Why a Zero Waste energy approach is the only sustainable energy future.

• Author: Lakhani, Muna
• Position: 80% Less Energy - Report

Regardless of our personal opinions, climate chaos (climate change is far too mild a term for the reality) is at the top of the international agenda. Certainly, one can argue that other matters are more critical, but that is the reality.

The hype between the denialists, the "scientists," [1] the realists and the doomsayers, diverts attention from the base of the problem. No one is speaking about the fact that it is overcon-sumption by the rich that is generating such massive negative social, environmental and economic impacts, or that so many of the responses to climate chaos are simply further forms of colonization--be it the rampant destruction of rainforest for biodiesel or ethanol production (leading to a doubling of hunger in Brazil while doubling ethanol exports), or the simple moral and ethical poverty of those seeking to solve the problem, as a rule. [2] These impacts are real--not in the future, today. In late 2006, the price of tortilla flour in Mexico, which gets 80% of its corn imports from the United States, doubled thanks partly to a rise in US corn prices from $2.80 to $4.20 a bushel over the previous several months. [3]

The American economist Lester R. Brown, from the Earth Policy Institute, is leading the warning voices in the North: "The competition for grain between the world's 800 million motorists who want to maintain their mobility and its two billion poorest people who are simply trying to stay alive is emerging as an epic issue." The grain required to fill a 25-gallon SUV gas tank with ethanol will feed one person for a year.

No one is speaking of banning personal vehicle ownership; or insisting that cars be manufactured to the highest energy efficiency standards, with speed regulation built-in and limits to engine size; increased taxes; and so on. Energy efficiency can produce savings of 10-50%. Fiscal measures like scrapping global subsidies on fossil fuels would cut C[O.sub.2] emissions by 18% (according to the IPCC). Taxing C[O.sub.2] emissions in Sweden caused an 11% drop.

Industry accounts for around 30% of C[O.sub.2] emissions and could make deep cuts through retrofitting for fuel efficiency, sustainable transport and recycling. [4] These are simple, effective steps, but they are not on any mainstream agenda.

When ever did you hear that exports of resources to the North will be banned by anyone from the South? All we hear in the South is "export-led economic growth"--nothing else! Followers and critics of the...