I attended Richard Brenne's The Truth About Everything on Thursday August 2, 2007 presentation at the Beaverton library auditorium. There were over a hundred people who attended. I printed out the two page black and white flier (on one page of course!) as handouts. I was told by the library staff that I couldn't hand them out, but was more than welcome to put them on the table with other information. I did notice that a few people did take the handout and were reading it before the event started. Hopefully they have joined the website, and if you are one of those people, thank you and welcome to the group.

The following is a summary of what happened as the best as I could take notes. If anyone can add or edit please feel free to do so.

Adam Mayer

Richard Brenne started off with a story of when he was climbing Mt. Hood years ago, fell and was sliding down the mountain on his back, head first and made this comparison to humans right now. Because of population growth, peak oil, climate change we are in this situation. If a culture does not take care of their entire environment it will fail. As the ancient cultures of Iraq built dams for irrigation, they did not take care of the soil and eventually the land became arid. If we are not careful, our bread basket can end up the same way.

He talked about how he is fascinated with Tsunamis and that if one appeared to be happening at the beach and you yelled “Tsunami!” and made people flee with you to higher land, you better be right. (I take this to be a comparison to talking about peak oil, climate change, etc about making sure you have your facts otherwise you'll be labeled as crying wolf. AM).

Talked about cycling and how great a tail wind is, when it's there it gives you great strength that you don't realize until its gone until the head wind hits you. We have had ten thousand years of a stable climate, our tail wind, which has helped agriculture and one hundred and fifty years of cheap oil, another tail wind. These will come to an end, the climate is changing, peak oil is coming.

Talked about the history of oil, Hubbard's Peak, called coal the devil and clean coal not a permanent solution. We are blowing up a balloon of population growth and can't keep blowing it up forever. There are finite resources on the planet. We need to play a spiritual game so we can rise above. Our species being humbled is something that Richard appreciates.

Talked more about Tsunamis, people who live along the Pacific are well trained, along the Indian ocean kids weren't, hence the devastation of life. When the science is in, it can be wrong, but when there is a consensus and it uses math and physics, it needs to be taken seriously. If you are arguing with someone on the beach and a Tsunami comes, the argument is not as important. We need to get over political differences and solve problems. Took an example of a Tsunami at Seaside, how do you share resources when you have fled to the eighth floor of a hotel. The rich people are in the suites, for example rich nations, and people in the hallway are the poor people of the earth.

Talked about his theory of big bang, how before it happened all matter was condensed. There have six great die offs in the history of the earth, we are the cause of the sixth. The other five were climate related. Sixty five million years ago was the last one, the asteroid that took out the dinosaurs. We need to be careful about altering our climate, this will lead into our continuing evolution of humans. Beavers alter their environment, second most of all animals to humans, but a very distant second. We need to be more like beavers, when they change their environment they offer benefits around them.

Talked more about human evolution, how we began using fire, talking, hunting which we became too good at because we killed off the biggest docile game creating a food shortage. We then changed to horticulture, domesticating animals and growing food, agriculture. If you look at civilization, taking human power and resources, we have created pyramids, cities. We need to be conscious of what we are doing but be aware that there are those who are poorer.

Talked about Roman empire, Spain, England and now the the US, getting resources and bringing in to keep our society going. Continued with evolution, the industrial revolution, the rust belt and silicon valley, believes that the next will be spiritual, but not a particular faith. War is not good, talked about how US wars have been double headers; Revolutionary War and War of 1812, England; Mexican and Spanish American War, Spain; World War I and II, Germany; Korea and Vietnam, China; and the past two Iraq wars.

Talked about pure democracy and how it works in small groups, but it doesn't guarantee that its best. Pirates for example were very democratic except when in battle and the leader was in charge. Otherwise they would be very democratic when it came who to steal from and who to kill. They were still murderers, just because democracy works doesn't mean it will solve our problems.

Fear has shifted from dreadnoughts (battleships) one hundred years ago to rising sea levels today. As humans we have addictions, addicted to thought, chemicals such as alcohol or cigarettes, and our addictions can become biased by out thoughts. We are addicted to cheap oil. Quoted Lovelock's The Revenge of Sin about the worst case scenario of what will happen, scientists have said it is extreme but could happen. We will talk about solutions with a panel. Our species is being asked to change, we need to love each other, our planet and all species.

