Articles by David Roberts

Still more on ANWR

It's pretty clear at this point that Bush is, while not technically lying about what we can expect from drilling in ANWR, making many highly misleading statements. (Hm, that tactic sounds vaguely familiar...) If you'd like some details, head over to Green Car Congress and get some of those "facts" and "figures" of which Mike Millikin is so fond.

Why Kerry lost

Oh, hey, turns out there's no need to worry about ANWR. Our cause has been taken up by a man with a proven record of outmaneuvering Bush. We're in the clear!

Ah, I kid. I'm actually quite fond of John Kerry, stilted speech and utter lack of charisma and all.

Since speculating about a) why Kerry lost and b) why the environment didn't play a bigger role in the election never goes out of style, I found this interesting:

Seated in his modest Senate office, Kerry reflected on why matters like the environment -- an issue he believes remains potent with the electorate -- had not won him election in November.

"There was one dominant complication in the year 2004," Kerry said. "It's called the war. The war on terror. It's the only thing Bush people really talked about, advertised on, scared people about."

...

Some environmentalists have faulted Kerry -- as they did Vice President Al Gore before him -- for not making matters such as Alaska drilling, regulating air and water pollution, forest management and endangered species protection a higher priority during the campaign. In rebuttal, Kerry cited a half a dozen events he held during the campaign, including Earth Day in Houston, and events focused on Great Lakes protection in Michigan and coastal erosion in Louisiana.

Had it not been for the threat of terror, he said, "I think the environment would have emerged as a greater issue, as would health care and education. A lot of issues were drowned out. And purposely so by the administration, because their strategy was obviously to use the war as the fulcrum that it was. It was ... effective."

It's fashionable in eco-circles to call bullshit on this, but I actually think it's accurate. It was a narrow loss and there are plenty of things that could have tipped the balance, but I'm inclined to doubt that raising the volume on environmental issues is one of them. If I had to rank them, I'd say 1) a better national security message, 2) smarter campaign tactics (especially on the Swift Boat stuff), and 3) a more mediagenic personality.

Arctic Refuge update

Yesterday we wrote about attempts by Senate Republicans to backdoor their way into the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge by slipping a provision into a budget bill. Today brings news that Senate Dems have failed in their attempt to slip it back out.

A little Europhilia

I keep meaning to link to Jay Walljasper's E Magazine piece on hometown pride, European style. There's not a lot new there for people who follow urban planning and such, but it's both a nice travelogue and a heartfelt argument for making cities more livable. Through a series of examples, he illustrates one basic point: The fact that European cities are more livable, walkable, and generally enjoyable than big American cities is not some fluke of history or geography. It's the result of conscious community planning, and it could be done here.

My honeymoon took me through London, Brussels, Amsterdam, and Paris. I wish every U.S. citizen could take that same trip -- it's hard to imagine just what a livable city looks and feels like until you've been in one. Riding a bike around Amsterdam, in particular, is something everyone should do before they die. It's amazing to see a whole system of transit where cars are marginalized, just one relatively small and dismissively treated segment. Men in suits, fashionably attired women in heels, parents with babies -- everybody rides a bike. It's just phenomenal.

How about where you live? What's being done to make it more livable? What do you wish was being done?