USGBC Is Malthus

I love to plan. 
I would rather plan a task than do it in most instances. That's the way I am wired. Fairly often I catch myself getting lost in the planning when I could have completed the task by now. 

I think I recognize this tendency in USGBC. They are more about planning and re-working the plan and improving the plan than actually ... what? What is their goal? Reduce pollution and greenhouse gases? Save the rain forests? Keep landfills from overflowing? I was going to write "save energy"; but if you are using soloar energy or wind energy, you can't save it without nasty batteries - so use all you want. 

Save water? That's a misnomer because all the water on planet earth is exactly the same amount as it was a million years ago. It recycles. So saving water either means "don't screw it up" for the next guy or don't use so much that the guy at the end of the stream doesn't get a drink too (because there are way more people wanting a drink now than one million years ago). 

Of course, you can't achieve any meaningful goal with all this saving of energy or water. The seven billion plus of us humans are the problem. We need to start solving the problems we can. The green gurus aren't helping. Not using energy or water doesn't make enough energy or water for everybody. 

I liken the green approach to not eating so there is enough food rather than growing more food. Malthus said we would all starve because of the growth in population. Instead we figured out how to grow more food. 

USGBC is Malthus.

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orig post date FEB 2013