As the general population becomes more aware of our environmental challenges and the emerging energy crisis certain words have become popular in the media.  Not too many years ago words like sustainable, green or renewable would bring snickers from people who thought the environmental movement and search for alternative energy sources were just hoaxes perpetuated by those with purely political agendas.  Not anymore.  Just about everywhere you look in media and advertising people are talking green and sustainability.

One unfortunate side effect of having meaningful words become marketing buzzwords is that what these words mean and represent is often lost in a barrage of advertising and shallow quasi-news reporting.

The words sustainable and sustainability are powerful words with meaning that reveals great wisdom for the future of humankind.  It is important that we preserve the power of these words to help us understand what we must do to provide a high quality of life in the years ahead.  It would be tragic to be seduced by the spin doctors that because we put a green or sustainable label on something that we are properly addressing our long-term challenges.

Modern life is powered by electricity.  We are reminded of this fact each time we experience a power failure.  Nearly all our activities and comforts depend either directly or indirectly on the availability of electricity.  Last year in the wake of a particularly intense hurricane season some residents in Southern Florida experienced an especially unpleasant reminder of just how dependent we have become on electricity.  It seems that many of these communities are situated below sea level and their sewage treatment plants are located on higher ground.  Large electric pumps are used to pump wastewater up to the treatment plants.  As power failures lingered the back up systems began to fail.  Soon resident were waking up to toilets overflowing and filling their homes with raw sewage.