Sustainable communities

Fool said:

Brooklyn.

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If Time's Up really wanted the Hasidim to accept the bike lanes they'd try to make the Hasidim understand the bike lanes. Unfortunately, this would require that they in turn try to understand the Hasidim. However, this is far too time-consuming, and it would cut into Time's Up's busy schedule of putting on "Doggie Pedal Parades" and sending people in polar bear costumes to Copenhagen. So, rather than work towards mutual respect, Time's Up prefer to use torture instead. Basically, by presenting the Hasidim with something twice as repugnant as the bike lanes that were previously there, I can only imagine that Time's Up thinks they can pummel the Hasidim into a state of acceptance.

This, of course is ridiculous. You can't make someone like something they hate by giving them more of it. Let's say your friend loves the jam band music, but you hate it (as I do). Because your friend lives in a state of inflamed passion, he cannot imagine that someone else might not also love this music. So, when he's driving you someplace in his hand-me-down Volvo with the bumper stickers all over it and you ask him to please turn down the Phish, he responds by saying, "What? You don't like this?!?," and making it even louder in the hopes that somehow the increased volume will reveal to you the nuances you missed and your musical tastes will somehow change. But the louder Phish gets the more you hate them and the more you protest, and the crazier he thinks you are, and so you turn off the stereo, and he says, "This is my car!" and turns it back on, and you get in a big fight, and ultimately someone winds up lying dead on the side of the road with a Hacky Sack lodged in his throat.

Still, this is the approach that certain "bike advocacy" groups take, and it's the basis behind rides like "Critical Mass." When you attain a certain level of self-importance you honestly begin to believe that simply amplifying yourself is all you need to do to make people agree with you. When some people say they want "livable cities," what they really mean is that they want cities in which everybody lives the same way that they do. Really, one person's "livable city" is another person's uninhabitable hellhole.

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Peachtree City has a system of golf cart paths which spider across the town and provide a secondary means of access to almost any destination within city limits. Many places of business have specially designated golf cart parking spaces and the Peachtree City Police Department has several golf carts that patrol along the paths. Over 9000 households own a golf cart, more than any other city in the world, and use it as an extra vehicle for local transportation.

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In February 2003, Golf Digest magazine discussed the traffic congestion caused by Peachtree City's golf carts in an article entitled "Golf Cart Gridlock". In July 2005, CNN/Money and Money magazine magazine ranked Peachtree City eighth on its list of the 100 Best Places to Live in the United States.[4] In July 2007 in the same award it ranked 64th.[5] In July 2009, Peachtree City was once again ranked eighth on the list.[6]

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My name is Mike. I'm a teacher outside of Atlanta, Georgia, USA.

What I'd really like to share with you is the place in which I live: Peachtree City, Georgia. We are a suburb of Atlanta, GA, USA, and our entire city of 35,000 people was pre-planned with the goal of electric vehicles. To put it simply, every single neighborhood, school, business, industry, church, restaurant, etc. is on a dedicated path system that is exclusive to bicycles, electric golf carts and, of course, pedestrians, skateboarders and the like.

Almost every single family owns an electric golf cart, usually four-seaters, but some own six-seaters (and I even noticed an eight-seater once). It's a lot of fun going all over town in an electric golf cart. We even cruise in the winter because our winters are quite mild for the USA. Our summers are hot, but the city was designed with an emphasis on the environment, so we have many old-growth forests throughout the city that considerably cool us. There is a lot of shade.

My wife and I own a Club Car that was made for recreational use instead of the golf course, and it's a four-seater. Our two kids sit in the back, facing backward, and wear seatbelts. The cart maxes out at about 30kph (about 19mph). It can go about 20 miles on a single charge, and at the end of the day we just plug it in.

Occasionally we have to come to a stop and cross a small residential street, but all the major highways used by cars are by-passed by way of tunnel or dedicated golf cart bridge, so it's an extremely safe way to travel. In the city's 50 years there have only been two fatalities involving golf carts, and both were easily avoidable with a little common sense.

We currently have about 12,000 electric vehicles in our city.

Last note: Possibly due to the fact that there are so many people out and about, we have the lowest crime rate of any city our size in the entire United States. The national crime index calls 100 the average. Washington D.C. is about 400 (which means four times the national average). Our city, Peachtree City, is 15, which is about one-seventh the national average.

We're also fortunate enough to have the best schools in the state.

Check out Peachtree City, GA, USA. Life is better at 19mph as we say.

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Best U.S. Project - Greensburg, Kansas

Size: 1.5 square miles
Population: 900
Annual carbon emissions per person: 22 tons
Annual amount to be offset: 19,800 tons
Equivalent to: 825,000 trees planted
Carbon-neutral by: 2017

On May 4, 2007, a tornado ripped through central Kansas. When it was over, nearly 95 percent of the small town of Greensburg was destroyed. Turning tragedy into opportunity, the community decided to rebuild itself as a model green town, powered by a mix of geothermal, solar and wind. A few of the city buildings even power themselves with their own wind and solar generators, and a 10-turbine wind farm outside of town went online in March.

