Written by Sandra Kurtz
August 5, 2010 – 1:04 pm

Editor’s note: Once a month, we are bringing back the “Shades of Green” column, and are delighted to announce it will be written by one of Chattanooga’s most active environmentalists, Sandra Kurtz. If you have questions or suggestions for this column, e-mail them to us at jhashe@chattanoogapulse.com.

Numerous questions can precede the actual writing of a column entitled “Shades of Green”. For starters, what is meant by “Shades” of Green? It sounds like Code Orange for air pollution danger or terrorist attacks. I suppose a light green person would be worse than a dark green one. Who does the profiling anyway? Further, what subjects ought to be addressed, given the vast array of possibilities?

Reader, do you want to be informed about current sustainability and environmental issues on a local or global scale? Maybe you prefer ecology or birds and bunnies. How about paths to a greener quality of life or philosophical discussions on humans’ spiritual and physical responsibilities for our species and the planet? Perhaps you just want tips on how to be more Earth friendly in your home or business, a sort of advice-for-the-greenless column. I’ll be interested to hear your preferences.

For now, my first time as an official columnist, I’ll share my views about a sustainable future—the one where there is still a great diversity of life, humans included, living in harmony with the rest of nature on the planet. It may come as a surprise to some, but our species cannot live without the Earth’s interwoven support systems, resources and free services. The movie Avatar showed how much trouble it causes to use up all your resources and think the answer is to get more on another planet.

That brings us to thinking about energy and the amount of space and stuff we use. The approach to date hasn’t been to encourage using less stuff, but instead to promote demand for more. That stance leads us to ask how deep to drill, how many mountains to remove, and how many fragile spots to mine so we produce all we demand. In an ever-widening tornado of consumption, we want bigger and bigger places that take up agricultural land even as we live more isolated high-tech lives, travel further for work and for daily supplies while we suffer from illnesses caused by our modern lifestyles.

Moreover, the very Earth support system we need is diminished. Carry that process to the ultimate conclusion. We could be like disappearing dinosaurs dealing with catastrophic weather events, extreme temperatures, too much carbon dioxide, polluted water, air, and land, not enough food, and too many people demanding stuff. It’s a result we won’t like.
Here’s a better Earth-driven outcome. Like it or not, we are transitioning to a no oil/no carbon/no nuclear energy platform. It’s required because we are running out of oil. Our tragic attempts to find more are not worth the environmental and economic risk or expense. We already have the low-hanging fruit. Coal has turned out to be a community plunderer with its destruction of mountain scenery, water quality, and forests.

Even if industrialists figure our how to make coal clean by storing emissions in a hole somewhere, mining still destroys mountains. Some say we should replace coal with nuclear and solve climate change problems. Oh—let’s just trade dirty air and water from coal for radioactive air and water, plus a radioactive waste site so we can ensure a legacy to future children, should they survive.

Someone said, “The Rock Age didn’t end because we ran out of rocks.” The Industrial Age is slowly transforming into a Sustainability Age. Get ready. Shut the door on outmoded ways of getting energy. Smart people have figured out how we can do it using numerous energy alternatives. Meanwhile, reduce your demand for energy through efficiency and conservation. Use less stuff to be a shade of green.