By Joel Magalnick, Editor, JTNews
Ten years ago, scientists got together to come up with a number that could quantify the world’s annual energy usage so it could be measured and, possibly, reduced as usage grew with the population and technology. That number is 12.8 terawatts— or, to put it in some semblance of scale, roughly the equivalent of 13,000 nuclear energy facilities working at capacity — with growth at the time projected to reach 25 terawatts by 2050.
At the same time, Dave Chameides was driving a beat-up Toyota 4Runner SUV with oversized tires and lousy gas mileage. Gas cost around $1.50 a gallon, and he didn’t give much thought to energy usage or environmental sustainability aside from putting out his recycling on the curb.
When, a few years later, his wife got pregnant with his first child, “I just sort of woke up and I said, ‘Wait a minute, there’s someone after me,’” Chameides said. So he sold the SUV and the sports car, bought an early-generation hybrid, and began to figure out ways to reduce his footprint on the planet.
According to Chameides, “present calculations say we’re way above the curve” on the 50-year, 25 terawatt estimate.
Today, Chameides has traded in his Prius for a car that runs on vegetable oil that would otherwise be dumped by fast food joints. He has also embarked on a year-long project, called “365 Days of Trash,” in which he saves all of his non-recyclable, non-compostable waste in his basement so he knows, to the last gum wrapper, his contribution to the world’s landfills.
“The reason really is, besides having people make fun of me and whatnot, is to get a better connection with what my impact is,” Chameides told a group of about 60 at Temple Beth Am on July 24, at a talk he gave called “Chasing Sustainability.” The talk was sponsored by the Kavana Cooperative, Rodef Tzedek, a local justice organization that focuses on environmental responsibility as one of its central tenets, and Carbon Salon, a pilot project by Kavana member Yoram Bernet that measures carbon output and allows users to cut down on their carbon footprints.
Environmentalism, Chameides said, needs to be a religious imperative.
“Whoever your God is that created the planet, it’s a sin to destroy the planet,” he said.
What environmentalism should not be, he said, is politicized.
“I don’t mention Al Gore, I don’t mention politics, I don’t talk about global warming, because, number one, global warming is much too big…it’s been too politicized,” Chameides said in an interview after his talk. “Slavery, the right to food, global warming…they’re too important to be politicized.”
Chameides’ also stresses the importance of refraining from being judgmental when attempting to reduce their waste.
“Just ask people to do what they can and be honest about what they’re doing and hope for the best,” he said.
Chameides writes a blog about his trash project at 365daysoftrash.com, where he lists his waste for each day. In addition, he travels around his current hometown of Los Angeles to teach school kids about the changes he’s made in his own life, and asks the students to examine theirs.
“Kids are so black and white,” he said. “Let’s say you’re talking about landfills…. We’re taking all this stuff: packaging and things like that, and throwing them into big holes in the ground. Eventually those holes fill up and we close them and they stay there for eternity. Does it make sense to keep digging these holes all over the place and keep filling them with garbage, or does it make sense to make less garbage?”
On one hand, Chameides is pessimistic about our future. He has graphs and videos and experts who show that we’re close to reaching peak oil, the point at which we’ve sucked up half of what’s in the ground — if we haven’t already.
“This is the point where it becomes exponentially harder to get the oil,” Chameides said.
He showed his audience that energy usage in the U.S. is growing more slowly, but is being eclipsed by the burgeoning economies and populations in China and India.
Whatever anyone’s belief may be in reducing fossil fuel usage — environmental reasons, national security, weaning from reliance on the Middle East — we need to start relying much more heavily on alternative sources, Chameides said.
It’s a position shared by such people as Jeroen van der Veer, Chief Executive of Royal Dutch Shell plc.
“After 2015, easily accessible supplies of oil and gas probably will no longer keep up with demand,” van der Veer said in a speech in January of this year.
Chameides is worried — very worried — that at the current rates of consumption, the standard of living he grew up with and his children may grow up with, will be far different from the lives his grandchildren will have.
“It’s unsustainable,” he said. “It can’t happen. It won’t happen.”
But on the other hand, Chameides is optimistic: That through his own conservation, as well as teaching others about ways to reduce their impact without dramatically changing their habits, he can, in some way, reduce the shock of the end of the oil era. So he promotes alternative energy, waste reduction, and pragmatic solutions that don’t cost a lot, but also don’t encourage consumption.
One of those solutions: Carry a reusable water container to steer clear of bottled water. Bottled water, Chameides noted, costs the average person about $900 a year — versus around $8 to fill up his container. From a fiscal point of view, he said, it makes no sense. And, he added, there is no regulation on bottled water that crosses state lines. Municipal tap water quality, on the other hand, is heavily regulated.
Chameides also spoke about cars, one of his passions within the sphere of sustainability. He showed slides of the “grease car” system he installed in his Volkswagen as well as the benefits of biodiesel fuel, though he did not get into some of the drawbacks of these fuels, such as the need for petroleum to create biofuels or the difficulty of using them in cold weather. He had harsh words for ethanol, a corn-based fuel that has been accused of being partially responsible for recent increases in global food prices.
“Food should be grown to be eaten,” he said. “It should not be grown to get our butt from one place to another.”
He plans to get rid of his grease car in the next couple years, however, when a flood of plug-in electric cars begin to hit the market. Though Chameides criticized U.S. automakers for falling behind the curve in the electric market — Ford CEO Alan Mulally said last year that it would be five to 10 years before his company would have a viable plug-in electric vehicle — General Motors has thrown an unprecedented effort behind its Volt electric car that recharges using gasoline. The challenge of completing a viable battery may prevent the car from making it to market before foreign automakers, which could be as early as next year.
With all of the work he has seen by synagogues and Jewish organizations in favor of sustainability, Chameides mused that Jews could become the forefront of the environmental movement.
“If ever there have been a people that have seen hardships,” he said, “we know firsthand how dark things can be. But we know firsthand how we can rise out of that.”
Chameides, the product of an Orthodox education in his native Connecticut, still sees a schism between the Reform and Conservative movements, which have embraced the idea of conserving for the planet, and the Orthodox movement, which largely has not.
“I think this would be a great time for them to embrace and say we have our differences, but in terms of ruining the environment that we’re leaving for our children, we can’t have differences,” he said. “It’s too important. We need to move forward and say, ‘Let’s all get on the same bus and say we’re leaders in this effort, and get synonymous with this.’”