Panel
Andrew Fountain – Glaciologist
Pam Leitch – Co-founder of Portland Permaculture
Todd Duncan – Physicists
Bill Lang – Portland State Professor of Environmental History
Richard Brenne asked the questions to the panel

Todd Duncan said that he liked the way Richard presented this, facts in the world and world view, likes how story was told.

Question to Andrew Fountain – What is happening to glaciers on Mt. Hood?

Andrew Fountain – They are receding, retreating, they protect the mountain, without them you get mudslides. Thinks there will be more of the events in the future. About the pineapple express, it is not normal, not sure if there will more or less of them, talked about the Missoula floods.

Question – What are the world's glaciers telling us?

Andrew Fountain – They are receding, they are the poster child of climate change, some are receding faster than others, but they are receding fast.

Question – Can you sum up sea level rising (as mentioned in the IPCC report)?

Andrew Fountain – Global warming will rise temperatures one degree over the next one hundred years, water in oceans and on land will rise due to ice sheets melting, sea levels will rise, oceans will get warmer, water expands with heat, is seeing this right now. The science in the IPCC report is very conservative but they need to justify each step. Not sure how fast sea level is rise is going, want to be careful but it may be faster than we think. The report was put together by the best scientists. Worst case scenario by 2050 the rise will be about half a foot, Florida, Washington DC, Mississippi Delta would be in trouble. No one wants to be doom and gloom.

Question – What positive feedback is there from climate change?

Andrew Fountain – Working with Oregon congressional delegation, projection of 2040 at end of summer there will be an ice free arctic, dark water will absorb heat unlike snow which reflects light from the sun, it will create a feedback loop.

Question – Could science be underestimating?

Andrew Fountain – We don't know all the answers, central US may face more droughts, last fifty years have been good, the northwest will be wetter.

Question to Todd Duncan – How much of the current science does the average person understand?

Todd Duncan – Fairly comparable to other nations, in Europe and Japan they start earlier (education), but in the US there is more politicallizing of all science, not just climate change, increasing our awareness of science, but amount to know is increasing.

Question – Why is science under attack?

Todd Duncan – Broad reasons, beyond global warming, science is alienating, the strong scene that science gives is a picture that is not pretty, science gets a bad name. Facts come from math, physics, chemistry, human thought is a wild card. There is a cultural aversion to math, humans don't understand what the numbers mean about experiential growth and overpopulation.

Question – Are there things we think today are true that time will be proved untrue?

Todd Duncan – Yes, things will prove different as history has shown.

Question to Bill Lang – Is PSU at an advantage by creating a Environmental History department?

Bill Lang – Talked about the history of PSU how it started in 1946 after the Vanport flood.

Question – How does environmental history compare to history?

Bill Lang – Its an interest with nature and our built environment, how our actions effect nature, doesn't state right or wrong, says everything humans have done with nature have been choices, made with dreams and values.

Question – The freedom to consume as much energy, does it keep other species the freedom to exist?

Bill Lang – At the end of the nineteenth century Europeans were the most disbursed species on the planet, we are based on these values. The relationship of technology to these values, such as deep water sailing was a big change to our species, developing a smaller world, this was a big environmental change.

Question – Were American Indians living sustaining lives that could last thousands of years?

Bill Lang – The Oregon Trail people were living sustaining lives that could last thousands of years. We are consuming the world, our standard of living. Not the number of people in the world, its what they consume. Indians were sustainable, their population depended on salmon runs. Where people live, that is the best place to live.

Question – How are the salmon runs?

Bill Lang – Not good, science is mixed with politics. Talked about Pete Daniel who wrote Toxic Drift, wrote about government misuse of natural resources and cultures around the world.

Question – Facing as a species, what future will we face?

Bill Lang – When agriculture was created, wealth became a measurement of power, believes that wealth needs to be distributed, sees humans on a train, a train that needs brakes and more tracks. The US needs to stop taking from the rest of the world otherwise we will be the first to suffer.

Question to Pam Leitch – How does permaculture relate to sustainability?

Pam Leitch – Thanked the organizers for not having bottled water and using glasses. Asked if the Beaverton City Council understands exponential growth. Beaverton keeps growing its suburbs each year, putting concrete over farms. Permculture is a permeated culture which will give us a permeate culture. Organic is no longer sustainable due to the distance it travels and the waste used in producing it. Sustainable is an over used term. We don't know what sustainability will look like in a few generations, we can take the information and each generation has to do the best they can do. Going against nature has worked which is why we are doing it.

