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    Home » We’ve Borrowed from the Planet and the Debt’s Due
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    We’ve Borrowed from the Planet and the Debt’s Due

    June 20, 20111 Comment8 Mins Read
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    samaireformayor
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    Is Sedona’s Beauty Being Used Up?

    Reprinted from Paul Gilding, The Australian

    Sedona, AZ (June 20, 2011) – As we in Sedona face the looming possibility of installing 108 35 foot tall lights on the main artery running through town, we must consider the context of this decision and ask ourselves: are we using up our our scenic vistas for the urbanization of Sedona? Is this the tradeoff for perceived safety?

    The Earth is full. In fact our human society and economy is now so large we have passed the limits of our planet’s capacity to support us and it is overflowing.

    Our current model of economic growth is driving this system, the one we rely upon for our present and future prosperity, over the cliff.

    This in itself presents a major problem. It becomes a much larger challenge when we consider that billions of people are living desperate lives in appalling poverty and need their personal economy to grow rapidly to alleviate their suffering. But there is no room left.

    This means things are going to change. Not because we will choose change out of philosophical or political preference, but because if we don’t transform our society and economy, we risk social and economic collapse and the descent into chaos. The science on this is now clear and accepted by any rational observer.

    While an initial look at the public debate may suggest controversy, any serious examination of the peer-reviewed conclusions of leading science bodies shows the core direction we are heading in is now clear. Things do not look good.

    These challenges and the facts behind them are well-known by experts and leaders around the world and have been for decades. But despite this understanding, that we would at some point pass the limits to growth, it has been continually filed away to the back of our mind and the back of our drawers, with the label “Interesting — For Consideration Later” prominently attached. Well, later has arrived.

    This is because the passing of the limits is not philosophical but physical and rooted in the rules of physics, chemistry and biology. So passing the limits has consequences.

    If you cut down more trees than you grow, you run out of trees. If you put additional nitrogen into a water system, you change the type and quantity of life that water can support. If you thicken the Earth’s carbon dioxide blanket, the Earth gets warmer. If you do all these and many more things at once, you change the way the whole system of planet Earth behaves, with social, economic and life support impacts. This is not speculation, this is high school science.

    In all this though, there is a surprising case for optimism. As a species, we are good in a crisis, and passing the limits will certainly be the biggest crisis our species has ever faced. Our backs will be up against the wall, and in that situation we have proven ourselves to be extraordinary.

    As the full scale of the imminent crisis hits us, our response will be proportionally dramatic, mobilising as we do in war. We will change at a scale and speed we can barely imagine today, completely transforming our economy, including our energy and transport industries, in just a few short decades.

    Perhaps most surprisingly we will also learn there is more to life than shopping. We will break our addiction to growth, accept that more stuff is not making our lives better and focus instead on what does.

    This is why we shouldn’t despair in the face of what the science is telling us — it is precisely the severity of the problem that will drive a response that is overwhelming in scale and speed and will go right to the core of our societies. It is the crisis itself that will push humanity to its next stage of development and allow us to realize our evolutionary potential. It will be a rough ride, but in the end, we will arrive at a better place.

    By coincidence, this story also spans my lifetime. As I was being born in Australia in 1959, the start of this dramatic story was unfolding in the US. The US Department of Agriculture banned the sale of cranberries, just before Thanksgiving, due to the poisoning of the national crop by the excessive use of inadequately controlled pesticides. It was what I consider the beginning of modern environmental awareness.

    It was the moment people on a large scale started to wake up to the fact that there were limits to the Earth’s capacity to cope with our abuse, that we had grown so powerful as a species that we had now acquired a fateful power to destroy nature, as scientist Rachel Carson stated. It was when people came to realise that while we had for 10,000 years learned to control nature around our houses, villages and farms for our immediate benefit, the scale of our impact had now changed the game.

    Environmentalists such as myself also have to acknowledge a sobering reality in this. Given that we were unsuccessful in convincing society to respond to the challenge that was coming, there must have been failings in the approach we took.

    While I too lament the result and wonder what we could have done differently, I have now moved on. It is what it is. We can only change the future.

