American tree-hugger Bill
McKibben can take pride in the “landmark” global wakeup call that he and
countless others organized September 21 -- start of fall -- in New York City. At
first the number of participants was estimated at a little over 100,000. The
next day the New York Times reported over 300,000. Now 400,000+ is
accepted.
The Times gave only token
coverage to a “spectacle” that even blasé Manhattan had to notice. The March ended in a moment of silence that
exploded into noise - clapping, drumming, blowing trumpets, and shouts and
screams in a myriad of accents and tones. The message was loud and clear: it is
time to put the burning of fossil fuel into our past!
The establishment media gave almost
no coverage to the March before the event.
It reminded many of the disconnect between that same “establishment” and
anti-war protests over Vietnam in the 1960s.
Global Political Attention
The2014 People’s Climate March
was timed two days before a high-level UN Summit on Climate Change, attended by
Secretary Ban Ki-Moon. President Obama and scores of other heads of state from
every continent attended. The Summit identified three areas needing immediate
attention for consideration in a treaty to be finalized and signed next fall in
Paris. In the US, it would then need Congressional ratification and ink on
paper. Preservation of tropical forest and better ways to grow and prepare food
are two of them.
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| Harvard's Chuck Harris saw PRT in the mix last century. He still does! |
The third priority deals directly
with transportation. Perhaps disappointing to many PRT promoters, it does not
call for R&D to demonstrate podcars or ATN or whatever label you prefer. It does call for 30 percent of vehicles sold in 2030 to be electric and buildup of their enabling infrastructure, and also unspecified urban mobility options.
How modest this is to advanced transit thinkers and doers. No doubt
McKibben and most of the marchers are all for better public transit, walking
and biking improvements, and community-based ride-sharing schemes. This green
urban vision needs to be fleshed out - with the color and flavor of
Greenville’s Swamp Rabbit Trail and the new multi-modal station design
on the Morgantown PRT in West Virginia.
Divestiture is the Start
The moneyed Rockefeller
Foundation got almost as much attention from New York media when it announced just
before the Climate March its decision to dump stocks in companies that pollute
to peddle fossil fuels. Vermont and many universities are moving in that
direction. The long-term goal is to sever the future from those who make profit
on fossil fuels. That will lead to a better future with all electric transport,
much of it on guideways that are really long electric plugs.
Planet A, We Love You!
Maybe Planet B will have
unlimited sustainable energy. For now, we’re stuck with Planet A. Our work is to cut out for us, and it’s not
just replenishing the Highway Trust Fund ($206 billion over four years, with
$72 billion for transit and $19 billion in the yet to be enacted Green America
Act proposed by the White House. Where are ped/bike and ride-sharing projects?
And where is PRT?
Planet A gets lots of sun. The
People’s Climate March and UN Summit were meant as wake up calls. Earthlings,
Unite!
