THERE IS NO PLANET B!

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.

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!