Save our Environment dot org has a petition to Obama saying "It's time to Repower, Refuel, and Rebuild America.
We need to get our economy moving by building a clean energy future. We applaud your efforts to make energy a top priority, and urge you to adopt these goals:
* Move to 100% electricity from clean small distributed sources such as wind and solar
* Cut our dependence on oil and coal by 95%
* Create 5 million new clean energy jobs
* Reduce global warming pollution by at least 80%
* Tax fossil fuel consumption not working America.
We call on you to introduce a plan in your first 100 days that will reach these goals, and to utilize the federal budget and any economic recovery package to get us started.
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Infrastructure and pollution to end life
Worst crab season since the clean water act! The problems of unmitigated pollution and extraction clearly affects life itself on this planet.
Depleted coastal fish stocks displace sustainable farmers moving fuel intensive operations out with drag net fishing that causes havoc in the high seas which allows for pollution intensive hotel uses on the coast. A good resource is Save The High Seas.
Instead of treating symptoms with a blatant disregard for conformance goals we should use the successful energy model in CA to tier price the demand side and change the supply side infrastructure needs. The goal should be to shrink the footprint on the biosphere. Leonhardt writes:
Government agencies usually don’t even have to do a rigorous analysis of a project or how it would affect traffic and the environment, relative to its cost and to the alternatives — before deciding whether to proceed. In one recent survey of local officials, almost 80 percent said they had based their decisions largely on politics, while fewer than 20 percent cited a project’s potential benefits. Please, please don’t just pour more money into the current system.
The SF Examiner highlights one problem of our current infrastructure- permanently damaged lungs for our children.
Harvey Wasserman writes: So let's convert GM's infrastructure to churn out trolley cars, monorails, passenger trains, truly green buses.
The environmental justice result is that congestion management expands capacity at the expense of all other modes. Because of the low real estate cost expansion is disportionately in poor communities.
Depleted coastal fish stocks displace sustainable farmers moving fuel intensive operations out with drag net fishing that causes havoc in the high seas which allows for pollution intensive hotel uses on the coast. A good resource is Save The High Seas.
Instead of treating symptoms with a blatant disregard for conformance goals we should use the successful energy model in CA to tier price the demand side and change the supply side infrastructure needs. The goal should be to shrink the footprint on the biosphere. Leonhardt writes:
Government agencies usually don’t even have to do a rigorous analysis of a project or how it would affect traffic and the environment, relative to its cost and to the alternatives — before deciding whether to proceed. In one recent survey of local officials, almost 80 percent said they had based their decisions largely on politics, while fewer than 20 percent cited a project’s potential benefits. Please, please don’t just pour more money into the current system.
The SF Examiner highlights one problem of our current infrastructure- permanently damaged lungs for our children.
Harvey Wasserman writes: So let's convert GM's infrastructure to churn out trolley cars, monorails, passenger trains, truly green buses.
The environmental justice result is that congestion management expands capacity at the expense of all other modes. Because of the low real estate cost expansion is disportionately in poor communities.
Equity in infrastructure pricing
Set an equitable cost distribution on pollution. Infrastructure pricing should reflect the burden of polluting the biosphere. The model is tier pricing in energy.
Examples:
CA needs to develop a model off-street parking ordinance that implements "Intelligent Parking" similar to what SF wants and Redwood City may have the begining off (from Mike Bullock).
Traffic impact fees, estimated at 40k per car per ten year period would fund zero pollution changes to the way the air and water basin are destroyed.
PAYD road financing should replace the highway gas tax using GPS or license-plate RFID tags. Roads should be priced so that they produce an agree-to rate of return on the VALUE of the lane. Note that I said value. Value is the price of land plus construction, at the time of collection. Privacy concerns should not allow drivers to permanently impact growing lungs by large roads (Mike Bullock).
A revenue neutral carbon tax to address imports. The market partially addresses this but the impact varies with the price of CO2 intensive fuels like gasoline. Without an extraction fee 96% of fossil fuels won't stay in the ground through 2250 for 350 ppm of CO2.
Universal single payer health care to address pollution through environmental justice.
Tie Federal funds to a tangible goal like reduced traffic or carbon emissions.
Examples:
CA needs to develop a model off-street parking ordinance that implements "Intelligent Parking" similar to what SF wants and Redwood City may have the begining off (from Mike Bullock).
Traffic impact fees, estimated at 40k per car per ten year period would fund zero pollution changes to the way the air and water basin are destroyed.
PAYD road financing should replace the highway gas tax using GPS or license-plate RFID tags. Roads should be priced so that they produce an agree-to rate of return on the VALUE of the lane. Note that I said value. Value is the price of land plus construction, at the time of collection. Privacy concerns should not allow drivers to permanently impact growing lungs by large roads (Mike Bullock).
A revenue neutral carbon tax to address imports. The market partially addresses this but the impact varies with the price of CO2 intensive fuels like gasoline. Without an extraction fee 96% of fossil fuels won't stay in the ground through 2250 for 350 ppm of CO2.
Universal single payer health care to address pollution through environmental justice.
Tie Federal funds to a tangible goal like reduced traffic or carbon emissions.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Landuse efficiencies for sustainable communities
When evaluating landuse Efficiencies needs to have their total impact evaluated. For example saying a Prius is efficient leaves out the landuse element. A Prius is more efficient than a Ford F150 in fuel consumption; but the issue of fuel consumption arises because of the poor landuse choice of living out in what used to be the sequestered carbon of open space. Politically moving policy in favor of a Prius thus means we can continue to expand usage of air and water and food and land basins, i.e the biosphere, that we pollute.
