Throughout the history of cancer research, environmental causes have been like a dirty secret tucked into dark corners of the institutions of mainstream cancer research: We know they're there, but rarely do they see the light of day. The release of today’s 2009 Presidential Report on Cancer, titled “Reducing Environmental Cancer Risks,” makes clear that if the U.S. wants to reduce cancer rates (and health care expenditures), it is time shine light on the environmental links to cancer. The report calls for a comprehensive, cohesive policy agenda on environmental contaminants to human health that includes committing serious research dollars and regulatory power to understanding and minimizing preventable risks in the environment.
The report also describes concrete actions individuals can take to reduce exposure to possible cancer-causing agents such as filtering water, not microwaving plastic, choosing pesticide-free food and using headphones when talking on cellphones (among others). But mostly, these individual solutions serve to highlight the bigger problem: A regulatory system that uses a reactionary approach rather than a precautionary one. Instead of requiring proof of safety, the public bears the burden of proving that a given environmental exposure is harmful and because of the difficulty of amassing such proof (scientifically, politically, because of the dearth of research funds devoted to such questions...), proof often only emerges once tremendous harm has already been done. At this time, only a few hundred of the more than 80,000 chemicals in use in the United States have been tested for safety and the effects of multiple chemical exposures is hardly addressed. The report systematically reviews some of the most well-documented contaminants in our environment and highlights the alarming ubiquity of them, the multiple paths of exposure in our everyday lives.
As President Obama states:
“With the growing body of evidence linking environmental exposures to cancer, the public is becoming increasingly aware of the unacceptable burden of cancer resulting from environmental and occupational exposures that could have been prevented through appropriate national action.”
It’s about time. While efforts have been underway to expose these links by environmental activists, women’s health activists, cancer activists, and others, it's disconcerting how rarely it gets on the national agenda. We applaud this step toward putting it there and urge everyone to read the report and make a commitment to work toward eradicating cancer-causing agents.
A couple of weeks ago we had the distinct pleasure of touring Verde Gardens, a more than decade-long experiment in community and sustainability at an elementary school in North Richmond. North Richmond, an unincorporated are of the San Francisco Bay Area has a long history of economic and environmental injustices and Verde Partnership Garden is one of many projects working to counter some of the negative trends in the area.
It was an uncharacteristically cold spring day when we went to the gardens, but that didn't stop the kids from flocking to it. We arrived just after an egg hunt and the kids had to return to class, but at each breaks, kids would return to the garden, choosing to spend their recess pulling weeds, harvesting vegetables, fruits and herbs, or just hanging out with the garden leaders.
David and Bienvenida gave us our tour. Their enthusiasm was infectious and their knowledge formidable. As they pointed out what was growing in the garden they told stories about past projects the kids had done with that particular plant or described uses for it and it's significance to the community. They related stories of their experiments with different forms of compost, types of soils and best conditions for growing.
It was only halfway through our tour that we realized Bienvenida and David were mother and son. David had been coming to the garden since he was in first grade and is now working at Verde Garden as well as spearheading other garden projects, as a full-time passion.
We look forward to meeting up with David and Bienvenida again and finding out more about their ongoing commitments to creating a greener and more socially just Richmond.
We have been following the WorldWatch Institute's Vision for a Sustainable world and were pleased to find a post on their blog from last Fall demanding that social sustainability be included in environmental sustainability. A set of questions they pose mirror ones we are asked at each and every talk we give no matter the audience: "Will people be forced into false tradeoffs—choosing economy over ecology, or vice versa? Will sustainability happen at the cost of growing disparities and hardship?
Social Green is determined to debunk the myth that green innovations can only happen with increased costs to a populous already economically suffering. Or that green tech is only for those at the top of the income latter. In Living Green we provide many examples of affordable green living as well as developers and communities devoted to affordability + environmental justice. Through our current research we are continuing to work with communities doing just this and we hope to share some of our findings with you soon.
WorldWatch echoes our message: "environmental sustainability requires social sustainability...Environmentalists need to be as aware of the social dimensions of sustainability—well-versed in issues like living wages or occupational health and safety..."
"The Preserve in Stockton will be a socially vibrant, ecologically sensitive, and economically sound community. It is designed to create new and diverse housing choices and jobs, attract new businesses, and enhance the health and well-being of both people and the environment. All of these goals will be achieved while allowing us to comfortably live within our ecological fair share of the planet."
