How easy for commentators to say that nothing we do will stop global warming. That the world has always recorded climate change, and variations are normal. That mitigating greenhouse gases will be expensive and sacrifices (not that we’re asked to make any) should be informed by policy analysis and the weighing of costs and benefits. Hogwash!
The science is in and those who would refute it have very narrow interests indeed. For instance, policymakers in Washington finally addressed fuel economy standards after some 27 years, asking automakers for, wait for it, a grand total of one mile per gallon improvement on SUVs and trucks. That might explain why this year’s auto shows, once again, are all about muscle. How many cylinders and turbochargers does it take to exceed the prevailing speed on freeways brought to a near halt by eight lanes of creeping and idling vehicles polluting the air with fumes of seriously pricey fuel? An intelligent, unbiased look at public transit wouldn’t hurt.
Since most of our oil is used for transportation, let’s note that May was National Bike month, with May 14 to 18 Bike to Work and School Week. I don’t know how well that played in Malibu, but in places like Bozeman, where trucks and SUVs outnumber cars about five to one, the city is overhauling its transportation plan to include a specific focus on bicycle and pedestrian facilities. There have already been significant improvements to the bus system. Volunteers recently spent a day cleaning up existing bike lanes to make them safer. And, in a legal version of a chop shop, donated bicycles are recycled by teens learning how to turn old bikes into new ones, which are given to families that can’t afford to buy them.
While national leaders drag their feet, mayors of cities around the world met last week in New York at an environmental summit hosted by Mayor Michael Bloomberg and former President Bill Clinton. In a discussion on transportation, the mayor of Curitiba, Brazil described that city’s rapid transit system with dedicated bus lanes. Because its inhabitants are attracted toward the city center free of traffic, instead of repelled out to a sprawl of suburbs, Curitibans use 25 percent less fuel per capita than other Brazilians, even though they are more likely to own cars. This came before hybrids or spikes in energy prices and without preaching about waste or global warming. It’s the way the city is designed.
I first read about Curitiba in Bill McKibben’s book, “Hope, Human and Wild, True Stories of Living Lightly on the Earth.” The author lived in a small apartment there with his wife and baby while interviewing cops, merchants, urban foresters, civil engineers, planners and then Mayor Jaimie Lerner, whose original colleagues followed him in the mayor’s office when he moved on to run the entire state of Parana.
It seems appropriate for cities to take the lead since they generate 80 percent of greenhouse gases though they cover less than one percent of the planet’s surface. And city officials have the power to orchestrate changes through planning commissions, zoning and transportation decisions.
The U.S. Conference of Mayors reported that 500 mayors of American cities have signed the group’s climate agreement, in line with the Kyoto Protocol spurned by our government, to cut emissions by 5 percent below 1990 levels by 2012.
At the same time, the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued its third report, which stresses “the need for human society as a whole to start looking at changes in lifestyles and consumption patterns” to lower emissions of greenhouse gases. Veep Cheney clings to the notion that conservation is a “virtuous personal choice” but solves nothing.
While Congress debates cap-and-trade plans (so far most are rife with loopholes and cheating) for power plants and other polluters, IPCC scientists said a carbon tax equal to $100 per ton of CO2 discharged into the atmosphere would more likely motivate businesses to clean up. The technology is there, but we lack sufficient political will to change.
Those who opposed Kyoto and other government regulation cite unfair competition from developing nations. So it is left to nonprofit environmental organizations to pick up the slack. The Natural Resources Defense Council, led by founder John Adams, is helping China to clean up the appalling pollution of its water and air, and the devastating effects on public health.
So May is over and we aren’t riding bikes to work or shop, because our cities and suburbs were designed for cars. But there are other ways to cut down on fuel consumption and emissions. First, think of everything that arrives at your store by truck and realize the extra cost of gas is tacked on to the price. Think local. Farmers markets sell great produce that hasn’t lost most of its nutrients on a three-day truck ride. And high fuel prices tend to equalize the higher cost of local, organically grown food.
Walk. Share rides. Gas prices will fall when demand wanes. We can use less, save money and the planet.