysical factors such as increasing temperatures and changing precipitation and potential evapotranspiration regimes are the main drivers of agricultural responses to climate change and have been shown to impact agricultural systems in region specific ways.15–18 For example, the agricultural sector in the southeast U.S. may be forced to deal with greater ranges of precipitation, including more intense storm events, throughout the growing season. In contrast, farmers in the southwest may be more greatly

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impacted by increased drought events. Given these regional differences, individual farmers, and to a larger extent the entire agricultural sector, should be keenly aware of the spatial and temporal nature of forecasted changes to climate. EnviroAtlas provides information on several crop yields (including cotton, fruit, grain, and vegetables), the number of crop types, and the total hectares of crops. This information is spatially explicit and can be viewed simultaneously with forecasted seasonal temperatures, precipitation, and potential evapotranspiration. Having the power to evaluate and view this information simultaneously allows for the identification of areas where crop failure is likely to increase both in the immediate (e.g. 2025) and distant future (e.g. 2080) due to changing temperature and precipitation regimes.

John B. Kalla

EnvirAtlas also predicts the possibility of greatly increased precipitation in the southeast US, which would have large scale impacts on regional agriculture.

Initial Uses and Applications of EnviroAtlas The main goal of EnviroAtlas is to reach a broad and interdisciplinary audience, including those involved in education, conservation, land management, and policy as well as scientists. Prior to making EnviroAtlas publicly available, a prerelease beta test was conducted. Approximately 660 people registered as beta-testers. In addition to providing feedback on EnviroAtlas, each beta-tester was asked for information on their job field. Responses ranged from ecologists and environmental scientists, GIS professionals, research scientists, educators, public health officials, urban planners, conservationists, and restoration workers. Subsequently, since its public release in May 2014, the EnviroAtlas interactive map has

had approximately 120,000 map views. Based on the web-tracking data, a conservative estimate of daily site use is 880 individual EnviroAtlas users per day. These early results, combined with our prerelease testing, indicates that EnviroAtlas is reaching broad, interdisciplinary audiences and is also being used by the public. As EnviroAtlas continues to gain traction, daily site traffic and complex spatial analyses applying EnviroAtlas tools and data is anticipated to increase. The tools and data provided within EnviroAtlas have been employed in several diverse projects aimed at mitigating climate change, ranging from microscale to regional and national applications. From a regional perspective, the Southeast Atlantic Landscape Conservation Cooperative (SALCC)

has incorporated EnviroAtlas layers as web services in its Conservation Blueprint currently under development. SALCC is a partnership of federal, state, nonprofit, and private organizations focused on conserving a landscape capable of sustaining the natural and cultural resources for current and future generations. The SALCC has a large focal area, including portions of Virginia, North and South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. Therefore, the data and information provided by EnviroAtlas has helped to guide development of a conservation plan aimed at dealing with climate change, urban growth, and increasing human demands on resources. Given the priority of the SALCC to conserve natural and cultural resources for future generations, the ability to model future climate

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scenarios is a key component of identifying the places and actions needed to meet conservation objectives in the face of future global change. The SALCC Conservation Blueprint 1.0 has been created with version 2.0 in early development; EnviroAtlas data and tools will continue to assist in this work. The multiscalar capabilities of EnviroAtlas have allowed for city-specific applications as well. Trees Across Durham (TAD), an organization funded by the city of Durham, North Carolina, has used EnviroAtlas to prioritize tree plantings across their city. A key goal of the Durham Sustainability Pilot Project is to increase the city’s resiliency to climate change. TAD utilized EnviroAtlas to determine strategic placements of urban trees on public

The Tip of the Melting Iceberg: Future Challenges for Interdisciplinary Climate Science Novel climate research often combines several traditional science disciplines to answer compelling questions.1 Yet this interdisciplinary nature creates significant hurdles when communicating climate research to multiple audiences, each of whom have different perspectives on how research is to be conducted, different syntax for discussing science, and even distinct outlets for publication and sources of funding.1 EnviroAtlas seeks to provide a credible initial solution to these hurdles by providing a space to disseminate the newest climate modeling efforts in concert with ecosystem services. This climate viewer eliminates the need for massive storage capabili-

Integrating the newest geospatial technologies and recent ecosystem service research, users with only an internet browser can access EnviroAtlas and its wealth of spatially explicit data and analysis tools. property throughout the city limits to maximize environmental, social, and economic benefits to the community. The strategic planting of hundreds of trees were aimed at offsetting (through sequestration) pollutants such as nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter, reducing the formation of smog, and creating a more climate resilient city by potentially mitigating the urban heat island phenomena.19 TAD’s next planting project is scheduled for Fall 2014 and, with the continued use of EnviroAtlas, will be able to include estimates of future climate variables, such as temperature and precipitation, to prioritization planting schemes for anticipated global change in the near and distant future.

ties, the ability to program and handle multiple complex data formats, and provides easy comparison of climate scenarios. Many levels of complexity are built into the web-based geospatial application where an understanding of the interactions among the biophysical, social, economic, and human health spectrums can be achieved. There is increasing urgency for methods to forecast how different sectors may be altered as a result of climate change. EnviroAtlas has demonstrated one method for doing so, but much work remains. Continued investment in geospatial visualization and analysis tools focusing on climate modeling efforts are imperative for transdisciplinary climate science in

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the future. Model limitations must be effectively communicated to improve climate system understanding and forecasted changes; therefore, it is critical to couple the capabilities of the EnviroAtlas with tools to highlight model variability such as the NCCV. Just as important will be the ability to forecast ecosystem services based on these modeling efforts. Linking climate change impacts to ecosystem services, such as clean air or water, allows for opportunities to clearly demonstrate how climate change will impact our societies and human health. Climate modeling has provided a crucial foundation, but now research and tools that transcend traditional science paradigms are necessary to answer interdisciplinary questions that focus on the impacts to ecosystems. Acknowledgements This project was supported in part by an appointment to the Research Participation Program for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Research and Development, administered by the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education through an interagency agreement between the U.S. Department of Energy and EPA. The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the EPA. References 1. Shaman, J, Solomon, S, Colwell, RR, & Field, CB. Fostering advances in interdisciplinary climate science. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 110, 3653–3656 (2013). 2. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Climate Change 2007: Synthesis Report. Contribution of Working Groups I, II and III to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (eds Pachauri, R.K. & Reisinger, A.) (IPCC, Geneva, 2007). 3. Principals governing IPCC work. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [online] (2014). http:// www.ipcc.ch/pdf/ipcc-principles/ipcc-principles.pdf. 4. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fifth

Kevin Oliver

EnvirAtlas was used by Trees Across Durham in the city of Durham, North Carolina to prioritize the strategic planting of urban trees across the city. Here, recent plantings at the Sarah P. Duke Gardens in the city.

Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental

10. Meehl, GA, Covey, C, McAvaney, B, Latif, M &

Panel on Climate Change (eds Stocker, T.F. et al.)

Stouffer, RJ. Overview of the Coupled Model

(Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2013).

Intercomparison Project. Bulletin of the American

5. Costanza, R & Folk, C. in Nature’s Services: Societal Dependence on Natural Ecosystems (ed. Daily, G) Ch. 4 (Island Press, Washington DC, 1997). 6. Costanza, R et al. The value of the world’s ecosystem services and natural capital. Nature 387, 253–260 (1997). 7. Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. Ecosystems and Human Well-being: Current State and Trends (Island Press, Washington DC, 2005). 8. Overpeck, JT, Meehl, GA, Bony, S & Easterling, DR. Climate data challenges in the 21st Century. Science 331, 700–702 (2011). 9. Meehl, GA et al. The WCRP CMIP3 multimodel dataset: A new era in climate change research. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 88, 1383–1394 (2007).

Meteorological Society 86, 89–93 (2005).

food production under SRES emissions and socioeconomic scenarios. Global Environmental Change 14, 53–67 (2004). 16. Reilly, J, Tubiello, FN, McCarl B, & Melillo, J in US

11. Covey, C et al. An overview of results from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project. Global Planet Change 37, 103–133 (2003).

National Assessment Foundation Document (National Assessment Synthesis Team, U.S. Global Change Research Program, Washington DC, 2001).

12. Taylor, KE, Stouffer, RJ & Meehl, GA. An overview of CMIP5 and the experiment design. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 93, 485–498 (2012).

17. Kurukulasuriya, P & Rosenthal, S. Climate change and agriculture: A review of impacts and adaptations (World Bank, Washington DC, 2013).

13. Thrasher, B et al. Downscaled climate projections

18. Simelton, E et al. The socioeconomics of food crop

suitable for resource management. EOS 94(37),

production and climate change vulnerability: a

321–323 (2013).

global scale quantitative analysis of how grain crops

14. Rew, RK & Davis, GP in 6th Int. Conf. Interactive Information and Processing Systems for Meteorology, Oceanography, & Hydrology, 33–40 (American Meteorological Society, Anaheim CA, 1990). 15. Perry, ML, Rosenzweig, C, Iglesias, A, Livermore, M & Fischer, G. Effects of climate change on global

are sensitive to drought. Food Security 4(2), 163–179 (2012). 19. Santamouris, M. Cooling the cities – A review of reflective and green roof mitigation technologies to fight heat island and improve comfort in urban environments. Solar Energy 103, 682–703 (2012).

