As American's, we face many different problems every day. An unstable economy, growing cost of living, and a breed of politicians who seem utterly out of touch with their constituents. Yet what about the other smaller issues which plague our lives? The problems that don't make the 5 o'clock news like our fragmented family life, our boredom (despite the endless distractions provided by technology) and the angry teenagers giggling and shoplifting at Barns and Noble. What possible connection could exist between globalization and the epidemic of shoplifting in one of the world’s wealthiest economies?
Kurt Vonnegut's first novel, Player Piano, imagines life in a futuristic society where technology has replace all need for human labor. Their society has enough property to provide for everyone, but the only people with meaningful employment are engineers and managers. It could seem like a nice world, ideal maybe, but something unsavory lies just beneath the surface. Player Piano explores the satisfaction and sense of personhood and individual gains from a job which has meaning and dignity, and conversely the sense of hopelessness that grows out of feeling useless. In the world today not only does technology put people out of work, the world of globalization and the unregulated free market encourage companies to move manufacturing to countries without protection for the human beings who work those jobs or the environment which supports them. Additionally, as technology proliferates, many of the small tasks we used to perform ourselves can now be done by machines, and websites like DrugStore.com, free shipping for purchases over $25, remove many of the small social interactions that helped connect our communities. So American's are out of work and out of things to do, left sitting at home watching "Pimp My Ride". No wonder teenagers shoplift.
I have painted an unhappy picture of America, however my message is hopeful. We may be faced with problems that seem diffuse and unrelated, but perhaps they aren't. Perhaps the solution to our fragmented families and personal dissatisfaction will also help us fight global warming and create an economy which is just for all the participants, not just the top 10% of earners.
I know that I am not alone in hoping that technology will provide a grand, sweeping solution to the problems of today, the economy, global warming, the energy crunch which seems to be approaching. After spending the semester studying global warming, energy, and civic planning in the Davies Forum, it has become clear that the real 'solutions' to these problems, meaning the concrete changes which will shape our future, will not come from a scientist with four PhD's slaving away in some ten million dollar Stanford laboratory. Instead, many of our energy problems, and perhaps our countries agency problems, will be solved by local civil servants, the men and women who organize our trash pick up and street repairs, by the government officials issuing building permits and operating the public schools. But how is this possible? Big problems are supposed to have even bigger solutions, right? Well, in the case of global warming, the big solution, the new idea that can save us all, might just be a technological advancement so old fashioned, many of us have forgotten about its existence. The street car! Do you even remember what it is?
I know what you're thinking. How could street cars possibly stop global warming? And what does this have to do with city council or angry teenagers? Well, currently 80% of North Americans live in cities, which means our society is not about to revert to some kind of agrarian utopia in order to stop global warming, far from it. In fact, cities are a great place to start when trying to create a low-carbon future. The compact structure of cities makes a low-carbon lifestyle easier because when people live closer together they can share resources in a way that would be impossible in a more diffused rural lifestyle.
Patrick Condon wrote an excellent book called Seven Rules for Sustainable Communities which I highly recommend to anyone who works in local government, frequents city council meetings, or wants to start taking an interest in their civic community. In it he discusses how we can make our cities more sustainable, and let me tell you, if this book is right than the savior of the planet will be those obnoxious folks who keep on standing up at the town hall meeting asking for better bike lanes. Right now, around 40% of the carbon emissions produced in the United States comes from transportation. Which means parking your car and taking the local bus to work really could save the environment. But unless you live in Portland or San Francisco, that's probably not as easy as it sounds. Many major U.S. cities don't have comprehensive or reliable public transportation, and most suburban communities have little to no public transportation options. In fact, many suburbs don't even have sidewalks. And even if they did, the zoning restrictions for most suburbs mean that there is nothing to walk to, if you ever dared to try. Not exactly the pedestrian dream.
So our cities are designed in a way which forces us to be dependent on cars, we all know this already. But what can we do about it? At this moment, the conscientious citizen stands up, and in the most unglamorous venue imaginable, saves the world. Not the world as we know it, but the world as it could be. We have reached the moment, the time has come to fail or change, so change we must.
Luckily for all of us, many smart and conscientious people have been pondering these questions for decades. What we must do, as cities and as citizens, is advocate for Transit Oriented Development, or T.O.D. T.O.D. focuses on limiting urban sprawl, protecting the natural spaces which make high-density urban areas livable, and ensuring that every member of the community lives within a five minute walk of a bus stop or street car. In Seven Rules, Condon goes into detail about how cities can plan their development in a way which respects the environment and which gives real power of movement back to city dwellers. The truth of the matter is, one of the best ways to build a community is actually talking to your neighbors. But we rarely see our neighbors if we never leave our cars. Embracing a pedestrian centered life will significantly reduce Green House Gas emissions, but it will also help to reunite our fractured communities and fractured families. All of the problems we face as a global community are not separate from the problems we face in our homes and neighborhoods. Essentially, your teenager is miserable because they feel worthless because all of the small actions which build self-esteem, which allow individuals to prove to themselves their own worth, have disappeared. So shoplifting and global warming might be caused by the same thing? It sounds crazy. But maybe its true.
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