Sustainable practices are not merely temporary. These are permanent changes to protect our natural world.

Earth can be abundant and generous to all life, but, there are moral practices that have to be given their place in society for protections of the natural world.

Ruthlessness at any cost cannot be tolerated. Ruthless practices are immoral.

Sustainability is not a temporary measure. Don't fool yourself into believing if the global community cuts back greenhouse gas emissions for the next 10 years all will be okay and "the old ways" can return. The old ways will never return.

If tomorrow Earth had returned to pre-industrial revolution status, the world will still be growing in population. Looking toward tomorrow, with Earth in distress, the practices we institute today will be the ways of the future.

A couple of good examples. Scotland has recently become a country with 100 percent wind power. No carbon or methane emissions for energy from Scotland.

The Finnish government is now asking citizens to half their carbon footprint. 

15.9.2017

Finland's government (click here) agreed on a national plan on Thursday to drastically cut the country's emissions level by 2030. Ordinary consumers and citizens are also called upon to shrink their carbon footprints by changing how they commute and eat.

"This is about campaigning and encouraging people, not obligating anyone," Minister of Agriculture and the Environment Kimmo Tiilikainen said. "There's a big difference."

The Centre Party minister was asked why consumers are expected to halve their footprints by half, while the plan only calls for the government to bring greenhouse gas emissions down by 39 percent over the next 13 years.

"There are many ongoing challenges at the moment, and consumers or companies can make pledges to reduce the amount of emissions they are responsible for," Tiilikainen said. "I recall making such a pledge myself, to halve my consumption in a short time. This is one way of making these measures reality."

This is the first domestic climate policy of its breadth to be enacted in Finland. The measures are directed at sectors other than emissions trading, such as traffic, heating, waste disposal and agriculture....

These are new practices, but, they are not temporary or a fad. These are long term practices that insure protections for the natural world.

I covered government solid waste management and agricultural waste, but, the others will continue next week.

Harvard Business Review cites sustainability as a profit motive.

September 13, 2017

by 

Tensie Whelan, 

Bruno Zappa, 

Rodrigo Zeidan  and 

Greg Fishbein

...We chose Brazil’s beef industry (click here) as the location of our case study, both for the size and complexity of the industry and for its impact on the planet. We found that sustainable and deforestation-free practices created significant financial benefits for all players in the industry’s value chain.

Specifically, our analysis found that the net benefits to ranchers ranged from $18 million to $34 million (12% to 23% of revenues) in net present value projected over 10 years. For slaughterhouses and retailers (Brazilian operations), we also projected positive benefits: $20 million to $120 million (0.01% to 0.1% of revenues) and $13 million to $62 million (0.01% to 0.7% of revenues). These ranges were wide due to the relative size of the different players in the supply chain (for example, a company that has higher revenues will realize greater benefits than a smaller firm). Nonetheless, the case study demonstrates that measuring the value of sustainable business can be done, and that sustainable business itself can be cost-effective. We hope this will serve as a powerful motivator to improve leaders’ decision making and bring sustainable business practices further into the mainstream....

Sustainable agricultural practices can add cost, but, it is cost absorbed that results in an increase of profit.

...“McDonald’s standards in beef sourcing are among the highest in the world; even if our mass consumer is not willing to pay premiums for sustainability, we still have to maintain them,” says Daniel Boer, McDonald’s Director of Protein Supply for Latin America.

Retailers must be willing to pay for sustainability simply because the risk is too great not to — even if there’s a cost to their bottom line. “In 2009, after Greenpeace’s report on beef and Amazon deforestation, we had to reduce our supply base to as few as six different suppliers, which is not an ideal position to be in, in terms of price and volume negotiations,” Paulo Pianez, the Sustainability Director of Carrefour, told us.

Despite these strictures, the Brazilian operations of McDonald’s and Carrefour reaped similar types of benefits as the slaughterhouses — $12.5 to $62.1 million (0.01% to 0.6% of revenues) in expected net present value over 10 years, due to reduced risk and higher quality. According to our calculations, McDonald’s Brazil stands to gain between $5.7 million and $22.2 million net over 10 years — between 0.13% and 0.5% of its revenue. Carrefour Brazil stands to gain between $6.8 million and $39.9 million net over 10 years, between 0.01% and 0.05% of its revenue....