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Holiest - Vatican City

Size: 109 acres
Population: 826
Annual carbon emissions per person: 9 tons
Annual amount to be offset: 7,434 tons
Estimated cost: undisclosed
Carbon-neutral by: undisclosed

In recent years, the Catholic Church has been more active on environmental issues, urging people to be better stewards of the Earth while holding itself up as a model. In 2007, Pope Benedict XVI, dubbed “the green pope” for his environmental initiatives, announced his intention to make the Vatican Europe’s first carbon-neutral state, starting with solar panels on the Vatican’s auditorium that produce 300,000 kilowatt-hours a year, coupled with extensive efforts to conserve energy.

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Fastest Transformation - Samsö Island, Denmark

Size: 44 square miles
Population: 4,000
Annual carbon emissions per person: 12 tons
Annual amount to be offset: 48,000 tons
Number of wind turbines: 21
Estimated cost: $39 million
Carbon-neutral by: 2007

Remarkably, the Danish island community of Samsø has become carbon-neutral without any tax breaks, grants or other benefits. Its motivation? Civic pride. Thanks to conservation, wind power and peer pressure, the island has transformed from a consumer of coal and oil into an exporter of alternative energy. It now generates 10 percent more energy than it uses.

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Most Urgent - Maldives

Size: 115 square miles
Population: 396,334
Annual carbon emissions per person: 2 tons
Annual amount to be offset: 792,668 tons
Estimated cost: $1.1 billion
Carbon-neutral by: 2020

If ever a country had a stake in carbon neutrality, it’s the Maldives—a sea-level rise of just a few inches could put most of this island nation underwater. By investing tourism dollars in energy infrastructure and offsets, Maldivians hope to set an example of carbon sustainability that the world can follow. If that fails, they’re considering squirreling away enough money to buy a patch of high ground in India or Australia.

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Most Expensive - Masdar City, Abu Dhabi

Size: 2.3 square miles
Population: 90,000
Annual carbon emissions per person: 39 tons
Annual amount to be offset: 3.5 million tons
Estimated cost: $22 billion
Carbon-neutral by: 2020

Masdar’s urban planners are capitalizing on the oil-rich region’s other abundant energy source: the sun. This built-from-scratch desert community will draw significant energy from solar power, relying on a 10-megawatt solar farm—the largest in the Middle East. Also under consideration is an advanced system of parabolic mirrors, which will concentrate sunlight onto a central power tower.

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Most Ambitious - Costa Rica

Size: 19,730 square miles
Population: 4.25 million
Annual carbon emissions per person: 2 tons
Annual amount to be offset: 8.5 million tons
Equivalent to: 354 million trees planted
Estimated cost: $10 billion
Carbon-neutral by: 2021

In 2007 the Costa Rican government declared that the country would be carbon-neutral by 2021, in time for its 200th birthday. Three years later, it’s virtually there. It already produces 90 percent of its electricity from renewable sources, mostly hydropower, wind and geothermal. Next up, it will add solar to the mix, introduce electric trains and buses, move to clean biodiesel and bio-ethanol fuel for cars, and help reforest its jungles.

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Smallest - BedZED, London

Size: 4.45 acres
Population: 220
Annual carbon emissions per person: 11 tons
Annual amount to be offset: 2,420 tons
Estimated cost: $22 million
Carbon-neutral by: 2002

Every square inch of London’s Beddington Zero Energy Development is designed for sustainable living. Each of its 100 homes and 15 apartments was built from local materials (to limit haulage) and features triple-glazed windows, solar panels, a biofuel boiler, sustainable insulation and low-energy appliances, with eye-level electric and water meters in all the kitchens to remind residents why they’re living there in the first place.

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Most Resourceful - Dockside Green, B.C., Canada

Size: 15 acres
Population: 2,500
Annual carbon emissions per person: 21 tons
Annual amount to be offset: 52,500 tons
Equivalent to: 9,100 cars removed
Estimated cost: $600 million
Carbon-neutral by: 2011

All of the buildings populating this small development on Vancouver Island are certified green by the internationally recognized U.S. Green Building Council. Eco-features include a “bio boiler” that runs on gas generated from wood refuse, efficient lighting and electrical appliances, and a graywater recycling system that uses treated sewage water to flush toilets.

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Most Down-to-Earth - Moreland, Australia

Size: 19.7 square miles
Population: 149,122
Annual carbon emissions per person: 23 tons
Annual amount to be offset: 3.4 million tons
Equivalent to: 595,000 cars removed
Carbon-neutral by: 2030

Australia’s per-capita carbon footprint rivals that of the U.S. So how does this bedroom community of Melbourne intend to shrink it to zero? Through education and energy audits, and by providing seed money to establish local renewable-energy systems such as solar and wind. No whiz-bang tech; just a slow and steady race toward smart conservation and renewable energy.

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To assess the efforts to limit municipal demand of energy and provide clean energy, Smarter Cities surveyed city governments about the city's aggregate kilowatt hour consumption, top three fuel sources, whether it had completed a greenhouse gas inventory, energy conservation programs (including targets for reduced consumption) and processes to measure energy conservation.

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Large Cities (population > 250 said:

Austin, TX
Boston, MA
Chicago, IL
Columbus, Ohio
Dallas, TX
El Paso, TX
Long Beach, CA
New York, NY
Oakland, CA
Portland, OR
San Francisco, CA
Seattle, WA

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Medium (pop. between 100 said:

Berkeley, CA
Fort Collins, CO
Huntington Beach, CA
Reno, NV
Springfield, IL
Santa Clarita, CA

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Small (Pop. < 100 said:

Beaverton, OR
Denton, TX
Dubuque, IA
Santa Cruz, CA

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