Congress’ renewed attention to passing a climate bill has set the blogosphere and advocates abuzz with early warnings about the various ways this legislation could fail. A recurring theme is the danger and futility of approving a bill that focuses too narrowly on, say, renewable energy production or energy-efficient building standards, rather than crafting a comprehensive bill that supports sustainable communities that are less dependent, in every way, on oil.
This MPC blog series highlights some programs, policies and models the climate bill and other near-term legislation can support to create more truly sustainable regions.
Earth Day, which is 40 years old today, is always a catalyst for things like picking up garbage and planting trees (go to www.earthday.net/chicago for a list of opportunities to go good while meeting people and having fun). But if it doesn't inspire behavior, mindset and policy change for the subsequent 364 days, then we're not taking full advantage of it. Instead, Earth Day should be declaration of our common fight against inertia and fatalism, and a celebration of our one true weapon to fight both of them—our ability to choose.
Inertia is disinclination toward change. It's how a physicist explains someone who shrugs, sighs, and laments that "that's just the way it's always been." Problems remain problems unless someone chooses to fix them. Fatalism is blind acceptance of inevitability. It compels the gloomy certainty in statements like, "we will run out of water" or "there's just nothing we can do." When fatalism gets moving inertia takes over, and then we're in trouble.
The philosophy of Earth Day—that we can choose to do better—has compelled amazing accomplishments over the past 40 years. The US EPA was established to enforce environmental laws, and its current cycle of innovation bodes well. The Clean Air Act was instrumental in reducing smog, and amendments to it established a cap-and-trade system for sulfur dioxide that has substantially cut down on acid rain. The Clean Water Act is largely responsible for substantial improvements in our shared water resources, and the Great Lakes are as clean as they have been in generations. These are the consequences of not resigning to fate.
Now we face climate change. While there are underlying natural climate cycles over which we have little control, we know how to reduce humanity's contribution to the problem. Reduce greenhouse gases and we reduce our impact. We simply have to choose to do it. Choosing to save the world, however, is a daunting task. There are much simpler and more tangible choices we can make that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and provide immediate benefits.
That brings to us water, energy and climate change. The simple story is that saving water also saves energy, and yet there are very few policies, let alone discussions, of the links between energy efficiency and water efficiency. One of the few exceptions is also one of our nation's great water conservation victories. The Energy Policy Act of 1992 required that all new toilets must use a maximum volume of 1.6 gallons per flush, which is projected to reduce national water consumption 8 percent by 2020, even as population increases. US EPA's new WaterSense program, which is encouraging even greater efficiency, projects that if just "1 percent of American homes replaced their older, inefficient toilets with WaterSense labeled models, the country would save more than 38 million kWh of electricity—enough to supply more than 43,000 households electricity for one month." Convert that to emissions and you get 27,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide. All those toilets add up. That's why MPC is working so hard to pass Ill. SB3147, making WaterSense purchases eligible for new energy efficiency tax credits.
Locally, the energy consumption of water and wastewater services is considerable. Check out these six suburbs in the Chicago region.
| City |
Total Electricity Used in 2006 (kWh) |
2006 Buildings (kWh) |
Bldgs, % of Total |
2006 Street Lights (kWh) |
Street Lights, % of Total |
2006 Traffic Lights (kWh) |
Traffic Lights, % of Total |
2006 Water/Wastewater Systems (kWh) |
Water/ Wastewater Systems, % of Total |
Other Electrical Uses (kWh) |
Other, % of Total |
| Western suburb, pop. 40,000 |
1,009,698 |
N/A |
N/A |
78,995 |
7.82% |
N/A |
N/A |
886,343 |
87.78% |
44,360 |
4.39% |
| Western suburb, pop. 37,000 |
10,272,562 |
N/A |
N/A |
2,507,273 |
24.41% |
490,681 |
4.78% |
7,186,860 |
69.96% |
87,748 |
0.85% |
| Northern suburb, pop. 77,000 |
23,570,602 |
6,841,543 |
29.03% |
3,503,470 |
14.86% |
1,725,589 |
7.32% |
11,500,000 |
48.79% |
N/A |
N/A |
| Northern suburb, pop. 22,500 |
4,071,097 |
1,926,689 |
47.33% |
1,293,889 |
31.78% |
N/A |
N/A |
850,519 |
20.89% |
N/A |
N/A |
| Western suburb, pop. 8,800 |
5,600,029 |
3,000,000 |
53.57% |
813,622 |
14.53% |
577,560 |
10.31% |
788,731 |
14.08% |
420,116 |
7.50% |
| NW suburb, pop. 37,000 |
3,681,643 |
975,776 |
26.50% |
101,280 |
2.75% |
1,367,892 |
37.15% |
315,345 |
8.57% |
921,350 |
25.03% |
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Providing clean water and removing dirty water account for approximately 10 percent of municipal energy use (and really, shouldn't we be moving toward solar-powered street and traffic lights?). Every ounce of that water, while never reaching its destination, gets pumped from a source, treated to potable standards, and then pumped again throughout the system. If the water doesn't make it to your house, it's energy and money down the drain too. There are thousands of miles of pipes under the Chicago region (the City of Chicago has 4,200 miles just for drinking water), and those pipes leak a lot of water. In 2008, Chicago alone lost 10.5 million gallons a day to known leaks, and a whopping 45.6 million gallons a day to "unaccounted for flow." That's a lot of waste, but to be fair, Chicago is a model citizen when it comes to conservation and efficiency. The scary part is that a lot of communities, percentage-wise, do a lot worse.
The choices are clear, the hard part is choosing them. That's why we're launching a roundtable series on May 12—"Choosing our Water Future"— with a keynote address by international water expert Robert Glennon, who'll describe two water futures, one driven by passivity, and one be foresight. It'll explore avenues for corporate and philanthropic engagement in water policy reform, as well as ways for governments at all levels to motivate and partner with those communities. You should come.
Beyond that, you can choose today to buy a better showerhead, adjust your Arizona-designed sprinkler system to the Illinois climate, trick your toilet tank into thinking its full, or talk to your landscaper about xeriscaping. There are hundreds of things you can do today to fight fatalism, and then hundreds more for tomorrow, next week, and the rest of the year. A body in rest stays at rest, but a body in motion stays in motion, that's inertia. Get moving.