GreenYes Digest V97 #34

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Fri, 22 Jan 1999 17:00:52 -0500


GreenYes Digest Sat, 22 Feb 97 Volume 97 : Issue 34

Today's Topics:
Fwd: INFOTERRA: AAAS Calls for Scientists to head off globa
GreenYes Digest V97 #33
Public Lands Logging Opposed
Sustainability books???

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Date: Fri, 21 Feb 1997 08:16:24 EST
From: "Sarah Carson" <CARSON@physical.uncg.edu>
Subject: Fwd: INFOTERRA: AAAS Calls for Scientists to head off globa

Does anyone know if there any kind of prceedings from this meeting?
I would like to pass along any information regarding the services
provided by a healthy environment and health implications of exposure
to sick one to the campus community. Thank you!

Sarah

> NEW DIRECTIONS: The American Association for the Advancement of
> Science (AAAS) is urging researchers "to redirect their efforts toward
> heading off a global environmental crisis of unprecedented scale,"
> Greenwire reports from several sources. Scientists attending the AAAS
> last week presented research on a "range of environmental issues,
> including human exposure to pollution, population growth, environmental
> accounting, global climate change . . and biodiversity." One session
> focused on developing methods for valuing services provided by healthy
> ecosystems.
>
> Courtesy of Actgreen
> rfeather@clark.net

<*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*>
Sarah Carson
Recycling Coordinator
The University of North Carolina at Greensboro
800 Oakland Avenue
Greensboro, NC 27412-5001
910-334-5192 * FAX 910-334-4026 * Carson@physical.uncg.edu

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Date: Fri, 21 Feb 1997 14:00:15 -0500 (EST)
From: ZeroWaste@aol.com
Subject: GreenYes Digest V97 #33

Saw David Kirkpatrick's piece on funding recycling and thought I'd throw in
the old environmental economist's perspective. Funding recycling through an
"all users of garbage collection pay" system seems to offer the best
possibility for getting recycling established and permanently funded as a
convenient alternative to garbage. That is, every user of garbage collection
services pays as part of their garbage collection fee an amount that is used
by the same or a different hauler to provide recycling collection with "no
additional fee." This scheme is working quite well in the numerous WA state
communities that use it from Seattle on down to many smaller cities.

The scheme does violate the principle that all goods and services should be
priced separately at a level that reflects all costs (direct, indirect,
environmental, resource depletion, current, future), in that recycling
services are not priced separately from garbage. But until we have
implemented everywhere garbage charged for by the pound whenever you set it
out, the opportunities for using savings on garbage collection costs to pay
for recycling are too discontinuos to make recycling viable for all garbage
customers large and small. I.e., opportunities to have your garbage
collected in a can smaller than 32 gallons and less often than weekly are not
universal (although some WA state communities do offer mini-20 gal. and
micro-10/15 gal. cans and service frequencies as low as once per month) for
households, while the 1 yard dumpster is often the smallest container
available to a business. So I say violate the economic principle in this
case.

On the other hand, I would urge that we not use the pricing system to foster
income redistribution. We need to get our prices correct for goods and
servicies, in the sense that they must include all those non-market, and
perhaps non-marketable, costs to our environment and future generations of
humans and all the rest of the earth's inhabitants, that are currently not
even on the radar screen in our markets. Leave the income redistribution as
a fight to be undertaken elsewhere by other means. For now let's concentrate
on getting the subsidies to virgin materials out and the environmental costs
into our materials prices. The impact of this on low income folks will be
felt, but we all need to adjust our choices to reflect the environment.
Hopefully, increased recycling will eventually foster local economic
redevelopment that will provide jobs to folks currently facing restricted
employment opportunities.

Jeffrey Morris, Ph.D.
Sound Resource Management
www.ZeroWaste.com
info@ZeroWaste.com

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Date: Fri, 21 Feb 1997 12:44:57 -0500 (EST)
From: DavidOrr@aol.com
Subject: Public Lands Logging Opposed

Hi folks,

I wanted to chime in here, in reference to the point raised on the
question of logging on public lands. I was one of the authors of the
Sierra Club's recent national vote to adopt a position favoring ending
the sale of timber from national forests. Recent economic figures
indicate that the US Forest Service subsidizes the logging industry in
the hundreds of millions of dollars per year. In Canada (the top
supplier of imported wood products to the US), almost ALL logging is from
public lands, and is heavily subsidized. These subsidies drive down the
market price of wood here in this country, very dramatically. Private
landowners find that their "stumpage" prices are reduced when they have
to compete with the glut of lumber, wood chips and wood pulp from public
lands. This often leads to an overcut from private lands as well, since
owners must cut more to make up for the diminshed return of their own
logs.

Therefore, I would suggest that GRN take a position opposing logging on
public lands.

David

David Orr
Earth Island Institute
300 Broadway, Suite 28
San Francisco, CA 94133
email: DavidOrr@aol.com

THOUGHTFUL QUOTES FOR OUR TIMES:

"No problem can be solved from the same consciousness that created it."
"Everything has changed but our thinking."
- Albert Einstein

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Date: Fri, 21 Feb 1997 10:26:03 -0600 (CST)
From: Christopher David Gaines <cdg3769@unix.tamu.edu>
Subject: Sustainability books???

Howdy,
I am a student at Texas A&M University and I am trying to implement some a
sustainability course in our College of Business. Most of our other
colleges which have some dealings with the environment have courses which
deal with those issues, but our business school doesn't have any courses
relating to environmental business practices. I was wondering if anybody
had ideas about possible books which could be used for the courses.
Please email me with ideas. Thank you very much!!

Chris Gaines
Chair, Environmental Issues Committee
Student Government Association
Texas A&M University
College Station, TX
cdgaines@unix,tamu.edu

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End of GreenYes Digest V97 #34
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