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Pandit, A. and J.C. Crittenden. (2015). Resilient Urban Systems: Where We Stand Now and Where We Need to Go. Solutions 6(1): 74-81. https://thesolutionsjournal.com/article/resilient-urban-systems-where-we-stand-now-and-where-we-need-to-go/

Feature

Resilient Urban Systems: Where We Stand Now and Where We Need to Go

by Arka Pandit and John C. Crittenden Mark Dumont

Flooding in Piazzo San Marco in Venice, Italy. New infrastructure designs aim to increase the resiliency of the city in the face of rising water levels.

In Brief Increasing urbanization is a dominant global trend in the past few decades. Provision of infrastructure to service this growing urban population for water, energy, and accessibility is one of the major challenges faced by urban planners, engineers, and other decision makers. In a world faced with a myriad of environmental challenges, the incorporation of sustainability and resilience in every aspect of urban infrastructure decision making has become a requisite condition. While there is a growing impetus of incorporating sustainability in decision making for urban infrastructure rehabilitation or development, incorporation of resilience in decision making has remained rather sporadic. This paper draws on case studies from across the globe to assess the current innovative approaches that cities are undertaking to make their infrastructure systems more resilient in order to better cope with future uncertainties. This paper further proposes six guiding principles that decision makers, urban planners, designers, and engineers can adopt to steer the next generation of urban infrastructure towards being more adaptable, resilient, and sustainable.

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y the year 2050, close to seven billion people will be living in urbanized areas worldwide, which is almost double the number of urban inhabitants of today. Provision of adequate infrastructure service to this massive urban population in order to ensure their health, wealth, and comfort is going to be a daunting challenge for engineers, planners, and socioeconomic decision makers in the coming decades. However, the challenges faced by the developing and developed worlds are dissimilar in nature. While the developed world is coping with aging infrastructure, the developing world faces the challenge of keeping up with the brisk pace of urbanization and the consequential rise in infrastructure demand. In 2013, the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) awarded the US infrastructure an overall grade of D+ and estimated that USD 3.6 trillion needs to be invested by 2020.1 When considering how to reshape, redesign, or create urban areas to be more sustainable, it is imperative to include urban infrastructure systems (UIS) in the decision-making process. UIS are durable features of the urban form and exhibit a strong form of path dependence. UIS have a pronounced effect on the general topology of the urban system and how the urban area continues to grow spatially over time. UIS, with a typical design life of 50 to 100 years, continue to dominate the urban form and mediate the citizens, goods, services, energy, and resource flows into, within, and out of the urban areas for decades after the design decision has been made. For example, transportation planning often has a prescriptive effect on the growth pattern of an urban region. Empirical estimates suggest that one new highway built through a central city reduces its centralcity population by about 18 percent.2 It is also important to recognize that the use phase of UIS is the dominant contributor to the UIS impacts over the entire life cycle.3,4,5 Considering the dire state, massive demand, and relatively

long lifetime of UIS, prudent choices need to be made to fit the requirements of a particular city according to its geographic location, demographics, climate, and needs. Keeping in mind the uncertainties arising from changing climate patterns, massive demographic shift towards urbanization and increasing resource constraint, it is imperative to ensure that future UIS development incorporate resilience as a key attribute in decision making.

Key Concepts • The need for sustainable and resilient urban infrastructure is being increasingly recognized as the path forward for future urban development • Resilience, in the context of urban infrastructure, can be defined as the capacity to prepare for, withstand, and bounce back from any probable natural and anthropogenic hazard particular to the functionality of the system and location • Drawing on numerous innovative approaches that cities have undertaken to augment their resilience, this paper proposes six guiding principles for adaptable, resilient and sustainable 21st century urban infrastructure that is capable of coping with the increasing uncertainties of this time • Investment in resilient urban infrastructure provides rich return on capital investment, both in terms of financial and resource investment

at a higher investment of resources. Resilience is an important attribute of sustainability, as it enhances the flexibility and adaptability of the system and increases the long-term benefits of material investments. In the context of urban infrastructure, resilience can be defined as the capacity to prepare for, withstand, and bounce back from any probable natural and anthropogenic hazard particular to the functionality of the system and location. In addition, extreme weather events have been on the rise over the past few decades. These events are not only disruptive to human life, but are also responsible for significant economic loss. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) estimates the economic losses caused by these events in 2012 will surpass that of 2011, which was pegged at USD 60.6 billion (adjusted to 2012 dollars).6 Building more resilient infrastructure systems requires that we develop the capacity to predict the range of stressors that need to be accommodated, their impacts, and ways to mitigate the impact of these stressors. Resilience can be achieved by enhancing the ability of a community’s infrastructure to perform under various stressors or through emergency response and other strategies that contain losses and allow communities to quickly return to pre-disaster functionality.7,8

Sustainability and Resilience: Definition and Need

Sustainability and Resilience: What Are Cities Doing

There has been a recent impetus to incorporate sustainability in decision making. Unfortunately, in practice ‘sustainable development’ is often conceived in a narrower vision with the solitary goal of reducing resource investment (material and energy). This perspective of sustainable development precludes the incorporation of resilience in design and planning as ‘design for resilience’ often comes

Many cities across the world have identified this adaptation challenge as an opportunity to evolve towards a more sustainable future through the development of sustainable and resilient infrastructure. An important clarification might be in order. ‘Resilience’ does not mean undertaking measures to safeguard the infrastructure or system from the last shock the system experienced.

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NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Centre

An aerial view of Venice, Italy. The MOSE project is constructing gates at three primary inlets into the Venetian Lagoon in an effort to protect the city against rising sea levels.

The following example can be considered to elucidate the fact. After the devastating terror attack on New York City in 2001, many property owners were concerned about potential threats from the air and placed generators underground. During Hurricane Sandy in 2012, that move met with disastrous results as most of those generators got flooded, thus disrupting the back-up power supply.10 Infrastructure resilience should be targeted towards increasing the adaptive capacity of the system so that it is able to prepare for and withstand a range of stressors, as well as bounce back rapidly to its performing capacity once the stressor(s) subsides. While natural and anthropogenic catastrophes cannot always be prevented, their effects can be mitigated through prudent design.

A recent effort undertaken in Venice, Italy exemplifies this approach in practice. Historically, Venice had a problem with high tides and flooding. With Venice sinking gradually at a higher rate than anticipated, and the rising of the Adriatic Sea, the combined effect is a 4mm (0.16 inches) rise in the sea level on an annual basis. This means that by 2032, Venice could sink by 80 mm (3.2 inches) due to these combined effects.11 This challenge is compounded by the changing climate pattern and associated weather anomalies, with intense precipitation events, of particular concern to the city of Venice. The MOSE project (Modulo Sperimentale Elettromeccanico, or Experimental Electromechanical Module) is intended to protect the Venetian Lagoon and the City of Venice from historically-occurring

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high tide events, as well as from the threats of a warming planet, which in all probability would lead to a rise in sea-level globally. Started in 2003, the project is expected to be operational by 2017 and comes with a price-tag of approximately USD 7.3 billion.12 This project embodies a key aspect of resilient systems’ design: adaptability. The MOSE is not being built only to address the recurring high tide issue of Venice, but would also augment the resilience of the city against potential sea-level rise from a warming planet. Instead of focusing just on the immediate issues, this approach enables the City of Venice to address issues that may potentially affect the city in the coming 50 to 100 years. In addition, the placement of 78 gates across 3 inlets allows for greater flexibility in operation to address stressors of varied magnitude.

Vetto

The MOSE Treporti building site in Venice, where the foundations for rows of mobile gates have been completed. Construction of the gates is projected for completion in 2015-16, and will defend the city against high water levels.