    A few generations ago, no one stopped working unless they were dead, let alone spent their latter years in physical comfort with decent healthcare. Humanity has on balance performed extraordinarily well. As we’ve swept across the world in just 10,000 years, we have established a quality of life for billions of people that was unimaginable at this scale even just a few hundred years ago. Of course, still left behind are many more billions, many of whom live in grinding, soul-destroying poverty.

    We all know where we’re heading. We know it from the science, we know it from the politics, and we know it in our hearts. That’s why I get so little push-back. We know. We’ve been borrowing from the future, and the debt has fallen due.

    The science says we have physically entered a period of great change, a synchronised, related crash of the economy and the ecosystem, with food shortages, climate catastrophes, massive economic change, and global geopolitical instability. It has been forecast for decades, and the moment has now arrived.

    We now need to get ready. We can manage our way through the hurricane, but only if we acknowledge its coming and are clear first on how we will survive it and then on what our recovery plan is.

    History is full of evidence that when our backs are against the wall, all the great qualities of humanity, our compassion, our drive, our technical brilliance, and our ability to make things happen on a massive global scale, come strongly to the fore.

    Yes, it is also true we have a shadow side, left over in our reptilian brains, that can take us to a bad place, where fear and anger reside. In the circumstances now emerging, this kind of response could lead to the breakdown of society. So, yes, we could choose to have a dog-eat-dog response drive us into ever-smaller conflicting groups of regions, nations, and communities of defensive and scared people fighting over what’s left, fighting for physical survival.

    I don’t believe we will do this. Given our natural survival instincts, our history as a species, our new global connectedness, and the scale of the threat, I believe we will instead choose to consciously overcome that tendency, as we have many times in the past.

    It is true that the crisis coming will almost certainly see great conflict among nations over resources and refugees, mass suffering, and some difficult situations emerge as fear and nationalism rear their ugly heads.

    We need to plan for all of this. However, we will also see the best humanity can offer, great compassion, extraordinary innovation, and millions of people digging deep and finding their capacity for brilliance and innovation.

    We have the opportunity to build a society that represents our highest capacities, with extreme poverty eliminated; great technology that works with rather than against nature and provides us with abundant energy and resources; a closed-loop economy with no waste; communities that work and support one another.

    The global nature of the problem means only a global solution can fix it, and that means we are going to come together as a people like never before. Protecting national interest will have to be confined to the sporting field. Again, not just because we might choose to, but because it is the only way we can address the challenges we face.

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    1 Comment

    1. Marlene Rayner on June 20, 2011 12:19 pm

      Thank you, Sedona.biz publisher for this great article. Paul Gilding is someone I happened on recently, while looking for positive speakers on sustainability with an accomplished track record!

      I have hoped for a long time that Sedona would become a model of sustainability. We could lead by example; we at least are not ‘spoiled’ yet. Then we could sponsor yearly (or more) sustainability conferences here with speakers like Paul Gilding – becoming the Davos of sustainability.

      The important part is good planning and attention to true sustainability – both environmental and economic. By those words I mean not “corporatized lip service” to lull us – like what I hear from coal and oil companies, Waste Management, some developers etc. Our every action at every level must be examined from start to finish from local planning to how we manage our daily lives. We must look to a future where we walk more; buy local; and always consider the products we purchase, from whom we purchase them, and where they go afterwards.

      We can do it. It is simply a matter of our committment to leave the world in as good a shape as we can for future generations!
      Marlene Rayner
      Chair, Sierra Club Sedona-Verde Valley Group

    Paid Political Ad Paid For by Samaire for Mayor
    Paid Political Ad for Samaire Armstrong
    Paid Political Announcement by Samaire For Mayor

     THE MOMENT IS UPON US

    Dear Sedona,

    The moment is upon us. The time for a united effort to shift the focus back to our community is now.

    The ability to thrive in our community, our environment, our workforce, and the tourist industry, is entirely possible because we have all the resources needed for success.

    Still, we need a council that isn’t afraid to ask the hard questions, that makes decisions based on data and facts, and through discussion, rather than moving and voting in group unison as they so regularly do.

