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The Nexus of Peak Oil, Climate Change and Infrastructure
Sarah Kuck, WorldChanging
The creation an efficient, effective and fair U.S. climate policy is utterly important, and overdue. But, argues Dynamic Cities Project founder Bryn Davidson, unless we take Peak Oil into consideration, we may end up in a situation that pits energy security against climate change concerns.
Davidson told the 30 or so people squeezed into a board room at the Seattle Office of Sustainability & Environment that only by coupling policy on Peak Oil and climate change, will we succeed in reaching a sustainable future. (Take a look at what Peak Oil looks like here.)
Although climate change is the larger threat, Davidson said, the magnitude of Peak Oil will soon outweigh climate change concerns, as fossil fuels are ingrained in almost our entire infrastructure.
“Peak Oil is an economic bulldozer that comes on and changes everything,” Davidson said. “A climate strategy that ignores Peak Oil would be like sticking our heads in the sand.”(15 June 2008)
James Howard Kunstler: Pavement (video)
Duncan Crary, KunstlerCast via Global Public Media
Asphalt has become the default paving solution in America. And it’s helped turn even side streets into mini freeways. It’s ugly, it’s bad for the environment and it might not be so cheap in the near future as the price of petroleum-based products rises. In this show, James Howard Kunstler discusses the aesthetics, the qualities and the practicalities of other paving materials. Jim says the built environment in America is so full of empty gestures that the sidewalks end after only 60 feet. But he has been to a place in Michigan where cars are not allowed. And the streets are wonderful.
(12 June 2008)
(9 June 2008)
For mass transit, mass investment
Editorial, Christian Science Monitor
With record ridership and fuel prices, subways, trains, and buses are strapped.
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High gas prices are prying record numbers of Americans from their cars and onto buses, subways, and commuter trains. That has many pluses: It eases pocketbook expenses, road congestion, and pollution. But it’s also straining providers of mass transit – a signal for needed change.
In Washington DC, the Metro subway and bus system is so stretched at peak hours that officials say the government and other large employers may have to mandate staggered work schedules if gas goes over $5 a gallon – once unimaginable.
… Mass-transit ridership that’s at its highest in 50 years presents an opportunity to beef up outdated systems in many areas of the country. But it’s not going to be easy.
For starters, the same price pinch that’s squeezing drivers is being felt by transit operators. They must pay more for fuel and their revenue sources are declining as the economy slows. More people may be exchanging traffic for tokens, but in some cases, fares cover as little as 20 percent of operating expenses. Mass transit depends greatly on local, state, and federal money – from sales taxes, for instance, which are slowing with the economy, and from gas taxes, which have not kept up with inflation.
As a result, public transit operators are increasing fares and delaying projects and improvements – just what the country doesn’t need at a time of increased demand.
(16 June 2008)
In the Future We Will Live in Gas Stations
Exxon Mobile Home
Many economists and petroleum industry analysts have come to the conclusion that we are entering an age of “peak oil” production – the point where petroleum production enters an irreversible downturn. While there’s much debate as to exactly when global producers will reach this milestone, it is an inevitability with which society must contend.
Progressive petroleum industry leaders such as ExxonMobil™ are looking to deep, decades-long investments in alternative and renewable energy solutions as the means to migrate global dependence on fossil fuels towards a more sustainable model.
Such proactive mitigation is one part of the overall solution. However, this unprecedented transition is yielding additional opportunities for private corporations and municipal planning agencies alike. Smart growth practices initiated in the last decade are reducing commute times in urban centers throughout the United States and elsewhere, reducing energy consumption and increasing quality of life.
Enter MobilHome™, a joint venture between private and public interests, dedicated to reclaiming urban and suburban infrastructure for common benefit. Within the next three years, just over 17% of soon-to-be relinquished corporate-owned gas stations will be used in a pilot program for a new model in sustainable living.
(16 June 2008)
This has got to be satire, although it is true that Exxon is leaving the retail gasoline business. Recommended by Dakota at Curbed LA: In the Future We Will Live in Gas Stations:
Given the imminent extinction of gas stations and the lack of affordable housing, the ExxonMobile Home truly is a no-brainer. One downside: Living in a place that brings back memories of the big grimy bathroom key
Real-estate projects boom near light rail
Valley corridor attracts condos, hotels, offices
Andrew Johnson, The Arizona Republic
Light rail is six months from operation, but the transit system’s impact on the Valley’s real-estate market has been in full swing with new condos, office buildings and mixed-use developments rising throughout metro Phoenix.
Transit officials estimate that since 2004, developers have spent close to $6 billion on public and private projects on and around the future light-rail line.
Critics, however, say that the transit system has put a burden on taxpayers and that construction of the line has shut down businesses.
(17 June 2008)
The $4 gallon of gas will change U.S. way of life
Rupert Cornwell, Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Like many a longtime foreign resident of the U.S., I’m sometimes asked to recommend a book that explains to a newcomer how the place functions.
The possibilities are endless. But my answer never varies. I suggest they read “Edge City” by Joel Garreau. It’s about the quiet, half-century-long revolution that has transformed America — a revolution that soaring oil prices have placed under threat as never before.
It came out back in 1991, a wonderful study of the rise of new communities around traditional old cities. The book is not about inner-city decay and the flight to the suburbs, but about the birth of a separate civilization of gleaming new corporate offices, megachurches and shopping malls.
In turn, these edge cities helped fuel the growth of even further-flung “exurbs,” rich commuter communities living a new frontier idyll. Today, exurbs remain some of the most dynamic and attractive parts of America. But this new civilization has an Achilles heel. It has no interest in public transport. For its existence, it depends on the car.
… In exurbia, repossessions are at especially high levels. Just as house prices climbed fastest there in the good times, they are falling especially steeply as the cost of commuting has soared. The further away from the city, the rule of thumb now is, the harder it is to sell. Downtown and the old, long-dismissed inner suburbs are back in fashion.
… I’m not suggesting Garreau produce a revised version of his masterwork — just that something has to change. And the great thing about America is, when things have to change, they do.
Rupert Cornwell writes from America for Britain’s Independent.
(16 June 2008)