The efficiency is thus only relative to the reduced variable of fuel consumption and not the total impact of the biosphere disruption. The sustainable state would go beyond what architect S. Mouzon called Gizzmo Green in The Original Green. Growing Cooler points out that if VMT continues to grow three times faster than population growth any improvements in fuel mileage will quickly be negated. Without a competent urban strategy gains from technological improvements will be overwhelmed by suburban inefficiencies leaving us less sustainable in the future.
A combination of strategies are necessary taking advantage of efficient building types, efficient locations, reused infrastructure, efficient goods and service movement, rebuilt carbon basins, efficient technologies, and equity efficiencies to attain a sustainable state. As Zack and Lyon say the important indicator is lower per capita resource consumption, not necessarily deploying flashy new machines.
The efficiency is thus only relative to the reduced variable of fuel consumption and not the total impact of the biosphere disruption. The sustainable state would go beyond what architect S. Mouzon called Gizzmo Green in The Original Green. Growing Cooler points out that if VMT continues to grow three times faster than population growth any improvements in fuel mileage will quickly be negated. Without a competent urban strategy gains from technological improvements will be overwhelmed by suburban inefficiencies leaving us less sustainable in the future.
A combination of strategies are necessary taking advantage of efficient building types, efficient locations, reused infrastructure, efficient goods and service movement, rebuilt carbon basins, efficient technologies, and equity efficiencies to attain a sustainable state. As Zack and Lyon say the important indicator is lower per capita resource consumption, not necessarily deploying flashy new machines.
Monday, November 10, 2008
GW GHG solutions
Worldwide agriculture is the largest generator of green house gases partly because carbon sinks are burned for vast mono cultures sold into the industrial food markets for packaged food like substances (Pollan's words) or feedstock. Indigenous self sufficient subsistence farmers are displaced to acquire the land thereby entering the "economy" as poor peasants or landless slum dwellers. I been thinking that's what's really needed is the right to land to feed oneself. It seems counterintuitive that a human on this planet does not have the right to plant his food and feed himself. And if we feed ourselves the CO2 footprint from food would go to zero but the desire to work would also be reduced thereby reducing the availability of funds to spend recklessly toasting the planet.
Solving climate change will need to change the way we consume which means a sustainable way to get by. Right now only taxes and death are certain which means we have to be part of the consuming society to earn money to pay taxes and its killing us as a planet. So if we could feed ourselves we can ignore all the fuss around the latest ipod etc.
The carbon tax is just a way of moderating consumption and cap and dividend is a way of providing an incentive to consume differently. But land reform, through community gardens or whatever, can be a fundamental change.
1- Sign the ILO which recognizes right of indigenous peoples to their lands.
http://www.ohchr.org/english/law/indigenous.htm
2- Enact land reform to allow creation of farm belts around cities with Traffic Impact Fees and Congestion Charging going toward Agland preservation and the right to community gardens.
3- A revenue neutral carbon tax that replaces a portion of the income tax and DOES NOT TOUCH FICA.
4- A cap and dividend on emissions including other sources like methane which is returned to all Americans and not used as a extension of predation on the public commons by renting out our lungs.
5- Enable existing technologies with 15mph neighborhood and collector streets in the city and 20 mph in city arterials to make Neighborhood Electrical Vehicles viable. The goal should be to reduce pollution of the air and water sheds and expand environmental services outside the urban boundary. Vehicle tracking for Pay As You Drive insurance should be required for engines that generate CO2.
6- Require green building standards to address locations.
7- Make a $1/kwh excess feed in tariffs and allow choice within 300' of a renewable location to dramatically expand renewable power and reduce the cost of transmission from non co2 sources.
8- Allow Transit Agencies (like Universities) to control landuse decisions within 1/4 mile radius of a transit center to achieve sustainable revenue streams.
9- Tax gasoline with a ladder to bailout fossil fuel intensive industries like auto.
One and two can address imports but can address the need for solar overs elsewhere if the equity issues are taken into account. The carbon tax on extraction and processing should go to viable solutions from agriculture, landuse, and fuels.
Solving climate change will need to change the way we consume which means a sustainable way to get by. Right now only taxes and death are certain which means we have to be part of the consuming society to earn money to pay taxes and its killing us as a planet. So if we could feed ourselves we can ignore all the fuss around the latest ipod etc.
The carbon tax is just a way of moderating consumption and cap and dividend is a way of providing an incentive to consume differently. But land reform, through community gardens or whatever, can be a fundamental change.
1- Sign the ILO which recognizes right of indigenous peoples to their lands.
http://www.ohchr.org/english/law/indigenous.htm
2- Enact land reform to allow creation of farm belts around cities with Traffic Impact Fees and Congestion Charging going toward Agland preservation and the right to community gardens.
3- A revenue neutral carbon tax that replaces a portion of the income tax and DOES NOT TOUCH FICA.
4- A cap and dividend on emissions including other sources like methane which is returned to all Americans and not used as a extension of predation on the public commons by renting out our lungs.
5- Enable existing technologies with 15mph neighborhood and collector streets in the city and 20 mph in city arterials to make Neighborhood Electrical Vehicles viable. The goal should be to reduce pollution of the air and water sheds and expand environmental services outside the urban boundary. Vehicle tracking for Pay As You Drive insurance should be required for engines that generate CO2.
6- Require green building standards to address locations.
7- Make a $1/kwh excess feed in tariffs and allow choice within 300' of a renewable location to dramatically expand renewable power and reduce the cost of transmission from non co2 sources.
8- Allow Transit Agencies (like Universities) to control landuse decisions within 1/4 mile radius of a transit center to achieve sustainable revenue streams.
9- Tax gasoline with a ladder to bailout fossil fuel intensive industries like auto.
One and two can address imports but can address the need for solar overs elsewhere if the equity issues are taken into account. The carbon tax on extraction and processing should go to viable solutions from agriculture, landuse, and fuels.
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