This is the vision statement of a new community currently being planned for Stockton, California. Stockton may not be the first place that comes to mind when thinking about sustainability, but lots of surprisingly exciting things are afoot in this town in the heart of California's San Joaquin valley. But more about that in our next post; today, we want to tell you about "the Preserve" a master-planned community that, if built according to its current vision, will turn on its head everything you think you know about master-planned communities.
Developer A.G. Spanos Companies has envisioned the Preserve in accordance with the Ahwahnee principles and Bioregional's principles for a One Planet Community (a community which uses only one planet's worth of resources instead of the five planet's worth used by a typical community in North America today. The Preserve is aiming to be a model for a new way to build community that is both radically sustainable and eminently livable.
Two significant environmental issues at stake in Stockton are the diminishing wetlands that this town, adjacent to the Sacramento Delta, was once replete with, and the culturally, socially, economically and environmentally significant history of agriculture in this region. The Preserve plans to restore wetlands and other natural habitats as well as promote sustainable agriculture.
A significant portion of the land is reserved for environmental restoration and agriculture, providing residents with locally-grown food, open space, and natural habitats that will attract a wide array of plants and animals.
Social and economic sustainability are also at the forefront of their efforts. Businesses and retail, recreation, bike and walking trails, education, health care and job creation: All of these things are woven into the blueprint for the Preserve. Their plan is to make it simple for residents to live a healthier, more environmentally responsible lives. Check out their website to learn more.
On the topic of increasing access to healthy foods, The US government is offering grants to create and expand farmers markets and other direct producer-to-consumer markets. The Farmers Market Promotion Program (FMPP) allocated $5 million for Fiscal Years 2009 and 2010 and $10 million for Fiscal Years 2011 and 2012. It's open to applicants from agricultural cooperatives, producer networks, producer associations, local governments, nonprofit corporations, public benefit corporations, economic development corporations, regional farmers market authorities and Tribal governments. In 2009, the programs funded included two efforts to increase low-income consumers' access to farmers markets in California and in Arizona.
Thanks to the online magazine Shareable for drawing attention to these grants. And, if you think you might want to go after some of this money and start a farmers market in your area, Shareable has a great guide to get you started: How to Start a Farmers Market.
One of the most eloquent examples of creating social sustainability can be found in a simple vegetable garden. In places where green space, healthy foods and economic resources are all in short supply, a backyard vegetable garden can help provide all three.
An article in today's New York Times describes a group called La Mesa Verde, which goes into people's homes in low income Latino neighborhoods to plant backyard organic gardens.
It's so simple: planting edible gardens contributes to economic sustainability by providing inexpensive, readily available food. One participant in the La Mesa Verde program described saving $90 a month on grocery bills because of the garden.
And the benefits extend beyond the pocketbook: Providing people with the means to accessing inexpensive, healthy foods is important to promoting health equity. An endemic problem in low income communities of color is lack of access to healthy foods (i.e., fresh produce) and a predominance of cheap, unhealthy foods. This, in turn, exacerbates health inequality. The article describes the efforts of La Mesa Verde, started by Raul Lozano, son of farmworkers and a passionate gardener, as part of a national movement "to make healthy food readily accessible to marginilized urban neighborhoods."
Participants also describe the social benefits of bringing their families together, of connecting with children and enhancing community connectedness. And, of course, planting a garden brings with it innumerable benefits to the planet.
There's an important link between sustainability and community healing after natural disasters. This is a link we are exploring in our new book, tentatively titled Healing Green. Beyond the way devastating destruction holds the promise of regeneration and the implicit opportunity to rebuild in a new and innovative way, we think that rebuilding sustainably after natural disasters serves an important healing function for the communities most effected.
We are thinking a lot about this promise of healing as we grieve for the thousands upon thousands of people who have lost their lives, their families, and their communities in Haiti. It's hard to find words to describe the magnitude of such loss and easy to feel helpless as we watch on our television screens, donating money to organizations we hope can help ease some of the suffering. And though against the backdrop of such urgent need, it's hard to imagine a future in which rebuilding will be the focus, such a future will come and we are heartened to see efforts already underway to incorporate green community practices into the rebuilding effort.
