Extracting Stuff

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Extracting Stuff

• Professor Wayne Hayes
• V. 0.4, Build 5 10/11/2012

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Extraction within thematerials economy cycle.

• Annie Leonards The Story of Stuff opens the
  journey through the materials cycle with
  extraction.
• Our goal here is to understand, comment, and
  supplement this chapter.

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What is in Extraction

1. Forests, aka trees
2. Water
3. Rocks
4. Petroleum
5. Coal
6. Rethinking extraction

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What is not in Extraction.

• Services such as geological discovery or related
  industries. Annie looks at final demand of
  commodities, although she does include a short
  piece on coal.
• Agriculture except tree farming. She discusses
  food throughout the book.

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Forests

• Forests (not just individual trees) provide
• a vast array of essential environmental services
  food, fodder, fiber, fuel, and fun.
• Forests are habitat that
• support biodiversity and convert CO2 to oxygen.
  Some ecological economists
• try to calculate the benefits of forests.
• (pages 1-5).

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But forests are being destroyed.

• Trees are being harvested
• well beyond a sustainable rate.
• The rate is about 18 million acres per year,
• or 50,000 acres per day.
• She reports (p. 5) that the loss of forests
• amounts to 2 trillion to 5 trillion per year,
• about 7 of world GDP (page 8).

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There are good signs.

• Public awareness has increased. People and
  companies recycle more.
• Much attention is paid to reducing the amount of
  paper used in production and in consumption.
• Much more could be done.

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And more good news on the horizon.

• There are widespread attempts at stewardship and
  advocacy, such as Forest Ethics and the Forest
  Stewardship Council.
• Greenwashing is actively exposed and opposed.
  (Thanks to Jonathan Stelling for the link.)
• The very fact of public awareness makes a
  difference.

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Water, pages 10 - 19

• Annie explains what water means in different
  contexts, such as in Bangladesh and at what had
  been the Aral Sea. She reports that over 100,000
  children die each year due to diarrhea.

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Look into some concepts involved.

1. Expect more conflict to be sparked by water wars
   and by privatization.
2. People can become more aware of their water
   footprint.
3. Work is done on the total economic value
   framework (see next slide).
4. Close the loop in industry and through ecological
   design and industrial ecology. Note Interface
   Carpeting and Ray Anderson.
5. Economists would argue to put the correct price
   on water.

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Total economic value framework
See Restoring Europes Rivers
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Rocks, pages 20 -29

• Selective cases are presented. Gold and diamonds
  are conflict minerals. Note the work of Global
  Witness and the Kimberley Process to clean up
  these industries. Note the work of EarthWorks.
• Start to see economics for sustainers as
  connected to specific industries and to specific
  practices that can be identified and can be
  addressed.
• A take-away to consider Consume selectively and
  responsibly. Discover and support best practices
  and industry leaders.

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Petroleum, pages 29 - 34

• Oil is fundamental to our lifestyles, our
  economy, and even our civilization.
• The Peak Oil hypothesis is controversial with
  deep drilling in remote areas like the Arctic.
  See The Association for Peak Oil.
• Annie tells the story of Shell in the Congo using
  the tragic story of Ken Saro-Wiwa (pages 31-34).

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The Resource Curse

• Some economists claim that a dependence of a
  nation or a region on a single extractive
  industry creates the Resource Curse that distorts
  these economies.
• Diversification of regional economies is a
  better policy then dependence on a single
  industry. See SoS page 37.

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Oil companies acknowledge thatthere are issues.
See GreenBiz.com ranking of oil companies on
sustainability.
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Coal generates electricity.

• 40 globally
• 49 in the USA
• but going down --- this is significant see next
  slide . . .

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Often through mountaintop removal.
Source EPA
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Mountaintop removal can be seenas a case of EJ.

• EJ Environmental Justice,
• an ethical concern.
• See Mountaintop Justice.

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So folks push back.
Source Coal is Dirty
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Projections are down for coal.
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What about natural gas and fracking?

• I could not find either of these topics discussed
  in the The Story of Stuff.
• Am I wrong?
• So what?

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CO2 is going down in USA!
Source New York Times, August 17, 2012
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Natural gas contributes.

• Coal-fired electric power generation puts out
  about twice the amount of carbon dioxide around
  2,000 pounds for every megawatt hour generated
  than electricity generated by burning natural
  gas. But that is still about 1,100 pounds per
  megawatt hour for electricity from natural gas.
  Scientists suggest the United States needs to
  reduce emissions to around 350 to 400 pounds per
  megawatt hour to stabilize atmospheric
  concentrations.
• (Source New York Times August 17, 2012)

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BTW, the Arctic is nowopen for business.
Source NASA and NRDC
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So, rethink extraction.

• Intervene on the front end.
• And at the back end.
• Change hearts and minds.

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The front end

• Industry uses about
• 1 million pounds
• of material per person per year.
• So, use less and
• waste less.
• Practice ecological design.
• Dematerialize.

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The back end Recycle
Read about the history of the recycling logo.
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Think. Share. Network?

• Rethink the meaning of stuff. (Perhaps diminish
  the cultural significance of stuff.)
• Share, such as commons (neglected in The Story of
  Stuff) and pooling, such as zip car.

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Perhaps there is more

• Is there more latent capacity in the network?
  Think about the economics of dynamic networks,
  beyond the example of Zip Cars.
• Perhaps we can hack (improvise) sustainability.
  See The Hackers Manifesto by McKenzie Wark.

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The end.

• The take-away is that
• you become aware of
• extraction as you consume.
• Since extraction occurs in rural areas,
• you should consider the hidden impacts
• on people and on land.