With limits exceeded, change is needed

Civilization has come a long way in the past 10,000 years. To those who follow the latest scientific findings, it doesn’t look like it’s going to be an easy ride going forward.

In the early ’70s I read the ground-breaking book “Limits to Growth,” detailing a study by 16 scientists at Massachusetts Institute of Technology about the consequences of various likely societal paths. It was clear that we were heading in the wrong direction since unlimited growth cannot occur on a finite planet, regardless of our economic model.

Over the decades, follow-up studies confirmed the initial findings with great accuracy. We have failed to heed the warning.

In 2012, lead author Dennis Meadows concluded that the collapse of our civilization is imminent and that it could happen within the next few years. “We will be faced with challenges that we cannot even imagine today and they are going to be upon us much quicker than we can imagine,” he said in his presentation to the Smithsonian on the 40th anniversary of “Limits to Growth.”

I will post his talk on www.GreenDream.biz.

“We’re in for a period of sustained chaos whose magnitude we are unable to foresee,” Meadows said. He no longer spends time trying to persuade humanity of the limits to growth. Instead, he says, “I’m trying to understand how communities and cities can buffer themselves” against the inevitable hard landing.

We have exceeded the capacity of our planet to sustain our population’s consumption. In other words, our current set of living arrangements has no future. The only reasonable response is a rapid transition to a postcarbon culture while building resiliency into our communities.

Business as usual is history. Over. Done. Kaput. It is imperative that we give this situation the attention it deserves.

Las Vegas is particularly vulnerable, in a desert with scarce essential resources. There are several things I think we should be doing. It all centers on one word: localize.

Peak oil has been the topic of past Green Living columns. It has not gone away and when coupled with the drought brought on by the deepening effects of climate change, we are facing a perfect storm of human-induced challenges. We must begin designing postcarbon communities now.

Why not turn our failing urban and suburban car-centric environment into clusters of semi-autonomous walkable “villages” that foster cooperation, interaction and sharing? If we build any homes at all, they should use earthen berms to add thermal mass and greatly reduce the need for climate control systems.

Existing homes need deep green energy efficiency retrofits. As they stand now, most homes in Southern Nevada are essentially unlivable in the summer without massive amounts of external energy. It is a very dangerous situation.

Local energy production systems are vitally important. Massive adoption of rooftop solar is crucial. Linking rooftop PV systems into multiple, village-sized micro-grids increases resiliency and can reduce large-scale infrastructure costs.

We also need an extreme focus on fully powering our water delivery systems from Lake Mead with solar energy, a local power source we can depend on.

Once water is delivered to our homes, it must be treated much differently than it is now. Forget about return flow credits. We should be getting at least four beneficial uses from every gallon of water pumped the long, energy-intensive distance from the Colorado River.

That means recycling on site. Remember, we have made “business as usual” a thing of the past.

Water can be recycled in many ways. With some creative bio-mimicry, we can safely cook, bathe, clean and grow food using the same water, just like nature does. The practice of using fresh potable water to flush “human waste” into our source of fresh potable water is wasteful and insane.

We must adopt methods to turn that “waste” into an asset. Composting and waterless toilets can create excellent materials to build fertile soil. Refer to my recent column highlighting the excellent work of the Watershed Management Group for inspiration.

Local food production must ramp up quickly as traditional sources suffer from extreme ongoing drought. Local permaculture is key. How many empty warehouses dot the valley? Indoor food production is an efficient way to grow healthy produce year-round, using a small fraction of the water compared to traditional methods.

It is time to develop a local currency that is independent of the dollar. When it comes down to it, we all depend on each other. Resiliency is the result of a strong local economy that is not tied to the cost of oil or further illegal manipulations by Wall Street.

I’m sure many others can contribute to this conversation. Some have already begun and I’ll include links on my site. Local governments must become more involved and make their resiliency plans readily available to the public.

We are way out of balance and nature seeks a new equilibrium. We can take an active approach or not. Either way, the consequences are inevitable.

Steve Rypka is a green living consultant and president of GreenDream Enterprises, a company committed to helping people live lighter on the planet. For more information and links to additional resources relating to this column, or to reach Rypka, visit www.greendream.biz.