Fellow list members:
With all the difficult and depressing news, I thought I'd suggest a visit to an excellent website for some fresh perspective on how Minneapolis might be transformed in the next few years to "be the change we want to see in the world."
EVworld often has very fine analysis of technical energy issues and geopolitical issues, but I thought the articles I've listed below might be timely to help inform and shape our discussion of the energy and transportation infrastructure of our city.
I am especially concerned that we Minneapolitans be proactive to develop an infrastructure of peace; that is, an infrastructure which actually enriches the earth and the people on the earth, both locally and globally. We can do this by thinking about energy and transportation in our neighborhoods, our city, our metro area and bioregion, and then about how these relate to the wider world.
I've made a comment or two by each article title, and invite those interested to check them out and discuss implications for our urban design, as we anticipate a million new folks in our metro in the coming years.
http://evworld.com/databases/storybuilder.cfm?storyid=492&subcookie=1
"Coming EV Redemption" -- by Bill Moore I do not look to technology or better cars to be our salvation -- locally or globally. The poor land-use and resource intensive technology of the "car" as we know it is obsolete. However, dramatically improved vehicles will be an essential part of the mix. Think of rice paper, cherry blossoms, viridian design. From inception through the end of the cars' life, these vehicles will enrich our environment. Note, too, this crucial thought: oil is a precious resource: it is too valuable to waste, burning it up. We need to explore the far more beneficial possibilities it holds for synthesizing new medicines and other materials.
http://evworld.com/databases/storybuilder.cfm?storyid=490&subcookie=1
"The Euro Effect: The Real Reason for the War In Iraq" -- by W. Clark This is not the only analysis of this sort, but is worth checking out. And, too, we need to think about what our urban infrastructure encourages: global war or global peace? If American cities liberate themselves from fossil fuels, we can start a renaissance that will bring peace and safety and prosperity unparalleled in human history.
http://evworld.com/databases/storybuilder.cfm?storyid=490&subcookie=1
"Freedom Fuel or Folly?" -- by Bill Moore -- hydrogen is not at all free. We need copious amounts of electricity and water to make the stuff. If we get our electricity form coal and conventional nuclear sources, the fuel is very costly in terms of resources required to make it and in terms of pollution produced along the way. We would be better off just driving our fossil fuel burners. But if we use clean energy -- wind and solar -- we can make hydrogen more cheaply and more cleanly. Minnesota has enough wind power to supply our state and plenty left over. What does this say about the need to develop wind and solar in and around our city? What could aggressive development of these industries do for our economy here?
As long as I'm out on this limb, I encourage you all to pick up two books by Mark Hetsgaard, and NPR journalist. At least go to the table of contents and find a chapter that seems interesting to you, and skim through it. I think you'll be glad you did! The first book is "The Eagle's Shadow" and the second is "Earth Odyssey". MH traveled the world twice in the last few years: first, he wrote "Earth Odyssey" which amounts to on-site environmental inspections mixed with careful analysis of economic and cultural drivers -- and impacts -- of development. The next book "The Eagle's Shadow" gives a powerful review of how people see us Americans. It is good, sitting here in a Minneapolis winter, to be transported to China, Egypt, South Africa, France, and many other places to sit and listen to these people describing us to ourselves.
I do see this kind of perspective as essential even to urban planning in this wonderful city set in the north-central part of our very big country in a very big and complex world. At the very least, it helps us to not be too parochial. At best, it helps us to shape our city as citizens of a word we share with many other people and creatures.
The Sustainable Transportation Project here in Minneapolis seeks to be a movement for positive local change. We hope to help build an infrastructure of peace. We need your help! This takes effort and discipline over time -- even moreso than preparing for war! I close with this quote from Wendell Berry:
"We can no longer afford to confuse peace with passivity. Authentic peace is no more passive than war. Like war, it calls for discpline and intelligence and strength of character, though it calls also for higher principles and aims. If we are serious about peace, then we must work for it as ardently, seriously, and continuously, carefully, and bravely as (if) for war."
Pedal, pedal, pedaling for peace, with joy and gratitude -- yes, even on these icy days!
--Gary Hoover
King Field
