Tackling Climate Change With Land Use

This opinion piece looks at how technology alone can't be depended on to solve the environmental threats of climate change. Land use and development patterns must also be addressed.



Guess we're on the cutting edge, after all."


Now we have to get there.

The clear first step is to tackle transportation... Transportation accounts for almost half of all the greenhouse gas emissions in the Bay Area and statewide.

There are two main ways to reduce emissions from transportation... increasing fuel economy and using low-carbon fuels ("technology"); and decreasing the number of miles driven ("travel").






"We know it'll work to drive less. Let's build our cities to make it possible."

Thanks to Elizabeth Stampe

Full Story: Technology alone won't tame climate-change juggernaut



Not According to Cato . . .

Reading this article, I think it is a good reminder of why rational government land use planning is critical to yield positive community impacts that otherwise would be externalized by the market. And I am thinking particularly about a ridiculous article in the Christian Science Monitor that argued to the contrary: http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/1018/p09s01-coop.html


That CS Monitor article

That CS Monitor article said, for instance, that, Planning of other people's land and resources fails because planners will not pay the costs they impose on other people, so they have no incentive to find the best answers.


(The example they immediately give is:

Try thinking of their point in different terms. What I mean is these terms
also cited on Planetizen today; what I mean is government thinking in terms of people first and places second (Glaeser's point, and probably something CS Monitor was onto), even when that means thinking of jobs first and design potential last.

building block set

NEW! Build the world you want to see

Red necktie with map of Boston



Essential Readings in Urban Planning

Currently on backorder
Wood necklace with city map

City Necklaces