The Clinton Foundation has been working with Haiti to "build back better" in the aftermath of the hurricanes that battered the country in 2008 and plans to continue that effort when rebuilding begins this time. The USGBC is working with the Clinton Foundation in these efforts and they will look to, and learn from, the experiences of other communities that are rebuilding green after being crippled by natural disasters. Communities such as Greensburg Kansas which was virtually demolished by a tornado in 2007. The town decided to rebuild as a model green community. Check out the Greensburg Green Town website to learn more. A significant portion of the recovery effort in New Orleans has also looked toward green building principles and practices as they rebuild.
We think it is of crucial importance to build social sustainability into the recovery efforts in Haiti--as the poorest nation in the Western hemisphere, much of the current devastation can be linked directly to poverty and injustice. Without building codes or adequate infrastructures, with a public health crisis in existence even before the earthquake, the damage is much greater than it might have been had this disaster struck somewhere else. And in order to answer the promise of building back better, economic and social injustices will have to be addressed along with environmental ones. As we write about the rebuilding of communities in our book, we will continue to look for lessons about how incorporating social sustainability into rebuilding can help heal the wounds wrought by natural disasters.
An article in today's SFGate recounts the struggles of children living with asthma caused, in part, by overcrowded, run-down, aging buildings in one of San Francisco's oldest neighborhoods. The plight of kids with asthma in the Mission district is but one example of ways the built environment has serious consequences on health and well being.
Last Winter we wrote here about Breathe Easy homes in the High Point neighborhood of West Seattle. These ultra-green homes are built for low-income families where some members are asthma sufferers and they have been successful in improving asthma symptoms and decreasing hospital visits.
Integrating some of these green features into other low-income communities where aging, toxic buildings are taking a toll on health would make an enormous difference. But, as the SFGate article suggests, there are some steep obstacles: corrupt landlords and indifferent public policies have led to overcrowding and to an unwillingness to meet even the minimum standards of healthy housing.
Situations like these occur everywhere and in response, groups like those that make up the Alliance for Healthy Homes are working to make healthy homes a reality for everyone. Among other things, they are providing residents of toxic homes with the tools to document their situations and advocate for change.
We just learned that Citizens Housing, the management company responsible for running the Folsom/Dore Apartments featured in Living Green will close and be taken over by the Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation (TNDC). Economic issues forced this closure and while we congratulate the reputatble low-income housing developer, TNDC, for surviving the economic crisis facing the housing industry, this is nonetheless sad news for us.
Above all, we hope that TNDC will work hard to ensure a smooth transition including excellent continuum of care for the residents at this property and the others run by Citizens. We are concerned that the social justice mission of enhancing the lives of residents, not merely sheltering them, that has been at the heart of Citizens' mission, may be at risk.
Citizens Housing has been a model for providing people's right to housing with a strong commitment to residents' health, wellbeing, and overall life success. When we interviewed Nina Berkson and Kevin Edelbrook we were touched by their personal commitment to the staff and residents at Folsom/Dore: These two staff members have worked relentlessly to build a management team from janitors, desk clerks, to office staff who understand they are part of an innovative program designed to enhance the lives of formerly homeless, at-risk of homelessness, and market rate tenants; they are part of the solution to a world that is increasingly apathetic to those in need; segregated by socio-economic status; and aware that environmental concerns must take center stage to reverse local environmental health exposures and global climate change.
This morning I had tea with Janelle Orsi, co-author (with Emily Doskow) of the book, “The Sharing Solution: How to Save Money, Simplify your Life and Build Community.” I already knew I liked the idea of the book when we decided to meet—the promotion of the values of environmentalism via sharing resources is one which resonates with Living Green. But, boy was I in for a treat when I sat down to read the book after our tea was over.
The Sharing Solution is a well-written, straightforward and inspirational book, overflowing with great ideas for ways we could all share with each other. There are chapters on specific things that can be shared: sharing food, sharing housing, sharing household goods, sharing care for children, family and pets, sharing transportation, sharing work; and, along with inspiration, the book provides concrete steps for forging connections with like-minded sharers and steps to making it happen.
The authors are attorneys and the book includes agreements, check-lists, forms and sample contracts that provide the average person with the tools they need to create protected, mutually beneficial sharing relationships. It also highlights the triple bottom line benefits for each type of sharing—benefits like reducing consumerism, forging community as relationships begun for practical sharing purposes grow into trusting bonds, and saving money.
I could feel my own excitement mounting as I read the book and couldn’t help thinking, “I can do that!” The Sharing Solution should be required reading for all.