Why is that not good business? It is still a positive revenue stream while Earth receives its fair share of protection. That is morality. There is a reason why moral practices return profits. 

The climate dynamics impacting Africa are still ferocious.

October 20, 2009

...Africa’s heightened vulnerability to climate change7. (click here) Climate change is a key development issue in Sub-Saharan Africa because of the region’s special vulnerabilities. These include the continent’s natural fragility (twothirds of the surface area is desert or dryland), significant and fragile terrestrial and coastal ecosystems, and high exposure to natural disasters (especially droughts and floods), which are forecast to increase and intensify as climate change progresses. Moreover, the region’s livelihoods and economic activities are very much dependent on natural resources and rainfed agriculture, which are highly sensitive to climate variability. While biomass provides 80 percent of the primary domestic energy supply in Africa, rainfed agriculture contributes some 30 percent of GDP and employs about 70 percent of the population, and is the main safety net of the rural poor. Added to this is the spread of malaria — already the biggest killer in Africa — to higher elevations because of rising temperatures, compounding the effects of climate change with an increasing disease burden....

4 September 2017

By Baher Kamal

Members of the Kenyan Kadokoi community water project show how they use drip irrigation to grow vegetables with water from their borehole.

...In an interview with IPS, (click here) Elwyn Grainger-Jones, Executive Director of the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) System Organization, analyses the impact of this staggering fact, which is based on the AAA Initiative report (Initiative for the Adaptation of Africa Agriculture to Climate Change), as well as the needed solutions.

The increasing occurrence and severity of weather events such as droughts and floods, high heat and cold stress, will impact agriculture in Africa, threatening regional food systems, explains Grainger-Jones.

Smallholder farmers and those who primarily draw their incomes from agriculture value chains will be affected, which will in turn threaten the region’s food security, adds the executive director of this partnership comprising 15 independent, non-profit research organisations, home to over 8,000 scientists, researchers and technicians.

“Agriculture and our global food systems, however, contribute up to 29 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions which needs to urgently be addressed,” Grainger-Jones underlines.

He further explains that CGIAR is helping the developing world to harness an environmental transformation, to drastically cut the environmental footprint of the food system, including climate emissions, land degradation, water, land pollution and food waste....                          

Best Practices for Agricultural Waste Disposal - Please don't burn agricultural waste, it is very organic and laden with carbon.

Water treatment for farm waste water.

September 12, 2017
By Alec Regimbal

Out on the Columbia Basin, (click here) a system of worm feces, wood chips and river rocks could spell a new solution to the vexing issue of nitrate pollution and greenhouse gases.

To deal with nitrate-laden wastewater generated by some 7,000 milk cows, the Royal Dairy in Royal City - about 25 miles northwest of Othello - commissioned a Chile-based company to build what is the largest treatment facility of its kind in the world.

Whether the system can be, or should be, widely adopted by dairies remains to be seen. But in Yakima County, where dairy cows outnumber people, and in other places with mega-size dairies, the technology is being watched carefully.

That’s because nitrates have become a big issue for many dairies. When manure is flushed from farms with water and reused for irrigation, nitrates from the manure can seep into the soil, potentially contaminating drinking wells. High levels of nitrates in the water can cause health problems, especially for pregnant women and young children.

Additionally, when farmers use lagoons to store their wastewater before reuse — a common practice — the large pool of untreated water can emit greenhouse gases. These problems have some state and regional water boards urging dairy farmers to switch to more environmentally friendly methods of disposal....

This is one aspect of agricultural waste.

Definition: (click here)

Agricultural waste is waste produced as a result of various agricultural operations. It includes manure and other wastes from farms, poultry houses and slaughterhouses; harvest waste; fertilizer run- off from fields; pesticides that enter into water, air or soils; and salt and silt drained from fields.

From the USDA:

...(a) Purpose and scope (click here) 

Wastes and residues described in this chapter are of an organic nature and agricultural origin. Other by-products of nonagricultural origin that may be managed within the agricultural sector are also included. This chapter provides information for estimating characteristics of livestock and poultry manure and other agricultural residuals. The information provided is useful for the planning and design of agricultural waste management system (AWMS) components including: 

- storage function components such as ponds and tanks

- treatment function components such as lagoons and composting 

- utilization function components such as land application.

