New American Paradigm

Global Warming Costs Illustrated

If there is one thing I hope to accomplish one day with this blog, it's convincing a few people that their simplest choices can have devastating consequences for someone somewhere else in the world.

For example, the mining practices used in Africa to power our laptops and cell phones probably resulted in someone's death.  Either the minerals are used to fund wars the way West Africa diamonds once did, or the environmental protections are so lax that people are poisoned or simply driven from their homes.  If consumers agreed to pay just a little more, computer makers could pay more for the material and therefore afford more environmentally sound practices.

The Global Warming "Debate"

Over the last 20 years or so a trend in journalism has begun to drive me really crazy. It's the confusion over objectivism and perpetuating a lie.

Journalists, not to be confused with the nitwits on cable tv, are supposed to present the facts... not their own bias. It's a difficult task but something the pros strive to do their entire career. Usually that means presenting the various sides of a debate as equally valid opinions so that their viewers and readers can make an informed decision of their own.

Unfortunately, when one side is favored by the facts, they still feel the need to present the alternative viewpoint. It's a bit like doing a story about life as an African American and feeling the need to interview the KKK to represent the "other side".  Sometimes there is no justifiable opposition... why pretend there is?

Sprawl Repair

Even if the age of sprawl is behind us, the effects of development into exurban and rural areas is with us for a long time.  But what do we do to make what's already done better?

We've talked previously about the perils of sprawl here, here, and here.  Galina Tahchieva, a planner with Duany Plater-Zyberk & Co., gave a presentation on the subject at the Congress for the New Urbanism convention in Denver.  Ruth Walker has the highlights:

1. Improve connectivity of the streets by imposing a grid on them and looking for ways to connect the dots, and the cul-de-sacs.

This is perhaps the most obvious.  Cul-de-sacs have come to define sprawl in the same way gridded streets define urban areas.  I actually grew up on a cul-de-sac which might make a person think I'm sympathetic; but in fact it made their absurdity more obvious.  In order to get to the library and shopping area 50 meters from my house, I had to walk a mile eventually ending up on a busy arterial with no sidewalk.  Small wonder people drove everywhere.

The Day All Fish Are Gone

Imagine if I told you that you've eaten your last fish save for whatever they make those triangle fish wedges out of.  Sounds crazy right?  Well actually that day may come within our lifetime.

A documentary released last week, The End of the Line, describes the plight we are in and what will happen if our practices do not change dramatically and soon.

It's really not hard to imagine.  We've seen huge quantities of marine biomass disappear over the last 100 years, hitting warp speed with the advent of industrial fishing practices.  When Lewis and Clark showed up to my little part of the world in the Pacific Northwest, they saw the Columbia River so full of salmon that it appeared they could walk across it.  It's estimated that annual return was in the neighborhood of 30 million.  Today that number, brought low by a series of hydroelectric dams, development of the riverbanks and its tributaries, and overfishing, is closer to 300,000.