Adapting to a Changing Environment

Sunnheim Arbor Frithyard

Knoxville, , USA

An Overview Of Our Solution

Who is this solution impacting?
生态系统
Forests
Forests
社区类型
Rural
Rural
Additional Information
  • Population Impacted:
  • Continent: North America
General Info

地址

127 E. Oak Hill Ave. NE
Knoxville, 37917-5429
美国

电子邮件

InjunSun@aol.com
Problem

受影响的人口

600K

尺寸

large

主要职业

Tourism, service jobs helping travellers going through Knoxville, TN.

社区所依赖的本地资源，以及用于什么目的

Air for breathing, water for drinking and farming.

对资源的本地威胁

Mountaintop removal coal mining, natural gas fracking.

气候危害

Coal-burning electrical plants, coal ash (including a recent spill into the Tennessee River), and pollution from vehicle engines.

敏感度等级

Even the least sensitive individuals are having asthma develop, and other pulmonary ailments worsen.

适应能力水平

The pollution is damaging the Smoky Mountain forests, and is weakening our local ecosystems, causing them to be less able to fight off foreign invasive species, as well as ordinary diseases and pests.
Solution

Using federal money plus investment of private citizens, on a county-by-county basis, put solar panel arrays on every building in each county. The poorer the property owner or tenant, the larger the array they would be eligible for, and conversely, the wealthier the property owner or tenant, the smaller array they would be allowed. The wealthy would get arrays to meet their average consumption estimates, while the poor would get arrays far exceeding their needs, such that the excess would be remitted to them. Businesses would also be given arrays meeting their average demands. Investors would get a percentage of daily use paid back to them until their investment was repaid, with a small amount of interest, done as a municipal bond.

Results

生态成本

Provided ecologically sound solar panels are used, those made with less expensive and less politically costly materials (i.e., *not* made with rare earth metals), there would be no ecological cost to implement my program.

生态效益

My program would eliminate the need for coal, thus for coal mining. It would also reduce our dependence on oil, perhaps eliminating it locally, which would reduce the need to drill for oil, or to use that nasty sludge called tar sand. Eliminating mining

用于衡量效益的经济指标

Reduction in both rate and actual acreage of forest losses due to both mining and pollution. Increase in Native biodiversity in forests and streams.

社区/社会成本

None, other than some job displacement as people go from one energy sector to another.

社区/社会福利

The poor and working poor would have far less to worry about, as they would have the equivalent of ~$200 less in bills, plus possibly excesses of production being paid directly to them. All people would have this reduction in bills and possibility of being paid, but for the poor, it would have a disproportionately beneficial effect.

用于衡量福利的社区/社会指标

Potentially, this might help some people reduce their dependence on social welfare programs, including LIHEAP, SNAP, and WIC. This program *would* permanently reduce the real level of unemployment by directly employing people to put in and maintain the arrays.

经济成本

Training to put arrays in could be done ad hoc, as paid and unpaid internships. Early on, federal grants would be used to begin, but thereafter, private investors in municipal bonds would maintain the program.

经济效益

More jobs and fewer people needing public assistance would create even more need for service industry jobs, and greater tourism.

用于衡量效益的生态指标

Locally, having no income tax, we rely on sales taxes to fund most things. Any increase in spending would equal an increase in sales tax revenue, giving an easy way to see the local benefits.

您的社区在实施此解决方案时面临哪些挑战？

People do not believe we can power everything we currently use and like with solar alone. They need to be shown it can be done.

Action

描述用于开发解决方案的基于社区的流程，包括使用的工具和流程

The solution I propose would give the poorest people a cash infusion that would be permanent. Along with solar arrays, everyone would get free energy assessments, and help via state and local programs for weatherising their homes. The wealthy and the poor would be brought together both by investors helping the poor, as well as by the poor becoming less so over time.

关注的气候危害

Changing temperatures and weather patterns

您的解决方案如何减少暴露和缓冲/保护受影响的生态系统？

My solution would immediately reduce the need for coal for electricity, and would immediately reduce its burning locally, reliving a major issue, serving as an example for everywhere else. It would also create a culture expecting to use electricity for all needs, rather than turning to natural gas for home heating, gasoline for cars, etc.. This could be considered a consolidation of consumption, from several markets into one. Job losses in the Big Carbon markets would be replaced by Green jobs in maintenance and repair.

How has your solution increased the capacity of the ecosystem to adapt to potential climate changes?

Any relief of pollutants, particularly heavy metals, will strengthen the biomes affected. Removing the excess local Carbon from the air will strengthen the plants, and the animals who depend on those plants.

您的解决方案如何减少受影响社区的暴露并缓冲/保护受影响的社区？

In two ways, my solution helps reduce the exposure of local and regional biomes. First, it prevents their initial harm to get the "natural resources" of coal and natural gas. Second, it prevents their secondary harm from the burning of those same resources as outlined in the previous paragraphs.

您的解决方案如何降低受影响社区的敏感性？

Any reduction in pollution reduces the sensitivity of ecosystems to further harm, such as can be expected from Climate Change. My program would reduce or eliminate pollution from most Carbon sources, as well as reducing the use of nuclear power.

您的解决方案如何提高当地社区适应潜在气候变化的能力？

Any reduction in sensitivity to harms increases the capacity of local communities to adapt to potential climate changes. My program would reduce ecological sensitivities, thus increasing the capacity of local ecosystems to adapt to stresses from Climate Change.

Scale

这个解决方案可以在其他地方复制吗？

Yes. It should naturally spread like a disease, once established.

Overview
Solution
Scale