xcel
02-12-2007, 09:25 AM
"We need to start building mechanisms for people to cope after the depletion of fossil fuels." (http://www.madison.com/tct/news/stories/index.php?ntid=118600&ntpid=2)
http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/501/apples.jpgSamara Kalk Derby - Capital Times - Feb. 12, 2007
Apples as sustenance in downtown to overt a food crisis due to Peak Oil? This may be a bit extreme but she is planning ahead …
Local activist Jan Sweet envisions a city without cars, or at least a compromise - a hybrid city, which would function like a hybrid car and conserve oil.
"We want people to slow down and spend more time walking, biking and relaxing," Sweet said.
Sweet, who has a degree in architecture and urban planning from the UW-Milwaukee and lives in Madison, has submitted detailed plans to Mayor Dave Cieslewicz and Gov. Jim Doyle proposing drastic conservation measures. He is also urging the mayor and the governor to form respective peak oil task forces.
Peak oil is the point at which the global supply of crude peaks and then diminishes forever. In the United States, peak oil happened in the 1970s. The mainstream media are not giving enough attention to the country's serious oil problem, Sweet said.
"We're dealing with a fossil fuel crisis in this country that's unprecedented," he added. "Peak oil is not a theory, it is real."
Sweet's Downtown Isthmus Group recommends discouraging automobile use and dramatically increasing taxi and van service. It proposes tearing down parking garages and replacing them with apartment buildings and retail.
Sweet wants to adopt co-housing principles, where each apartment building has its own car or van for errands or emergencies. Buildings would be constructed without parking facilities and would be built no taller than five stories because of the potential of blackouts where elevators would be out of service.
In Sweet's Madison, fruit trees would be planted throughout the city to provide nourishment in the event of a serious breakdown in transportation. School cafeterias would be designated as food depots of last resort, where canned and dried food would be stored to provide the city with a surplus for a year or more.
"Civilizations collapse. They collapse on a regular basis," Sweet said. "Rome is gone, Latin is a dead language. In many ways we are at the end of the road."
Cieslewicz hasn't met with Sweet, but the mayor's spokesman, George Twigg, said the mayor got a copy of the report.
Twigg suggested that peak oil activists get involved in the sustainability initiatives the city already has in progress, including the Sustainable Design and Energy Committee, chaired by Sherrie Gruder, which is working on initiatives to reduce emissions and energy consumption for city government as well for the community.
The mayor's "Building a Green Capital City" blueprint for sustainability also seeks to address the same issues, he said.
Madison is one of the first cities in the nation working on a program designed to "re-engineer city government to make principles of sustainability a part of everything we do," Twigg said. That program is called "The Natural Step."
Many of the city's sustainability and conservation efforts are already paying off, Twigg said, listing:
The purchase of hybrid diesel-electric buses.
Seeking LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification for Monona Terrace. LEED is a widely recognized national standard for developing high-performance, sustainable buildings.
Creation of the city's first facilities and sustainability manager.
More initiatives are on the way, Twigg said.
"More broadly, the mayor's overall vision for in-fill development and increased density supports the goals of reducing our fossil fuel consumption by creating more transit-friendly, pedestrian-friendly, mixed-use neighborhoods."
The United States has only 2 percent of the world's oil reserves and produces 8 percent of the world's oil. At the same time, it consumes a quarter of the world's oil, 60 percent of which is imported.
Sweet pointed out that San Francisco passed a peak oil resolution last year. In it, the city and the county recognized the challenge of peak oil and laid out its consequences.
Sweet, a disciple of the New Urbanist movement, also runs the group Cities Without Cars. In his recommendations to the governor, he proposes a toll system that would monitor vehicles on all federal and state highways. The system would keep track of the number of people in a vehicle and drivers would be fined based on their gas usage. Vehicles with the fewest people would be charged the most.
The fines would be put toward the development of bus and train systems and not used for the construction or repair of roads or highways.
