Comments on: “We Don’t Know How to Get There”

By: Paul Krugman Joins Team Density | hugeasscity

Paul Krugman Joins Team Density | hugeasscity — Wed, 21 May 2008 07:27:04 +0000

[...] Yup. Uh-huh. Dang. [...]

By: An Open Letter To The Livable Seattle Movement | hugeasscity

An Open Letter To The Livable Seattle Movement | hugeasscity — Sun, 18 May 2008 22:46:54 +0000

[...] I want to finish by expanding on my initial accusation of moral irresponsibility (since I think I’ve already pretty well covered the intellectual dishonesty bit). We are facing an unprecedented global crisis in both resource consumption and global warming. There is overwhelming evidence that dense urban development is a key strategy in mitigating this crisis. So in my view, by publicizing specious and demonstrably false critiques of density, the Livable Seattle Movement is being morally irresponsible. It’s analogous to the global warming deniers, when one piece of contrary “evidence,” whether ill-founded or not, can quite effectively muddy public perception and significantly set back progress. [...]

By: 15% Better Than Business As Usual | hugeasscity

15% Better Than Business As Usual | hugeasscity — Wed, 14 May 2008 15:51:07 +0000

[...] Uh-huh, it’s a staggeringly monumental task. Progress is being made, but the bottom line is we still don’t know how to get there. [...]

By: Vanderleun

Vanderleun — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 08:19:26 +0000

And we’ll still be there waving as you sink slowly into the sunset.

By: Dan Staley

Dan Staley — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 15:15:16 +0000

That sounds like Breakthrough Institute (BI) stuff – Bert Gregory may be affiliated – spoken by the likes of Marty Hoffert, Amory Lovins and Schellenberger & Nordhaus types.

Saw Hoffert a few weeks ago at a similiar conference speak of the same sorts of things, but in a more technical nature of how to get there. Interestingly, Joe Romm is wailing about how BI is being needlessly technical solution-oriented; his premise is that all we need to do in order to implement things to stop carbon footpring growth is to the negawatt thing and change human societal behavior. Just like that!

Anyway, I personally think we have a pretty good idea of where ‘there’ is: somewhere on a heading between 125 and 140 degrees. The societal ship has sailed and some of the crew is arguing about who takes over the wheel to steer, others are wrestling for the wheel, many are arguing that we shouldn’t sail until we have a precise direction, some are complaining that the ship doesn’t have enough regulation to control emissions, and others are complaining that they are on board at all. The climate denialists are left at the dock.

By: Adam P

Adam P — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 05:48:01 +0000

I almost went to that (I’m a committee member of ULI Seattle’s YLG). From my experience urban planners have always had their own unique lexicon, and from my limited experience in the field terms like this have exploded onto the scene.

I think that paradigm shift if the perfect word for what we are going through right now.