Cities and the environment

Recently (thanks to James Nicoll) I found a couple of links to articles that claim that cities are actually the most environmentally-friendly way humans can live:

• What have cities ever done for us? (Requires registration)
• NYC is the Greenest City in America

The second article states that the average resident of Manhattan consumes gasoline at a low rate not seen in most of America since the 1920s. Because the city has such high population density, and car traffic moves so slowly, public transit is the preferred means of travel: 82 percent of Manhattan residents travel to work by transit. And the city’s larger buildings are more energy-efficient because less space is exposed to the outside world, which makes them easier to heat and cool.

And, as the first article puts it:

Every time a person chooses to live in a city rather than a small town or a village, she is preserving the environment for the rest of us, contributing to the concentration of people needed to spur commercial and cultural innovation, and adding to the resilience of the economy that surrounds her.

(Adding my own data point: I live in Toronto, and haven’t owned a car since 2003. In fact, this year, I think I’ve only been in a car about half a dozen times at most.)

On the other hand: if you look back through history, you can see why cities have been unpopular. They contained factories that emitted foul-smelling gases; when I was a child, the intersection of the Don Valley Parkway and the Gardiner Expressway was particularly bad, and the entire Don Valley reeked of emissions from pulp and paper factories. And cities have also historically been breeding grounds for epidemics – recall the SARS scare from a few years back.

Market power and "Running The Numbers"

Recently, I got a copy of Mankiw’s Principles of Economics out of the library. (Some light summer reading! Yay!) I’m only 11 pages into the book, and he’s already made two statements that I don’t agree with:

• Seat belts cause more harm than good (p. 8): The book cites a 1975 study by economist Sam Peltzman, who states that auto-safety laws have produced fewer deaths per accident, but more accidents and more pedestrian deaths. According to Peltzman, this is because drivers who buckle up drive faster and less carefully. The general idea, of which seat-belt laws are a specific case, is known as the Peltzman Effect.

  Peltzman’s claim that seat belt usage has had an adverse effect on safety is disputed by a paper by Steven D. Levitt and Jack Porter. An article by David Sklansky in the Harvard Law Review also states that Peltzman was mistaken.

• Rent control policies are harmful (p. 10). I won’t argue this point here, other than to point out that nobody is building new apartments any more because builders can get a greater return on their investment by building condominiums. Rent control, or the lack of it, has nothing to do with it. As soon as the condo market becomes glutted – which should happen reasonably freaking soon, given how many of the damned things are going up in Toronto – builders might consider building apartments again.

Page 11 of the book contained a useful definition that I had not heard before: market power. This, according to Mankiw, is “the ability of a single person (or small group) to unduly influence market prices”. Mankiw states that well-designed public policies can improve market efficiency if market power is present (which I agree with).

Extremist ideologues would probably make the following claims about market power (neither of which I agree with):

• Certain leftists would claim that market power is the inevitable result of unregulated capitalism.
• Certain right-wing extremists would claim that those who have achieved market power have acquired it because they deserve it. If you don’t like it, the argument goes, why not go out and work hard and acquire some market power of your own? (To which I used to reply: success requires talent, opportunity and luck, as well as effort.)

Anyway, I’ll keep reading the book, and see if I can pound any more useful information into my mush-like brain. If I do, I’ll keep you posted.

Photographer Chris Jordan has created a series of photographs, called “Running The Numbers”, which uses large photographic prints to illustrate American rates of consumption and other facts. For example, he has created a photograph of 9 million child’s building blocks, which is equivalent to the number of American children with no health insurance coverage in 2007. He has also created photographs of:

• 8 million toothpicks, representing the number of trees harvested every month to make paper for mail-order catalogues;
• 2 million plastic beverage bottles, which is the number of these bottles used by Americans every five minutes;
• 65,000 cigarettes, representing the number of American teens hooked on tobacco every month;
• 11,000 jet trails, which is the number of commercial flights in the U.S. every eight hours;
• 426,000 cell phones, which is how many phones are retired in the U.S. every day;
• 29,569 handguns, which is the number of gun-related deaths in America in 2004;
• 1.14 million brown paper bags, which is the number of bags used in the U.S. every hour;
• 60,000 plastic bags, which is the number of plastic bags used every five seconds.

