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Grognard fantôme
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Today @ 12:19 AM
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| Scipio,
I'm not no sure the U.S. is not doing anything about climate control/ green house gases.
I bet you're absolutely right Steve. But if you only read Sierra Club magazine, or some other forum that is decidely left and decidely anti-Dubyah, you'd NEVER guess that anything that fit the spirit of Kyoto was being done! In fact, about all we ever hear from the far left is "Bush didn't sign Kyoto, HE'S HITLER IN DISGUISE!!" It's almost like a big tick on his scorecard that people keep in their pocket as the basis to fuel their irrational hatred for him . . .
My point is that if high prices eventually lead to cleaner air, etc. then why are high prices bad? Same goes for other utilities.
I do not have a car in Montreal. Back in Atlanta I used it all the time, but that is a very different kind of city. I HOPE that whereever I wind up, I'll be able to bike most of the time, and leave the car in the garage most of the time. Despite her being a suit wearing exec type, I intend to convince my wife in this direction if at all possible. True, lots of folks live far to far away to use bikes or mass transit, but many COULD use these alternative sources, and many other people could avoid their car use far more often.
For example, why not pay to have your groceries delivered? Bike over there, or walk, or bus, then have their delivery guy bring them to your place on a trip that he will already be making to deliver to other people? If ten people did this, it saves 9 trips!
There is a new shopping mall in downtown Atlanta, that is divided in half. Home Depot and Office Depot on one side of the block, bunch of other stuff on the other side (bed and bath, grocer, small boutiques, etc.). It is perhaps 150m from the outside-edges of these two adjacent car parks that form the center of the two malls, a 5 minute walk from edge to edge at most and probably more like 10 from store in one block to a store in the other.
My wife and I parked our car in one block shopped there, returned our bags to the car, then walked to the other block for the other things we needed I saw no less than three people who I had previously seen in the other block, returning to their cars in the second block. My guess is, they had driven between the two blocks instead of just leaving the car parked.
And we wonder why we have an obesity epidemic . . .
I say, make gasoline $10/gallon, and diesel $8, put the freight back on freight trains, redirect about 50% of the U.S. automotive industry effort into health promotion, new energy sourcing, and community-re-designing, force the suburb dwellers to either die out there, stranded with no transport else shell up the taxes to pay for decent commuter rail and bus service, and start the REAL American Golden Age!
Imagine a nation of healthy athletic active citizens! Imagine streets with more bicycles than cars! Imagine highways without giant thunderous inefficient road-damaging diesel trucks! Imagine, logistics people having to make the simple decision to use the more complex but also more efficient system of rail transport for anything possible! |
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"'The front' is wherever you stop running away. Get used to it. This is what modern warfare looks like." K T Cat |  |  |
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Day-Saver!
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Today @ 2:01 AM
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| Secondly, since prices are so high, we are not buying those big SUVs so much in exchange for more fuel efficient cars which pollute less, thus having a good effect on the environment. Maybe it's not the same liberals (I did not mean to use "liberals" in a sarcastic way), but liberals (along with everyone) are saying it's a bad thing that gasoline is so expensive. My point is that if high prices eventually lead to cleaner air, etc. then why are high prices bad? Same goes for other utilities.
That's a fine point jerm. Thank you for clarifying. Really I wasn't trying to attack your statement, I was just confused. So often I see the word "liberal" because it's so overused and often misuesed as well. Regardless, I took the bus to work today, and I loved it! it was great! I drive a 4 cylinder with double sparkplugs, so it's not like gas was very expensive for me to begin with, 40-60 a month usually, but on my limited budget, one must cut costs wherever possible. The fact that Vanderbilt is paying the bus fares for me makes it a no-brainer! 
Edit: Also, Jerm, if higher gas prices resulted in less spending on gas because more people were using mass tran, thereby taking more vehicles off the road, resulting in an additive effect on air pollution, wouldn't it be nearly the same as people buying more economical cars? |
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HERE I COME TO SAVE THE DAY! | | | |
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Elite Pathogen
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Yesterday @ 1:58 PM
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