I've been steadily distancing myself from sporting engagements. I used to play them all--basketball, baseball, soccer. But I suppose by the time we turn 18, it's time to move on; to become more realistic while still maintaining a romantic youngness and innocence. And so, I've channeled the naturally-American obsession with competition and turned it into an environmental nuance.
I want to live in a society that succeeds and produces while eliminating steps-- a community that makes the following example possible. A rocket scientist at Massachusetts Institute of Technology has developed a plan using a highly carbon dioxide dependent plant to suck up CO2 and create a swell bi-product.
The algae uses photosynthesis to combine water and the CO2 in the flue gas to grow additional algae and form oxygen and water vapor. The organisms also absorb nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide, which contribute to acid rain.(1)
The algae is harvested daily and its oil extracted to make biodiesel for transport use, leaving a green dry flake that can be further processed to ethanol, also a transport fuel (but see “Ethanol from cellulose biomass not sustainable nor environmentally benign”, this series)...
One key to success is to select an alga with a high oil density – about 50 percent by weight. Algae are prolific and can produce 15 000 gallons of biodiesel per acre, compared to just 60 gallons from soybean. Berzin estimates that a 1,000 MW power plant using his system could produce more than 40 million gallons of biodiesel and 50 million gallons of ethanol a year.(2)
And so the example leads me to the idea. Say the federal government bases part of its funding on how energy efficient each school district becomes. In other words, we as a society value conservation enough to say, "You know what, we're going to respond to schools that practice inefficient lighting or have increased energy costs, because their building has weathered insulation. We're going to cut part of their funding until they begin to recognize the importance and the inextricable connection of energy and climate change."
There's a bit of precedence here. When Chief Justice Earl Warren "asserted that separate but equal not only resulted in unequal schools but was inherently unequal because it made black children feel inferior,"(3) he substantiated the public's will that state de jure segregation was unconstitutional.
This resulted in national government action. It withheld funding for schools that failed to integrate as part of the Brown v. Board of education decision. I don't agree with many of the facets of the No Child Left Behind Act, but this plan wouldn't be as dependent on students and educators as NCLBA tests. In fact these groups could lobby school administrators for more sustainable heating and electricity. And these administrators would, hopefully, decrease consumption because they wouldn't dig the adverse consequences.
But consequences produce a terrible tangent to the sporty introduction, as well as the nuance. The real dream is a system that transforms the current inner-city school rivalries into something seriously positive. Most people dig the sporty feel of competition. (I did for much of my life; now I play ultimate frisbee, but that's a different story).
However, generally it's unproductive. For example, an incredibly nail-biter of a high school basketball game does not produce any bi-product that I can think of, other than excitement and human emotion.
But what if we could use that school rivalry bullshit (can I say bullshit?) to create a competition among the schools. Which public students can recycle more plastic and glass? Which school conserves more electricity? Could we develop an energy ethic that we can all agree on? Is that something our country could pioneer?
Sources:
1.
http://thefraserdomain.typepad.com/energy/2005/12/algae_used_to_c.html
2.
http://www.i-sis.org.uk/GAFCCAB.php
3.
American Government, Ninth Edition, Page 468
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