I am very interested in the City Action Plan, particularly since we now have a new mayor entering the city political arena. With the global international economic turmoil, it is my worry that environmental issues will be put on the back burner. I don't think we can afford to delay action any further. The question will then be, how much damage continues to happen as other issues cloud the ADD-esque attention span pervasive to New Mexico.
I agree with Jennifer Valdez in that most of us would love to have alternatives that are user-friendly. Albuquerque is much improved - a person truly took their life in their own hands while trying to bike to anywhere in the city 20 years ago. My husband used to bike to work from the East Mountains, dodging cars that deliberately tried to hit him, jumping over glass and debris, and working his way back through neighborhoods to avoid Central Avenue. He finally gave up after breaking his collarbone in a wreck while rounding a corner and hitting a pile of cement left to harden on a city street. Everyone in this city will have to be both aware and educated on what they can do to make a difference.
To that end, I think it would be very prudent for the mayor and governor to push for the early education of our children in the area of good stewardship. New Mexico has a very widely dispersed population. That does not mean that New Mexico cannot do anything about our effect on the environment. There may not be the infrastructure or funds to develop an efficient subway such as in Washington DC, but the small steps the city is taking can be expanded on.
There are a couple of issues I see with the Transportation Plan, however. I Do not like the idea of constraining parking supply. When people are driving anyway, you are contributing to the greenhouse effect by encouraging continual circling, waiting for a spot to open. Perhaps expanding park-and-ride options might be a more effective solution. I also think that Strategy Three can be misleading. Biodiesel and ethanol both impact global food supply and can be fossil-fuel costly. It takes nearly as much fossil fuel to produce biodiesel as the biodiesel produces in volume. While our electricity production is more "clean" than it used to be, the roughly 48% our plants that produce electricity are still coal-fired and coal-firing does not tend to be "clean". So before we jump on the electric-biodiesel-ethanol bandwagon, we need to understand the true cost of each.
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Lois,
ReplyDeleteI agree biofuels maybe not a fix. There are several studies and organizations dedicated to figuring out the whole system impacts of biofuels and the differences between using waste vegetable oil -- already produced and its carbon footprint already allocated to another industry -- and the practice of growing food crops for fuel. Surely the latter has caused great human misery as well. And while bicycle riding is my transportation of choice, there are situations in which it is not a practical solution. I don't think we can rely on it as a catchall.
Hi Catherine - I appreciate your comments! I cannot think of a better use for waste vegetable oil that burning it in a vehicle. It makes me smile a little though, to think of exactly what was cooked in that waste vegetable! Possibly a touch of irony there? I would love to see more funding given to the national labs to develop alternative energies. The ideas they develop today will take decades to work through and implement...about the time the crisis REALLY heats up if we start now. My husband works for one of the labs and it is a constant irritant for him that the labs are not being used more extensively for this very real, very pressing issue.
ReplyDeleteps: Working with Patrick was truly inspiring! Thank you for that opportunity to expand our knowledge base.
ReplyDeleteI think it's absolutely a travesty that simply reducing the size of our automobile's tire would save gas, however, no one tells you that. Just by a few inches makes a huge difference. We are fooled into believing that we need wide tires for those Audubon turns (when in reality, how often do we make turns?). The truth is that there is and will not be one simple solution, nor even a complicated one. There will have to be many collective solutions, like bike riding, like public transit, like developing cities that have most of their commerce in walking distance, like birth control (I do mean that in all seriousness). If there is any one thing that has power, it's being awake, aware, and conscious. Until people have a deeper purpose to being on this planet, until we can drop all sense of being an idle wheel, until we can connect with some kind of divinity (not necessarily spiritually, but earthly even), then our motivation lies dormant. People have been viewing large corporations, capitalists, and globalization as some kind of conspiracy theory for so long. Now, it is a reality that we all can no longer ignore. But what can we do about it unless we come together? One of the greatest monstrosities on our very campus, is, one small example, the income of the football coach. I was floored to find out how much he makes. Yet, how many emails do we get to try to register for more classes? Are they nuts? As an individual, we are lost in the fight. We live in a very individual based society and culture (independence for all). We are encouraged to isolate ourselves, often by the sheer fact we are too busy to come together as a community or a group (I am very guilty of that myself). It is a reverse method of fascism. I lie awake at night in total anxiety feeling about this planet and its aches and pains, beauties and joys. I had a dream one night where they drilled in Alaska for oil and it cracked the Earth. I went up into the mountains and asked the Earth, "Do you want us to save you?" and it said, "I want you to try". I apologize for getting so carried away. I do feel that until we take this planet personally, it will personally take us....
ReplyDeleteWell said Jeness!
ReplyDeleteIndeed, but I do think it is dangerous to assume that we will solve such an immense problem, solely by asking people to walk a bit more. I wish it were so. I really do. Enough to keep riding my kids back and forth to school in a bike cart, but I think the sense of personal responsibility has got to become larger, large enough -- check these images out. http://www.350.org/ And then, where does the artist fit in? Is it enough to be responsible in our own practice or studio? Is it not enough?
ReplyDeleteHi, I was reading everyone’s comments on different things that can be done and I feel that the little things do matter. If everyone on the Earth just started with a little thing such as recycling, using less, walking when you can and becoming aware of the problem and sharing it with others, there would be a sort of wave across the world. I have done some readings on just living simply. I feel that in this cult of materialistic society there is little emphasis on using what you have instead of going out and buying more. Just because one can buy doesn’t mean they should. I have learned in this class that there is a global movement to reduce excess and live more simply. The information presented in class last week by Scott was alarming. The thought that we are already living in the environment of the future disturbs me greatly. I moved to the city from the mountains to reduce my driving but I don’t like living in this toxic environment. I feel personally that the noise pollution in Albuquerque is enough to drive someone mad. Greenhouse effects on top of that? I am not sure riding a bike from Tijeras is practical. How can simple problems such as these be fixed?
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