Climate Change

With new fuel economy standards under consideration in Congress, James Surowiecki ponders why Americans continue to buy gas guzzlers when polls show that the majority would like to see the government mandate big increases in fuel efficiency. What does all of this have to do with professional hockey players wearing helmets? This was in last week's New Yorker:

The Solaire building in Battery Park City bills itself as "America's first environmentally advanced residential tower." Here is a letter that building management just sent to all tenants:

The Live Earth Global Warming Survival Handbook is the official companion volume to today's Live Earth concerts, 24 hours of nonstop concerts broadcast from around the world on 7/7/07. It's a fun little book, meant to connect with a younger audience via tongue-in-cheek suggestions, practical advice, factual information, and imaginative, bluesky solutions for climate change.

Supporters of congestion pricing rallied yesterday in Times Square, urging state lawmakers to act by July 16 on Mayor Bloomberg's initiative or risk losing $500 million in federal funds. "The time is now," said the mayor, according to the New York Post. "We cannot walk away from this opportunity." 

The Atlantic Monthly's Matthew Yglesias argues that high-density living is a key strategy to fight climate change. Yglesias takes issue with fellow Atlantic Online blogger Ross Douthat and author Joel Kotkin, who defend suburban sprawl -- what James Kunstler has famously called "the most destructive development pattern the world has ever seen, and perhaps the greatest misallocation of resources the world has ever known." Reporting on a recent talk by Kotkin, Douthat writes:

The New York Times published an editorial today about "an unpleasant and inescapable truth: any serious effort to fight [global] warming will require everyone to pay more for energy."

Finally, we get to see just how much former executive director Jon Orcutt was tamping down the high-powered talent at the Tri-State Transportation Campaign. The latest issue of Mobilizing the Region is jam-packed with good articles. Here are some highlights (and, yes, I'm kidding about Orcutt but serious about this week's MTR being really good):

This eye-opening map from the Sightline Institute's blog uses US Department of Energy figures to demonstrate how individual states stack up against nations from around the world in terms of greenhouse gas emissions from energy use. The figures are especially astonishing when you look at the population comparisons (which can be found in spreadsheet form here). Just a couple of examples: Arizona, with 5.6 million residents, produces comparable emissions to Nigeria, with 122.8 million. And 19.2 New Yorkers manage to produce as much as 68.1 million Turks. Overall the map represents a comparison of fewer than 300 million Americans to more than 1.5 billion people in the other nations listed.

The Sierra Club points out that in India, there are currently about 7 cars per 1,000 persons (as compared to nearly 500 per 1,000 in the US). With the advent of the $3,000 car, that is surely about to change. The Independent's Andrew Buncombe reports: