Articles by David Roberts

The hurricane problem

A group of 10 scientists who've disagreed with one another in the past about the influence of climate change on hurricanes has come out with a collective statement saying that the media is obsessing over the climate debate at the expense of the more immediate truth, about which there is widespread consensus: vulnerable places are being overdeveloped, and the U.S. government is subsidizing it.

We are optimistic that continued research will eventually resolve much of the current controversy over the effect of climate change on hurricanes. But the more urgent problem of our lemming-like march to the sea requires immediate and sustained attention. We call upon leaders of government and industry to undertake a comprehensive evaluation of building practices, and insurance, land use, and disaster relief policies that currently serve to promote an ever-increasing vulnerability to hurricanes.

Needed to be said.

Some quasi-philosophical blather

I can't bear to get back into the news just yet, so let's discuss this a little bit.

Are human beings part of the environment? You can answer in two ways.

If you say no, they're not, then you're stuck with the pernicious dichotomy between humans and nature that has bedeviled Western intellectual history and led to the illusion that we can dominate or control nature. Humans are rational creatures, in touch with some sort of Platonic realm beyond the grubby, irrational, violent chaos of nature -- that kind of thinking. Much of environmentalism has been devoted to trying to knock down that false dichotomy.

But if you say the environment does include human beings, then you're left with nothing that the environment doesn't include. "The environment" is thereby synonymous with "everything." But then the term is useless. Saying something is good for the environment becomes tantamount to saying it's good for everything. And that doesn't make any sense.

What can we learn from all this?

Sprawl bribery is beating smart growth

The following is a guest essay from Joel S. Hirschhorn, author of Sprawl Kills: How Blandburbs Steal Your Time, Health and Money. He can be reached through sprawlkills.com.

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When the small town of Warrenton in sprawl-rich northern Virginia received an offer of $22 million in cash from Centex Homes, one of the nation's largest developers and home builders, one reaction of concerned parties was, OK, sounds like an environmentally acceptable plan for nearly 300 new homes. But closer examination reveals a development plan that comes nowhere near meeting smart-growth values. It also illustrates the tactics of large sprawl developers as they face opposition from those concerned about uncontrolled growth gobbling up rural America. Sprawl bribery is just another dimension of sprawl politics: using money to buy off government officials. And using just one aspect of good smart growth design -- clustering of homes -- creates the illusion of environmental benefit.

Back

Well, I'm back from the pony show. It went well.

Now I return to find a) so much stuff has happened that I couldn't possibly begin to blog about it all, and b) nobody outside the environmental community noticed, or likely cares about, any of said stuff. Sigh.

Anyway, I'm back in the saddle and will try to post on a few things that happened in my absence shortly. I know you're all relieved.