"We need to start building mechanisms for people to cope after the depletion of fossil fuels," Sweet said.
http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/501/apples.jpgSamara Kalk Derby - Capital Times - Feb. 12, 2007
Apples as sustenance in downtown to overt a food crisis due to Peak Oil? This may be a bit extreme but she is planning ahead …
Local activist Jan Sweet envisions a city without cars, or at least a compromise - a hybrid city, which would function like a hybrid car and conserve oil.
"We want people to slow down and spend more time walking, biking and relaxing," Sweet said.
Sweet, who has a degree in architecture and urban planning from the UW-Milwaukee and lives in Madison, has submitted detailed plans to Mayor Dave Cieslewicz and Gov. Jim Doyle proposing drastic conservation measures. He is also urging the mayor and the governor to form respective peak oil task forces.
Peak oil is the point at which the global supply of crude peaks and then diminishes forever. In the United States, peak oil happened in the 1970s. The mainstream media are not giving enough attention to the country's serious oil problem, Sweet said.
"We're dealing with a fossil fuel crisis in this country that's unprecedented," he added. "Peak oil is not a theory, it is real."
Sweet's Downtown Isthmus Group recommends discouraging automobile use and dramatically increasing taxi and van service. It proposes tearing down parking garages and replacing them with apartment buildings and retail.
Sweet wants to adopt co-housing principles, where each apartment building has its own car or van for errands or emergencies. Buildings would be constructed without parking facilities and would be built no taller than five stories because of the potential of blackouts where elevators would be out of service.
In Sweet's Madison, fruit trees would be planted throughout the city to provide nourishment in the event of a serious breakdown in transportation. School cafeterias would be designated as food depots of last resort, where canned and dried food would be stored to provide the city with a surplus for a year or more.
"Civilizations collapse. They collapse on a regular basis," Sweet said. "Rome is gone, Latin is a dead language. In many ways we are at the end of the road."
Cieslewicz hasn't met with Sweet, but the mayor's spokesman, George Twigg, said the mayor got a copy of the report.
Twigg suggested that peak oil activists get involved in the sustainability initiatives the city already has in progress, including the Sustainable Design and Energy Committee, chaired by Sherrie Gruder, which is working on initiatives to reduce emissions and energy consumption for city government as well for the community.
The mayor's "Building a Green Capital City" blueprint for sustainability also seeks to address the same issues, he said.
Madison is one of the first cities in the nation working on a program designed to "re-engineer city government to make principles of sustainability a part of everything we do," Twigg said. That program is called "The Natural Step."
Many of the city's sustainability and conservation efforts are already paying off, Twigg said, listing:
The purchase of hybrid diesel-electric buses.
Seeking LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification for Monona Terrace. LEED is a widely recognized national standard for developing high-performance, sustainable buildings.
Creation of the city's first facilities and sustainability manager.
More initiatives are on the way, Twigg said.
"More broadly, the mayor's overall vision for in-fill development and increased density supports the goals of reducing our fossil fuel consumption by creating more transit-friendly, pedestrian-friendly, mixed-use neighborhoods."
The United States has only 2 percent of the world's oil reserves and produces 8 percent of the world's oil. At the same time, it consumes a quarter of the world's oil, 60 percent of which is imported.
Sweet pointed out that San Francisco passed a peak oil resolution last year. In it, the city and the county recognized the challenge of peak oil and laid out its consequences.
Sweet, a disciple of the New Urbanist movement, also runs the group Cities Without Cars. In his recommendations to the governor, he proposes a toll system that would monitor vehicles on all federal and state highways. The system would keep track of the number of people in a vehicle and drivers would be fined based on their gas usage. Vehicles with the fewest people would be charged the most.
The fines would be put toward the development of bus and train systems and not used for the construction or repair of roads or highways.
"We need to start building mechanisms for people to cope after the depletion of fossil fuels," Sweet said.