The most startling photograph is his Cans Seurat, which is a reproduction of a Seurat painting made from 106,000 aluminum cans. This is the number of cans used in the U.S. every thirty seconds.

A small achievement

I got my electricity bill on Friday, and discovered that, somehow, I have become more energy-efficient:

• My July 2007 reading was 438 kWh consumed; July 2006 was 480 kWh. (This is for two months.)
• The May 2007 reading was 406 kWh; May 2007 was 449.

The only things I can think of that I am doing differently are:

• I’m using energy-efficient light bulbs instead of the old-style incandescent bulbs.
• I unplug my VCR when I’m not using it.

That’s pretty much it. I’m not sure how this translates into a 10% saving. But I’m willing to take credit for it.

Sunshine and the environment

Yesterday was the first real day of spring, after about 117 consecutive cloudy days. The sunshine looks different during the spring and summer months: the light is brighter, and all the colours are sharper. It’s like living inside an Edward Hopper painting.

And the weekend is supposed to be sunny and warmer, with highs of 21C, 22C and 23C. I guess we’re bypassing April completely this year: after two months of February, we’re going straight into June.

On the national political scene, the latest fuss is over Environment Minister John Baird’s claim that Bill C-288, which forces compliance with the Kyoto Protocol, would cause significant damage to the economy. According to the Globe and Mail, Baird stated that 275,000 Canadians would lose their jobs, gas prices would jump 60 percent, and natural gas prices would double.

However, Baird apparently has not provided any figures to support his claims, and his report has not factored in the positive benefits of employing green technology (which could save money and create new jobs).

I think it’s obvious that compliance with Kyoto would cost money in the short term. And the benefits of green technologies would take some time to kick in. This probably does mean that the economy would be adversely affected. But, if the environmentalists are right, something has to be done now, or the effects of climate change would cause greater harm to the economy later. (What if, for example, coastal cities all over the world are flooded by rising ocean levels?)

This all reminds me of another quotation from Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. He once suggested that the following message should be carved into the Grand Canyon, as a message to civilizations from other planets: “We probably could have saved ourselves, but we were too damned lazy to try very hard … and too damn cheap.”

What lies ahead

This will be a short entry, as I’ve been on my computer way too much lately.

As I see it, there are two major challenges facing the world in the next few years. One is climate change – or, to be more accurate, the acceptance of the idea that the North American way of living is not sustainable. If the entire planet lived the way we do, human life would not survive. We simply consume too many resources. (And I emphatically say “we” here – I know that my ecological footprint is way too large. At least I don’t drive a car.)

The other challenge is how China will integrate into the world. China is a very large nation, with growing economic power. As a consequence, they’re starting to pollute more: the Globe had an article yesterday on Linfen, a Chinese city of 4.3 million that is arguably the most toxic city on the planet. China, because it is still developing, is likely to increase its output of greenhouse gases over the next few years: they argue that they should be given the opportunity to improve their economy, even if it means a short-term hit to the environment. (This was the same process that North America went through: as recently as 1948, smog in Pennsylvania was bad enough to kill 19 people in 24 hours.)

Another consequence of the growing power of China is price competition. China has millions and millions of low-wage workers, and more and more manufacturing is being done there, as it is cheaper. How will the world economy adapt to this?

One of the short films shown at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival was a very provocative piece of (what I guess is) propaganda on this very subject, called “Ha Ha Ha America”. (You can watch it here, though you will first have to endure a commercial for Axe spray, in which thousands of women in bikinis chase after an Axe-wielding man.) The movie – directed by an American – indulges in very crude stereotyping, to put it mildly, but it gets your attention. For discussions of this movie, you can go to the Internet Movie Database page for it, or the Metafilter discussion page from January 2006.

Wolf in sheep’s clothing?

According to the Globe and Mail, Stephen Harper is sending his environment minister to Paris to participate in a conference on climate change. While there, the minister, John Baird, will be asked to join a UN-based environment organization. Harper also stated that he would be willing to participate in a summit on global warming sponsored by the UN’s Secretary General.

