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Sustainable communities:
League of Women Voters to study and influence community planning
by Rudy Ramp

What are sustainable communities? According to the League of Women Voters of California (LWVC): "Sustainable Communities recognize their interdependence with the global community and seek to meet current economic, environmental, and social demands through equitable and democratic means without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

"More specifically, sustainable communities have levels of pollution, consumption, and population size that are in keeping with regional carrying capacity; their members share an ethic of responsibility to one another and to future generations; the full social and environmental costs of production, provision, and disposal of goods and services are acknowledged; their systems of governance and leadership encourage democratic deliberation; and their systems of urban planning enhance neighborhood livability and preserve ecological integrity." In summary, sustainability is the goal of a system of development that meets the basic needs of all people without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own life-sustaining needs.

While the League has always recognized the importance of sustainability, the group adopted Education and Action on Sustainable Communities as an issue for emphasis at its annual convention in May 1999. The League's concern for the welfare of future generations was justified by the following facts:

* Americans comprise five percent of the world's population but consume 30 percent of the world's resources.

* Since 1940 Americans alone have used up more of the Earth's mineral resources than all previous people who have ever lived before.

The ecological footprint

All consumption of energy and materials and all discharge of wastes require a finite amount of land or water area. This area can be estimated for an individual, community or nation and is sometimes referred to as an
ecological footprint. The average American footprint is about 25 acres, while there are only 16 acres of productive US land available for each one of the country's 270 million residents. This means that at least nine acres of the average American's footprint extends to land in other countries that are a source of our imported resources or a "sink" for our exported wastes and emissions.

If the productive land available globally were equally divided among the six billion people who now inhabit the planet, fewer than 5.5 acres of productive land would be available for each of us.

Get involved

Sustainable communities don't just happen by chance-it takes the efforts of many people. Residents of Humboldt County will have many opportunities during the process of updating the County General Plan to advocate for those concepts. The updating process was put in motion by the Board of Supervisors recently and will take about four years to complete. The League of Women Voters of Humboldt County is already exploring ways to educate citizens about sustainable communities, and the League encourages all citizens to participate.

Here's how you can contribute to achieving more sustainable communities:

* Take a closer look at the impact you are having on the ecology by preparing your Ecological Footprint Analysis. This analysis will suggest ways to reduce your impact. If you would like to calculate your footprint, contact me by phone 822-7790 or e-mail at rampturn@tidepool.com.

* Participate in the Sustainable Communities Committee of the League of Women Voters. This committee meets at 5:15 p.m. on the first Thursday of each month at the League office, 1809 Albee Street, Eureka (corner of Wabash & Albee). You do not need to be a League member to participate in these meetings. Everyone is welcome.

* For more information about the League, you can call 707-444-9252.

* And preparing for the March ballot, don't miss the League of Women Voters web site: www.ca.lwv.org/.

Rudy Ramp is director of the local League of Women Voters' Sustainable Communities committee.

One-time article Copyright 2000 by Humboldt Senior Resource Center.