The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
(IPCC) has no legal power. It simply provides those with power the best
available scientific information on changing weather patterns the causes and
effects.
Last month, IPCC warned world leaders that significant
alterations to the Earth’s weather patterns are real, and it has consequences,
Many in power and enriched by a fossil fuel dependencies counter that is folly.
To such “climate deniers”, New York commentator Tom Friedman puts it the ways: if
we invest in clean energy and Climate Weirding continues unabated, we’ll still
end up with a cleaner, healthier and more sustainable world.
IPCC’s international network of scientists and policy makers ominously,
for the first time, have spelled out some of the identifiable consequences of climatic
shifts and jolts yet to come to the peoples of the world. They will cause
migration problems and disrupt food production. Images of doom and gloom
abounded. The good thing is that IPCC has set off another round of discussions
of the sustainability of modern civilization.
The sky isn’t falling. It’s worse and we have to act.
Reducing
Carbons
Our chronic burning of coal, oil and natural gas to power
modern life is heating up the sky. Glaciers and polar caps are melting at an
alarming rate. It is not a matter of slowing the rise of greenhouse gas (GHG)
emissions, or even of stopping it. In light of IPCC findings, we must reserve the trends. That means many
things to many groups. To transportation specialists, it means phase out of internal
combustion engines. Happily, it is already happening.
Human (walking, biking) and electric modes of transport have
inherent benefits and should be encouraged. Advances in transit controls bring
higher service levels. Witness scores of driverless metros and effective mini-metros
in Europe and Asia, smart links in airports and campuses, and breakthroughs in automated
transit networks.
Solar Synergy
Transit projects require management and control of extensive
interconnected pieces of urban real estate. Integrating solar collection into
new (and old) transit rights-of-way creates carbon-free electricity right where
it’s needed.
Massive conversion from ICE fleets to podcars can quickly
reduce GHG from the transport sector. Alone it won’t save our troubled planet,
but it will have a positive payback for infrastructure investment over the next
decade or two.
