We Need a Complete Solution to Climate Change

This morning, Jeff Wood at The Overhead Wire points us to a newly released measure of CO2 emissions from the Center for Neighborhood Technology (which just won a 2009 MacArthur Foundation Award for Creative and Effective Institutions, BTW). He says maps like these help to show why changing land-use patterns is vital in the fight to diminish greenhouse gases:

Picture_1.pngCNT has released another Affordability Index update
that shows transportation emissions is 70% less in cities than in the
suburbs. Why is this? Because people don’t have to drive as much. You
can see already the benefits, and it isn’t all about electric cars. Yet
some in Southern California think that SB375, the landmark climate
change bill, can be addressed with electric cars alone. Sorry guys. It doesn’t work like that.…

But it’s not just transportation, it’s building as well. We need to look at this as a complete system.
This singular focus on one method is somewhat maddening. I know there
are a lot of people who are hoping for a magic green car or a magic
green building but we’re also forgetting our water usage and population
growth among other things.

The CNT site has some very cool maps that compare not only CO2 emissions from household auto use per acre and per household, but also the cost of housing and transportation as a percentage of average household income in many regions across the country.

As
The Overhead Wire points out, maps like these point out the importance
of development patterns in limiting emissions, and the reality that
only a holistic solution will make a dent. Zero-emissions vehicles
aren’t going to solve the nation’s carbon bloat any more than a diet
pill can provide a long-term solution for an obese individual.

Other fun stuff from around the network: Brooklyn by Bike protests the girlification of women’s bikes (stop the flowers!); Cyclelicious has the news that French prisoners get to participate in their own Tour de France; and World Streets has data that suggests that swine flu killed more people with traffic fatalities in Mexico City than with germs.

  • RWNJ

    Stop eating meat. It contributes more to GW than transportation….

    Also, your spam protection is crap when I use the back button, had to start over.

  • Gunnar Henrioulle (peakoil.net) articles 374 & 1037

    Peaking Oil is the larger gorilla compared with climate change. Best reading on systems approach, packaging building with transport: “ELECTRIC WATER” by Christopher C. Swan, (New Society Publishing, 2007). Transport is not largest component of gases, but we depend on petroleum for transport, and agriculture must be linked to the market & our dinnerplate.

    It is boring to many, I know, but railway is an inescapable part of both Climate Change AND the Peaking Oil Solution Set. It helps to read Richard Heinberg’s “Peak Everything” and also, James Howard Kunstler’s “The Long Emergency”. Kunstler’s blog is a good compendium of energy and, financial antics of the banking class: jameshowardkunstler.typepaddotcom

    For the rare ones with extra initiative, see spv.co.uk for insights to the current & former rail footprint in your respective locale. Watch miner’s canary like “Cantarell” and middle east doings to get a feel for timing of gas & diesel rationing, as expected by authorities like Matthew Simmons and R. James Woolsey and Matt Savinar (“LATOC”). See peakoil.net) articles 374 and 1037, interested parties welcome to contact.

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