The infernal car culture

No wonder we've got so many cars in our society - witness the annual subsidy of American parking.




Story here.

Yet 99 percent of all automobile trips in the United States end in a free parking space, rather than a parking space with a market price. In his book, Professor Shoup estimated that the value of the free-parking subsidy to cars was at least $127 billion in 2002, and possibly much more.

Side-bar note to deal with climate-change denier dum-dums ....

As a side-bar note, I get tired of dealing with dum-dums who, for reasons of mental and emotional convenience, want to continue denying human-induced climate change. The comment forum is open as always, but if you disagree with what real, professional climate scientists say, please take it up directly with them. If you have a stunning piece of scientific evidence that disproves one side or the other, don't waste time on my channel, write a paper, and get it peer-reviewed and published in a reputable journal.

Please feel free to publish the above statement as needed; it's time to stop pretending that these climate change deniers have anything other than a selfish or self-deluded agenda which obviously limits their ability to think and feel honestly. They need to be called out.

Scientists views link here

Time Magazine Archives - dateline 1988

From the archives ... has it really been 22 years since Time Magazine named planet Earth as the "Person (newsmaker) of the Year"?

Is is a crime that we've done virtually nothing in the intervening years?

Hot topics then  ....

Greenhouse Effect/Climate Change (worsening issue currently)
Ozone Layer depletion (improving issue currently)
Biodiversity destruction (worsening issue currently)
Polluted soil, oceans, rivers, streams, groundwater (worsening currently)
Acidifying oceans (that's where the CO2 is all going; not much mentioned then)

We are batting 1 for 5, and the one we tackled was easily the simplest to change.

Tom Toles said ...

We are apparently going to let the debate on the (climate change) science run until hell freezes over. If you can't accept the conclusions of 98 percent of the scientists whose FIELD IT IS, then why even bother with science? If that high a percentage of field of study is to be discounted ENTIRELY, then we are in deep trouble, which, of course, we are.

Article

Hottest Year Ever on Record

To date, this is the hottest year ever recorded since reliable temperature recording began in 1880, says the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Although NOAA experts say global climate change isn't the only reason 2010 has been so hot -- an El Nino event earlier in the year pushed temperatures up -- they said it's still the most important reason. 

"We would not be where we are without the influence of climate change", said Deke Arndt of NOAA's National Climatic Data Center.

Article

Climate Change from the archives ... 2005 ...

The scientific understanding of climate change is now sufficiently clear to justify nations taking prompt action. (Highlighting not in original document)


Joint statement by 11 national science academies to world leaders (signatories: Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Russia, United Kingdom, United States)


Question? What prompt action has been taken in the intervening five years?

Agitated Ecoist Challenges Developers, Builders, and Municipal Planners to "get with it!!"

America's Energy Secretary, Steven Chu:

 Another example of his unorthodox thinking is his observation that painting the roofs of buildings around the world white and using light-coloured road surfaces rather than blacktop would reflect a lot of sunlight back into space—possibly enough to have an effect on global warming as big as taking every car in the world off the road for a decade. There are plenty of scientists with such notions, but they are seldom in a position to convert their visions into reality.  (The Economist, July 2, 2009)