I realize this question was rhetorical, but I think an answer is needed. On Tue, 27 May 2003 13:00:08 -0500, Joseph King asked the question: >One wonders how the negative social impacts will be mitigated? For example, who will pick up the additional health care costs [to] the area residents on the northwest side of Middleton who will likely see a marked decline in air quality?
> My answer: Those of us who pay for health insurance will pay the tab with higher insurance premiums, provided the inflicted families have health insurance that will cover their ailments. Otherwise, it will be the families that have to pick up the cost entirely, including the burden of living with respiratory problems the remainder of their lives. But it should also be realized that the inflicted will not be limited to northwest Middleton area residents living in the vicinity of the new freeway development. Also affected will be residents of areas located along the major feeder roads leading to the new freeway, and residents of Middleton and Madison whose neighborhoods are traversed by the increased numbers of operating motor vehicles that the new freeway will bring through and into the neighborhoods. The neighborhoods that the new freeway will bring additional motor vehicle traffic into will also experience more congestion, more vehicle/road noise, more impairment of pedestrian and bicycle travel and safety, more reason not to allow children to ride bikes to schools, in addition to the poorer air quality caused by an increasing number of fossil fuel burning motor vehicles. And let's not forget about the added millions of tons of greenhouse gases that will be sent to the atmosphere by the increase in Dane County's annual vehicle miles traveled, which already grew by a factor of 3 over the 1980s and 1990s. For every mile driven, another pound of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2) is added to the atmosphere (@20 mpg); for every gallon of petroleum burned, 20 additional pounds of CO2 is added to the atmosphere. According to a recent report by the Pew Center on Global Climate Change, the U.S transportation system adds more CO2 to the atmosphere on a daily basis than any other nation's total economy, except for China. Highway vehicles account for 72% of total transportation emissions in the U.S.. Passenger cars and light trucks (incl. SUVs) together account for more than half of the emissions of CO2 and fossil fuel burning residuals added to the air by U.S. the transportation sector. All but 1 percent of the energy that powers transportation in the U.S. is obtained by burning fossil fuels, and all but 3 percent of it is derived from petroleum, according to the Pew Center's May 2003 report "Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions From U.S. Transportation". http://www.pewclimate.org./media/pr_ustransp.cfm Regarding global warming, there is no longer any question that the earth's air and ocean temperatures have been rising, especially in the last 5 years, and that those temperatures will continue to rise throughout the remainder of the century. There is also no question about the fact that motorized transportation is the largest source of greenhouse gases emitted by the U.S., with residential energy use, industrial emissions and commercial sources of greenhouse gases each being less than transportation's approximately one third of the total. There is also no longer any question that the rising quantities of greenhouse gases, especially carbon dioxide (but also methane, nitrous oxide and a few other warming gases) are the reason that average global temperatures have begun to rise (along with the humidity in the air). Unmitigated costs of the warming climate in Wisconsin have already included significant economic losses to Wisconsin's winter tourism industry, especially "up north", as skiing, snowmobiling and ice fishing opportunities have gradually declined in Wisconsin over the past several years. A recent scientific report publicly released in Madison in April by the Union of Concerned Scientists and the Ecological Society of America (and authored by scientists from numerous major universities located in the Midwest) called: "Confronting Climate Change in the Great Lakes Region: Impacts on Our Communities and Ecosystems" says that temperatures in the Great Lakes region averaged 7� F above the long-term average in the last four winters (1997-98 to 2001-02), and that annual temperatures averaged 2 to 4� F above the long-term (1880 - 2000) temperature averages for the region (depending on weather station location). Summer temperature have not been significantly warmer, not in Wisconsin anyway. However the UCS/ESA study predicts that they eventually will be: "Summer heat-related morbidity or mortality is likely to increase". "The number of hot days is projected to increase in the Great Lakes region, with years later in the century experiencing 30 or more days exceeding 90� F." "Of even greater concern is the projected increase in extreme heat days (exceeding 97� F)." In addition, higher temperatures and more electricity generation for air conditioning are known to increase the formation of ground-level ozone, which causes respiratory diseases like asthma when deep breaths are taken (as during athletics including bicycling up hills). Those who drive the new North Mendota freeway excessively will pay no more for those damages inflicted (costs) than those who drive motor vehicles only when absolutely necessary (or who don't drive them at all). - Mike Neuman "The ultimate test of man's conscience may be his willingness to sacrifice something today for future generations whose words of thanks will not be heard." - Gaylord Nelson, Earth Day founder http://danenet.danenet.org/bcp/trans/neuman_vmt.html ________________________________________________________________ The best thing to hit the internet in years - Juno SpeedBand! Surf the web up to FIVE TIMES FASTER! 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