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Razing Farms for Car Factory Creates Battleground in India
Somini Sengupta, NY Times
Just beyond the city limits, a patch of land where an auto factory is planned amid a sprawl of potato fields and rice paddies has become the battleground for the world’s longest-running democratically elected Communist government.
This government, of West Bengal State, plans to turn over 997 acres of fertile farmland to one of the country’s largest industrial conglomerates, The Tata Group, for a factory that will produce a fleet of small, low-cost cars for India’s growing middle class.
How the land was acquired is a matter of red-hot contention, igniting crippling demonstrations, hunger strikes and occasional violent conflicts. The government says most of the landowners consented, but opponents charge coercion.
Land is one of India’s scarcest resources. So how this fight plays out is likely to teach far-reaching lessons to India as a whole, as it tries to balance the demands of industrial growth with the needs of those who rely on agriculture. Across the country, steel mills, power plants, roads, ports and hundreds of so-called Special Economic Zones are planned, all of which will require state governments like this one to acquire vast swaths of land.
On one side of the conflict here is, improbably enough, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and its leader, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee…
(22 Dec 2006)
Also posted at IHT. The story is receiving much coverage, including:
an online documentary and an editorial in the Hindustan Times.
Environmentalists Revive German Speed Limit Debate
Tom Armitage, Reuters via Planet Ark
BERLIN – German environmentalists hope the country’s stewardship of the Group of Eight and the European Union in 2007 will help steer the car-crazy nation towards imposing speed limits on its unrestricted autobahns.
They say that if motorists took their foot off the throttle a little, this would cut greenhouse gas emissions and help Germany brush up its green credentials.
…A limit of 120 km per hour (75 mph) would reduce carbon dioxide emissions — one of the so-called greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming — by about 30 percent, Troge said.
…About one-third of Germany’s highways already have a speed limit while the rest carry a recommended speed of 130 kph (80 mph). In reality, drivers and motorcyclists can, and often do, travel as fast as they like.
(29 Dec 2006)
The Latest Captive Market: Commuters
Steven Pearlstein, Washington Post
It’s time to tackle the hot topic on everyone’s mind this New Year’s weekend — congestion pricing.
Maryland and Virginia are moving ahead with a form of congestion pricing on the Beltway and Interstate 95. In exchange for building additional lanes, contractors will be allowed to collect tolls that will vary by the minute. When traffic is heavy, the price will rise to whatever level is needed to keep the express lanes flowing. When demand is low — presumably at times when traffic is flowing smoothly in the normal lanes — the price will fall to near zero. Under most scenarios, buses and carpool vehicles will travel free.
(29 Dec 2006)
Carless in Seattle
Original head: “Seeing Green”
William Dietrich, Seattle Times
WHEN ALAN Durning’s son, Gary, totaled their ancient Volvo last February and the insurance company sent a munificent replacement check for $594, his family made a decision that would land them on national TV: They would go for a year without a car.
CNN’s Anderson Cooper featured it partly as a protest against gas prices (it really wasn’t), and the camera crew followed Alan and his wife in a mammoth van, creeping at 3 miles an hour as they walked – walked! – the eight blocks from their Ballard bungalow to the neighborhood’s business district.
Their decision sounded so outlandish that Fox Network’s “Trading Spouses” offered them $50,000 if Durning would wife-swap for a few days on TV, presumably with a materialistic Hummer-hugger. The family turned them down after concluding the other spouse would be so nutty it would likely amount to “televised child abuse.”
The Seattle Weekly’s Knute Berger praised the experiment but charged that the Durnings were “mooching” by accepting rides from friends. Times columnist Danny Westneat noted that Durning was being portrayed by the media as a “carless freak.” The environmentalist’s blog on his experiment, at www.sightline.org/carless, has drawn a steady stream of comment and debate.
…Durning and the Sightline staff of 10, sustained on $1 million a year in grants and donations, want to change our American system so doing the right thing is also the cheapest, easiest and most fun thing. Neighborhoods where it’s easier to walk than drive. Roads and insurance that cost by the mile. Homes and appliances that use less energy. Healthy habits. Using bus drivers to lead platoons of kids on walks to school instead of driving them even the shortest distances.
“Sightline’s job is to be the watchdog for the long-term future,” Durning said: not just a two-year election term or even a 20-year planning window, but a century or more.
(Dec 2006)
Related:
The Year of Living Car-lessly Experiment
Alan Durning bio
A car-less commuting exercise
Randy Myers, Contra Costa Times
Owning a car or two in the Bay Area can fuel a guilt trip.
Not only is our main mode of transportation blamed for strangling the environment, but it also distances us from our families, stresses us out and makes our bellies bulge from time devoted to gridlock rather than gyms.
Maintaining a vehicle also tears into our savings like a piranha let loose in a pond of guppies. Transportation ranks as the No. 2 expense that households shoulder, just behind housing.
So give it up, you say?
I took the challenge to heart starting Dec. 12, the sorriest, soggiest day this season, when you expected Noah to float by on an ark.
For five days, I went “carless,” commuting from home in Berkeley to work in Walnut Creek and even shopping for groceries and Christmas presents on a weekend day by forking over $40-plus to buy a mini shopping cart.
I prioritized what I could and could not do, even clipping a holiday party in Point Richmond from my social calendar because it was just too complicated to get there. But what I learned gave me new respect for those who elect to take public transportation every day and for those who have no choice but to find creative solutions to getting around.
My experiment in alternative transportation was easy compared with many in the East Bay. I have no children who need to be shuttled around, and I commute between cities with reliable access to public transportation. I also own a trustworthy bike and am reasonably fit. All in all, I made quite the poster boy for going a “Week Without a Car.”
(21 Dec 2006)
Campaign pushes car-less commute
Richard Wronski, Chicago Tribune
The Chicago area’s major transportation agencies announced a new public awareness campaign Thursday to provide commuters with an easier and more comprehensive way to find alternatives to driving to work.
Funded by a $1.25 million Illinois Department of Transportation grant, the agencies have partnered to create the “Drive Less, Live More” campaign to get more cars off the roads by promoting the use of public transportation and options such as van pools, car-sharing, biking and roller skating.
A key part of the anti-congestion campaign is a new Web site, www.drivelesslivemore.com, that features a trip planner, transit system maps and schedules, travel advisories and a commute-cost calculator. The tool helps figure the annual cost of driving to work, including parking and the cost of depreciation on a vehicle.
(15 Dec 2006)
