[Vision2020] traffic woes

[Ted Moffett]

Donovan, et. al.

Some who have been in "real" traffic jams, like the one in Boston I 
experienced a few years ago while they were engaging in a massive 
reconstruction of their urban highways they called "The Big Dig," think we 
are quaint hicks if we complain about traffic in Moscow.  Or maybe 
enviro-freaks?  Luddites?

But you are right of course.  Let's face reality and adjust to the 
domination of our city by cars, trucks and SUVs.  We need more farmland 
paved for parking lots!  More three and four lane roads that provide sport 
for wildlife and create noise and pollution that render walking or running 
or biking along these roads an enjoyable experience!  More speeding drivers 
with a devilish grin on their face as they almost run down a pedestrian or 
bicyclist!  More drunk college students behind the wheel (how many drunk 
bicycling college students are killed?)!  More tailgate parties with beer in 
the Dome parking lot to encourage sound family community values!  More 
shopping malls which our now the dominant form of "community" that many 
people identity with, where they can walk among other people in relative 
safety and "socialize," if that's what you call it when the environment is a 
lure for money.

Everything in human life can be reduced to it's cost efficiency value, the 
marketplace will determine our relations with each other and nature, with 
other non-economic values marginalized.  The inherent value of wilderness 
and wildlife?  Ha!  How quaint.  Only if it sells!

And when we have overpopulated and plowed over the surface of the earth to 
support our lust for goods and power, creating the first planetary wide mass 
extinction period caused by intelligent design, to compete with other 
natural disasters in earth's history, like massive asteroid strikes and 
sudden radical climate change, humanity can salute each other for the grand 
privilege of being the pinnacle of life on earth, the masters of the planet!

Now about that Hummer I wanted to impress my associates and family!  What a 
splash driving a Hummer on the streets of Moscow would make.  Oh, you think 
this vehicle is a greedy indulgence in resource extraction?  Go back to your 
straw hut!  We are in the brave new world of capitalism, individualism and 
technology.

Like that bumper sticker says, "Earth First!  We'll Log The Other Planets 
Later."

What other planets?

I was told yesterday by a U of I associate that to regulate how much people 
can drive is "impractical."

How practical is it to wantonly consume fossil fuels at a rate even the most 
optimistic estimates assume can last only a few hundred years at the 
increasing rate of consumption, a resource use that might have disastrous 
effects on the earth's climate, when humanity has millions of years of 
future residency on earth to consider?  What are the planetary costs if all 
the coastal areas of the world where most people reside are flooded due to 
rising ocean levels from CO2 induced climate change?

Practical?

We are told science and technology will solve the energy needs of the 
future, and provide us with all the products derived from fossil fuels when 
they run out, fossil fuels that are the stored energy of the sun over 
millions of years.  While the same people promoting continuing use of fossil 
fuels at high rates tell us that alternative energy and transportation is 
impractical and too costly!

Practical in this context means what gains the most money and power and 
convenience for those seeking it in this lifetime, and to hell with the 
impact on future generations.

Now about that Hummer... I too feel compelled to throw concern for the 
future to the wind for the satisfaction of immediate need.  It would 
navigate (no oars either) the snow and mud of the Palouse with aplomb!  And 
provide a much needed image makeover, do doubt, according to many!

My idealism stands on weak knees...

Ted

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