The Oil Drum: Australia/New Zealand

This is a guest post from Garry Glazebrook of UTS (the University of Technology, Sydney).

After listening to Al Gore, Nicholas Stern, Ross Garnaut and Tim Flannery, it is now obvious to most thinking people that we have to address climate change, and soon. It is becoming equally clear that the fall in oil prices over the last few months is only a temporary respite, brought on by a faltering world economy, and that oil prices will likely surge again as soon as the economy recovers. The implication is a need for massive investment in renewable energy, energy efficiency and sustainable transport. But how to fund such investment without sacrificing our economy, jobs or lifestyles?

This was different.

Here's a slideshow of some of the key images. I'll have more on this as information becomes available. Kudos to WNYC and ProPublica for uncovering this in a great example of investigative journalism.

As we consider how to re-design our car-centric landscape, one idea that may be taking hold across the country is to close streets to automobile traffic at times and return that space to the people as a public space to be enjoyed.

We took a look at Bogata's Ciclovia earlier this year. Last month in Portland, they held a first ever "Sunday Parkways". What is "Sunday Parkways"?

What is Sunday Parkways?

6 miles, 6 hours, zero traffic~!

A circular route of city streets open to walk, bike, run, jump & skip - without having to watch out for cars!

A 6 mile "temporary park", connecting North Portland neighborhoods and residents.

A relaxed, non-competitive, FREE event featuring a variety of activities in 4 parks and along the route.

What you see here is people having fun close to home. The places we drive dozens or hundreds of miles to visit - quiet places without cars and trucks - can exist in our own front yards if we only have the will to say no to cars. Next Stop is my hometown: New York City.

Now that $4 gas is here and looks like it might be a short stop before $5-$10 gas, Smart Growth is getting more attention as the best method to maintain a high standard of living and promote economic growth.

So let's take a look at some videos from around the country on what's happing on the Smart Growth or Transit Oriented Development front to reduce out dependence on automobiles.

This is a guest post from kiashu

Here in Australia Garnaut, an economist, is undertaking a study on what to do about Australia's greenhouse gas emissions. He has a website about it, and has released a draft report on it. He is in favour of strong action, though what he calls "strong action" and what you and I call "strong action" may be rather different things.

There are two basic ways people think of for dealing with emissions of unpleasant substances, aside from banning them entirely - tax them, and trade them. In taxing them we say, "emit as much as you like, but you have to pay for it." The theory is that people will reduce spending on things with that cost attached to them, thus reducing emissions of it, and that the revenue raised can be spent on dealing with the problems from it. In trading them we say, "you can only emit this much, and you must pay for it." So the government sets a target amount for emissions, creates permits for that much, and lets companies buy and sell these permits as they wish.

The government and Garnaut are in favour of an emissions trading scheme (ETS). I'm not. Remember the point of our schemes is to stop carbon emissions. We did not abolish outright slavery by setting up a slave market. That only encourages it. (Of course it's still not entirely abolished even today, but fewer people as a proportion of the world population are enslaved than ever before, and not because someone established a cap and trade system for slaves.)

The long awaited Garnaut report (pdf) is out at last, prompting an explosion of media analysis.

This post is a roundup of selected articles - I encourage you all to share your thoughts in the comments.