Margaret Fabrizio, the land artist featured in our book, Living Green, has posted a Vlog on YouTube and Vlogger Heads. In it, she says, "I don't know how I got into this book." It's the sub-title, 'Communities that Sustain' that most puzzles her. Why include an artist living lightly on the land? Why use the term "community"?
Community is a concept that is quite undertheorized in North American cultures and scholarship: It is largely taken-for-granted. It can be used to signal kinship, affinity, proximity, inclusion, and to erect borders and boundaries. We use it in our book to demonstrate that "community" is many things to many people. It can emerge from the concrete or the ephemeral; it can be shared through virtual or "real" place and time, or through ideas and dialogue. There is no single or correct use of this term or ways to be a community.
As soon as Margaret posted this Vlog, many people left comments. This technologically-mediated set of contacts is another way in which Margaret participates in bringing people together whether or not she intends to. And it is not only sharing that signifies community: Margaret communes with the trees, the animals, the meadows, and all things that pass through, plant seeds, or spend time on the land. Her Nature and Art Conservancy is a form of living on and with the land that inspires human emotion, creativity, and action. Treating the earth with respect and love is not new, but it is something that often goes unrecognized as a significant and important way of acting that is a form of "living green," providing a lesson for how to stop some of the destruction done to the climate and the earth. Thank you Margaret for making this comment and, for creating another work of shared art.
I would like to introduce you to Olivia. Olivia is an SPCA feral rescue cat living on Pacific between Van Ness and Franklin Streets in San Francisco. I met Olivia last March. And then I met Omar, Kathleen, Virginia, and at least twenty other human neighbors who live on the block. I like to joke that Olivia should have a facebook page for all her "friends." I wonder if others out there have stories about neighborhood cats creating social interaction on their blocks? Since I met Olivia I have heard neighbors offer to shop for one another if someone is ill, to check in on each other's partners, kids, dogs and lives and I have been a part of time spent just sitting outside, talking together and watching the people and pets go by. Olivia, of course, is often a main part of the conversation but in between we seem to learn about each other's jobs, health, and lives. On an urban block this is unusual. Do you have stories like this? If you don't know the story of "Pretty Boy," an East Village Cat who recently passed away, you can read about him here. If so, let me know. I'm all ears.
In a follow-up to our recent post, "Place Matters" on place and health inequality, we bring your attention to last night's global frontline story, "The Digital Dumping Ground" based on research by producer Peter Klein and a group pf UBC graduate students. The Digital Dumping Ground reports on the route of e-waste from the U.S. to some of the poorest communities in Ghana, China, and India. Watching the footage and its images of roads, fields, and workshops full with the industrialized world's waste is frightening enough, but to see the people forced to eek out a living "recycling" this waste is downright horrifying. While the story depicts an environmental crisis of waste, it also painfully reveals the disproportionate burden of exposure to contaminants among the world's poor and vulnerable (as a reminder watch the video series Unnatural Causes on Health inequality). Although the health consequences are already felt by those working in this unregulated disparate economy, the extent of the exposure is largely unknown to them. The story demonstrates the importance of thinking globally as we work to create more sustainable local communities.
Mary Mattingly is an artist with a unique vision for a self-sufficient community on the water. By "on the water" we don't mean waterfront, but literally floating on the water. She is building a sustainable, navigable living space on a barge called "Waterpod". Not quite ready yet, the barge already contains a windmill and will include gardens for food growing, chickens, the capability for composting waste and will secure drinking water through purified rainwater. Check out today's story in the New York Times and be sure to go to Mary Mattingly's website for a glimpse of her amazing work including her "wearable homes".
We had a great time last night celebrating the publication of our book, Living Green, at the San Francisco Center for the Book. It was a thrill to see the book in print and to have so many of our friends show up to mark the occasion. Margaret Fabrizio was our honored guest and we were thankful she was there to talk about, and show images of, the amazing land and art featured in the book.
We are excited to announce three upcoming Bay Area events to celebrate the publication of our book, Living Green: Communities that Sustain.
On June 2nd, we will be celebrating at the San Francisco Centre for the Book where we will be joined by local artist, Margaret Fabrizio whose art and land are featured in the book. There will also be wine, cheese, good friends and good times.
On June 25 at 7:00, we will be at the Green Arcade in San Francisco. The Green Arcade is a new and fantastic resource specializing in books on the environment, politics, sustainability, the slow food movement, organics, urban planning nature, and children's books. Even if you can't make our event, we highly recommend making a trip to this fabulous independent bookstore.
