Darvish Khan (roughly translated as Ascetic Sire) - famous for his austerity - designed this amazing peace of art, the stone garden.
Enjoy!
Enjoy!
Monday, April 09, 2007
Thursday, April 05, 2007
Sustainable Development and Cuban Revolution
Sustainable Development: How Cuba Is Quietly Saving The Planet
[from proenviro newletter march 07]
Rising sea levels and droughts, floods and freak weather; climate change is enough to push even the most phlegmatic of observers into action. Although the prognosis is grim, there are some unsung heroes in this battle against climate change. It is from them that we have the most to learn, and it is from them that we may gain a sense of hope. And the World Leader in this arena as identified by both the United Nations Development Programme and World Wildlife Fund? Cuba.
To put it more simply, Cuba is the only country in the world with sustainable development. The definition of this as stated by the World Conservation Union is “improving the quality of human life while living within the carrying capacity of supporting ecosystems”.
The way in which this is measured is through cross referencing the ecological footprint of individual nations against their Human Development Index (HDI). An “ecological footprint” is the amount of land and sea area required to supply current human consumption (at present, the Earth provides 1.8 hectares per person, with our current average footprint standing at 2.8 hectares per person). The Human Development Index (HDI) is a United Nations indicator of general well being calculated from life expectancy, literacy rates and per capita GDP (the UN considers an HDI of above 0.8 to represent “high human development” and gives a far superior indicator of standard of life than GNP measures alone).
With an HDI of 0.826 and an ecological footprint of just over 1.5ha, Cuba has been able to deliver sustainable levels of high development in spite of a 47year economic blockade. Thus, the lessons we may learn from this are not only environmental and economic, but also social.
The Cubans have taken a root and branch approach to sustainable development and at the national level, the government’s macro-micro hybrid programme has produced excellent results. In Pinar del Rio, authorities firstly examined base level issues, proceeding to replace, free of charge, over 600,000 incandescent bulbs with energy saving lights. They extended this investigation for almost all household consumption, distributing over 600,000 gaskets and fuses for pressure cookers and coffee makers and proceeded to retire and recycle a further 55,000 makeshift and inefficient electrical devices in the region. Another method (and one operated at Pro Enviro to help businesses become more energy efficient) is that of monitoring hourly demand and total consumption on a daily basis, therefore providing an excellent basis for cost and waste analyses for both homes and businesses.
The government was also far sighted enough after the revolution to invest in methods of power generation that were environmentally friendly, including hydro-electric power, and now extending this to heavy investment in solar and wind power. Indeed, even where the use of fossil fuels is unavoidable, technology has been used to limit their impact. For example, two units in the Sandta Cruz del Norte thermoelectric plant have been modified to simultaneously burn crude and the accompanying gas that is released through crude extraction. These new gas turbines and combined cycle will contribute to the half million kilowatt total of electricity produced through gas.
Most crucially of all though, the Cubans have avoided the free market failure of businesses engaging in emissions trading, so that efficiencies produce real progress in polluting industries, not merely rhetoric and de minimis compliance.
With such a huge emphasis placed upon the 4 R’s of environmental planning – Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Recover – it was a matter of course for Cuban society to pick this up at a grass roots level. Aided by government decentralisation, enforced self-reliance and local ingenuity, the 4 R’s have become a way of life for Cubans. In the fields of education, health, housing, water, sanitation, food security and community development, issues are addressed at a community level. Locally sourced food, even in cities, has cut out environmental costs associated with transport and storage. Access to clean water and the recycling of household water has allowed for extensive, cheap crop irrigation. Indeed, the agro-ecological system pioneered in Havana during the 1970s has only been so successful thanks to the stakeholder participation of society as a whole. In a country where the notion of buying a new product when an old one breaks is an alien concept, one must take good care of the original in the first place. We humans certainly don’t have the luxury of buying a new planet no matter how much material wealth we enjoy, and the Cubans know this. Our lesson to learn from this is how to develop our very own “little Havanas” over here.
[from proenviro newletter march 07]
Rising sea levels and droughts, floods and freak weather; climate change is enough to push even the most phlegmatic of observers into action. Although the prognosis is grim, there are some unsung heroes in this battle against climate change. It is from them that we have the most to learn, and it is from them that we may gain a sense of hope. And the World Leader in this arena as identified by both the United Nations Development Programme and World Wildlife Fund? Cuba.
To put it more simply, Cuba is the only country in the world with sustainable development. The definition of this as stated by the World Conservation Union is “improving the quality of human life while living within the carrying capacity of supporting ecosystems”.
The way in which this is measured is through cross referencing the ecological footprint of individual nations against their Human Development Index (HDI). An “ecological footprint” is the amount of land and sea area required to supply current human consumption (at present, the Earth provides 1.8 hectares per person, with our current average footprint standing at 2.8 hectares per person). The Human Development Index (HDI) is a United Nations indicator of general well being calculated from life expectancy, literacy rates and per capita GDP (the UN considers an HDI of above 0.8 to represent “high human development” and gives a far superior indicator of standard of life than GNP measures alone).
With an HDI of 0.826 and an ecological footprint of just over 1.5ha, Cuba has been able to deliver sustainable levels of high development in spite of a 47year economic blockade. Thus, the lessons we may learn from this are not only environmental and economic, but also social.
The Cubans have taken a root and branch approach to sustainable development and at the national level, the government’s macro-micro hybrid programme has produced excellent results. In Pinar del Rio, authorities firstly examined base level issues, proceeding to replace, free of charge, over 600,000 incandescent bulbs with energy saving lights. They extended this investigation for almost all household consumption, distributing over 600,000 gaskets and fuses for pressure cookers and coffee makers and proceeded to retire and recycle a further 55,000 makeshift and inefficient electrical devices in the region. Another method (and one operated at Pro Enviro to help businesses become more energy efficient) is that of monitoring hourly demand and total consumption on a daily basis, therefore providing an excellent basis for cost and waste analyses for both homes and businesses.
The government was also far sighted enough after the revolution to invest in methods of power generation that were environmentally friendly, including hydro-electric power, and now extending this to heavy investment in solar and wind power. Indeed, even where the use of fossil fuels is unavoidable, technology has been used to limit their impact. For example, two units in the Sandta Cruz del Norte thermoelectric plant have been modified to simultaneously burn crude and the accompanying gas that is released through crude extraction. These new gas turbines and combined cycle will contribute to the half million kilowatt total of electricity produced through gas.
Most crucially of all though, the Cubans have avoided the free market failure of businesses engaging in emissions trading, so that efficiencies produce real progress in polluting industries, not merely rhetoric and de minimis compliance.
With such a huge emphasis placed upon the 4 R’s of environmental planning – Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Recover – it was a matter of course for Cuban society to pick this up at a grass roots level. Aided by government decentralisation, enforced self-reliance and local ingenuity, the 4 R’s have become a way of life for Cubans. In the fields of education, health, housing, water, sanitation, food security and community development, issues are addressed at a community level. Locally sourced food, even in cities, has cut out environmental costs associated with transport and storage. Access to clean water and the recycling of household water has allowed for extensive, cheap crop irrigation. Indeed, the agro-ecological system pioneered in Havana during the 1970s has only been so successful thanks to the stakeholder participation of society as a whole. In a country where the notion of buying a new product when an old one breaks is an alien concept, one must take good care of the original in the first place. We humans certainly don’t have the luxury of buying a new planet no matter how much material wealth we enjoy, and the Cubans know this. Our lesson to learn from this is how to develop our very own “little Havanas” over here.
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