The Cost of Resilience and the Role of Technological Innovation While it is true that resilience augmentation more often than not requires increased up-front investment both in terms of resources (material, energy, and water) and financing, it pays a much greater dividend in the long run. First, estimates suggest that it costs approximately 50 percent more to rebuild infrastructure in the aftermath of a disaster than to build the infrastructure with the capacity to withstand that shock in the first place, notwithstanding the disruption to human life caused by the loss of service.13 Second, businesses are increasingly looking for more resilient places to set up their business, and consequently, the investment in resilience through the indirect and direct (during construction phase) creation of jobs. The city of Pune, India offers an example of putting this idea into practice. Recurrent flooding has

been one of Pune’s major worries. Anticipating the impact of changing climate patterns which have increased the frequency of intense rainfalls, the city has put into place a mix of technological and policy options to drive the city towards being more resilient against recurring flooding events. The city has also offered property tax incentives to encourage households to recycle wastewater or to store run-off rainwater for domestic use.14 This move has paid significant dividends to Pune. It has one of the lower vacancy rates among the Indian cities (on average about 10 percent lower) and analysts are unanimous that Pune has outperformed other Indian cities in terms of property appreciation and will continue to do so in the near future thanks to its ‘resilient Pune’ initiative.15 While typically it does cost more to be more resilient, technological advances can offer innovative solutions that can augment resilience

without increasing the investment need, both in terms of resources and finances. A recent example from New York City (NYC) offers some interesting and innovative insights into this issue. The New York City Economic Development Corporation, in collaboration with Hudson River Park Trust, recently announced a competition, named ‘Change the Course,’ to invite innovative ideas to strengthen the ailing harbors of New York City in order to make the waterfront resilient in a sustainable manner. The winner of the competition was DShape, an Italian 3 D printing company. Quite literally, they are proposing to ‘print new infrastructure’. DShape is the project of Enrico Dini, an Italian engineer who has spent millions of dollars and the better part of the last decade developing a printer that can print concrete. NYC is facing a problem that is typical for aging infrastructure: the

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pilings—wood or steel structures that support the piers at the NYC waterfront—are weathered from constant pummeling by storm surges, sea salt and natural wear and tear. Since these pilings are often buried more than 10 to 12 feet under the waterline, it is a very expensive proposition to repair them. The huge cost of repair is attributable to the complexity of underwater concreting to repair the piers. With the use of 3D concrete printing, not only would it combine the best of precast and cast-in-place concrete, but would also lower the cost due to lower labor mobilization and quicker delivery and installation. Since these shapes would be prefabricated, the only underwater operation that is needed in this case is their placement, avoiding the cost of shoring, dewatering, and other procedures required to cast concrete under water. Consequently, it is estimated that applying this technology across the 565 miles of NYC shoreline would save the city USD 2.9 billion.16 While the application of 3D technology in addressing aging infrastructure at scale is still far from being mature, it shows that innovative applications of advanced technologies are promising in addressing sustainability and resilience of urban infrastructure at comparable or lower capital (resource and financial) investment.

Sustainability and Resilience: Do They Complement or Supplement Each Other? As previously discussed, the premise of sustainable development is often distilled down to reduced resource investment. Unidirectional pursuit of this goal would require reduction of material and energy investment to the maximum extent possible, which would undermine the resilience of the system by eliminating redundancy or taking out some of the energy and material investments that make the infrastructures more robust. However,

Pison Jaujip

Children playing in the water-filled streets of Pune, India, where households are offered tax incentives to recycle wastewater.

in the long run, this approach would be less sustainable because once these infrastructure systems are exposed to a natural or anthropogenic hazard they will have a higher probability of failure owing to their low resilience and would need to be replaced. This entails a far greater need for material and energy investment than what would have been required to incorporate some degree of resilience into the infrastructure systems in the first place, as discussed earlier. However, there are technologies which address and augment sustainability and resilience simultaneously. Smart grids serve as a prime example of these kinds of technologies. A study conducted by Siemens, the Regional Planning Association, and Arup Consulting estimated that power loss for a day in NYC would cost USD 1 billion, in direct and indirect losses.17 The same study also estimated that the cost to repair NYC’s electrical grid from storms similar to Sandy could cost the city USD 3 billion over the course of the next 20 years. Investing the USD 3 billion in smart technology would reduce the probable cost of repair in the event

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of a hazard by USD 2 billion, and generate another USD 4 billion dollars from increased energy efficiency. Rerouting the investment to smarter technology from repair would eventually pay a 200 percent return on the investment. A smarter grid that allows for improved demand-response management would thus allow for greater integration of renewables into the system. A smarter grid is also more sustainable (with a higher penetration of renewable energy) and resilient (with a more diversified energy mix and enhanced communication capabilities between the producer and the consumer). A large scale implementation of this approach is evident from the One Less Nuclear Power Plant initiative undertaken by the City of Seoul. Seoul accounts for approximately half of South Korea’s population and for 10.3 percent of the total power consumption in South Korea. That Seoul is heavily dependent on almost entirely fossil-fuel based, imported power (the self-sufficiency rate is only 3 percent) compounds the problem further. While nuclear energy is one of the mature technologies which are

Harvey Barrison

Piers on the west side of Manhattan in New York City. Advanced 3D concrete printing is expected to be used to repair the aging pilings supporting such piers along the New York City waterfront.

not based on fossil fuel, concerns about its safety have increased both among the citizenry and decision makers in the wake of the Fukushima disaster. Whether nuclear energy is a safe and permanent option for moving away from fossil fuel based energy is a matter of discussion to be undertaken elsewhere and is beyond the premise of this discussion. Under these circumstances, Mayor Park Wonsoon organized a citizens’ council to harness collective wisdom and ensure that policies reflect stakeholder preferences. The product that resulted from this citizen consortium was the One Less Nuclear Power Plant campaign. This campaign consists of 71 specific projects in six policy categories, which are further categorized into

10 key action plans. Through this initiative, Seoul plans to install rooftop photovoltaic (PV) on approximately 10,000 buildings for a total capacity of 320 MW by 2014. Seoul will also install PV in idle spaces such as water and wastewater facilities, as well as public parking lots, which are expected to produce an additional 30 MW. The city has also created a Seoul Solar Map which shows the potential of PV installation across the city, and is hosted on the city website to increase the participation of the citizenry. In addition to increasing the share of renewable energy in the mix, the campaign will also boost Seoul’s power self-sufficiency. The rate of power self-sufficiency is expected to increase to eight percent

by 2014 and to 2o percent by 2020 under these policies. Furthermore, the aggressive energy saving measures are expected to reduce the energy demand of Seoul by about two million tonnes of energy or ~22,000 GWh.18 A combination of these energy efficiency policies and integration of renewable energy is expected to result in a reduction of GHG emission by 6.06 Mt of CO2e. One critical aspect to note in this initiative is how technological and policy tools were integrated to achieve the goal of energy self-reliance and progression towards a cleaner renewable energy mix. It is an imperative lesson that other cities and urban areas need to incorporate into their initiatives to progress towards more sustainable and

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resilient urban infrastructure systems. This initiative is also expected to pay rich dividends in terms of financial investment. It is expected to save the city around USD 1.5 billion from reduction in fuel imports as well as create approximately 35,000 recurring green-collar jobs. This initiative undertaken by the City of Seoul clearly shows that there are indeed ways to augment both sustainability and resilience for the urban infrastructure, and earn rich returns on capital investment.

Sustainability and Resilience: Where Cities Need to Go The 20th century urban infrastructure has been predicated on the seeming abundance of fossil fuels and with a Romanesque perspective, where the goal was to scrape off the natural ecology and replace it with engineered structures. The underlying rationale has always been that ‘engineering systems substitute natural systems,’ eluding to the notion that ‘engineering systems complement natural systems.’ Synergy of natural and engineered infrastructure, as in the case of Low-impact Development techniques for urban storm water management, is a classic example where they work in synergy to augment both sustainability and resilience. The 21st century urban infrastructure needs to be sustainable and resilient to make it adaptable to rapidly changing climate patterns and increasing demands from a growing populations. In order to achieve the adaptability that will be required from modern infrastructure systems, the following six guiding principles are proposed: 1. Design to prepare for, withstand, and bounce back from multiple hazards: Increasing resilience is

not proofing the system from the last hazard it experienced. It is rather about increasing the capacity of the system to prepare for,

withstand, and bounce back from a series of probable natural and anthropogenic hazards that the particular system might experience in terms of its location and functionality. 2. Diversify the source of supply: Diversifying the source of supply for provisional infrastructure systems, like water and power, imparts greater flexibility to the system, in the sense that if one source fails, another can be used as back-up, thus increasing the resilience of the overall system. 3. Integrate natural and engineered systems: Integrating natural and engineered systems incorporates more flexibility into the infrastructure systems in terms of its capacity to adapt to natural stressors. In particular, natural systems being more dynamic in nature respond better than engineered systems to long-term gradual stressors. 4. Integrate technology and policy: Integrating technological and policy options are imperative to achieve any resilience or sustainability goal, in particular when implemented at the urban scale. Without proper policy tools, technologies have a rather feeble chance to succeed in terms of adaptation to scale. 5. Engage citizenry in decision making: Policy decisions should be collaborative to harness the ideas from the citizenry and to incorporate the stakeholder preference into the decision-making process. 6. Approach from a life-cycle perspective: Decision making in urban infrastructure often suffers from a lack of life-cycle perspective. Approaching from a life-cycle perspective would allow decision makers to realize the long-term dividends over the life-cycle that can be obtained from the initial investment for resilience. This is realized in terms of both financial and resource investments.