And, speaking of fabulous bookstores, on June 29th, we'll be across the bay at Berkeley's amazing Builder's Booksource. An institution on fourth street since 1982, the Builder's Booksource was at the very cutting edge of the green building movement and continues to be a vital resource for anyone interested in green buildings or sustainable living. We'll be there June 29th at 7:00.
Building Magazine has just released our first web exclusive promoting our forthcoming book, Living Green: Communities that Sustain. Building magazine is a leading voice on the news and issues of Canada’s building development industry. We are thrilled they have chosen to discuss our book on their website. The excerpt selected summarizes the scope of the book and our effort to sketch the best practices for enhancing community through the built environment. We, at Social Green , are currently explanding this research with a specific focus on the ways community + built environment influence health. A place based approach to health and health inequality, we believe, needs to be understood and incorporated into current building designs to best meet our 21st century goal of environmental, economic, and social sustainability.
The International Forum on Globalization distinguishes between three types of commons. First, the natural resources of the planet. These are the commons we spoke about in our post last month: water, forests, mountains, wildlife. Second, they talk about a social commons: health care, social security, education and the other social goods that many believe should be basic human rights. Third, they talk about the cultural and knowledge commons. It's this third one we want to expand on here.
As medical sociologists, we have written extensively about the ways knowledge can be viewed as a resource. Knowledge about our bodies, how they work, what we need to do to keep them healthy; knowledge about what kinds of services are available to us and how we can access them; knowledge about the impacts of our daily practices on our health; knowledge about signs and symptoms and how to respond to them are all important for overall well being. Lack of access to such knowledge is often cited as a major culprit in health inequalities.
These same principles extend beyond medical and health-related knowledge to knowledge about any number of subjects. Access to knowledge is a resource. Period. Those with greater access to knowledge can learn about things that matter to them and take actions based on that knowledge.
The Internet is a major resource for promoting the knowledge commons. Wikipedia, Craigslist, YouTube are examples of extremely popular websites which enable people to freely access--as well as contribute to the creation of--knowledge and information. The popular photosharing website Flickr partnered with the Library of Congress to create The Commons--a free and accessible library of publicly-held photography collections (the above photo of the New York Public Library circa 1911 is from there). The concept of knowledge as commons is also alive and well in public radio, television and the people actively fighting to keep the airwaves free.
Alongside examples of keeping knowledge free and readily accessible are pressures to do the opposite. Copyright laws and corporate ownership of knowledge limit access for many. The group Creative Commons is working to counter these pressures and provide an alternative to the private ownership of ideas. They provide free licensing to artists, scientists, engineers or others who may want to copyright portions of their work, but also provide access to some or all of it for others to use, re-use, build upon, etc.
Another champion of the knowledge commons is Carl Malamud, a long time activist for public access to knowledge and information, who has accumulated vast amounts of government documents, films, court proceedings and raw data to ensure free availability on his website Public.Resources.Org. He also fights against attempts by governments or others to copyright what is in the public domain.
This spirit of activism and sharing of knowledge and ideas as well as tools has been a vital part of computer engineering, where alongside the corporate, private sphere an alternative, free and open world of computing has grown. For example, the Free Software Foundation was founded in 1985 to promote computer user freedom and to defend the rights of all free software users. Among other FSF provides free licensing and software for people who want to share, develop and use software. They say,
“To use free software is to make a political and ethical choice asserting the right to learn, and share what we learn with others. Free software is the foundation of a learning society--where the tools we all use are free to share, study and modify.”
Perhaps the quintessential example of the knowledge commons is the public library. In addition to the holdings of the library itself, libraries are places where people without other access can freely use the Internet, they often serve as community centers, venues for free lectures and group gatherings. At the library you can search for a job, figure out how to fix your car, learn how to manage high cholesterol, delve into ancient history or access SAT study guides: Libraries provide people with free access to knowledge and resources that can make a difference to their everyday lives. For these reasons, we think strong public libraries--and the knowledge commons more broadly-- are essential to social sustainability.
On our recent trip to the High Point neighborhood in west Seattle, one of the folks we talked to pointed out a significant way his capacity for green living was hindered: local ordinances that forbid the use of clothes lines. It turns out that High Point, like many planned communities, cities and muncipalities across North America is a place where line drying clothes outside is banned as an unsightly nuisance to neighbors.
