Bush on Drilling
What do the others have to say?
From yesterday's New York Times—"President Bush lifted nearly two decades of executive orders banning drilling for oil
and natural gas off the country’s shoreline on Monday while challenging Congress to open up more areas for exploration
Bush announces his plan to
lift the ban on offshore drilling.to address soaring energy prices. Democrats in Congress, joined by environmentalists, criticized the step and ridiculed it as ineffectual, while most Republicans and industry representatives applauded it as long overdue. The lifting of the moratorium — first announced by Mr. Bush’s father, President George Bush, in 1990 and extended by President Bill Clinton— will have no real impact because a Congressional moratorium on drilling enacted in 1981 and renewed annually remains in force. And there appeared to be no consensus for lifting it in tandem with Mr. Bush’s action."
Business as usual. Bush in effect doesn't support efficiency measures. Democrats are critical--but little more. Industry people are happy. Congress won't be acting any time soon. Anything else I'm missing?
The Green Queen Bee
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Less Talk on Lapel Pins
Let's talk about Cities
Now that the presidential race has taken to discussing very important things such as the importance of lapel pins, this seems like a good time to question what we might be missing in the dialogue. 
Our urban Planet.
Randall Crane, Vice-Chair of Urban Planning at UCLA recently wrote a phenomenal opinion piece on the advice he would/will give the presidential candidates when/if they do call him. In his one word: Cities. There seems to be a void in political conversation about the role of urban planning, infrastructure, and spatial practice and policy. Such a simple concept, but in reality, there is very little federal attention payed to the issue of place. Crane eloquently reminds us that, "...our cities are the global agents of change, prosperity, and conflict in a flattening world. They are our families, our fortunes and our failures. More than any other idea or institution, these places made us as we make them and we rise or fall with their fortunes."
He points out that only one candidate has an urban policy platform and it hadn't been discussed until very recently. This is all related to a previous post that I made, discussing the inability of our leaders to harness the concern of Americans about alarming fuel and energy costs to create some sort of proactive changes in our energy supply and consumption. Rather, our lame-duck leader is trying desperately to satisfy the insatiable demands of American consumption, by bullying congress a bit, only so that we will face this problem in another decade! Outrageous and short-sighted.
Just as the finite nature of fossil fuels is real, as are the detrimental environmental effects of burning it, the fact that we are becoming an urban planet, is also true. Again, we have an opportunity to educate people about this process, its current benefits and how we can strengthen the future of it. First we need to talk about it though.
CUNY and Urban Aquaculture
Martin Schreibman of Brooklyn College Speaks with Good Magazine
Lots of people are talking about the mass scale over fishing of our oceans. And it's a good thing since 52% of the world’s fisheries are fully exploited, and 24% are overexploited, depleted, or recovering from depletion. And 90% of the ocean's large fish have been fished out. While we certainly seem to have a grasp on what is happening in the deep blue sea, how to change course is less obvious.
Martin Schreibman in his urban aquaculture environment. Photo: GOOD Magazine
The good people of GOOD Magazine have done a cover story on CUNY's very own Martin Schreibman, who says our oceans have been overfished beyond repair. So the only option is to move the fish to the farm. And those farms should be in the city. He has done some work with the folks over at the Science Barge, who have a small scale Talapia tank in their midst. And as the Founder and Director Emeritus, of the Aquatic Research and Environmental Assessment Center (AREAC) at Brooklyn College, the protoype exists.
You can buy this month's edition of GOOD to get a first take on his article or you can wait for it to be featured online. Either way, check it out. This may be the future of your Friday night fish fry.
High Gas Prices, Crowded Trains and Bike Programs
We Might be on the Verge of a Transportation Revolution
Paying $5 a gallon for gas might be a reality in the very near future, people are riding public transportation in places where pick up truck driving was an apparent right, and New York City might be getting a bike share program. While there are not people taking to the streets--well not commuters anyway--we seem to be experiencing a quiet revolution in the way we move ourselves on a daily basis.
Image Source: U.S. Department of Transportation
As a collective, our society has not been too concerned with this issue, from planning suburbs to cars, so the current magnitude of the problem seems alarming. And it has been tough to see the benefits of this transformation. No one feels good about the fact that what Bloomberg's failed congestion pricing plan couldn't accomplish, high gas prices could: less cars on NYC streets. We hear only special interest groups excited about getting more people on mass transit, while it seems that the average American feels disturbed and inconvenienced that they must now take it. People are still circulating emails about how if we boycott a gas company on a certain day, they will get the message.
What is hard to get excited about here is that there are relatively few influential voices saying, "This is actually what we need! Our society needs to be thinking about better planning, better transit, better movement! Sorry you are inconvenienced, but it is for the better." Sure there are people who are saying this, but for the most part we are a small minority and can easily be cast off as elitist urbanites. It is only for issues that I am not going to dwell on here that politicians seem comfortable asking their constituents to sacrifice for the greater good.
How do we borrow from that type of tactic? It seems that people rally around the flag when they believe that their way of life is severely threatened and their actions, or the ones they support, will afford them the opportunity to preserve it. So, perhaps it is just a matter of reminding people that their lifestyle is indeed threatened, partially because it in itself was unsustainable. I think this is becoming painstakingly clear to most people. But we need to hear from leaders--elected, corporate and otherwise--that they support proactive transitions. Less traffic because gas prices are too high is not in itself a victory. But using that as an opportunity to build towards more public transportation infrastructure and educating people about the benefits of it is.
The Search for Sustainable AC
What does that even Mean?
The Future of AC
I am not sure if it is because I am concerned with the energy drain, the fact that I spent some formative years growing up in a place that had no AC--man did the public transportation in Budapest smell good in the summer of 97--or if it is my hatred of the frigid temperatures inside buses, offices, and stores, but I am usually skeptical of those who insist on blasting the AC. The NY Times actually had an interesting response from New Yorkers last week who are peeved with Bloomberg for blocking legislation that would fine places of business that keep their doors wide open to allure customers. Regulating energy waste is apparently not part of PlaNYC.
Regardless of my contempt, air conditioning is something that we have become accustomed to. And while I am always curious as to why it needs to be that cold on the 6 train, I also enjoy it sometimes. So, how do we make this vice less sinful?
The good people of Tree Hugger have created a great compilation of the new advances in eco-friendly air conditioning, from hot water-powered to solar powered--which they believe holds the most potential and will be commercially available relatively soon. I look forward to seeing those bad boys at Home Depot. And eventually maybe even on buses. But for now, perhaps we should all call on our Mayor to ask him why we are cooling the sidewalks.