Why recycling and renewable energy is not enough to create a just society
Programs to recycle are applauded. The use of renewable energy is encouraged. Eating organically farmed food is hip, and the switch to vegetarian is often considered a major step towards sustainability. While all these initiatives are taking us in the right direction, we need a society that not only embraces the circular economy, the green (or blue) economy, where we all evolve from recycling to upcycling, we need a society that firmly embraces core ethical and universal principles. Ethics is part of the new business model. If we wish to embrace innovative businesses that transform society, then ethics will have to be at the center, otherwise we may meet material needs and abate environmental damage, but our disjointed societies will not be redressed on the basis of more efficient flows of material and energy only.
We are often confronted with the harsh realities of our short sightedness. Biodegradable soaps which rely on palm oil depend on large areas of destroyed rainforest. How can we defend the cleaning up of the rivers in Europe by destroying the habitat of the orangutan in Asia? Vegetarians who promote the consumption of mushrooms certainly reduce the footprint of their protein consumption by substituting animal and animal feed with fungal protein.
However, few mushroom friends realize that the Chinese are fast destroying their oak forest in order to boost the output of shiitake mushrooms. This implies that saving animals could well destroy natural forests. We very often do not realize the unintended consequences we have and therefore we need to think in terms of connections, seeing and searching for the broader impact we have consuming and producing as we do.
While we can easily be concerned about our lack of understanding, and the subsequent errors, we have a lot of engrained routines that do not allow us to fundamentally change our approach to business and the way we live. Let us take the case of fishing. We should assess a few realities of this industry with a deep ethical perspective. First we overfish, we take too much of what can be sustainably harvested. Second while fishing the fish we want, we harvest up to 70 percent of the catch fishes we do not want. While this sound quite stupid, our fishing techniques do not permit us to differentiate. Third, we drag nets around the ocean, often scraping mile long dragnets made from Nylon 6 on the bottom of the sea, killing life for years - even decades to come. To make matters worse, a medium-size fishing vessel will consume 250,000 tons of fuel per year, nearly always subsidized by governments. And, apart from needing energy to drag the nets, a lot of power is consumed to feed the compressors that drive the ice machines. Worse these vessels (and the processing of their catch) consume more water than communities ever have access to.
While this is the standard worldwide, and the problems are well known, it is difficult to change behavior in a world of dwindling resources. While everyone desires more of the same, it is exactly that "more of the same" that destroys ecosystems beyond repair. And while all parties debate the harsh realities of unsustainable fishing, there is one reality that everyone overlooks: female fish with eggs! There is no cattle farmer who will send his cow for slaughter one month before a calf is to be born. There is no fruit farmer who destroys his harvest weeks before fruits are ripe. But all fishermen around the world find it normal to catch females with eggs and throw them along with all other fish on freezing ice. This is one of the most unsustainable acts of modern times and yet, it is never debated nor are attempt has been made to redress this anachronism.
So if we agree on a basic ethical position that females with offsprings should always be protected irrespective of the species, then it becomes clear that we need to change our fishing model. We cannot simply continue to catch fish and submerge it on ice. Basically, freezing temperatures lead to a rapid release of acids attempting to counteract congelation, and while this affects the taste of fish, the freezing approach requires massive energy. In addition to the unethical behavior, the dragging of nets and the production of ice represent more than half of the energy required operating a fishing vessel, with the balance needed for the propulsion of the boat. If we eliminate the production of ice, and find another way of catching fish than with nets, then the energy requirements of any boat will shift.
The new fishing vessel design starts with a catamaran, powered by electric engines. Fish could be caught using a combination of nets and air curtains - just like whales and dolphins do - and are preserved into cold water tanks with temperatures between 2-4 degrees. Energy consumption drops dramatically. We could equip the boat with 4 fixed sails, especially designed for the currents and winds of the region, inspired by the unique designs of the BMW-Oracle ship that won the Americas Cup. When there is no wind, the masts drop and convert the sails in solar panels capable of generating electricity to power engines. The goal is to quickly process all fish into value added products. It is here that an innovative ecographics system permits to check each fish for eggs. A breakthrough technology, much along the same logic as pregnancy tests have been performed for decades, permits the identification of pregnant fishes. Each female with eggs is immediately released from her state of hibernation and put back into the sea water securing the repopulation of the fish stock.
We often loose sight of the fact that a half kilogram female fish could carry up to 500 eggs, whereas a one kilogram fish could have 3,000 eggs. This exponential growth in reproductivity is the main reason why the catching of females is so counterproductive. The experience on the island of El Hierro in the Canary Islands (Spain) permitted to demonstrate that the protection of female fishes through the creation of a UNESCO Biosphere zone provides the opportunity to redress fish stocks within two years, offering from then on an exponential growth in productivity and fish catch. While the fishermen of El Hierro applied the simple approach of total protection of an area known as the egg spawning area, the innovative ecographics approach permits a very targeted selection of all egg bearing females.
The design of fishing vessels that have the protection of the reproductive fishes in mind will shift the logic of the business model. And, as always happens once a direction is chosen, a cascade of additional innovations emerges. A boat that requires no ice, nor power to drag nets, can operate with electric power only. When the boat is sailing with wind, it can even generate power from the woke by applying the same principle as a hybrid car, recovering energy from the brakes - now from the turbulence caused by sailing. This new vessel design is the most sustainable and while it offers opportunities to cut out fuel altogether, it creates chances to translate the subsidies associated with fuel for the fishing industry into financing for the new vessels. Indeed, every government around the world reserves state funding to support fishermen. Now if the new catamaran operates without fuel then the subsidies committed for years to come can be converted into a net present value that takes subsidies (and corruption) out of the equation and puts renewable squarely on track.
The new designs of the vessel which checks each fish for eggs, now processes the whole catch on the boat, thus generating more revenue from filets, Omega-3, collagen and fish meal that is produced from all process left-overs. This allows the processing with seawater, thus saving drinking water on shore and permits the sale of the processed catch prior to landing. This system cuts down the intermediation by middlemen securing that the fishermen, who in the end of the day risk their lives each day, generate at least double the income, and in some cases (especially thanks to the Omega-3) even 5 times their standard revenue. A new boat benefits from a start-up funding thanks to the elimination of subsidies, and enjoys lower risks thanks to the generation of more income with available resources.
This breakthrough design is driven by a simple yet blunt statement when it comes to sustainability: protect the female fish carrying eggs. It is seldom that the drive towards sustainability generates better income and more jobs, while eliminating the dependency on fossil fuels. However, the most important result of this paradigm shift is that more cash is now circulating in the local economy and this generates a badly needed multiplier effect urgently needed to create growth in the local economy exploiting available resources sustainably.
Now, once the multiplier effect kicks in, then one sees the brain-drain back. This project is pioneered in Morocco, a joint-venture between French and Moroccan entrepreneurs. The power of this approach is that highly qualified Moroccan engineers are keen to contribute to this innovative business development operating out of Caen (Normandy, France), and soon they will want to travel back to their motherland contributing to re- industrialization of the economy that could even include the local construction of fishing vessels, a sector everyone had considered long gone and impossible to ever recover. It took a deep ethical shift in fishing - to protect the expecting females - to lead to the relaunch of industries we could not even have imagined.
The aim of this blog is to present a fresh look at realities around us. Whereas I do not pretend to present the truth nor a definite position, I do wish to push the reader to think beyond the obvious. After all, time has come to dramatically improve the plight of millions, and that requires more than the predictable. Sometimes it forces us into spheres of discomfort.