Wednesday, August 26, 2009

consumption based carbon accounting

a news brief in ES&T (consumer culture keeps carbon emissions high) is another one to note for the cause of anti-techno-optimism and demand reduction for climate mitigation.

the study doesn't appear to state anything new, but highlights that limiting our GHG accounting to our own borders is disingenuous since we import so many things for which we do not account.

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

same as it ever was

surprising things learned from the car culture by j.j. flink (1975):

1. the gas tax was initially very popular (p. 150).
2. congestion and parking were major problems beginning in the early 1910s (pp. 162-3).
3. induced demand! "every attempt to make roads adequate for existing motor vehicle performance and current volume of traffic has inevitably encouraged the automobile industry to build still larger and faster cars and the public to drive more of them farther on more occasions" (p. 175).
4. criticism of detroit's cars began in earnest in the early 1950s (p. 191).
5. alternatives to the ICE are not new (p. 225).
6. oil companies are always up to the same old tricks (p. 229).

in sum, very little has changed, except for the public's acceptance of the gas tax.

Thursday, August 20, 2009

moving cooler

haven't looked at the report yet, but as usual todd litman's anlysis and response to criticism is spot on.

"A new transportation paradigm assumes that mobility is just one factor in achieving accessibility, that too much mobility can be as harmful as too little, and that demographic and economic trends are increasing the value of alternative modes and multi-modal communities."