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These six points are proposed as guiding principles for urban planners, designers, engineers and decision makers to steer the 21st century urban infrastructure towards being more adaptable, resilient, and sustainable. Also, it must be noted that when conceived from a life-cycle perspective, sustainability and resilience are indeed complementary and there are available mature technologies which can increase both sustainability and resilience of urban infrastructure systems. Acknowledgements This research was supported by the Brook Byers Institute for Sustainable Systems, Hightower Chair, and the Georgia Research Alliance at the Georgia Institute of Technology. The authors are thankful for a grant (#0836046) from the National Science Foundation program for Emerging Frontiers in Research and Innovation (EFRI). The views and opinions expressed herein are solely of the authors and do not reflect the views or opinions of the funding agencies. References 1. ASCE. 2013 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure. America’s Infrastructure GPA (2013). http://www.infrastructurereportcard.org/a/#p/ grade-sheet/gpa. 2. Baum-Snow, N. Did Highways Cause Suburbanization? Quarterly Journal of Economics 122, 775–805 (2007). 3. Junnila, S, Horvath, A & Guggemos, A. Life-Cycle Assessment of Office Buildings in Europe and the United States. Journal of Infrastructure Systems 12, 10–17 (2006). 4. Stokes, J & Horvath, A. Life Cycle Energy Assessment of Alternative Water Supply Systems. International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment 11, 335–343 (2006). 5. Racoviceanu, A, Karney, B, Kennedy, C & Colombo, A. Life-Cycle Energy Use and Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory for Water Treatment Systems. Journal of Infrastructure Systems 13, 261–270 (2007). 6. Smith, AB & Katz, RW. US Billion-dollar Weather and Climate Disasters: Data Sources, Trends, Accuracy and Biases. Natural Hazards (2013) (doi:10.1007/s11069-013-0566-5). 7. Haimes, YY, Crowther, K & Horowitz, BM. Homeland Security Preparedness: Balancing

Trey Ratcliff

The city of Seoul in South Korea, where the “One Less Nuclear Power Plant” initiative is creating more resilient infrastructure that is increasing the city’s energy independence.

protection with resilience in emergent systems. Systems Engineering 11, 287–308 (2008). 8. Bruneau, M et al. A Framework to Quantitatively Assess and Enhance the Seismic Resilience of Communities. Earthquake Spectra 19, 733 (2003). 9. Bruneau, M & Reinhorn, A. Exploring the Concept of Seismic Resilience for Acute Care Facilities. Earthquake Spectra 23, 41 (2007). 10. Rodin, J. The City Resilient. Rockefeller Foundation

12. First test of Venice’s 5.4 billion euro flood barriers.

pune-real-estate-news-industry-news/pune-

Phys.org (2013). http://phys.org/news/2013-10-

appreciation-potential-better-than-national-

venice-billion-euro-barriers.html.

average/66019.html.

13. Rodin, J. How can we build more resilient cities? The World Economic Forum (2014). http://

Harbors Using 3D-Printed Concrete. Inhabit NYC

forumblog.org/2014/01/can-build-resilient-cities/.

(2013). http://inhabitat.com/nyc/new-york-city-

14. United Nations International Strategy

plans-to-fix-its-crumbling-harbors-using-3d-printed-

for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR). How To Make Cities More Resilient: A Handbook For

(2013). http://100resilientcities.rockefellerfoundation.

Local Government Leaders. (United Nations,

org/blog/entry/the-city-resilient.

2012). http://www.unisdr.org/files/26462_

11. Bock, Y, Wdowinski, S, Ferretti, A, Novali, F & Fumagalli, A. Recent subsidence of the Venice

16. Zimmer, L. New York City Plans to Fix its Crumbling

handbookfinalonlineversion.pdf.

concrete/d-shape-fabienbelcourt1/. 17. Sauer, S. Securing the City. Siemens Pictures of Future Fall 2013 (2013). 18. Salz, S. The ‘One Less Nuclear Power Plant’ Initiative (International Council for Local Environmental

15. Times Property. Pune appreciation potential better

Initiatives, 2013). http://www.iclei.org/fileadmin/

Lagoon from continuous GPS and interferometric

than national average. Times India (2014).

PUBLICATIONS/Case_Studies/ICLEI_cs_154_

synthetic aperture radar. Geochemistry, Geophysics,

http://content.magicbricks.com/industry-news/

Seoul_-Less_Nuclear_2013.pdf.

Geosystems 13, Q03023 (2012).

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Stewart, G. (2015). Getting from Here to There. Solutions 6(1): 82-83. https://thesolutionsjournal.com/article/getting-from-here-to-there/

Reviews Book Review

Getting from Here to There by Gord Stewart REVIEWING Insights from 45 global thought leaders Creating a Sustainable and Desirable Future: Insights from 45 Global Thought Leaders Edited by Robert Costanza and Ida Kubiszewski

The ever-pressing challenge for the current generation of mankind is to develop a shared vision that is both desirable to the vast majority of humanity and ecologically sustainable. Creating a Sustainable and Desirable Future offers a broad, critical discussion on what such a future should or can be, with global perspectives written by some of the world's leading thinkers, namely Wendell Berry, Van Jones, Frances Moore Lappe, Peggy Liu, Hunter Lovins and Gus Speth.

today. This vision must be of a world that we all want, a world that provides permanent prosperity within the Earth’s biophysical constraints in a fair and equitable way to all of humanity, to other species, and to future generations.” WorldThe Scientific book is divided into four parts www.worldscientific.com and takes a step-by-step approach. Part one, ‘Introduction,’ includes four chapters on visions and visioning. I have been involved in my share of visioning exercises over the years and admit that sometimes my eyes glazed over. But there is a convincing case here for the value of the process. Chapter Two is a timeless piece— drawn from a talk given by Donella Meadows at the 1994 meeting of the International Society for Ecological Economics in San José, Costa Rica. “We need clarity about our goals,” she said. “We need to know where we are going. We need to have vision. And that vision has to be articulated, it has to be socially shared, and discussed, and formulated.” She went on to advise: “Remember, when you envision, that you are trying to state, articulate, or see what you really want, not what you think you can get.” Part two, titled ‘Future Histories: Descriptions of a Sustainable and Desirable Future and How We Got There,’ includes nine chapters, all assuming that we are in the future and have already created the world we want. They describe this future and reflect on how we achieved it. Contributors in this section include

Creating a Sustainable and Desirable Future Insights from 45 global thought leaders Editors

Robert Costanza Ida Kubiszewski

Costanza Kubiszewski

usiness-as-usual is sure to deliver us a future that is both unsustainable and undesirable, with climate change arguably our most pressing problem. Had we begun to tackle it when first identified, incremental changes and modest actions along the way might have done it. With all the procrastinating, transformative change is now necessary. The same goes for other issues, from biodiversity loss and species extinction to air pollution and declining water quality. With the range and magnitude of environmental challenges we face, it’s easy to become discouraged. That’s why we need a focus and a plan. The focus is a clear vision of the kind of future we want. The plan is how to get there from here. This book offers both. It is a compilation of thoughtful articles (essays, really) from a broad range of academics, research scientists, policy specialists, politicians, and others—thinkers all. Readers of this journal will find familiar thoughts here, as most of the chapters are versions of articles previously published in these pages. But the book isn’t just a bunch of ‘reprints’— there is great value in having them all between two covers. Together, they weave a compelling vision of the future and suggest multiple and complementary routes to getting there. The opening paragraph says quite simply, “Creating a shared vision of a sustainable and desirable future is the most critical task facing humanity

Creating a Sustainable and Desirable Future

ISBN 978-981-4546-88-1

8922 hc

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World Scientific

World Scientific Publishing Co., 2014

Herman Daly, Joshua Farley, Tim Jackson, and Juliet Schor. Part three, ‘Pieces of the Puzzle: Elements of the World We Want’ ranges over 12 chapters. Wendell Berry’s short piece, ‘What Else?,’ describes his wish for the coal economy of Eastern Kentucky to be transformed into a sustainable local economy. It will ring true with others concerned about long-term reliance on our extractive industries. Another chapter, ‘The Future of Roads: No Driving, No Emissions, Nature Reconnected,’ is authored by what would seem an unlikely pair—a landscape ecologist and a civil engineer. Part four, ‘Getting There’ focuses on practical solutions and is my favorite section of the book. Included in the 21 chapters are ones on sustainable shrinkage, millennium consumption goals, building bridges between science and policy, and how to apply resilience thinking. Contributors here include Van Jones, Hunter Lovins, Bill McKibben, David Orr, and William Rees.

Reviews Book Review To achieve the vision of a different and better future, policy makers and business leaders among others will have to buy into it. To this end, it would be very helpful if elected officials at every level had to study and pass a course we’ll call “Sustainability 101” before taking office. The same should go for all business owners, managers, and entrepreneurs. In fact, it should be universally required—to

help provide the knowledge, skills, and understanding needed for thoughtful and appropriate living in the 21st century. This book could surely serve as a core text for the course. It’s both a good read and a great reference. The book’s last chapter (by Peggy Liu) provides a fitting conclusion to a wide ranging discussion. It includes details of the China Dream campaign, with a goal no less than to reimagine

prosperity arising from a healthy and fulfilling way of life. She notes that it can tap into traditional Chinese values closely aligned with sustainability— personal health, respect, harmony with nature, and avoiding waste. Not a bad idea, given that chasing the American Dream, an activity widely embraced in the developed world, is a big part of what has got us into this predicament in the first place.

