Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Supply-side environmentalism won't work

There are at least one billion people seeking the sprawl lifestyle. This is a tremendous economic and political force.

Protesting against fossil-fuel energy supply, such as coal-fired power plants, arctic-oil, or tarsands cannot overcome such a force. And what's worse, it puts environmentalists on the side of denying the dream.

If we truly want to undo sprawl. We have to offer a dream that is better.

We have to provide a car-free urban lifestyle.

The first step is fare-free buses. Then fare-free light rail and streetcars.