and farmers, fisherfolk, pastoralists, craftspeople, workers, participants in social movements, representatives of women’s organisations and civil society, businesspeople, journalists, lawyers, physicians, parliamentarians, government officials and politicians to join the campaign towards advancing a Global Citizens Movement by endorsing the Manifesto and its associated 14 Peoples’ Sustainability Treaties, which evolved through a consultative process with hundreds of civil society organisations, committing themselves to action, and crafting and proposing additional actions and treaties.
“Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day I can hear her breathing”
– Arundhati Roy
Founding signatory Dylan McGarry says: “The Manifesto draws attention to the need for a collective global response to climate change and environmental decline through the combined efforts of all earthlings. I feel that in connection with the rights of Nature movements, we will see legitimate forms of healing between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people, between wealthy and poorer communities, and between humans and other animals, plants and natural ecosystems. These are the most valuable and important steps we will make in the 21st century.”
Recognising that a Manifesto is just the starting point, signatories resolve to come together to build such a movement, to support its evolution and progress and to make it both a cradle and a touchstone for values and actions that lead to a sustainable future. They call upon all ecologically and socially sensitive people in the world to join this movement and make it a reality. www.sustainabilitytreaties.org
THE GREAT BIOFUEL DEBATE How to create energy in a warming world
Extreme temperatures and drought in the US and Eastern Europe this summer have led to a hike in grain prices, whilst the poorest people in the world face malnutrition as the price of food staples rises. In the US 40% of food-quality corn is being used to produce fuel, as mandated by the US Renewable Fuel Standard, which requires 15 billion gallons of domestic corn ethanol to be blended into the US fuel supply by 2022.
But people need not go hungry to create biofuel, says Lars Hansen of Novozymes, a company producing enzymes that can break down carbon-based plant matter to create ethanol. “If you take just 20% of the agricultural and forest residue available in Europe, you can make half of that region’s gasoline demands.” Undoubtedly, it’s far better to create biofuel from waste (the stalks and chaff of cereals and logging waste) than from the crops themselves, but if those crops have been produced unsustainably, then the biofuel is hardly planet-friendly. Hansen neatly dodges this question by stating that “sustainability should have been sorted out before the government mandates were produced” – but that has not been the case.
A US company called Bioroot Energy claims to be able to create energy from human and farm-animal waste (or any carbon feedstock) as part of its Envirolene process, which the company claims is a clean, green, high-octane fuel formula produced without incineration or fermentation. Bioroot even claims that it can make clean fuel out of coal-fired power station smokestack emissions. Undoubtedly that is desirable as long as coal-fired power stations are still operational, but ultimately it must not validate the use of coal as a viable future fuel. Almuth Ernsting, co-founder of Biofuelwatch, says: “I have found no evidence to show that anyone has yet discovered a way of turning solid biomass into liquids and producing any net energy. Using processes which involve gasification to produce liquid fuels is hugely energy intensive.”
It seems that producing energy in a warming world is fraught with contradictions: biomass is being touted as green energy even though the proposed biomass power stations in the UK will consume more wood annually than is available from all the forests in the UK put together; ethanol-based biofuels use foodquality crops to feed cars instead of people; and even the new wave of ‘secondary biofuels’ made from waste still can’t make a significant contribution to energy production, because the energy returned on energy invested (EROEI) is too low. (Think of all the energy invested in ploughing, fertilisers, and harvesting and processing of crops.) So the sustainable production of energy is still posing plenty of challenges, but we are moving slowly and inexorably away from high-carbon fossilised fuels to lower-carbon renewable fuels, with all the benefits they will ultimately bring.
As a footnote, when researching this article I came across a CNN report from 1970 that expounded the properties of nitinol, a metal alloy of nickel and titanium that has unique properties of shape memory and super-elasticity. Shape memory refers to its ability to undergo deformation at one temperature, then recover its original, undeformed shape upon heating above its ‘transformation temperature’. This super-elasticity occurs at a narrow temperature range just above its transformation temperature, so no heating is necessary to cause the undeformed shape to recover. This alternating shape change can produce a solidstate heat engine that will run in perpetuity. Take a look at the amazing YouTube video (Free Energy 1970 CNN News) and ask yourself why we’re still burning coal and oil.
Lorna Howarth is Director of The Write Factor publishing agency. www.thewritefactor.co.uk
Issue 275
Resurgence & Ecologist
23
