This is a follow up to my February 1st post, written after President Bush told us we are addicted to oil in his state of the union address.
I gave Mr. Bush credit for naming the pink elephant in America's living room (our addiction to oil), but criticized him for not offering any real solutions to our addiction.
As a premise to the real solutions outlined below, please realize that our oil addiction goes far beyond our cars, which is only the most obvious way we depend on oil. Its also the air conditioning. Its the products we buy that are shipped and trucked from remote places. Ditto for the food we buy. In fact, our current corporate agribusiness requires huge inputs of oil for fertilizer, pesticides and harvesting equipment. And perhaps worst of all is our very living arrangement, which has everyone spread out, each in their own single-family detached homes that require lots of oil to heat and air condition, and necessitate a car trip to go to work, shop or do anything.
1. Rebuild our national railroad system. Shipping via rail is far more energy efficient than interstate trucking. Passenger rail can be massively improved, and is also safer and more fuel-efficient than air travel. Central to the platform of any presidential candidate for 2008 should be a call to build the world's fastest, safest, best passenger rail network.
2. Reconvert our important waterfronts from recreational use to functioning ports. Shipping via water is far more energy efficient than interstate trucking. Most food and products can travel 90% of the way on water or rail, and be taken to their final destination via truck for the last few miles.
3. We're going to have to grow more food locally. Start a garden and join a Community Supported Agriculture farm. You'll save money, get more nutrition. Even if you don't want to, you'll soon have to. Rising cost of oil will increase the cost of food that is shipped. Try to buy food at the grocery store that comes from somewhere close. (for me, this means buying New York state apples instead of Washington). Most environmentalists today agree that it is more important to eat local than to eat organic.
4. The Iraq War will probably end up costing about $1 Trillion dollars. What a waste. But one thing we found out is that when we want to, we can spend a huge amount of money. So...the President and Congress should pull out of Iraq now, and earmark $1 Trillion dollars over the next 10 years to retrofitting or building 100 American cities along the lines of New Urbanism. By doing this, we will have cities that are condensed, mixed-use, walkable, bikeable; cities that require less oil to function at every level; cities that are beautiful, foster community, inspire and enrich us.
5. Less subdivisions and suburban McMansion colonies. New developments should follow the model of New Urbanism. The American living arrangement of single family detached homes all spread out, with separate zones for retail and office is the single most wasteful, inefficient, oil-consumptive living arrangement ever invented. We continue to build in this pattern at our own peril.
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Next installment: Part 3, What the Christians should do.