Sociology Talk

B1ackwater · Guest

Gas $4 ... $5 ... more ??? Diesel even higher ?
So much debt already that you can't fill the tank ?

There ARE solutions - and while buying a higher-mileage
vehicle (even IF it's rusty) or scooter or motorbike will
take some of the hurt out of your day, what we REALLY
need is a more generic solution - something that will
cause a DRASTIC reduction in national fuel consumption.

The solution is to THINK LOCALLY.

This means somewhat re-organizing our cities and lives,
and it need not be especially difficult or painful.

DISTANCE is now the ENEMY ... and it's becoming more of
an enemy every day. The problem will surely get far worse
and it's likely to be semi-PERMANENT unless somebody
comes up with a 'magic' energy source.

In case you never noticed, the way cities are laid-out
today, it seems that everywhere you need to go is ten
miles and fifteen stoplights from the NEXT place you
need to go. Many people commute ten, twenty, fifty+
miles to work, ONE WAY, five or six days a week.

This HAS to change. It HAS to stop. It's the black hole
into which we're pouring all our money, our childrens
money, our countries money.

Consider instead living within walking (or near-walking)
distance of where you work, where you play, where you
shop, where the kids go to school.

Consider having most of your consumer goods made within
ten of fifteen miles of where you live and most of your
food grown on farms just outside town instead of being
trucked hundreds or thousands of miles.

Consider a situation where instead of a thousand people
driving an average of ten miles to the MegaMart, a few
trucks deliver the goods to SMALL stores a block or
two away from where you live. A few trucks -vs- ten
thousand automobile miles ... imagine how much fuel
is saved ! How much CO2 doesn't get made !

This sort of localized living isn't unique or unusual.
Many european towns are, and always have been, pretty
much like this. Any big American city in the 1930s
would have been set-up as largely-autonomous neighborhoods.
People couldn't afford to drive, couldn't even afford
public transit most days. If they couldn't walk to it,
they just didn't DO it. So, they brought most everything
they needed TO THEM.

Yes, there's a certain redundancy in having, say, a
small clothing store in every neighborhood instead
of just one MegaStore - but the collective MONEY
saved, the collective FUEL saved ... it's really
worth it. Plus, it creates extra JOBS. Since you
aren't spending much money on transit, even a
relatively low-paying job leaves you in the black
at the end of the month instead of in the red.

Since distance is the enemy, we want to reduce the
amount of inter-neighborhood and inter-city vehicle
traffic to a bare minimum. Sure, there WILL be times
whatever "it" is just can't be had down the street -
and so you'll need to drive or take public transit -
but MOST of the time everything will be a few minutes
away.

For the average urban/suburban dweller, I'd suggest
public transit first, a taxi second, a RENTAL car
third and owning your own car dead last. Nobody
should be DENIED any particular form of transport,
the limit should be your own wallet and good sense.

People who live further out in the countryside, well,
owning their own vehicles becomes more necessary,
although they too can "think locally" and run
a very basic public transit system too.

Finally, for those items that simply MUST be moved
long distances, fix-up the RAIL SYSTEM. It is BY
FAR the cheapest way to move bulk cargo over land.
The mechanical infrastructure isn't super expensive
or high-tech and the rail lines are ALREADY THERE.
Trucks should be reserved for that "last inch" ...
the distance between the local rail station and
your neighborhood stores.

Fortunately, unlike those 1930s city folks, we have
a few nice alternatives they didn't. We've got the
internet and digital TV, most of us also have SOME
money to spare. Much of our entertainment and
information can be supplied without actually GOING
anywhere distant.

Many kinds of jobs nowdays, well, you REALLY don't
HAVE to physically BE at some central office building.
The work can be done via computer and you never need to
leave home. The bosses just have to find a way to set
work quotas and organize things in that kind of
environment, which isn't super-hard. Businesses will
just have to get past thinking of "the office" HAS to
be a 60-story steel and glass thing in the middle of
downtown - a place where hundreds or thousands have
to WASTE FUEL getting to every day.

Anyway ... THIS is the approach that will yeild the most
energy bang - and least pain. It's sure to save an order
of magnitude more energy than ANY scheme even Al Gore
has offered.

If we can reduce how far we and our "stuff" have to travel,
it beats high-efficiency vehicles all to hell. We've simply
become USED TO everything being miles and miles away,
ASSUMING it's our lot to blow money out our tailpipes,
slogging our way through traffic and commuting endless miles.

Break the midset and the reality will change around you.

The "think locally" plan should be started TODAY and
it will pick up speed on its own. As people become
more neighborhood-centric, business will automatically
reorganize to fit the new paradigm. Nothing lost,
much gained.

Nuff said. Think - then spread the word and DO.

.. . . . .

Copy, excerpt, re-write, steal, publish, do ANYTHING
with what I've written here ... it's a freebie. The
plan is what's important.

Jesse · Guest

Guest

On Wed, 30 Apr 2008 03:47:15 GMT, Jesse <jess225107nospam@hotmail.com> wrote:

B1ackwater · Guest

On Wed, 30 Apr 2008 03:47:15 GMT, Jesse <jess225107nospam@hotmail.com>
wrote:

B1ackwater · Guest

On Wed, 30 Apr 2008 09:53:47 -0400, * US * wrote:

Guest

On Wed, 30 Apr 2008 22:02:33 GMT, bw@barrk.net (B1ackwater) wrote:

Jesse · Guest

* US * wrote:

Guest

On Sat, 03 May 2008 22:52:21 GMT, Jesse <jess225107nospam@hotmail.com> wrote: