As I walked up the aisle after listening to the second of
two evenings with Alex Steffen, I knew I was witnessing a moment that led to
the future. A kind looking woman
about my age remarked that she'd been to listen to Abby Hoffman back in the day
and felt this evening, like that one years ago, was a milestone in the nation's
history.
It was like that, people talking to strangers, wanting to
share notes, get confirmation that others felt like they too had bumped into
the new, new thing, that there is hope.
Alex and His Story
Alex Steffen is a bright Seattle light who is more known in
other places, I'd guess, than here, at least until now. It might be an age thing. No one I talked to about going to this
had heard of him. I'd read
WorldChanging.org a few times so I at least knew who he was although I hadn't
been a blog groupie. I suspect I will be from now on out. Steffen co-founded
the site and edits it and the 600-page book by the same name, "Worldchanging". He is this era's Buckminster Fuller,
alive in an era where the technology can move things along more quickly and in
a time where we have a huge need for people to articulate what's happening and
then lead us in the right direction.
We haven't much time and there is much resistance.
Luckily, this man knows how to tell a story. And it's a catchy one - the story he is
telling is the story about our survival as a species. He gives us facts about how the world is now (on that
"worst case scenario" path, basically) and about what needs to happen to forgo
certain calamity. Think I'm
joking? Afraid not. His
talks were both sobering and, strangely, optimistic - an analysis of the state
of the physical, cultural and political earth right now, the slippery slope we
are headed down and the "bright green" options that we can choose to
pull ourselves out of what would otherwise be total collapse. He provides a goal and a timeline -
drop our net per capita greenhouse gas emissions to nothing by 2030. We need a model of how to live that is
climate-neutral, non-toxic, closed loop and ecologically restorative. That model has to be up and running in
the developed world by 2030 and then widely adopted globally by 2050.
That will wake one up. And, the
world is listening to him. Steffen
is speaking twice in Copenhagen, once to the world's mayors, the other to
businesspeople.
Women's Rights is the Key Sustainability Technology
Here's an example of his ability to tell
stories and weave stories together.
He managed to link the two issues I am most passionate about: climate
change and the criticality of changing women's lives for the better around the
globe. Women's rights are the most powerful sustainability technologies that
we have. He says it's critical to the future of sustainability and our planet that we educate girls and give women property rights, legal
protection and job opportunities.
They will have fewer children and those children will be better taken care
of. Sustainability is
fundamentally about making sure that all kids have a wonderful childhood. How cool is that for something we
might be willing to work for and, in addition, it saves the planet?
Going Beyond Sprawl
Suburban sprawl is our Travant, that sad little car that got
the East Germans through the 50's and 60's and 70's and 80's and then, when the
wall fell, they saw how far behind everyone else they were. The technology that they thought was
up-to-date turned out to be a costly, heavy dinosaur. Density is our goal - well-designed, community-oriented density. Dense places around the globe require
less energy and give off less CO2.
And the people who live in dense, well-designed cities, like
Copenhagen, are much happier.
The Introducers
Did I mention that Richard Conlon, famously liberal city
council member, just re-elected with enough votes to be Council President
again, introduced Alex the first evening?
Or that newly-elected mayor Mike McGinn introduced him the second night? Or that there was a large crowd of
young people in attendance? There's
a movement afoot, me thinks. On a side note, McGinn took the
opportunity of his first appearance after the results were known to share his
observations with us:
1) People want something different and they are willing to
work to get it. A lot of people came
into contact with Mike McGinn and decided they wanted to volunteer on his
campaign. They liked that McGinn
listened to them and that he thought that together they could solve the
problems they see.
2) The voters shaped McGinn because they want to shape the
future. They want good jobs,
safety, especially for their children and a way for their children to advance
in the world.
3) People won't help you solve the problems of the future
unless you are helping them solve their problems of today.
Then McGinn said something about Alex in introducing him
that I hope we can say about McGinn in a year. Alex understands that to get to the future, you have to
offer people hope.
This is the Seattle Moment
After the first evening's overview and the second evening's
introduction by McGinn, Alex talked about Seattle and how we could lead the
nation and the country into a sustainable future. He said this was a really important time and place. We need to come up with a level of
prosperity that doesn't ruin our planet.
He also noted that there is an enormous advantage for being the people
and place that does this first.
First he debunked Seattle's reputation for being the city in
the sky, the place where everything works and we live ever-so-well. He said in reality that Seattle is in a
sprawling, poorly built region and the city itself is poorly designed - too
many cars, bad building, and too much stuff. It's only because of our region's rain and mountains and the
hydro power we get from that accident of nature that we appear to have a higher
level of sustainability than other places. Take that away and we're like everywhere else.
But, he pointed out, we gain a lot from having this
reputation. Let's use it.
Density, Young People and a Car-free Urbanism
So, how do we become a carbon-neutral city? Well, we begin by becoming denser. Alex thinks the population of
Seattle will double in 20 years because our climate is likely to be more stable
than it is in other places, young people will want to come here (although we've
got a lot of competition from Portland) and we will have figured out the trick
of being both sustainable and prosperous.
Then we aim for car-free urbanism. He says we should judge every new development by that standard. Does it work for people without cars? A vital street life becomes our second living room. I am really liking this.
Alex went on to talk about the advantages of our ambient
technology, which is changing the way we live, use things, understand the world
and get active in it. He
mentioned a site in Europe that began posting information about who the farm
subsidies went to in the EU. The
information had been terrible difficult to access. Once the website, farmsubsidy.org, began making it
available, all hell broke loose.
Alex talked about how we turn all that technical capacity
and cultural enthusiasm toward the civic realm. I had to laugh when this video came out from Mike McGinn and
his transition team the next day because this is exactly the kind of thing that
comes to mind. And this is why I
think we are in for a much needed revolution in this city, an exciting and
perhaps sometimes bumpy one.
He ended by saying that democracy is about showing up. And, we just saw what can happen when
people show up in the civic realm, twice in the last year. Then, perhaps my
favorite saying of the evening: Bureaucracies use boredom like skunks use
smell. It's how they keep people away. If we're going to beat them, we're
going to have to create our own civic infrastructure. And it's going to have to be fun. If boredom is their weapon, fun is ours.
Come on, Seattle.
This is our time!