The information may also be useful in formulating the environmental impact of manure and other agricultural wastes....

Municipal Solid Waste Generation from 1960-2013

Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) (click here) — more commonly known as trash or garbage—consists of everyday items we use and then throw away, such as product packaging, grass clippings, furniture, clothing, bottles, food scraps, newspapers, appliances, paint, and batteries. This comes from our homes, schools, hospitals, and businesses.

Each year EPA produces a report called Advancing Sustainable Materials Management: Facts and Figures 2013, formerly called Municipal Solid Waste in the United States: Facts and Figures. It includes information on MSW generation, recycling, and disposal.

After 30 years of tracking MSW, the report has been expanded to include additional information on source reduction (waste prevention) of MSW, information on historical landfill tipping fees for MSW, and information on construction and demolition debris generation, which is outside of the scope of MSW.

The new name also emphasizes the importance of sustainable materials management (SMM). SMM refers to the use and reuse of materials in the most productive and sustainable ways across their entire life cycle. SMM practices conserve resources, reduce wastes, slow climate change and minimize the environmental impacts of the materials we use.

In 2013, Americans generated about 254 million tons of trash and recycled and composted about 87 million tons of this material, equivalent to a 34.3 percent recycling rate. On average, we recycled and composted 1.51 pounds of our individual waste generation of 4.40 pounds per person per day (Figure 1 and Figure 2).

September 15, 2017

According to the plan, the North, South and East Delhi Municipal Corporation would need to spend R 100 crore each on procuring a total of 549 units of modern equipment.

To improve solid waste management in Delhi, (click here) the Union ministry of housing and urban affairs announced a Rs 300-crore action plan on Friday.

Addressing the public affairs forum of India, union minister Hardeep Singh Puri said the initiative would be aided by the ministry through the ‘urban development fund’ operated by the Delhi Development Authority.

“Under the plan, automated machinery, equipment and other systems will be procured for better collection, transport, storage and decentralised treatment of garbage. Besides, steps would be taken for better maintenance of sewers and drains,” said Puri.

According to the plan, the North, South and East Delhi Municipal Corporation would need to spend R 100 crore each on procuring a total of 549 units of modern equipment. Of the total cost, an assistance of R 80 crore will be provided to each MCD from the Urban Development Fund.

“All equipment, including treatment plants, are to be procured and commissioned by the end of this year,” said Puri....

In Europe, landfill waste management has the largest volume of greenhouse gas emissions.

Data is from March 2014 (click here)

...For the EU-15, the total reduction achieved in 2011 amounted to 624 million tonnes CO2-eq/year, or 14.7 % since 1990 (when GHG emissions were 4 244.8 million tonnes CO2-eq/year). While some sources e.g. the road transport sector, still show an increase in GHG emissions, others, such as industrial processes, household & services, and waste disposal, show a decrease.

The EEA forecasts that emissions from waste disposal will decrease further in the future, despite a steady increase in the overall quantity of waste being generated. This shift stems from the decrease in waste being landfilled in the EU. The waste sector accounted for about 11 % of the cuts in GHG emissions in 2011, which amounts to 1.8 % of total emissions. The waste management sector therefore plays a key role due to the reduction in reliance on landfill for residual disposal - a change that has been significantly influenced by EU waste legislation (see Outlook below)....

There are currently five major storms in the northwest hemisphere of Earth.

September 17, 2017
2330.18z
UNISYS Water Vapor Satellite of north and west hemisphere (click here)

There are two storms in the East Pacific, Hurricane Otis and Tropical Storm Norma.

Hurricane Otis is a Cat. 2 (click here for Weather Underground information).

Tropical Storm Norma (click here for Weather Underground information)

Three storms churn in the Atlantic

Solid waste degrades and releases methane. Any carbon in landfills are sequestered for as long as they remain in the landfill.

