Roadless Act...

[Spragwa]

In the new Patagucci catalog Chouinard has a nice piece on corporate responsibility that is pretty eye opening, I hope his viewpoints on the topic take off as well as the clean climbing essay from the seventies did. He quotes David Brower which I recall as being " there's no business to be done on a dead planet"

If you're interested in that, then there is an amazing organization called Businessmen for Professional Responsibility. It's a great organization with a few Multi-national Corporations for members. The thrust is sustainable development for lesser developed nations while using environmentally friendly means. It's pretty rad.

[Crankmas]

Thanks, I don't have it in front of me but I'm almost sure he gives kudos to the org in the piece. There is a cool photo of a new generation of windmills too. Being green is so feel goody it makes me feel guilty.

[Wicked Tribe]

I saw an article where some people (in Holland I think) were protesting some sea windmills because they were (get this) unaesthetic and potentially harmful to wildlife. How much greener could you ge than windmills??? And someone wants to protest because they are ugly and the little birds could get hurt (unlikely).

What a freakish world we live in!

[TradMike]

Plans have been sketch up to build a hydro-electric plant in the San Francisco Bay. It works by the tidal changes in the bay. It would provide enough electricity for the entire city. It's on hold because of environmental risk.

[Crankmas]

Renewable and sustainable energy does sound pretty risky, especially to something like Enron's bottom line.

[kato]

You can bad mouth politician all you want, but the truth is that they do what the people tell them to do. And the people speak with their wallets. People love their cars. Mass transit is one thing that will go a long, long way to solve these problems. Mass transit does not get built because it's economically unfeasible. This means no one really wants it. People love their paychecks. Our economy turns on the automotive industry. If you really care about this stuff, make sure you understand this: the automotive industry is the lynchpin of our economy. Touch that and you touch millions of jobs. And that is political suicide. No politician of any stripe will risk that.

[Wicked Tribe]

Sucks huh? You can't just do something because its right. It has to be right RIGHT NOW and make me happy RIGHT NOW. No one REALLY cares about the long run, if they did they would give up the things that are ruining it now.

I've loved the long stretches of my life when I had no car but got around pretty good on my bike. Of all my material possessions I think that bike would be the last for me to be able to get rid of. It has carried me many a mile and hopefully soon I'll be able to depend on it a little more than of late. Commuting to Lex sucks.

[Crankmas]

kato has nailed the problem, I wish our nation could get the railroads out of the 19th century, I thought the piggy backing of trailers across the country on rails and then stopping at terminals where they could unload the specific regional runs would reduce the numbers of tractor trailers on the road, this would save fuel, road repairs etc. America cacoons itself, from car to garage remote, zoom by with no contact with neighbors or anyone, its a shame-

[Spragwa]

My experience with politicians is that most of them REALLY want to serve their constituency. But to achieve a few small things, they have to sell their soul to special interest groups and PACs so they have enough money to stay in office. There's a great book called the Arrogant Capital by Kevin Phillips that analyzes how much time a new Congressman has to spend raising money immediately after elections. It doesn't matter anymore how great the intentions when running for election...the day after the election, they have to start raising money to stay in office. It's a terrible system but a really interesting book.