A draft report on Lopez Island 2025 is ready for review

The culmination of a Monterey Institute of International Studies class titled “Islands and Sustainability” is a 100-page report called “Lopez Island 2025: Sustainable Transformation for Resilience”.

Lopez Island population age distribution according to the 2010 US census. This graph is a nugget of informative findings from the 100 page report “Lopez Island 2025: Sustainable Transformation towards Resiliency” by a group of Monterey Institute of International Studies students.

This hefty report is the fruit of labor of 11 graduate students who took the 4-month-long class, taught mostly via teleconference by Lopez residents Chris and Chom Greacen. Nine of the students also came to visit Lopez Island and met with community members to learn various aspects of island life, from transportation, agriculture, energy use to waste generation.

The report presents an overview of the current practices in several of the island’s key systems, highlights some potential risk areas for the island and then suggests potential solutions to help Lopezians bring about sustainable transformations for resilience. It contains informative data such as those shown in the population age distribution chart.

Lopez community members are invited to review the report and provide feedback. The report will go into the final editing process and will be formatted for online publication next month. The draft report is available for download by clicking here (PDF format, 15MB).

Leave the Car at Home……Catch a LIFT!

By Scott Finley

It was a lively discussion that ensued following the first in the Locavore’s film series in November. Inspired by the movie “The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil,” the group brainstormed ideas for becoming a more sustainable and energy efficient island and reducing our carbon footprint.

  Personal carbon footprint is the total amount of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions you contribute to the environment. Your carbon footprint may be a size EEE Sasquatch, or if you have followed some of the advice given previously in this column, you may have reduced it to a size 3 ballet slipper. You can reduce your footprint by insulating your house, growing and eating local organic food as well as changing your transportation habits.

Transportation makes up more than one-quarter of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. The average American household burns over 1,000 gallons of gasoline and emits 21,000 pounds of CO2 annually from its 1.85 vehicles, and spends nearly a fifth of its income doing so. “Living Well, Living Green,” the useful booklet produced by Transition Fidalgo and Friends, lists several ways to reduce the amount of driving we do: Combine errands in one trip, keep your car tuned and tires inflated, and leave the car at home and hop on a bike, walk or carpool.

The after-film discussion group pounced on the idea of reducing emissions by ride sharing. A culture of hitchhiking has been in place on the islands for years, and it could be expanded at little or no cost. Most of us traveling from one point on the island to another do not mind pulling over to pick up a passenger, nor do we mind riding in another’s car.

Ron Metcalf has recently started “hitching” rides, following up on a New Years resolution, and has found it efficient and convenient. He usually gets picked up by the first car passing by, and has discovered an additional benefit.  Says Ron, “the best part of doing this is that I get to spend time with those I already know and meet those I don't.”

The discussion group formed an impromptu committee calling itself Lopez Island Free Transit, or LIFT, committed to expanding island transportation options. The group’s first strategy, dubbed “Thumbs Up!” is to expand and facilitate our existing ride share system. The decal (shown above) with the thumb logo can be affixed to your car window, indicating your participation in the program. The plan also calls for larger logos to be displayed in safe areas, or “thumb stops,” at key transportation hubs, like the Village, Hummel Lake, school, ferry terminal and airport, so those needing a ride will have a predictable place to get picked up.

You will be able to pick up a decal in a few weeks – it will be announced in the Islands Weekly. Look for fellow travelers at Thumb Stops. And next time you leave the house to run an errand or catch the ferry, leave the car at home. Save some fuel, reduce emissions. Go Thumbs Up and catch a LIFT!

Green dreams of biofueled ferries

By Sophie Williams

Out here in the islands, we rely on ferries for everything from food and fuel to bicycle tourism and weekend entertainment. The ferries, in turn, rely on cheap oil. Washington State Ferries (WSF) are the single largest consumers of diesel in the state. The San Juans make up 40% of that consumption. When we talk about building our local, sustainable energy future, the ferries are an essential component.

In 2007 the state passed a clean energy bill with the hopeful mandate to meet 100% of publically owned vehicle fuel needs with biofuel and electricity by 2015. After the ferries missed their 2009 20% biofuel benchmark the target was lowered to 5%. A WSF pilot study has demonstrated the feasibility of increasing biodiesel content to at least 20%.

At first glance, the push to increase biofuels may look like sound environmental policy. After all, plants are a renewable resource and the carbon dioxide they take out of the atmosphere as they grow should be equal to the amount released when they burn. Unfortunately, most of our biofuels currently come from corn, sugar beets, soybeans and canola. Using these industrial-scale food crops for fuel causes serious problems.

Crops like corn and soybeans rely heavily on fossil fuels. Add to that the energy used to produce biofuels—often electricity from coal or natural gas—and biofuels’ energy efficiency falls further. The net energy balance of corn ethanol hovers around break even, while biodiesel produces just 2.5 times the energy it consumes. These fuels do little to reduce our carbon emissions or our reliance on fossil fuels.

Our biofuels also have unforeseen consequences for the rest of the world. "If you use farmland in North America to grow biofuels, you're forcing a farmer somewhere else to clear-cut forest to grow food crops," says David Tilman, a prominent ecologist. Land use change is a significant contributor to greenhouse gas emissions because the carbon stored in uncultivated lands is released when they are cleared to make way for crops. 

And using food crops for fuel in a hungry world has other more immediate human costs. Biofuel policies in the U.S. and Europe have been linked to recent spikes in food prices and could increase global food insecurity. With demand for both food and fuel expected to double by midcentury, the UN Special Rapporteur on food condemned the use of arable land to grow fuel as “a crime against humanity.”

Despite continued government support, few people outside the industry see a bright future for our existing biofuels. Hope comes from a second generation of biofuels currently under research and development. These new biofuels look for more sustainable sources of feedstock. Cellulosic ethanol could be made from agricultural, forestry or municipal waste or from deep rooted perennials that sequester carbon in the soil while providing erosion control and wildlife habitat. Biofuel visionaries are also looking to algae, which can grow rapidly on little more than water and sunlight. An acre of soybeans produces about 60 gallons of biodiesel a year. Theoretically, an acre of algae could produce 5,000.

Done right, second generation biofuels could produce fuel with reduced net carbon emissions and less competition for agricultural land. Western Washington grows little of use for first generation biofuels—currently, our only high-value ethanol crop is wine grapes—but we have the potential to be a significant producer of second generation biofuels.

With sound policy decisions and the expansion of new biofuel technologies, Washington could clean and green its transportation system, helping WSF transform from a serious regional polluter into a vital element of the San Juans’ sustainable energy future.