Media Reviews Syrian Refugee Women Put on their Own Antigone by Audrey Pence Syrian refugee women put on their own version of Sophocles’ play, Antigone, from December 10 to 12, 2014 at Al Madina Theatre in Beirut, Lebanon. Antigone is about a young woman who buries her beloved brother, even though to bury him goes against the ruler’s decree that he lie in public shame because he died fighting for the throne in a civil war in Thebes. It is the story of a resilient and strong-willed woman, Antigone, who is led by what she believes to be right—the story of an individual struggling against the state. Not only did the play’s director Omar Abu Saada work with the women to produce the powerful production, he also spent time with them in workshops discussing the meaning of the play and helped them wrestle with difficult moral questions, such as loss and moving forward. In an interview with The Guardian, Saada said, “The main theme of this text is a very important one for these women—insurgency, rebellion, disobedience—did they do right or wrong in deciding to ask for freedom?”

UK Department for International Development

Syrian refugee women in Lebanon worked together to put on a production of Antigone, using the play to discuss greater themes of war and loss.

Since the revolution against Syrian president Bashar al Assad began in 2011, an estimated 200,000 Syrians have died, and the country is in ruins. Many Syrian women related to the strong character of Antigone. Still others related to her sister, Ismene, who was too fearful to join Antigone in the choices that she made. One woman said, “I see myself in Ismene; she wants to be strong, but she can’t be.” The production provided a space for these refugee women to come

together for laughter, tears, dialogue, and a chance to express themselves and the strife of their homeland through theatre. The final line was spoken by Sokari, a refugee from Damascus, and speaks to the daily struggle these women face: “We didn’t realize how weak we were in front of the machine of war, that we kept feeding it until it came and swallowed everything. We don’t know what tomorrow holds, all we know is that the Thebes that we used to know is finished.”

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Flomenhoft, G. (2015). The Eco-Illogical Cycle and the Politics of Climate Change. Solutions 6(1): 84-90. https://thesolutionsjournal.com/article/the-eco-illogical-cycle-and-the-politics-of-climate-change/

Solutions in History

The Eco-Illogical Cycle and the Politics of Climate Change by Gary Flomenhoft

roponents and critics of taking action on climate change are each frustrated by the process of stalemated debate. Proponents are convinced of the scientific evidence and cannot understand the delays, denial, and skepticism that prevent urgent action. Critics feel the science is not conclusive, that concern is overblown, and that the proposed mitigation measures are unnecessary and economically harmful. What I call the “Eco-Illogical” Cycle reveals a repeating historical pattern of dealing with environmental problems including dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT), tetraethyl lead (TEL) used in leaded gasoline, and chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). Understanding this repeating pattern will give participants insight into the process and perhaps assist the political process of environmental reform. In the case of climate change, the use of fossil fuels is so pervasive and useful to the vast majority of the world’s population that it is an order of magnitude harder to deal with than all previous environmental problems. It’s not just corporations that are at fault, but all consumers of fossil fuels, especially middle class citizens in the wealthier parts of the world. The Eco-Illogical Cycle is similar to the “hydro-illogical cycle” published by the National Drought Mitigation Center.1 Figure 1 outlines the process. Greenpeace first identified major components of this concept in a 1997 article entitled, “DuPont: A Case Study in 3D Corporate Strategy.”2 It goes without saying that affected industries will use every tool at their disposal,

Gary Flomenhoft

Figure 1. The “Eco-Illogical” Cycle

including corrupting science and politics and engaging in ideological warfare, to protect their products from regulation. Therefore, I won’t elaborate on those elements here. While the Greenpeace model is useful, it omits the crucial question of what actually triggers the process of environmental regulation. That is the $64,000 question when it comes to climate change. What will it take? Therefore I will focus on the historical elements that determine major action on environmental problems, which I refer to as the smoking gun and emotional trigger.

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Climate Change in Historical Context Climate change currently appears to be at the late denial and delay stage. The IPCC has presented overwhelming scientific evidence that fossil fuel emissions are causing climate change and warming the atmosphere. However, this is not enough for many people to be inclined to support actions that they fear would threaten their lifestyle. Politically, climate change appears to be at the same stage today as the ozone hole issue in the mid-1970s. Between 1972 and 1974, chemists F. Sherwood Rowland and

Solutions in History

Gary Flomenhoft, adapted from AFEAS, Production, Sales and Atmospheric Release of Fluorocarbons Through 1993, Data Tables 2 and 3 (Washington, DC: AFEAS, 1995).

Figure 2. CFC production graph.

Mario Molina first discovered that CFCs could destroy the Earth’s ozone layer and published their findings in the British journal Nature. The National Academy of Sciences and Congress both mounted investigations, and CFCs in aerosol cans were soon banned as shown by their declining production in Figure 2, starting around 1975. The key point of comparison is that after ozone depletion was discovered, some action was taken and CFCs began to decline. Similarly, due to strong evidence for climate change presented by the IPCC and others, nations have attempted to address the problem through vehicles such as the Kyoto Protocol, the Copenhagen Climate Summit, and the recent agreements between the US and China.

Nevertheless, greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise. Despite Rowland and Molina’s work, there was still no conclusive proof that CFCs were destroying stratospheric ozone. Thus, CFC sales began to increase again as industry discovered new uses for the chemical in products such as blowing foam, as well as expanding its use as an electronics cleaning agent and aerosol propellant. The Reagan administration’s hostility to environmental regulation also played a major role, since manufacturers no longer felt constrained by environmental concerns. This extensive backtracking and ten years of lost progress on CFCs is comparable to what we see today with climate change: some countries continue to increase their emissions, and

global emissions continue to rise at accelerating rates in some years. Why was action slow in coming despite the extensive scientific evidence? What the ozone issue lacked in the 1970s—and what climate change lacks today—is a “smoking gun.”

The Smoking Gun and Emotional Trigger Only when there was incontrovertible proof did major action take place in any of the historical cases, even though scientific evidence was very strong before that. It seems that science alone is not enough, especially when you have an organized effort to sabotage science itself as Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway have shown in their book Merchants of Doubt. Furthermore, it is possible, that even

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Solutions in History with a smoking gun, an emotional component is still needed to motivate the majority of people. This I call the emotional trigger. Although Rowland and Molina explained the phenomenon in 1974, the British Antarctic Survey didn’t report the Antarctic ozone hole until 1984, providing incontrovertible evidence of ozone depletion. But even this smoking gun may not have been enough. It was NASA’s shocking photos of the Antarctic ozone hole that served as the emotional trigger. It led to the landmark Montreal Protocol of 1987, in which many of the world’s developed nations quickly agreed to halve CFC production by 1999. In 1962 Rachel Carson published her classic Silent Spring. The smoking gun in the case of DDT was the causal link, provided by Joseph Hickey at the University of Wisconsin, to thinning eggshells. By 1972, the nesting population of peregrine falcons and bald eagles had been reduced by 90 percent in the contiguous United States. Both species were on the verge of extinction, and ospreys were severely endangered. Robins frequently had 100 percent mortality in areas sprayed with DDT. By demonstrating how DDT endangered the symbolically important bald eagle, as well as birds in general, Silent Spring served as an emotional trigger. Environmental groups also publicized the fact that DDT was fat soluble and was measured in unsafe doses in female mammary tissues. Thus toxic breast milk was another powerful emotional issue. Tetraethyl lead has a similar narrative arc. GM pseudoscientist Robert Kehoe claimed that lead appeared naturally in the human body and that the high lead levels in the blood of his test subjects were normal and healthy. In the mid1960s, Clair Patterson, a Caltech geochemist, analyzed the 1,600-year-old bones of pre-Columbian

http://www.theozonehole.com

Figure 3. Image of the ozone hole.

humans and proved that high background lead levels in industrial lands were man-made, thus conclusively refuting Kehoe. The emotional trigger of brain damage to children finally convinced the EPA to start banning TEL in 1973.

Smoking Gun for Climate Change? In the cases of DDT, CFCs, and TEL substitutes were readily available, and the impact on the economy was fairly minimal. Replacing fossil fuels, on the other hand, would be a huge disruptive transition economically, politically, and socially. Because climate is so variable, and no single event can be blamed on climate change, proof so far has come from statistical data and evidence over time. Since vague trends and complicated statistics rarely create a sense of urgency amongst the general public, climate change has not yet reached the crisis stage.

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Numerous recent events may, in hindsight, one day be seen as smoking guns for anthropogenic climate change. These may include the 35,000 deaths in Europe from the record heat wave in the summer of 2003 or the significant increase in extreme weather events around the world. Six of the last twelve months have been the warmest on record.3 The shrinkage of Arctic sea ice is another convincing trend, which according to the Naval Postgraduate School could be ice-free as early as the summer of 2016,4 creating the long-sought Northwest Passage 84 years earlier than predicted. The ongoing death of coral reefs worldwide is another trend as well as species extinction at 150–200 times the normal rate.5 Scientist Guy McPherson of the University of Arizona lists 40 positive feedback loops that could even lead to human extinction.5 By themselves or even cumulatively, these phenomena do not offer conclusive proof to the public, and therein lies the problem.