The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that close to 6% of electricity generated in the United States comes from clothes dryers. Project Laundry List estimates that the average resident could save up to 15% on their utility bills by line drying instead of electric drying. Their website features a calculator where you can see for yourself how much money you could save by greening your laundry practices. Using the power of solar energy and wind to dry clothes seems like such a simple way to live greener in our everyday lives. Why would it ever be restricted or banned?
The restrictions may come from citywide architectural regulations or, more commonly, from Homeowner's Associations (HOA) which are charged with protecting the value of homes in planned communities and condominiums. Restrictions on line drying stem from the perception that laundry on a line is an eyesore. And that isn't the only thing that's being restricted: many HOAs forbid the use of solar panels, forbid small houses, large vegetable gardens, native gardens or require the use of lights from dusk to dawn, the use of water and/or pesticides on your yard. It seems HOAs may be acting as significant barriers for many people to improve their carbon footprints.
Luckily, slowly, governments are taking action to ensure that every citizen has the right to live green, regardless of what their HOA says. In Florida, for instance, legislation ensures the right of all of its citizens to erect solar panels on their homes and also, happily, to dry their clothes outside.
In our forthcoming book, Living Green: Communities that Sustain, we describe ten principles, derived from our research, that are key to making a community sustainable: We call these the Ten C’s of Social Sustainability. One of these is the principle of the commons.
The model of the commons understands the Earth and its resources as shared gifts, rather than private property. Perhaps the most practical and specific lesson we learned about what makes a community sustainable over time is the way that sharing resources enables each person to live higher quality lives with less of an environmental impact. From shared spaces and car shares to clothing swaps and shared infrastructures, the possibilities for commons abound and the impact on people’s everyday lives can be profound.
We found this video on YouTube and it inspired us to investigate a bit more the ways activism around the idea of the commons is emerging at different sites.
Many of the planet’s natural resources--water, forests, wildlife--have traditionally been commons, shared resources. Historically, in Europe, the commons were shared agricultural, grazing and open lands and they were steadily enclosed and privatized over the course of many hundreds of years. The privatization of public resources is not new, but it is expanding through regressive politics and policies and as new technologies enable different kinds of enclosures: patenting seeds, genetic materials, claiming parts of outer space and cyberspace and probing more deeply into the earth’s core.
Protecting the water commons has become a particularly intense site of activism. Many believe that as a non-renewable, essential resource, water should exist outside the realm of private property. But, as the planet’s water supply dwindles, private sector interest in it grows. The Blue Planet Project asserts that over one billion people do not have access to safe drinking water and more than one million children die each year of diseases caused by unsafe water and lack of sanitation. In response, the organization and others like it around the world are working to protect water from commodification and maintain free access.
For an excellent articulation of the water commons, the group On the Commons has published an extensive report which you can download here. In it, they describe some of the ways private interests have encroached upon the water commons. One of these is the bottled water industry which has taken, virtually without limits, from the water commons and then sold it back to us at enormous profit. Also at a signifiant environmental cost. Another pathway to privatization is through the industries that have emerged around cleaning and reclaiming water--these provide an expensive and easily privatized solution to the water crisis, which might also be addressed by stopping pollution and ensuring the safety of the water commons for all.
Champions of the commons argue that if we see water as a commons, we are more likely to feel shared ownership of it and be invested in keeping it clean or cleaning it up. This is evidenced in the many victories of the Waterkeeper Alliance, an alliance of organizations that empowers citizens to get involved in protecting lakes, rivers and streams in their own communities.
The air we breathe, the atmosphere, the sky, outer space can be seen as another commons. In his recent book, Who Owns the Sky, Peter Barnes proposes the idea of a “sky trust” to protect this commons. The Sky Trust would require companies to pay for the right to release their carbon emissions into the atmosphere. The money would then be placed into a Sky Trust owned by all citizens--thus providing financial incentive to reduce emissions. The money from the sky trust would belong to the public to be used for common benefits.
Perhaps the most powerful example of protecting the commons can be found in the work of Vandana Shiva and her organization Navdanya (which literally means, nine seeds). Central to their work has been protecting the rights of farmers to freely use seeds, protecting seeds from patents and privatization at the hands of large corporations and in the process, protecting farmer’s rights to earn their livelihood as well as protecting all of our rights to biodiversity.
Social Sustainability is a project of Social Green, a non-profit organization dedicated to enhancing green projects through understanding the social and human elements which shape them.
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