OK, those are strong words for a headline, and I’ll explain, but first, let me beg you to forward this email to every New York State resident you know. If you are a NYS resident, please URGENTLY phone your State Senator (instructions below) in support of the plan–known as the Ravitch plan–to bail out our […]
automobiles
America’s love affair with the car more of a forced marriage?
From a post by Harvey Wasserman on CommonDreams.org: In a 1922 memo that will live in infamy, GM President Alfred P. Sloan established a unit aimed at dumping electrified mass transit in favor of gas-burning cars, trucks and buses. Just one American family in 10 then owned an automobile. Instead, we loved our 44,000 miles of passenger rail […]
The cultural barriers to environmental change
Here’s an alternative title for this post: nasty neighbors and mean people you meet in the street. But that would just be bile and silliness and bitterness and not addressing myself to the real obstacles to social and environmental change which are at play, which are important to understand. Because what’s happened is that a […]
To escape city life, embrace it
Making cities excellent for living in, by the way, is a crucial step forward if we are to maintain the planetary habitat that people depend on for their health, happiness and security. Indeed, “smart growth” and compact living are central pillars in the energy policies of many environmental organizations. To make such policies successful, though, […]
Is making a better car like making a better cancer?
The thing is, we’re looking for the better automobile, but couldn’t we do much better for ourselves by finding ways not to have to spend so much time in them in the first place? Here’s a list of thoughts. Some of them are my own. Some of them are sparked by WorldChanging’s Alex Steffan’s recent […]