Global warming is not healthy. Thousands march. Pressure builds. But the march of warming continues. Why? The reason is under our noses. Have you ever tried looking under your nose? You can't. That's why we cannot see the truth. The truth is that until we say no to Cars and oil and other noxious, toxic things we will not defeat climate change. We will not overcome the effects of warming. We will remain the captives of the current false declension of reality.
Falsehood
The falseness of the present iteration of reality is that oil is forever. This is palpably wrong because oil is a natural resource that will run out sooner or later.
It is also false that the present economy is sustainable, that it will not come crashing down when it is done in by debt and glut and waste and mindlessness. We accept, though with almost terminal fear, periodic fluctuations in the market. Breaks of the game. Until a fluctuation comes along and breaks us permanently. Try expanding an economy as Mr. Trump longs to do and boasts about. It will reach a breaking point. We will experience double what went through in 2008. Oil is not forever. Cars are our enemy. The economy needs to center on human beings as the only basis of profit. When we do that the trajectory will be true.
Truth
The truth is with those who understand scale. Scale is a good word.
Scale describes what we lack. We are either too dense or we lack density to the extent that economies cannot possibly flourish. What makes this state of affairs possible, inevitable, and lethal?.
Our situation is possible because the private automobile makes it possible to live anywhere and commute long distances. We can no longer afford this particular truth.
It is why there is a migration to cities. So what is possible is also becoming impossible. More and more that is so.
Mark Ruffalo, Leonardo DiCaprio and more took to the streets for the Climate March https://t.co/RSMBLK3Q5F pic.twitter.com/Paurgl7vV8
— Hollywood Reporter (@THR) April 30, 2017
Right scale
There is a right scale.
It is like the three bears. The right scale is not too few and not too many. Communities that are self-aware and have around 10,000 persons are large enough to enable a viable local economy and small enough to allow local democratic governance to take root. Nothing says that these units -- which I call cybercommunities -- cannot exist in clusters. The secret is that they be integral and car free, more like the Island of Capri or ocean liners than our sprawling exurbs and overcrowded residential blocks.
There is much more
The arguments for moving past the car are myriad. The time has come. Events will force the change unless we act now to create it reasonably and confidently.
