Energy- it’s everything. 

Food. Fuel. Light. Power.

The complicated mess of it all...

When it comes to sustainable energy, it’s usually referring to something that is renewable, doesn’t create more drastic climate instability, and is economically prudent (more on this later).  But as we barrel towards a seismic shift in resources by doubling down rather than leaving the table, the need for creativity in action is greater than ever.

When we set out researching for this month's theme, we focused on organizations working to transform our human-centered energy systems- the way we power our homes, our screens, our transit.  Community solar projects, anti-pipeline work, wind offsets, geothermal heating, hydro, even new relatively green nuclear technology. Unlike every other month in the CSA for 2020 in which we have confirmed, partnered with, had meetings with, and are actively planning roundtables, ironically Energy was the most energy intensive subject to fill our criteria– an organization that many people do not know, that could use support and a broader audience, that’s doing creative and extraordinary work and that has real and lasting impact. 

Much of our world is directly fueled by petroleum. Oil is truly the blood of this last century. Petroleum is energy’s past, cooked down, concentrated. You don’t have to grow it.  Its labor has been forgotten, literally extinct.  The problem is it’s almost impossible to get the same levels of energy from something that has to take the time to grow. 

That’s why the sun is amazing.  It’s free. It’s direct and constant. Sure there are clouds and storms, but mostly the sun comes up every day and goes down at night. But that's just the thing- it’s not 24 hours, which means you have to store it.  The materials to create the panels are not necessarily ecological and our demand is increasing not ebbing. Being able to read this now on the screen, watch a movie at night, juice up our phones, cool all the data centers that keep the internet running and increasingly our banks, our government, our hospitals, our transit...

Yet this month, we’ve chosen to focus on creating sustainable biofuel- because there’s no mistaking that we are not going to immediately and entirely kick plastics and fuels.  And definitely not in time.  If we’ve been fueling a future that took millions of years to produce and will take hundreds, if not thousands, of years to remediate the extracting and mining of those fuels– it makes sense to focus on using materials that take seasons, or years, to produce that can easily break down and ideally replenish the land simultaneously.

Biofuels are not all dandy and green.

(Well, some are literally green).

It can be argued that ethanol is even worse than oil, in that it takes land, labor and seed that could otherwise be food; it’s less efficient, it depletes the land and it takes a huge amount of the most important resource - water.  So does fracking for that matter.  But few are claiming the environmental virtues of fracking. 

In some ways, algae is a no-brainer.  It can be grown as a carbon sink, used as fuel and food, and grown in brackish water.  But much of its critique, especially recently, is about its economic vitality and scalability- something very difficult to do without genetic modification.  And then there's hemp.  As a biofuel potential, hemp does not need to be genetically modified to produce efficient results, and the whole plant can be used for fuel and feed, leaving the soil nourished as opposed to depleted. Unfortunately, hemp production is new in the US, and is being cultivated for CBD instead of fuel because of its economic value. But we think this will greatly change in the next 5 years, so keep your ears to the ground. 

This is where we have to get creative and not rely on one catch-all solution.  Algae education. Hemp production. Community solar. Wind. New technologies of battery storage. More flexibility to our own change of habits... 

We nominated the Algae Foundation for the month of Energy as a promising alternative to creating a transition fuel that was a carbon sink, food source and not as water intensive as corn or soy. The Algae Foundation promotes education and researching in a non-reactionary way.   As they put it well, "Algae has the power to simultaneously put fuels in our vehicles, recycle CO2, provide nutrition for animals and people and create jobs for millions of Americans. Algae? Naturally." While many start-ups have come and gone trying to make a buck off of algae biofuels, the Algae foundation as a non-profit is continuing the education and resources towards algae as a viable future player. 

There are many other reputable organizations– some are action-based and many collect and organize data to keep us more educated about our choices.  Some cities and states are better than others. You can know about where your energy comes from, how it to source it, who to invest in and divest from.  We should look towards alternatives and we should look at altering our lifestyles to moderate our impact. 

• See the Institute of Local Self-Reliance focus on energy and Community Power map.
• Check out this comprehensive assessment of the race to 100% clean energy powered by cities from our friends at NRDC.
• Learn about capturing energy from waste that many dairy farms are already powering their operations that way. 

• Biomass can come from the lipids of oils or waste from municipal systems. Here’s a great breakdown

whatNOWwhat Roundtables

Thank YOU as always for your support.

That action gives us the energy and resources to support actions across the board.