Landfilling (click here) is the most common waste management practice, and results in the release of methane from the anaerobic decomposition of organic materials. Methane is around 20 times more potent as a GHG than carbon dioxide. If the disposal of organic matter were decreased (for example by composting or combustion) it would be possible to reduce the amount of methane emissions. However, landfill methane is also a source of energy, and some landfi lls capture and use it for energy. In addition, many materials in landfi lls do not decompose fully, and the carbon that remains is sequestered in the landfi ll and not released into the atmosphere.

Environmental Protection Strategies for Sustainable Development 

pp 499-528

Part of the Strategies for Sustainability book series (STSU)

17 September 2011

By Muna Albanna

The recent changes in global climate (click here) are believed to be the result of growing anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions; mainly carbon dioxide and methane, resulting from the increased industrial activities over the years. One of the main emission sources that add to the anthropogenic greenhouse gases concentrations in the atmosphere are derived from the processes of solid waste disposal. It can be shown that solid waste has adverse impacts on climate change and human health. The potential for deleterious public health and environmental effects is substantial where waste has been improperly disposed off.

Waste can be categorized predominantly into four sections as: municipal solid waste; agricultural waste; industrial waste; and hazardous waste. The economic growth and urbanization experienced over the past decades in many parts around the world have significantly escalated the quantities of the municipal solid waste. The improper disposal and the uncontrolled dumping of different types of waste have caused long term environmental and health problems, as well as degradation of land resources. Different solid waste management options have recently emerged inter alia including collection, processing, recycling, and disposal of the solid waste in ways that will reduce their harmful effects. This chapter will thoroughly assess the various robust and cost effective management alternatives, with the exception of hazardous waste, such as landfilling, composting, incineration, recycling, and the use of landfill gas (LFG) as a renewable source of energy. The chapter will also address the impacts of these management strategies that are reflected on the environment, the economy, and on human health.              

It's Sunday Night

A small Chinese girl (click here) doing her homework beside a pile of garbage bags in Guiyang. The year was 2011.

Pyrrhon - Trash Talk Landfill

From the band:

“Trash Talk Landfill”, Steve [Schwegler]’s first songwriting effort with the band, is an expression of the more playful side of Pyrrhon’s personality, both structurally and lyrically. Obviously, it’s still quite dark, so people might just scratch their heads when they hear that we were laughing constantly while putting it together. It’s also a pretty self-effacing song lyrically even though it’s an absurd and ambitious instrumental undertaking, which is an odd juxtaposition, I suppose.

"Trash Talk Landfill" by Pyrrhon (click here for website - thank you)

Talk comes real cheap
Expend and dispose, expend and dispose
These days, it’s what I live to do

Oh, I know this junk is tacky
But it’s what I’ve got to offer
I’ll just keep on spitting out more litter
It’ll heap up in disposable drifts
Some poor fucks will sort through it in shifts

Believe me, there’s more where that came from

Where can I buy budget words to describe
The awful hole that gapes inside
Me, and just keeps growing, growing, growing
As I pour in more and more plastic metaphors

You know you’re gonna keep on reading
This shit, lightweight and stripped of the meaning
It once wrapped up, ‘til I used it all up
Now it’s dross, compacted in metonym clumps

And all this waste comes straight from my waist
I’m shitting out tons and tons of this garbage every year
Dumped logotoxins leach into the groundwater
I’ll make every ear my sewer

It’s all trash talk, trash talk, trash talk
Throw me on the pile
No deposit for recycle
One use only

And all that offal is crawling
Back up through the plumbing
It’s clambering out
Of the landfills and rivers

My filth children will wander
While I spawn more, and wonder
Why these refuse similes
All sound so incomplete

21 years on the police force of being Undocumented and now he is a citizen.

September 17, 2017

By Madeline Buckley

Chicago police Officer Hector Alfaro, left, waves a U.S. flag toward his family Sept. 15, 2017, before being sworn in as a U.S. citizen during a ceremony that included several other public servants becoming citizens

Chicago Police Officer Hector Alfaro (click here) has lived in the United States since he was 3, when his parents moved from Mexico with three children in tow.

He joined the U.S. Marine Corps and then the Chicago Police Department. He had children, then grandchildren....


Children brought to the USA are important Americas. Hector Alfaro is an example of the outcome of years of service and pursuing the status of citizen. The country has benefitted by service of the Undocumented. Few talk about that. 

They might be deported, but, who is taking their place?