When faced with an extreme circumstance an extreme reaction is a measured approach. I believe we are, in the next 10 years, going to be facing a serious climate crisis which undermines our ability to provide for our basic needs. I believe taking action to produce our own energy, make our own tools, and grow our own food for all the people of Alaska is going to become a very important retirement investment. To facilitate such radical actions it is important to frame the conversation in the context of economics, because mathematics is a universal language. I would like to ask how propping up the dinosaur economy is sustainable? Why does it seem like everyone is focusing all our collective attention and resources on propping up a diminishing industry instead of utilizing our intellect and intelligence to development new solutions which would place Alaska as a major hub of international commerce, geotourism, and aerospace. This repositioning of our collective focus would allow us to deliver our mineral commodities to global markets for highest returns at lowest cost. I suppose I should qualify for those who do not know me but I went to highschool in Fairbanks (94). I became interested in student government and stewardship which drove my education in natural resource management in college in Vermont. I then spent 10 years in Portland involved in the growth of the sustainable industry by developing a framework for the Sustainable Today program, founded Sustainable Solutions Unlimited and in 2008 got my certification as a sustainable building advisor. I returned home in 2010 bought the 11 acres I own in Fairbanks from my father, and set about building a nonprofit, the Alliance for Reason and Knowledge. Currently we are developing the framework for an Alaskan version of a Energy Conservation Corp; engaged in grassroots food security efforts across the state; and most recently partnered with DC based Community Power Network to administer a program leveraging proven financial models to make onsite generation of renewable power cost effective for schools on an industrial scale. What I have in mind is to invest in building decentralized on site renewable power for every community using fuel cells and a diverse portfolio of clean energy technologies to achieve balanced and reliable power; to utilize community enterprise to develop community scale industry that makes use of our waste as the feedstock for a variety of goods including components of aerospace related technologies and the local ability to grow a variety of food. These measures of independence and self-reliance are critical to the aforementioned economic opportunities of international commerce, geotourism, and aerospace. With this priority completed, and our stability secured. We then become a very attractive place to visit (sort of conservative ecotopia) which is the heart of geotourism. Second we take advantage of the tremendous technical and intellectual natural resources to build a stronger presence in the testing and manufacturing of tools and techniques we will need to live and work (including minerals) off-world. Finally we take the next great leap forward and utilize evacuated tube transportation technology (et3) to design and construct the Asia-America Intertie which will allow us to transport minerals, commodities, on-demand at much reduced cost and tremendously less waste to what we are doing now. Its pretty simple really and its the lack of infrastructure which allows us these opportunities. Neither Portland, Oregon or Seattle, Washington (recognized as national leaders of the green economy movement) will ever be truly green because the existing infrastructure makes it cost prohibitive to do it right the first time the end game is to increase our ability to get our mineral resources to global markets where they can yield highest returns. However, this last stage of development is predicated by the others to achieve long-term prosperity and allow us to meet our needs without compromising the needs of future generations-which is the definition of sustainability.
Posted on: Fri, 14 Feb 2014 16:39:26 +0000
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