Solutions in History Therefore, if an incontrovertible smoking gun is necessary in the case of climate change it will have to be of much greater magnitude than in any prior case. A major Antarctic and Greenland ice melt flooding hundreds of coastal cities might be convincing. Perhaps the complete destruction of coral reefs worldwide due to ocean warming and acidification would motivate action? The B-grade movie The Day After Tomorrow portrayed a convincing smoking gun: the stopping or reversal of the Gulf Stream and subsequent freezing of the northern hemisphere. This might be the only case where the impact of climate change would affect those that have most caused it: the US and Europe. Life often imitates art, in this case bad art. Perhaps a continent-wide fire such as the entire Amazon burning will provide the trigger? But do we need to wait for a planetary scale catastrophe to motivate action? Wilbur Garshna

In the 1970s, the near extinction of peregrine falcon and bald eagle populations were directly linked to the use of DDT, providing the emotional trigger that eventually led to a ban on the chemical.

It is my contention, based on historical evidence presented here, that proponents of an immediate and major response to climate change, based on science alone, are being unrealistic. In no historical case did major action take place prior to the incontrovertible evidence of a smoking gun and an emotional trigger to motivate the public. A partial response took place prior to this time in every case, but as with climate change today, such measures were only half-hearted. The opposition to change is also much larger in this case than with all prior cases as the fossil fuel industry is even more influential than chemical companies.

Solutions? In the past examples, it was the emotional trigger that motivated the population. Edward Bernays, in his pioneering and sinister work Engineering of Consent, contended that humans are not rational and can be emotionally manipulated to serve the elite. Perhaps emotions can be put to more positive uses than Bernays’ propaganda? Many activists and scientists believe that if the public were not confused about the science, political change would be possible. But such a view is misguided. Since data alone is unconvincing, a better strategy is to use emotional messages, hopefully bypassing the smoking gun of a planetary catastrophe. Susanne C. Moser and Lisa Dilling have sketched out such a strategy in their book Creating a Climate for Change: Communicating Climate Change. Some lessons have been learned. The

Tyndall Center for Climate Change Research contends that fear is not an effective tactic and may actually backfire.6 Instead of using fear, many climate change communications studies suggest that making climate change personally relevant and salient to everyday life would do more for public concern and engagement than appealing to fear.7 Another potentially effective rhetorical strategy is the pleas from those countries that will be submerged by rising sea levels. An example is the spoken-word poetry of Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner, 26, from the Marshall Islands who brought the delegates at the recent UN climate summit in New York to tears.8 Naderev ‘Yeb’ Sano, the Filipino delegate to the UN climate summit, publicly broke down in tears as a result of superstorm Haiyan’s impact on his nation.9 Perhaps “compassion fatigue” will not take place if the listeners themselves could be affected? The disappearance of polar bears in the Arctic due to lack of sea ice is a good case to publicize, since charismatic megafauna are always appealing, especially to children. Emotional appeals from people in countries parched by drought or places with massive flooding could also be good strategies. The World Wildlife Fund uses Climate Change Witnesses to tell their personal stories for more impact.10

Action Stage We have the technology to live without fossil fuels, but we don’t have the political will. Whether we put a price on carbon, subsidize renewables, or use command and control approaches doesn’t matter. We have options. Peter Barnes’s “Cap and Dividend” concept is my favorite, charging carbon fees and

Continued on Page 90

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Solutions in History

Cracks in the Arctic sea ice, which in recent years has seen significant shrinkage. This and other worrying trends have still not been recognized as smoking guns for climate change. 88 | Solutions | January-February 2015 | www.thesolutionsjournal.org

Solutions in History

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

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Solutions in History

Shubert Ciencia

Commissioner Yeb Sano of the Phillippine Climate Change Commission at the Climate Vulnerable Forum in 2011. Sano publicly broke down in tears at the devastating impact of Superstorm Haiyan on his nation.

Continued from Page 87 refunding some or all of the money to citizens. Based on history, major action on climate change will only happen after the smoking gun and emotional triggers take place, unless we can accelerate the process. In order to avoid a planetary catastrophe, I am urging that activists use emotional appeals to make the best case possible for action.

http://ep.probeinternational.org/1997/09/01/ dupont-case-study-3d-corporate-strategy/. 3. Global Analysis - October 2014. 2014 year-to-date

1. The hydroillogical cycle. The National Drought Mitigation Center [online] (2014). http://drought. unl.edu/Planning/HydroillogicalCycle.aspx. 2. Greenpeace. DuPont: a case study in 3D corporate strategy. Energy Probe [online] (2014).

why most efforts at climate change communication might actually backfire. Bigthink [online] (2014).

temperatures versus previous years. National

http://bigthink.com/age-of-engagement/study-finds-

Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

that-fear-wont-dont-do-it-why-most-efforts-at-climate-

[online] (2014). http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/ global/2014/10/supplemental/page-1. 4. Schmalz, D. NPS researchers predict summer

change-communication-might-actually-backfire. 8. Visentin, L. Poet brings world leaders to tears at UN Climate Summit. The Sunday Morning Herald

Arctic ice might disappear by 2016, 84 years

[online] (September 25, 2014). http://www.smh.com.

ahead of schedule. Monterey County Weekly

au/environment/climate-change/poet-brings-world-

[online] (November 27, 2013). http://www.

leaders-to-tears-at-un-climate-summit-20140925-

montereycountyweekly.com/news/local_news/ article_f0d1fc46-56dc-11e3-9766-001a4bcf6878. html.

References:

7. Nisbet, MC. Study finds that fear won’t don’t do it:

5. Jamail, D. Are humans going extinct? Truthout [online] (December 1, 2014). http://www.truth-out. org/news/item/27714-are-humans-going-extinct. 6. Jarreau, PB. Putting the ‘fear’ in climate change.

10lq5x.html#ixzz3JaINdZf3. 9. Philippine delegate weeps at UN climate conference. Al Jazeera America [online] (November 11, 2013). http://america.aljazeera.com/ articles/2013/11/11/philippine-representativeweeps atclimateconference.html. 10. Climate change impacts: floods and droughts.

SciLogs [online] (May 19, 2012). http://www.scilogs.

WWF [online] (2014). http://wwf.panda.org/about_

com/from_the_lab_bench/putting-the-fear-in-

our_earth/aboutcc/problems/weather_chaos/

climate-change/.

floods_droughts/.

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Irwin, T. (2015). Redesigning a Design Program: How Carnegie Mellon University is Developing a Design Curricula for the 21st Century. Solutions 6(1): 91-100. https://thesolutionsjournal.com/article/redesigning-a-design-program-how-carnegie-mellon-university-is-developing-a-design-program-for-the-21st-century/

On The Ground

Redesigning a Design Program: How Carnegie Mellon University is Developing a Design Curricula for the 21st Century by Terry Irwin

School of Design, Carnegie Mellon University

Faculty engaged in twice-monthly retreats and used the same approaches to brainstorming and synthesis that they teach their students.

n the past 20 years, the field of design has undergone tremendous change. Design’s universality as a powerful approach to problem solving and its potential to serve as a catalyst for positive social and environmental change are finally being recognized. Increasingly, designers play key roles in many domains such as business, government, notfor-profit sectors, and grassroots activism. Design also has an important part to play in one of the biggest challenges

confronting us in the 21st century: the transition to a sustainable society. This transition can be viewed as a ‘wicked’ design problem that can only be addressed through the collaboration of people from myriad professions, disciplines, and all walks of life. This challenges educators to reconceive design programs and curricula to prepare students with the flexibility, knowledge, and skillsets needed to address the problems confronting society in a globally interconnected and interdependent world.

Framing the Problem The design school at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is one of the topranked programs in North America and alumni take up challenging positions within well-respected design firms, companies, and not-for-profit organizations around the world. I joined as the Head of the School of Design in 2009 and shortly after my arrival I led a complete review of our programs. Our curricula had not kept pace with the unprecedented degree of change described above and the faculty

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On The Ground and I felt that a new kind of designer was needed for the 21st century. Design is ubiquitous—we live the majority of our lives in the designed or ‘built’ world, and design is connected to many of the large problems confronting society. However, its very ubiquity gives it the potential to play a key role in the resolution of these same issues. Design is inherently a problemsolving process and fundamental skills of the designer are the ability to look for meaningful problems, frame them within appropriate contexts, and design a process for developing and implementing a solution. For this reason, designers are increasingly called upon to work in transdisciplinary teams on what the design industry refers to as ‘wicked’ problems. These are ill-defined, complex, systemic, and purportedly unsolvable problems. Such problems have multiple constituencies with conflicting agendas and are comprised of seemingly unrelated, yet interdependent elements, each of which manifest as problems in their own right, at multiple levels of scale. An example of a local design problem that is connected to a larger regional/global wicked problem might be the design of a better system of bike lanes in a city. Designing transport alternatives that reduce our dependency on oil is connected to the global energy crisis, global warming, pollution, and the controversial practice of fracking at the regional/local levels. In a 2001 essay written after the events of 9-11, physicist and environmentalist Fritjof Capra connected the problem of global terrorism to the United States’ wasteful energy policy. Solving for wicked problems like this requires new knowledge and skill sets. Firstly, designers must be able to ‘see’ the wicked problem(s) and its myriad manifestations and interconnections. Secondly, they must be able to work

School of Design, Carnegie Mellon University

Faculty explored numerous ways in which topics related to social and environmental issues could be introduced into the curricula.

effectively within transdisciplinary teams to solve for them. The design and implementation of a strong local biking network involves issues related to urban planning, government policy, and catalyzing behavioral change as well as communication—all arenas for design. The faculty at CMU had to ask themselves what new information had to be introduced into our curricula to prepare designers to work effectively on problems like those described above. We also wanted to develop new programs that responded to the demand from

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other disciplines and professions to be equipped with the tools and processes of design. New curricula introduce students to the elements of a holistic/ecological worldview and provide a grounding in living systems principles, ecology, indigenous/ place-based wisdom, alternative economics/politics, and climate change to name a few. Students also work extensively in groups (often with students from other disciplines) in order to develop the ‘posture’ and skill necessary to collaborate effectively with those from other professions and disciplines.

