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Extracting Stuff
Professor Wayne Hayes
V. 0.4, Build #5 | 10/11/2012
Extraction within the
materials economy cycle.
Annie Leonard’s The Story of Stuff opens the
journey through the materials cycle with
extraction.
Our goal here is to understand, comment, and
supplement this chapter.
What is in Extraction:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Forests, aka trees
Water
Rocks
Petroleum
Coal
Rethinking extraction
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.
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).
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).
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.
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.
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.
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.
Total economic value framework:
See Restoring Europe’s Rivers
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.
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).
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.
Oil companies acknowledge that
there are issues.
See GreenBiz.com ranking of oil companies on sustainability.
Coal generates electricity.
• 40% globally
• 49% in the USA
• but going down --- this is significant: see next
slide . . .
Often through mountaintop removal.
Source: EPA
Mountaintop removal can be seen
as a case of EJ.
EJ = Environmental Justice,
an ethical concern.
See Mountaintop Justice.
So folks push back.
Source: Coal is Dirty
Projections are down for coal.
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?
CO2 is going down in USA!
Source: New York Times, August 17, 2012
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)
BTW, the Arctic is now
open for business.
Source: NASA and NRDC
So, rethink extraction.
1. Intervene on the front end.
2. And at the back end.
3. Change hearts and minds.
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.
The back end: Recycle
Read about the history of the recycling logo.
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.
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.