Smart from the Start

H. Bruce Rinker, Ph.D
H. Bruce Rinker, Ph.D

During the last week of May, I attended the Mexican International Renewable Energy Congress in México City. With thousands of delegates from Latin America, Europe, Asia, the United States and Canada, it was a remarkable sold-out gathering of policy makers and industry representatives from the alternative-energy sector bent on shaping the next chapter in our global approach to fueling society’s energy needs.

The meeting was a crucial turning point that followed recently approved energy reforms in México, especially in the face of the country’s ambitious renewable energy targets: generating up to 35% of its electricity needs via renewable energy solutions (solar, wind, and geothermal) by 2024 and reducing its fossil fuel emissions to half of 2000 levels by 2050.

As most of us have foreseen for years, the writing’s on the wall for archaic, carbon-based energy approaches – coal, petroleum, and natural gas are deadly passé as we seek sustainable and healthy ways of living on Earth.

Suggesting that our societal addiction to nonrenewables is everlastingly essential for our way of life is political twaddle among those whose interests are myopically bottom-line. We heard the same tiresome arguments from industrialists and politicians when we regulated tobacco, pesticides, asbestos, and just about every other toxin generated by excessive consumerism focused on efficiency rather than effectiveness in the production process. Why must we continue to tolerate such absurd myths from pollutocrats as “clean coal” and the “safe extraction” or “safe transport” or “safe anything” of tar sands oil? Like nicotine and DDT, carbon-rich fossil fuels wreck long-lasting, but needless, havoc on the health of individuals and ecosystems across the planet. Further, the persistent argument that regulation and reform of the energy industry will impact jobs negatively is simply a mindless defense of the status quo. It dismisses the creative drive and ingenuity of entrepreneurs at home and abroad.

The message from the conference in México City was not a sterling one, however, simply because many of the leaders in the renewable energy sector have adopted the same flawed business model of the nonrenewable industries. Their model externalizes a large part of its full cost; and it divides the materials economy into a linear equation of extraction, production, consumption, and disposal without regard to the natural world – including its impacts on biodiversity and on the clean air, soil, and water that sustain healthy minds and bodies.

During the second morning of the conference, I entered into a respectful but charged argument with the French native CEO of a large Spanish solar-energy company who took exception to my stance that the industry must work with us ecologists to site its solar arrays and wind turbines properly to avoid negative impacts on wildlife and ecosystems. He became agitated at that point, saying, “Dr. Rinker, do you know that you people cost me millions of euros because of a damn bird and a stupid frog?” I responded with as much respect and patience as I could muster: “But that’s my point. You ignored the migratory and nesting habits of these animals. If you had worked smart from the start with us scientists, you likely would not have had these legal problems, and probably the environmentalists would have pointed to you as a good example of partnership between industry and the environment! It doesn’t have to be either-or.” He smiled and walked away, but later asked one of my colleagues about “that crazy scientist.”

I’m a systems ecologist. I try to look at all the inputs and outputs for an environmental problem and then pull together as many stakeholders as possible – scientists, educators, policy makers, businesspeople, developers, environmentalists, and industry representatives included – to identify and effect solutions. Again, it doesn’t have to be “either-or.” Preferably, it should be “both-and” so that we all win – people, planet, and profits.

Of course, most of us realize that human-accelerated climate change has descended upon us as a mantle of past sin and greed. During my recent visit to México, everyone talked about Hurricane Amanda, a record-setting storm in the eastern Pacific for the month of May. “Bruce, we just don’t get Category 4 hurricanes this early in the spring here in México,” offered one colleague who lives and works in México City. Though nearly impossible to point to a single meteorological event as an unequivocal signal for human-accelerated climate change, the overall climate trends around the planet portend something ominous on the horizon for our way of living.

During the conference, “Smart from the start” was the reproach of Carl Zichella, a lead staff member for the Natural Resources Defense Council. His was the only voice other than my own among thousands who spoke about the need to consider the environmental impacts upfront when developing and installing renewable energy technologies. And another related consideration from the outset: using ecologically intelligent materials in all components of the industry.

People often ask me, “Dr. Rinker, what kind of doctor are you anyway?” Of course, initially, they’re thinking about medical professionals. “I’m a planet doctor,” I respond proudly. As a trained ecologist, I evaluate the symptoms of my “patient,” study its complex life history, and then prescribe curatives to bring about long-term healing. But can’t we all be planet doctors? To do so, we must be smart from the start in the ways we tap Earth’s natural resources for our individual and societal needs, remembering that we share this ancient planet with millions of other species, here not to serve us but to serve with us on this tiny blue-and-green speck in the cosmos.

H. Bruce Rinker, Ph.D.
Ecologist, Educator, and Explorer
[email protected]

Latest Articles

- Advertisement -

Latest Articles

- Advertisement -

Related Articles