    This is my home. I have been a part of the Sedona community for 28 years. I witnessed the road debacle, the lack of planning, the city circumventing the local businesses ability to thrive, while making choices to expand the local government and be in direct competition with private industry.

    I am a unique candidate because unlike the incumbents, I don’t believe the government should expand in size, nor in operations, nor would I attempt to micromanage every aspect of our community.

    City government should stay in its lane and allow the competitive market of local private industry to prosper. And it should defend our community from corporate takeover and infiltration of our town.

    I do not agree that we should sign onto International Building Codes and regulations by signing Sedona up to the ICC. It is imperative that we remain a sweet, rural community.

    Where are the arts? Where is this organic thriving element that we allege to be animated by. Where is our culture? Where is our community?

    The discord between the decision making process and the desires of the community have never been more clear. It has been nearly a decade in the making.

    It is time for a new era of energy to take charge. An energy that is reflective in the ability to succeed rather than be trapped in out of date consciousness.

    It has been a great honor meeting with each of you. I hear your concerns over the insane and out of control spending and I echo them. A budget of $105,000,000 in a town of 9700 residents is completely unacceptable. A parking structure (that looks like a shoe box) originally slated to cost 11 million, now projected to cost 18 million, is incomprehensible. Especially, considering there is no intention of charging for parking.

    For those who are concerned that I lack the political experience within our established system- that is precisely what Sedona needs… Not another politician, but instead a person who understands people, who listens to the voices within the community, and who will act in service on their behalf with accountability, for the highest good of Sedona. What I am not, will prove to be an asset as I navigate the entrenched bureaucracy with a fresh perspective. Business as usual, is over.

    Creative solutions require new energy.

    Every decision that is made by our local government, must contemplate Sedona first.

    • Does this decision benefit the residents?
    • Does this decision benefit the local businesses?
    • Does this decision actually help the environment?
    • Will this decision sustain benefit in the future, or will it bring more problems?

    What we have now is a city government that expands to 165 employees for 9700 residents. Palm Desert has 53,000 residents and 119 city employees. Majority of our city department heads are not even in town. I find this problematic.

    Efforts towards championing in and courting new solutions for our medical needs are imperative. We are losing our doctors. We must encourage competition with other facilities rather than be held hostage by NAH, who clearly have their own set of dysfunctions.

    We must remember that so many move to Sedona for its beauty, hiking, and small town charm. Bigger, faster, and more concrete does not, in broad strokes, fit the ethos of Sedona.

    The old world must remain strong here in balance, as that is what visitors want to experience. Too many have noted that Sedona has lost its edge and charm.

    As Mayor I will preserve the rural charm of our community, and push back against the urbanization that is planned for Sedona.

    As mayor I will make it a priority to create opportunities to support our youth.  After school healthy, enriching programs should be created for our kids, and available to the Sedona workforce regardless of residency and regardless of school they belong to.

    As Mayor, I will create an agenda to deliberately embody the consciousness of our collective needs here, allowing private industry to meet the needs of our community rather than bigger government.

    I hope to have your vote on Aug 2nd. I am excited and have the energy to take on this leadership role with new eyes, community perspective, and the thoughtful consciousness that reflects all ages of the human spectrum.

    Thank you deeply for your consideration.

    Sincerely,

    Samaire Armstrong

    Sedona elections
    Armstrong vs. Jablow: The Main Event
    Ready to Rumble

    By Tommy Acosta
    In the Blue Corner stands Scott Jablow and in the Red Corner of the ring stands Samaire Armstrong, ready to rumble to the bitter end in their fight to become the next Sedona mayor. Jablow weighs in with 1,137 primary election votes (36.13%) under his belt, having wielded his advantage as sitting Sedona City Council vice-mayor to his favor. He brings his years of serving in that capacity into the fray and waged a solid fight in his campaign to make it to the run-off. Armstrong, however withstood a blistering smear campaign from the other opposing candidates and their supporters to make it to the final bout with 967 votes under her belt (30.73%), an amazing feat for a political newcomer. Unfortunately, for the other two candidates, Kurt Gehlbach and sitting mayor Sandy Moriarty, neither put up enough of a fight to make it to the championship bout. Read more→
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