On The Ground

Design for Interactions

The Built World

The Social World

The Natural World

Figure 1. This framework provides the philosophical underpinning for all programs and curricula and places all design within social and environmental contexts.

Shifting a Culture I felt that significant programmatic and curricular change needed to be based upon an internal culture shift that challenged faculty to acquire new knowledge outside the field of design and take up new postures and ways of working. Facilitating cultural change is slow but vital work: leaders are often charged to produce quick results via a ‘top–down’ process, but unless people work collaboratively over time, a transformational solution is unlikely. This way of working builds trust, encourages people to let go of their old ways of working, and challenges them to examine their assumptions and beliefs. We developed several objectives that informed a slow, iterative, multiyear change process. We wanted to cultivate a collaborative culture that was committed to change, consensus-driven, and willing to think in long horizons of time (planning for the next 25+ years). We were also committed to empowering the next generation of tenured faculty to lead and charged the senior tenured faculty to serve as mentors.

To launch this process, I asked the full-time faculty to attend bimonthly retreats held at the end of the day from 4:30 until 7:00 pm. These were supplemented with twice yearly fullday retreats. Retreats provided faculty with the opportunity to voice concerns, fears, and aspirations and formulate objectives. Most importantly, it created a space in which we could think meaningfully about the school’s future. Retreats employed the same design facilitation, brainstorming, and analysis approaches that we teach our students. Faculty worked together in different formats and configurations to identify areas of mutual interest and complementarity. In hindsight, I realize that the value of the first year was not the ideas and solutions we developed but rather the cultural transformation that resulted. After two and a half years of working together this way, the faculty developed a (mostly) collaborative, consensual group process that became the basis for profound change.

At the end of this phase, in January of 2013, I charged a smaller group with designing new curricula and programs at the undergraduate, masters, and doctoral levels. This group was comprised of five members of next-generation tenured faculty who were also leaders of programs and disciplinary tracks within the school. The associate head of the school and myself joined the group representing senior tenured faculty. Our group met several times a month between January and April of 2013 to develop a theoretical framework that would unite programs at the undergraduate, masters, and doctoral levels; new masters and doctoral programs; and revitalized curricula for all degree programs. The results were presented to the full faculty for feedback in May of 2013. Feedback was then incorporated and a comprehensive proposal for new programs and curricula (that also met Middle States Accreditation) was presented and unanimously approved at our university’s college council at the end of May. The new programs launched in August 2014.

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On The Ground

Design for Interactions

Designed/ Built World Products, Communications Environments & Research

Design for Service

Design for Social Innovation

Transition Design

Moderate change: Existing paradigms & systems

Significant change: Emerging paradigms & systems

Radical change: Future paradigms & systems

Design Tracks

Areas of Design Focus

Natural World

Context for All Design © School of Design, Carnegie Mellon University, 2014 School of Design, Carnegie Mellon University, 2014

Figure 2. The pedagogical framework places design within larger social and environmental contexts and provides three areas of new, emerging, and nascent design focus.

A New Pedagogical Framework

A Continuum of Design Approaches

The School’s new pedagogical framework is intended to unify programs and encourage a greater level of practical and intellectual exchange between students and faculty at the undergraduate and graduate levels. On a philosophical level the framework acknowledges that the ‘designed’ or ‘built’ world is always embedded within the social world and both of these are always embedded within the ‘natural’ world or environment. The built, social, and natural worlds are nested, interconnected, and interdependent spheres in which countless continual interactions take place. For this reason, we say that we are “a school of design for interactions among people, the things they make and use, and the environment.” Placing the design of products, communications, and environments (both physical and digital) within the greater contexts of society and the natural world compels students to

Mature discipline

Developing discipline

Emergent discipline

Design for Service

Design for Social Innovation

Transition Design

Design within existing socioeconomic & political paradigms

Design that challenges existing socioeconomic & political paradigms

Design within radically new socio-economic & political paradigms

Solutions reach users through many ‘touch points’ over time through the design of experiences. Solutions are based upon the observation and interpretation of users’ behavior and needs within particular contexts. Service design solutions aim to provide profit and benefits for the service provider and useful and desirable services for the user (consumer). Solutions are usually based within the business arena and existing, dominant economic paradigm.

Design that meets a social need more effectively than existing solutions. Solutions often leverage or ‘amplify’ exsiting, under-utilized resources. Social innovation is a ‘co-design’ process in which designers work as facilitators and catalysts within transdisciplinary teams. Solutions benefit multiple stakeholders and empower communities to act in the public, private, commercial and non-profit sectors. Design for social innovation represents design for emerging paradigms and alternative economic models, and leads to significant positive social change.

Refers to design-led societal transition toward more sustainable futures and the reconception of entire lifestyles. It is based upon an understanding of the interconnectedness and inter-dependency of social, economic, political and natural systems. Transition design focuses on the need for ‘cosmopolitan localism’, a place-based lifestyle in which solutions to global problems are designed to be appropriate for local social and environmental conditions. Transition design challenges existing paradigms, envisions new ones, and leads to radical, positive social and environmental change.

Scale of time, depth of engagement, and context expand to include social & environmental concerns

School of Design, Carnegie Mellon University, 2014

Figure 3. Continuum of Design Approaches.

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On The Ground frame design problems within ethical and environmental contexts. At a pedagogical level, the undergraduate tracks in products, communications, and environments lie at the center of the framework. These three areas of new, emerging, and nascent design theory and practice—design for service, design for social innovation, and transition design—represent areas in which projects and research are situated. These areas are related and complementary and can be situated along a continuum in which spatiotemporal contexts expand and deepen. Design for Service is a well-established approach to solving problems within multi-stakeholder ‘ecologies’ and shifts the focus from discreet products and communications to the quality of interactions and experiences between service providers and customers. Design for Social Innovation is an emergent field that expands design contexts to address problems in the social, cultural, and economic domains, often outside the context of the business and consumer marketplace. Transition design is a nascent area for design research, practice, and study where speculative, long-term visions of sustainable lifestyles fundamentally challenge existing social, economic, and political paradigms. These visions serve to inspire and inform the design of short and midterm solutions.

Providing Flexibility and Choice within Programs and Curricula Designers have a key role to play in the transition to a sustainable society and will contribute to solutions in the commercial, nonprofit, and government sectors. As designers step into these new and diverse roles,

Continued on Page 98

BDes Flexible Curriculum: Customized Pathways Choosing a Design Track(s) Intro to 3Flexible Design TracksCurriculum: BDes Customized Pathways In semesters 1 - 3, students are introduced to3three areas of design specialty: Intro to Design Tracks Products (P),1Communications (C) & In semesters - 3, students are introEnvironments In the third semester duced to three(E). areas of design specialty: they begin(P), to focus their interests Products Communications (C)and & delve deeper into of the three areas. Environments (E).two In the third semester they begin to focus their interests and delve deeper into two of the three areas.

Freshman Year

In semesters 4 - 6 students make the choice to specialize a single area or Choosing a Design in Track(s) choose two of4the areas to create In semesters - 6 three students make the an interdisciplinary choice to specialize focus. in a single area or choose two of the three areas to create an interdisciplinary focus.

