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Weekend Reading 10/18/13
Alan If the obesity epidemic is caused by sedentary lifestyles and overeating, or by high-fructose corn syrup, or something else about human lifestyles, then why are pets, lab chimps that are kept in unchanging conditions of activity and diet, and even feral rats living among us all getting fatter? Could it be pollution is messing with our metabolisms or microbiology? Tim Egan expresses well the crush I have on the Pope. Would...Read more » -
Parking Break
This is the season climax, the culmination, the big reveal. Previously on Parking? Lots! Cities mandate off-street parking (guided only by junk science and groupthink). They do it in fear of territorial neighbors who want “their” curb spaces left alone. Our communities suffer horribly as a result. Information technology is shaking things up, though, and cities can now charge for curb spaces more easily. They can also share the proceeds...Read more » -
British Columbia’s Traffic Delusion
It must be a syndrome. A mass delusion of endless traffic growth. Or maybe the idée fixe that the future will resemble the 1950s. Earlier in the week I mentioned that, despite years of declines on the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, Washington’s transportation revenue forecasts assume that traffic will soon start growing, quickly and inexorably. It might be funny if the fiscal stakes weren’t so dire. Apparently, the same mentality apparently holds...Read more » -
Obama’s Climate Failure
When it comes to climate policy, I’m with country music star Toby Keith: we need a little less talk and a lot more action. So I didn’t listen to Obama’s big climate address yesterday because I already know that the President is a brilliant orator. I’m sure it was a great speech. Unfortunately, the speech didn’t say what many think it said. And it most definitely does not deserve the praise heaped upon it (here, here, here, here, and here among others) by what seems like practically every environmental group. Sweeping rhetoric isn’t going to convince me the Obama administration is serious about tackling climate change. We need to see a coherent plan, and what we got instead was... sweeping rhetoric.
When it comes to climate policy, I’m with country music star Toby Keith: we need a little less talk and a lot more action. So I didn’t listen to Obama’s big climate address yesterday because I already know that the President is a brilliant orator. I’m sure it was a great speech. Unfortunately, the speech didn’t say what many think it said. And it most definitely does not deserve the...Read more » -
Weekend Reading 5/10/13
Clark Even after years of staring at it, I never realized until this week that the oh-so-familiar recycling symbol is in the shape of a Möbius strip. Wow: Google’s Earth Engine now displays 28 years of satellite images, pretty much anywhere on the planet. Here’s an aerial time-lapse view of coal mining in Wyoming. Here’s the growth of Las Vegas. I won’t depress you with views of Amazon deforestation, but...Read more » -
How To Fix the Washington Transportation Package
Washington’s new governor, Jay Inslee, has “pledged to reduce carbon emissions in the state’s transportation system.” He’s named a new transportation secretary, Oregonian Lynn Peterson, who appears to feel similarly. And in his most recent public statements about transportation, he’s talked about the need to preserve and maintain existing roads—a sensible priority that does little to boost greenhouse emissions. That’s the good news. The bad news is that as a...Read more » -
Weekend Reading 3/22/13
Clark Observers in the Twin Cities notice Peak VMT – and raise some good questions about whether local governments ought to be projecting traffic growth. (They don’t seem to be particularly good at it.) In the same vein, Charles Marohn at Strong Towns suggests that we flat-out stop using traffic forecasts to plan new roads: “infrastructure spending should never be in anticipation of growth, but only in support of places...Read more » -
US Climate Attitudes: Bigger head, smaller tail
Today Yale and George Mason released the fifth report from their latest national survey on American climate change attitudes. Overall trends are still looking good. After a sharp decline in public engagement from the fall of 2008 to January 2010, there was a gradual rebound starting in June 2010. This research shows that the rebound in public engagement has continued: “the Alarmed, Concerned, and Cautious audience segments once again comprise...Read more » -
Weekend Reading 2/8/13
Anna More staggering numbers on Big Oil’s profits (more reasons they really don’t need our subsidies). Plus, as a new Union of Concerned Scientists report shows, “the vast majority of what you spend at the pump ends up in oil company coffers.” Mark Bittman says we’re all being used as guinea pigs in the test of new product safety, including cosmetics. (And the question arises: if we want safe products for ourselves and our...Read more » -
Weekend Reading 12/14/12
Eric: I’m so glad Kevin Drum is around. One of his blog posts this week, “The World’s Easiest Plan to Rescue Social Security,” deserves some kind of award for clarity and good sense. And for those reasons, I suspect his plan will go nowhere fast. I saw Safety Not Guaranteed last weekend, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Clark: Policy note: cuts in family planning services—ostensibly to “save money”—wound up costing...Read more »