Question – Are other cultures who have less than us happier?

Pam Leitch – She can't compare to other cultures who have less if they are happier, she has no personal experience.

Question – What would peak oil and water depleting top soil do to agriculture?

Pam Leitch – Due to the effects of climate change, aquifers are running out, they are being pumped dry. The bread basket will face climate change roughly but also due to water depletion.

Question – Now that we are facing peak oil, fertilizers and machinery allowed us to feed the population, how do you see it affecting agriculture?

Pam Leitch – Nervous about impact, but we waste 25% of our calories on our tables, we still have enough calories provided we don't waste them.

Question – What do you do at the Portland Permaculture Institute?

Pam Leitch – Teach classes on how natural systems work. We have lost touch with how healthy soil works, food production.

Question – What will the future be like if we don't change?

Pam Leitch – Lovelock talked about gloom and doom, that doesn't help. Definitely in for a rough ride, be we adapt to survival. Survival versus consumerism, believes that we will make the right choice.

Question from audience – What would motivate high school students to be a scientist and how to make things better?

Pam Leitch – You can encourage kids to go to college, but they need an on the ground education, young people need to learn farming, solar, but mostly how the real world works not only a college education.

Todd Duncan – It's very easy to become narrowly specialized, need to keep focus of all things.

Question from audience – If taking 10% of Utah with solar panels can fuel America, GE is producing better wind equipment, enough energy can be produced for all of America, but will political decisions be make to use it? Who benefits from the status quo? How do we generate the political will? What does a sustainable city look like? How do we transition an energy evolution and not revolutionary way?

Richard Brenne - Sees a solar based economy in fifty years, will need to work in harmony with nature.

Todd Duncan – Amount of sunlight hitting the earth everyday is enough for a year of energy, the question is how do we transition to it.

Question from audience – There are new innovations with clean renewable energy, what about shortage of water?

Pam Leitch – Problem is not enough energy, look at what we have done so far to the earth with all of this energy, do we need more energy to hurt the oceans and nature?

Richard Brenne – We need to be more efficient, conserving.

Question from audience – Which pollution will contribute most to global warming and how does it get there?

Todd Duncan – Carbon monoxide, coal, oil and burning puts it into the air.

Comment from audience – Car dealership signs around license plates adds almost another pound to the weight of the car, please take them off.

Question from the audience – The media gives the impression of sustainability, why do we consume so much?

Richard Brenne – We are addicted to ease, comfort and wealth. We need to alter our behavior.

Comment from audience – Beaverton City Commissioner Kathy Stanton thanked Pam Leitch about talking about policy, its what goes a long way. Mayor Drake will change over 30% of the energy in the city to green, the city will budget more money for green energy, will use sustainable energy. It's an issue of education, we need to continue to push policy in the public and private sector, such as recycling and then thanked everyone.

Question from the audience – Since you have to put energy in to get energy out, quantum dot solar cells, from Rice university, are able to extract 70% of sun energy, which is beneficial. What does it take to move from fossil fuel to solar?

Todd Duncan – The biggest issue is cost. It costs 10% more for solar, but the gap is getting closer. The distribution is easier with fossil fuels, but with solar you need a distribution place, but progress is being made.

Richard Brenne – Believes there will be a solar based economy in fifty years, made a comparison to the Manhattan project, when our minds are set we can accomplish a lot. We can change our economy (fossil fuels to solar) just like the economy went from peace to war in World War II.

Question from audience – Do glaciers play a role in drinking water here?

Andrew Fountain – Not in this state for average users, only a few orchards on Mt. Hood. The myth about Bolder Colorado is not true, less than one percent of their water comes from glaciers. Alaska does use a lot of water from glaciers. There are places in the world that use glacier water, but not much in the lower forty eight.

Question from audience – There has been a lot of discussion about hydrogen, developing a grid, not sure how to generate it?

Todd Duncan – Generating it can be done with solar, hydrogen works like a battery to distribute it.

Richard Brenne – We are looking for a magic bullet, its not there, just lots of magic bb's.

Question from audience – About solar power with mirrors, pipes are heated with turns water into steam, one is in Las Vegas and one in Los Angeles, how is that a viable source of energy?

Todd Duncan – Stability is not a single solution, this is like a solar water heater on a large scale. The sun does not create energy but heating water to turn into energy.

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