Sophomore Year

Junior Year

Choosing a Design Focus In semesters 7 and 8, students applya their design Choosing Design Focus specialty to projects In semesters 7 and 8,situatstued within twotheir areas of dents apply design design focus: Design situatfor specialty to projects Service Design ed within(Sv) twoorareas of for Social Innovation (Si).for design focus: Design Service (Sv) or Design for Social Innovation (Si). Senior Year

Fall Year Fall FallYear 6 Spring 7 Fall Spring Year Senior Year 8 1Freshman 2 Spring 3Sophomore 4 Spring 5Junior 1 Fall 2 Spring 3 Fall 4 Spring 5 Fall 6 Spring 7 Fall 8 Spring

P C E P C E

P+C

P+C P+E

P C

P+E C+E

C E

C+E

Sv Si

1. Product designer with familiarity in Design for Service and Social Innovation: This student has chosen to develop a specialty in product design and in his final year 1. Product designer with familiarity in Design for Service and Social Innovation: chooses to apply that expertise in both areas of design focus: design for service and This student has chosen to develop a specialty in product design and in his final year design for social innovation. chooses to apply that expertise in both areas of design focus: design for service and design for social innovation. Freshman Year

Sophomore Year

Junior Year

Senior Year

Fall Year Fall FallYear 6 Spring 7 Fall Spring Year Senior Year 8 1Freshman 2 Spring 3Sophomore 4 Spring 5Junior 1 Fall 2 Spring 3 Fall 4 Spring 5 Fall 6 Spring 7 Fall 8 Spring

P C E P C E

P+C

P+C P+E

P C

P+E C+E

C E

C+E

Sv Si

2. Communication & Environments designer with a focus in Design for Social Innovation : This student has chosen to develop specialties in both communications and 2. Communication & Environments designer with a focus in Design for Social environments. In her final year she chooses to specialize in design for social innovation Innovation : This student has chosen to develop specialties in both communications and and spends 2 semesters working on projects in that space. environments. In her final year she chooses to specialize in design for social innovation and spends 2 semesters working on projects in that space. School of Design, Carnegie Mellon University, 2014

Figure 4. Two sample pathways (out of dozens) show how an undergraduate student can choose their depth/breadth of study. www.thesolutionsjournal.org | January-February 2015 | Solutions | 95

On The Ground

Graduate Degrees 1 year

2 year

3 year

4 year

M AST ERS

MA Master of Arts in Design

MPS Master of Professional Studies

MDes Master of Design

DDes D O CTO RA L

Doctor of Design

< year one of the MDes

Design for Interactions

Practice Redirection

DDes Doctor of Design

PhD

Doctor of Philosophy in Design

PhD

Doctor of Philosophy in Design

Transition Design

Design Studies

Figure 5. The redesigned programs offered at the graduate levels. 96 | Solutions | January-February 2015 | www.thesolutionsjournal.org

On The Ground

6 Pathways for Non-Designers 6 Pathways for Non-Designers

1 year 1 year year 1. MA Master of year 1. MA Arts MA Master of MA Arts

year 3. year 3.

MA Master of MA Arts

Master of in Design Arts in Design

year 4. MA Master of year 4. MA Arts

year 6. year 6.

Master of in Design Arts in Design

MA Master of MA Arts Master of in Design Arts in Design

3 year 3 year

4 year 4 year

5 year 5 year

6 year 6 year

Provides a foundation in design thinking/tools/process

Master of in Design Arts in Design

year 2. year 2.

year 5. year 5.

2 year 2 year

Provides a foundation in design thinking/tools/process

PhD Doctor of PhD Philosopy

+ + MPS + MPS + MPS PhD + MPS +PhD + + MDes + MDes + MPD MHCI MTID or or + MPD MHCI MTID or or + Doctor of in Design Philosopy in Design

Master of Professional Master Studiesof Professional Studies

Design Studies Design only Studies only

Provides a foundation to enter the design practice

Doctor of Philosopy Doctor of in Design Philosopy in Design

Master of Design Master of Design

Master of Product Master of Development Product Development

Design Studies or Transition Design Design Studies or Transition Design Practice redirection/qualification as a designer

Practice redirection/qualification as a designer

Master of Human Master of Ix Computer Human Computer Ix

Master of Tangible IxD Master of Tangible IxD

Provides an excellent foundation in design and serves as a springboard to Provides excellent in another an CMU degreefoundation in engineering, design andhuman serves computer as a springboard to business, interaction, another degree in engineering, tangibleCMU interaction design or business business, human computer interaction, for a 2 year degree. tangible interaction design or business for a 2 year degree.

4 Pathways for Designers 4 Pathways for Designers year 1. year 1. year 2. year 2.

MPS Master of MPS Professional Master Studiesof Professional Studies

MPS Master of MPS Professional MDes Master of MDes Design

year 4. year 4.

DDes Doctor of DDes Design

Master of Design

Doctor of Design

Expands on prior experience through a focus on design for interactions

+ +

Master Studiesof Professional Studies

year 3. year 3.

Expands on prior experience through a focus on design for interactions

PhD Doctor of PhD Philosopy Doctor of in Design Philosopy in Design

Design Studies or Transition Design Design Studies or Transition Design Preparation for practice in research and design for interactions Preparation for practice in research and design for interactions

PhD

Doctor of or PhD Philosopy of in Design or Doctor Philosopy in Design

Figure 6. Program pathways were redesigned to make design tools more accessible to students from other © School of Design, Carnegie Mellon University, 2014 disciplines.

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On The Ground Continued from Page 95 correspondingly new knowledge and skill sets are required. Among these are the ability to frame problems within more appropriate and responsible contexts; to facilitate action and work effectively within transdisciplinary teams; and to formulate visions of sustainable lifestyles and the road maps to get there. Our new programs incorporate these skillsets. They are also designed to provide more flexibility and choice at the undergraduate level and multiple degree pathways for both designers and nondesigners at the graduate levels.

An important objective was to make the problem-solving approaches and tools of design more accessible to those from other disciplines.

Transition Design: Design for the 21st Century A centerpiece of the new programs is Transition Design: a proposition for design practice, study, and research that advocates design-led societal transition toward more sustainable futures. Transition designers can come from all walks of life and use the tools and processes of design to reconceive entire lifestyles as well as society’s infrastructure

Transition visions stimulate new thinking and cause designers to look for knowledge in new places. Our undergraduate program has always offered two tracks: communication design and product design. To this we’ve added a new track: environments. This new track acknowledges that communications and products often come together in complex ecologies within both physical and digital spaces. Students in the environment track develop a deeper understanding of user relationships at different systems levels as well as the complex array of technologies that inform new products and experiences. Undergraduate students can also choose between a single focus or specialty or customize their degree to combine any two of the three tracks offered. Programs at the graduate levels (masters and doctoral) were redesigned in a modular format that provides multiple degree pathways for students with and without design backgrounds.

(policies, energy resources, transport, manufacturing, economy and food, healthcare, and education systems). Transition Design focuses on the need for ‘cosmopolitan localism,’ a lifestyle that is place-based and regional yet global in its awareness and exchange of information and technology. Transition design students acquire a deep understanding of the interconnectedness of social, economic, and natural systems in order to conceive solutions that leverage the power of interdependency and symbiosis. The transition design framework outlines four key mutually reinforcing and co-evolving areas of knowledge, action, and self-reflection: Vision, Theories of Change, Mindset/ Posture, and New Ways of Designing. Transition visions stimulate new thinking and cause designers to look for knowledge in new places. New

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knowledge leads to shifts in mindset and posture and all three of these areas will give rise to new ways of designing. Transition design integrates new knowledge from outside the design disciplines, advocates a shift to a new, more holistic and ecological worldview, proposes more open and collaborative postures, and a deeper understanding of social systems. All masters and doctoral students take a transition design seminar and undergraduate design studies courses are informed by transition design theory. Both DDes and PhD students have the option to undertake research in transition design and two full PhD fellowships in transition design will be offered beginning in the fall of 2015.

Concluding Thoughts In my experience, it is rare for a program like ours to attempt such sweeping programmatic and curricular change. There is always the danger of throwing the baby out with the bathwater and we were firm in our resolve to remain true to the program’s historic roots and preserve its strengths and fundamentals. The ability to design a holistic solution in the form of values-based programs and curricula would not have been possible without the following: 1. A culture shift that was based upon a willingness to initiate and embrace change and a commitment to a collaborative, consensus-based process. 2. Slow design: cultural change is inherently a slow, deep process and simply takes time. It took an enormous commitment of time and energy on the part of the faculty as well as a leap of faith in a process whose outcome was unknowable but whose objectives were clear.

On The Ground

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Transition Framework: Irwin, Tonkinwise & Kossoff Irwin, Tonkinwise, and Kossoff

Figure 7. Transition Framework.

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On The Ground

Carnegie Mellon University

Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the United States.

3. Thinking in long horizons of time: the process required everyone to think in longer horizons of time and envision a desired state that many of us would not be a part of. The curriculum challenges students and faculty to design and think beyond the socio/economic/ political paradigms we are currently embedded within. 4. A commitment to a new educational paradigm: teaching students to design for society and the environment requires

educators to step out of the role of ‘expert’ and into a posture of co- and life-long learning. The launch of new programs and curricula in August 2014 marked the end of a five-year design process and the beginning of a new one: the ongoing process of course correction, ‘tinkering,’ integration of feedback, and refinement—all characteristics of 21st century design. We will be monitoring progress via formal and informal feedback with parents,

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students, alumni, employers, and research partners and our culture now includes a process for ongoing discussion and iteration. While the solutions we are implementing at The School of Design are distinct to our locale and history, we hope that the process described here may prove to be a valid approach for other programs that wish to shift to a values-based curriculum that encourages graduates to become catalysts for positive social and environmental change.

EARTHACTION

Gund Institute

for Ecological

Economics

University of Vermont

The Alliance for Appalachia

National Council for Science and the Environment Improving the scientific basis for environmental decisionmaking

Associated Â Socie0es Â International Society for Ecological Economics

Emily Cromwell / www.emilycromwell.com / Green Patriot Posters

Eat fresh and highly nutritious food by buying local produce. Ride your bike to a local farmersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; market, or seek out a CSA (community supported agriculture) near you to receive boxes of fresh produce regularly.