Priority: Eliminate generating electricity from fossil fuels

Not only Disneyland and China design model cities for the future, schoolgirls and young boys also use cereal boxes, LEGOs, and every other sort of building toy to create their own visions of home. What the Visions and Pathways 2040 project at the University of Melbourne did, that was a bit different, was design a greener, cleaner city AND a path to get there from here.

A group of 250 experts from various disciplines collaborated to determine how to reach the year 2040 with cities that cut their greenhouse gas emissions by 80%. They realized they could work with many technologies, such as bladeless wind turbines, solar panels on skyscrapers, and roof and vertical gardens, that already exist. But future suburbs might look very different with less privacy because of clustered townhouses with solar roofs. At the same time, indiscriminate land clearing outside cities and for housing developments would be replaced by forest preservation and regeneration of shade trees used to capture and store carbon dioxide. Urban dwellers would get around through local forests by electric transport, bike trails, and walkways. A CSIRO-developed Australian Stocks and Flows Framework helped model these new cities and the path to them.

The Melbourne project also identified the direct and indirect emissions cities would need to reduce or eliminate. Transport, landfill waste, and buildings caused about 16% of direct carbon dioxide emissions in cities. While the energy used by the heavy industry and agricultural production needed to supply cities also caused indirect emissions, the need for electricity generated almost half of a city's indirect carbon footprint. That meant replacing the fossil fuel burned by power stations with clean technologies was a priority.

Experts saw the transition to ecocities initiated by: 1) city governments that used sanctions to discourage businesses and organizations from carbon-producing activities or 2) citizen movements that foster cooperatives and engage in cultural, political, and economic decisions. By visiting visionsandpathways.com/, you can get the entire Visions and Pathways 2040 report. The challenges it presents are something to think and talk about during the holidays and before making a New Year's Resolution to help your community create a positive climate change.

Don't Take Any Wooden Nickels

The old saying reminding us to be cautious and know what we're buying applies in the global timber trade. Some woods are much more valuable than others. Shipping a load of Brazil's big leaf mahogany into a country labeled as $9000 worth of less expensive timber can make a huge profit even if it is relabeled correctly and sold below real market prices. The American Forest and Paper Association estimates U.S. firms that use legally harvested domestic wood lose up to $460 million a year competing with this kind of undervalued, illegally logged timber. Globally, illegal logging makes up to 30% of the $150 billion a year trade in forest products.

     There are sustainable, legal ways to harvest timber, but logging companies have taken advantage of poor oversight in some countries by just putting roads in tropical forests and harvesting and exporting endangered, heavily regulated species of wood, like West African kosso. On the world market, those involved in the illegal timber trade also smuggle endangered species, illegal drugs, weapons, and slaves. Harvests of protected rosewood and ebony in Madagascar invite captures of rare wildlife, while orangutan in Indonesia are endangered along with the country's valuable tropical forests. Like the diamond and jade trade, illegal timber sales have been known to finance armed conflicts in the form of genocide, coups, and civil wars.

     Efforts to combat the illegal timber trade and its damaging side effects include government regulations and laws and consumer awareness. The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) provides regulations authorizing country customs officials to confiscate illegally harvested logs being shipped through the world's ports. In the U.S. the 1900 Lacey Act and its 2008 amendment ban trafficking in illegal wildlife and illegally harvested timber and require seizure of such products and fines. Since the Lacey Amendment also makes it illegal to sell a wood product in the U.S. that contains wood that has been illegally harvested in the country of origin, U.S. retailers and other companies that sell wood products need to be sure to buy from legal sources.

     Celso Correia, Mozambique's new minister for land, environment and rural development, is an African who has learned to play the game illegal loggers used to win by relying on weak law enforcement and corruption. As few as three years ago, a report from the nonprofit Environmental Investigation Agency stated 93% of timber in Mozambique was cut and exported illegally, mainly to China, the world's largest log importer. China's illegal timber imports deprived Mozambique of at least $400 million plus taxes. Mozambique now seizes more illegally cut timber exports, but the country is competing with an insatiable Chinese demand for raw timber. In The House of Unexpected Sisters, which is set in Botswana, Africa, the author writes about a store that sells furniture made from Zambezi teak and mukwa wood, "none of this Chinese rubbish."

      Mozambique and other African countries are facing long odds when they try to replace deforestation with sustainable forest conservation methods that protect woods,  such as the desirable Pau Ferro, and when they try to attract responsible Chinese companies willing to process logs into more valuable planks and furniture within Africa.


     Consumers do have a way to be sure they are buying legally sourced wood and paper products. Just as kids can help adults check for an ENERGY STAR on appliances that save money by using energy efficiently, they can look for the FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) logo of a check mark and tree on wood and paper products. When items like toilet paper, bookcases, doors, and picture frames come from forests that meet environmental, social, legal, and economic standards, they carry the FSC logo. Learn more at fsc.org.

(Also see the earlier post, "Uncover the Economic Value of Wood.")
   

   

Uncover the Economic Value of Wood

We are used to valuing trees because they absorb greenhouse gases (See the earlier post, "A Healthy Environment.") and provide the shade other crops need to grow (See "Coffee Prices Going Up, Allowances Going Down?"). But at a recent 4H meeting of young people who enter their animals and agricultural projects in competitions at county fairs every year, one of the members demonstrated the value of trees after their growing days are finished. Seeing the bowl he had made out of a variety of local woods started members thinking.

     What happens to trees that are uprooted by wind and storms, trees that are removed to make room for roads, utility poles, and developers' projects, evergreen trees after Christmas, and all the area trees that have been removed because they were infested by the emerald ash borer insect? Some dead trees are used for firewood, but others just rot.

     When my sister was in college, I remember she drove several students in one of her art classes to a lot that collected bits and pieces of wood. I have the statue she carved, sanded, and oiled to show, not only the form of a woman, but also the beautiful grain of the wood she used. Besides the grain of wood, the perfume of freshly sawn cherry tree logs first attracted the man who now owns a custom-made furniture business.

     Beyond firewood, there is a market for useful and beautiful objects made from the world's sustainable and rotting wood. Leafing through a catalog from SERRV (serrv.org), I saw how artisans in the Philippines had turned coral tree and acacia wood into birdhouses and bowls, Bangladesh craftsmen had used albizia wood to make stools, and carvers in India had stained and transformed mango and shesham wood into tables. I've also read how a Mozambican wood carver sold an expensive three-foot-tall ebony sculpture to a tourist in Kenya.

     Clearly, trees can play an important role in sopping up greenhouse gases that cause global warming, and wood products can boost a country's economy. A UN study concludes forest land the size of South Africa has disappeared since 1990. In square miles, an article in TIME magazine (September 28, 2015) shows deforested areas have been lost fastest annually since 2010 in the following countries: Brazil (3,799 square miles), Indonesia (2,641), Burma (2,108), Nigeria (1,583), and Tanzania (1,436). Before turning trees into logs for export, these countries and others need to consider how builders can use whole trees instead of steel to support structures and how an increase in their middle class populations represents the income potential of future furniture markets. Moreover, Global Witness and the Environmental Investigation Agency reports illegal logging of rosewood in Madagascar deprives the country of $460,000 a day. Illegal logging also has been used to fund conflicts in Liberia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

     Kids might begin to get an appreciation of uses for wood by making craft projects out of Popsicle sticks. They might go on to think about finding jobs operating tractor-powered sawmills, learning how to dry wood, or if they would like to sell products made from wood. Who knows, some day they may be in a position to invite architects and planners to consider showcasing local woods in major projects. For more ideas about the use of wood, check wisconsinurbanwood.org.