Mission statement:

What is good for seven future generations of my children and their childrens children,

One must assume everyone does it, and plan for that... 

Decision trees can be drawn out and the consequences can be modeled, contrary to the opinion expressed above.

One example; cutting down one tree is OK if it is done by one person alone. Cutting down all forests worldwide, with billions of people burning the wood, is not OK. These issues can be talked about and planned for. It is not as hard to predict as it is being made out to be.

What is sustainable? For example; dams have numerous consequences and these can be illustrated specifically. Today, no one is talking about the effects dams have on seven future generations. It is better to have the discussion than to avoid it because it is too 'hard'.

It is almost impossible to get companies to project more than five years into the future.

For companies, 100% closed loop production is the key.

Everything that is produced must be accounted for. A car must be 100% recycled or composted. A TV must be dissasembled and the parts recycled, composted, or reused in some way.

Who pays for this? Ideally the company that produces the wast or pollution must pay for all of the disposal costs and environmental costs. Right now the opposite is true.

The Superfund is paid for by taxpayers now, where companies used to pay for it. Environmental pollution is paid for by taxpayers, even though a large part of it is generated by corporations. This will not change until corporations are kicked out of Congress, and public financing of all campaigns is a reality.

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Cleaning up corporations to act responsibly is a major problem wouldn't you say.

In my own observation corporate interest seem to possess all the political clout. Thier profit incentives will limit what they will and will not responsibly do.

Perhaps it is time to create and put in place a different kind of corporation. One which is formed in the interest of serving human well-beings.

I believe there is large opportunity now to form such a corporation from doing what the others have avoided doing. My study of transport and distribution infrastructures suggest that these providing corporations have been putting of the development of technological change for decades. As doing so insures the continued reliability of their investments and markets they serve.

They do not possess the incentive to invest in the development of a process which only promises to diminish the reliability and continuity of thier investments and markets. Good business is investing in processes which are growing in demand, not shrinking.

For instance take the petroleum industry for example.

Do they have the incentive to invest in and provide a infrastructure which will provide an excess of petroleum availability?

I suspect the petroleum industry does not have any incentive to provide sufficient petroleum to more than meet demands. That they profit greater from shrinking thier investment in the necessary infrastructure and causing supply fluctuations than in providing a steady and excessive supply.

My study of infrastructures suggest that if we would take the materials (concrete) commonly used in highways. Form the material into a partially or fully enclosed beam. And then attach to the beams rigidly controlled pathway, an electric motor. To which anything can be attached. Car truck bus or cargo container. Then the vast bulk of all transports energy and rsource consumptions could be simply removed. Along with accidents, petroleum dependency, and congestion. You could be traveling in your car at far higher speeds, in greater auttomated convenience and in a unprecedented safety.

This can all be accomplished with known technological and structural abilites from many decades ago. Its a fact and has never been developed.

The cost of doing so is not greater. Its about 1/5 to possibly 1/20 the cost of today. Electric motor are known to be 97% more energy efficient.

Essentially I think this can be accomplished with purely private funding. Forget the government its to politically responsive to its in place corporations.

The change is simple and it amounts to providing a permanent network of connected structures whose cost and benefits are very figurable. In competition with the transport system of today this one will be far faster and much less expensive. The nergy efficeny revenues alone in usage fees will generate a 300 to 400% annual profit.  

The issue to me seems to be the building of the awareness that such an lucrative opportunity exists and securing the significant interest it qwill take to bring it to a reality.

ANd I think large scale land developments groups are very capable of carrying it off. The land values along such an implementation will sky rocket as the communities created will have the unprecedented of being directly conected to and designed around automated transport abilities.

Geo@Eco-Developments.com

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We run eco-agritourism programs in Crete, Greece.  It's called Crete's Culinary Sanctuaries.  The title seems laughable in some ways, as the sanctuaries are dwindling by the minute while Greek bureaucrats celebrate the opening of new golf courses that replaced lovely olive groves...the symbol of Crete.

After 12 years of working on action programs to promote sustainable tourism (which always includes development strategies) in Crete, one of the many things I've learned is that we have to live it and fight for it tooth and nail.  Not to mention hitting rock bottom financially and still moving on faster and more determined than ever, regardless of the logical red light to walk away and let the whole project come to a screeching halt.  Why save Crete?  People think New York is a wonderful place to live...as clean and green as it is.

Once we climbed many mountains and became internationally recognized for our work...then the Greek government suddenly appeared to offer to take a bow on our behalf.  They must do this because we seem to have come out of the woodwork to try to save a few pockets of paradise...and they have to acknowledge our presence because it looks good for them.  Besides, they are speakers at the awards ceremony and it would be ...uncomfortable...for them ask, after the fact, "What is Crete's Culinary Sanctuaries, what are they doing anyway and why should we care about this little stuff?" 

At first, the "bow" idea was a blow for us...since they have actually deterred us from doing our "good" work and have never given us the time of day until now.  In reality, we will hmmm...happily let them pretend to be supporters of our project, while we tell everyone else the truth.  At least they are listening and forced into...writing a speech about sustainable blah blah as they see it, if nothing else.  Our award and work may be just another block on the agenda...if we let this opportunity pass us by.  

If they are wise bureaucrats, they might do a little research on what sustainable development action programs might entail...as suddenly there seems to be many pesky ones popping up in their back yard like weeds...possibly threatening their plans for another golf course or sprawling, culture and energy sucking resort hotel.  Hopefully, they will come to the conclusion that action is not simply another conference in Zurich in 2010 to delay any action until 2020.  But that's virtually how sustainable tourism has been "addressed" for the past 30 years, aside from a few great projects that break through the bureaucracy.

The biggest challenge is for us to link local authorities with people who can provide proper training in sustainable tourism action programs.  Otherwise, they have no idea how they can help us or how they can easily prevent the ongoing virus of terminator tourism.  This is the brick wall we have had to chip away at, bit by bit to get there! 

Mass tourism generates massive bucks for everyone but the local people...in most every destination.  Search and destroy sanctuaries if it's good for "the" economy.  It might be briefly beneficial for the local economy until the place becomes a wasteland, like Spain's dilemma last year, and everyone searches for another sanctuary to destroy.  That's the reality. 

There is a brick wall between the thinkers/idealists and the doers in the travel industry in general.  Look at the line-up for the New York Times Travel show last month.  There was barely a whisper of responsible travel in that massive convention center.  Unless people try to break through this wall with action programs...we'll see a lot of frustration, environmental and cultural devastation, and very little positive results.

All the best to the doers out there!

Nikki Rose

www.cookingincrete.com

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