Lady Sentinels

Interview with Paul Steucke,Chief Environmental Division Directorate of Public Works of Ft. Lewis, WA

My answers to the questions are as follows (my humblest apologies upfront for the length of the answers):


1. What are your opinions or feelings about global warming?

A good way to summarize my feelings and opinions regarding global warming is from a quote I saw on the side of Starbucks cup. It is a "Tongue in Cheek" statement that, by pretending to be anti-environmental, makes a very strong point:

"So-called "global warming" is just a secret plot by wacko tree huggers to make America energy independent, clean our air and water, improve the fuel efficiency of our vehicles, kick-start 21st-century industries, and make our cities safer and more livable. Don't let them get away with it!" - Chip Giller

The beauty of that quote is that it make the very true point that arguing over whether global warming is occurring or not is a waste of effort because the proposed solutions to prevent it have so much value to us, that we should pursue them regardless!

I have very strong feelings regarding global warming, so I will start with feelings and end with opinions. As a trained scientist, I look at the preponderance of evidence that overwhelmingly shows a warming planet from human activities, and see it as virtually undeniable (not completely, because a true scientist always leaves room for some doubt when dealing with events that have not yet occurred. For example, think about shoving a bowling ball off a table. One can predict, with pretty good certainty, that it will not float in the air, or fly up, or transform into a bouquet of flowers, but instead drop to the floor, even though the event has not yet happened, but still, one cannot be 100% certain). Those who do not believe global warming is occurring and/or is a risk to continued human existence are, in my opinion, simply "whistling in the dark", in a futile attempt to ignore the problem and hope it goes away on its own. Some critics even acknowledge that is occurring, but attempt to convince themselves that such a radical change will be good for human existence. I think at best, it brings about great uncertainty - and the patterns of history tell us that great changes in climate are often not very kind to the life forms that existed prior to the climatic shift (think dinosaurs), so betting that it will result in improvement seems like a long-shot to me.

This knowledge, combined with the fact that I am a father of four, causes me great anxiety at times. I literally cannot sleep at night sometimes, wondering what type of planet I will hand off to my children and grandchildren. The big issue since September 11, 2001 for this nation has been security from radical terrorists. This is a real threat that must be dealt with, but I have much greater confidence in our ability to contain that threat and move past it than I do the threat of global warming. First, we are truly awakened to it, and second we are actively fighting it with the world's best military. I wish we we were fighting terrorism with more tools than just law enforcement and military force, and hopefully future leaders will see the need to attack it at the root, and not just where it flowers. When we start using diplomatic, economic, and cultural resources alo ng with the military, we can start to better prevent the conditions from arising that allow extreme, violent factions to be born and gain the ability to project their terror.

The problem with environmental threats, like global warming, is that they are not as flashy, and they "sneak up" on us, so that the danger may already be upon us by the time we recognize it, and unfortunately it will likely be too late then to make the needed changes to beat it. It is like an ocean liner- there is so much forward momentum that to avoid the iceberg, you must start the turn miles in advance. It is this single fact that scares and saddens me the most. We have the capability to stop it, but do we have the will?

I recently graduated from the SBLM course last April, and one task was to to write a professional article (for which I won first place in the writing contest). Mine was entitled "Army Leadership in Sustainable Development". In it, I share some of my research findings and opinions on global warming. I'll end this answer with an excerpt of that here (if you truly wish to torture yourself, I have attached the entire article as a word document):


2. What do you think would be the most effective way to prevent it? With examples if possible on what has been or is planned to be implemented.

I can answer this question in four words. "Stop using fossil fuels". Simply put, this is the centerpiece issue because it affects so many other areas. Clean, renewable energy sources would 1) Remove US dependence on foreign sources of energy, making us a more secure nation. And 2) eliminate the single greatest (by far) greenhouse gas contributor to the atmosphere, and simply put- if the first step in getting out of a hole is to stop digging -then likewise the first step in preventing global warming is to stop emitting greenhouse gasses, like Carbon Dioxide from the combustion of fossil fuels. Essentially, one needs to look at the bio-sphere as a big box. Fossil fuels exist below the surface of the earth and when we extract them and burn them, we take them from outside and the box and put them inside the box. This adds to the total amount o f carbon in the bio-sphere, specifically in the atmosphere. Even burning wood (which can have significant local air quality effects from smoke particles) has little or no effect on global warming, because the carbon originally existed in the bio-sphere.

So the solution resides in doing two things. 1) Stop bringing carbon into the bio-sphere - and fossil fuel use is the ONLY significant human activity (there are some natural introductions via volcanic eruptions and other geothermal pathways, but these are very minor in comparison to fossil fuel use) that does this. 2) attempt to sequester as much carbon as possible into non-atmospheric locations - this means injecting it back into the earth's subsurface (taking it outside the biosphere altogether) or simply increasing the solid, non-gaseous forms of carbon (like more plants).

I am actually optimistic that we can beat this. I see the awakening occurring and efforts are underway everywhere. Here at Fort Lewis, we have been a leader in both phasing out fossil fuel use and sequestering carbon. Below are just a few examples of things done, being done, or planned to be done:

1) We have a lot of vehicles (hundreds!) that run on non-fossil fuels such as electric, ethanol, and bio-diesel (from waste cooking oils!). Just this year we have been funded (MCA) to build a non-fossil fueling station along the I-5 Freeway. This will be used by us, but also be available for use by regular citizens, so those with non-fossil fuel vehicles driving along I-5 will have place to get fuel.

2) We continue to grow more trees than we cut, taking more carbon dioxide out of the air and sequestering it into plant materials.

3) We are working a project to take the methane gas generated at the wastewater treatment plant, convert it to Hydrogen, and use it to run forklifts at the DOL and a shuttle bus around the installation (Thus reducing the number fossil fuel burning cars need). This is a DLA funded project that we hope to have in place in 2-3 years.

4) We have numerous car pooling and van pooling efforts underway. There are currently 184 people riding in vanpools on Fort Lewis, preventing the use of thousands of gallons of fossil fuels each year.

5) 21% of all the electrical energy we purchase and use on Fort Lewis comes from a non-fossil fuel, renewable source (Solar or wind).

6) Many of our new buildings are built to do a better job of conserving energy (LEED Silver), and projects are in place or being studied to conserve energy in existing buildings.

7) We are studying the renewable energy capabilities of Fort Lewis, McChord AFB, and the Yakima Training Center (Bio-mass, Solar, and Wind) so we will be producing all our energy needs on on our property and eventually (by the year 2025 at the latest) be using no fossil fuels at all. While it seems difficult, this is actually very, very doable.

posted by APGovproject @ 10:07 PM