Director's Corner:
Copenhagen... don't despair.
  
Taking the “business as usual” approach of using natural resources—with no concern for the cost to the environment or society—and transforming that mindset into a widespread social movement for sustainability IS possible, but it does seem to be one of the most difficult and slowest of transitions. So, when our instant gratification culture tunes into our sensationalist 24/7 media circus to get an analysis of what happened during international climate talks in Copenhagen, of course it’s going to look like bad news because there were no breakthroughs or heroes to capture our attention (think Kennedy or Mandela).
But, if you step back and take a longer-term perspective, I think some real progress was made, especially when you consider that this is an unprecedented project for our Earth: It is the first sincere “planet management” attempt in our species’ history, and it’s about time! Buckminster Fuller wrote Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth in 1963, and he was right: In order for 6.5 billion people to live meaningful lives on this little rock floating in cold outer space, somebody has to be watching over our life support systems, like fresh water, fertile soil, clean air and the conservation of non-renewable resources like oil, metals and whole ecosystems. Until now, the “Captain’s chair” on our blue and green starship has been empty, but the proceedings at Copenhagen are part of humanity’s attempt to put someone (or some organization or movement) in that chair to start planning for our future survival.
I believe it was also the beginning of an important social evolution. There were serious debates among all the world’s nations about some intense issues, like the fairness of the rich countries (who got rich over the last 150 years by putting greenhouse gases into our collective biosphere) asking the poor countries to not do the same because it will hurt us all.
Now that it’s out in the open that the dichotomies of rich/poor and individual/community are at the core of the climate solution, it has instigated talk about a fairly socialist term: “collective welfare.” There are some in the power class of Washington, D.C. and the U.S. who see THAT as a more serious concern than rising temperatures! They should be concerned because when the sheep (us) finally organize against getting robbed of our money, health and free time, we will begin to take control back from the plutocracy.
Zero Waste—along with Clean Energy—is one of the leading opportunities for our planet, which could slowly turn the ship around. These two systems cover the basics everyone needs for an acceptable and sustainable standard of living: energy and materials.
But, the challenge to the Zero Waste movement is that we are fighting against the trash incineration, or waste-to-energy industry, which showed up in force in Copenhagen in their silk suits, hosting workshops that tried to defend their business as usual world with a seductively simple, but oh-so-wrong story: Burn trash instead of coal. And where were the Zero Wasters? Back at home, lacking the money to be in the room where the decisions were being made for the world. We need to change that somehow. Until then, we are fortunate that our story—resource conservation—is powerful and growing, and the wasters of the world are shrinking in number.
One last beautiful story from the climate conference: There are 15 million people living off recycling materials from landfills and dumps across the planet (see Zero Waste Around the World). A delegation of poor Third World “wastepickers” flew to Copenhagen (thanks to foundation money) to tell the world that the push for a “modern” waste management system with big expensive trash trucks and garbage incinerators is going to put them out of work and heat the planet. While at the conference, this humble group was stunned and offended at how contaminated the recycling bins were with trash, so they went out into the lobby of the main convention center and dumped both the trash and recycling bins on the floor and proceeded to hold their own workshop on how to properly sort for recycling! A huge crowd gathered around them to watch and listen—many dressed in silk suits.
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