The Globe article also mentioned that the Fraser Institute, a West Coast-based right-wing think tank, is about to release a report that doubts whether humans are affecting climate change. They claim that their report is a detailed and balanced overview of the subject.

It is certainly possible that Harper has seen the light (or at least the polls) and now believes that action on climate change is a good thing. But I still have two questions:

• What would he be doing if he had a majority government?
• Is he willing to spend money on environmentally-friendly initiatives such as better public transit, even though such spending would benefit parts of the country that are not likely to vote for him?

In other words, is Harper solely a partisan politician, or is he capable of becoming a leader?

Today, Metafilter has a link to a YouTube video of Long John Baldry and Steampacket performing with Brian Auger and The Trinity. A very young Rod Stewart is on backing vocals. Lots of rocking out and gospel shouting.

Manzilla! and climate change

As usual, my daily ration of spam includes messages from eager overseas sellers of assorted pharmaceuticals. One message offers to sell me Vixxagra, Vaxxlium, Cixxalis (ask your docxxtor!), Xaxxnax, or Amxxbien. At reasonable prixxces, too, no doubt. All I have to do is give them my credxxit card number, thus giving them the opportunity to commit lots of fraxxud. What could be more fair than that?

And then there’s this:

Manzilla! Size does matter! You seen this on TV!

Yes! Manzilla! The giant, er, member that threatens the unsuspecting population of Tokyo!

The Globe and Mail is devoting a large chunk of today’s paper to articles on climate change. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is about to release its latest report, which will state, in no uncertain terms, that there’s a lot of warming going on and that we humans are mostly responsible for it.

And people are realizing this: according to the Globe’s article, 26 percent of the people who responded to a recent poll listed the environment as their number one concern. The figure for last May was 3 percent. The same article states that a majority of respondents “would be willing to pay more for fuel-efficient cars, reduce the amount they fly, cut the amount they drive in half, and have the economy grow at ‘a significantly slower rate’ to help clean up the environment.”

For me, the biggest change I have to make to be more environment-friendly would be to use fewer non-recyclable items. I love to eat takeout food – I don’t like to cook – and most of it comes in non-recyclable plastic packages. I did find out that Toronto allows residents of multi-unit buildings to recycle cereal boxes, paper and junk mail, and milk cartons; these were things I didn’t know could be recycled. You can now also mix all your recyclables together – they’ll sort it out for you.

Maybe I can find takeout places that serve food in recyclable containers. Hopefully, that will be possible. I’d like to leave a smaller footprint, if I can.

Uninformed music reviews, Volume 1

Recently, I went out and got hold of some albums by musicians I’d never heard of, in a possibly vain attempt to seem up to date. Here’s some comments on a few of them.

I can’t help but like a band that calls themselves And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead. (According to the Allmusic Guide, they’re named after a prayer to Mayan corn gods.) Their So Divided album is definitely going to be worth listening to a few times. To my non-expert ears, they sound like all of the following at one time or another: Pearl Jam, Radiohead, Matthew Sweet, a crowded restaurant, ELO with bongo and accordion accompaniment, a symphony orchestra getting into a bar fight in mid-overture, Pink Floyd in the Atom Heart Mother era, what Oasis would have sounded like if they had played brass instruments, Blur, My Chemical Romance, and a folk-rock band forced to stay up for 34 hours straight before recording. And that’s only the things I could think of. I’m going to have to go back sometime and see if I can add to this list.

The Arctic Monkeys have become one of the most popular bands in Britain. After listening to their Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not album, I’m not surprised. They sound a bit like Oasis – what with the northern accents and all – and they also sound a bit like those old Madchester bands of the early 9os that seemed to be enjoying a never-ending party. They’re not bad, but I’d like them more if they weren’t obviously having much more fun than I’ve had lately. Blaah. I don’t like it when the music I’m listening to makes me feel old.

After seeing Joanna Newsom’s name on some critics’ favourites lists, I got a copy of her Ys album. Alas, I lasted about a song and a half before giving up. I just can’t endure her singing voice. Sorry.

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah’s self-titled album reminds me a lot of the Talking Heads and their More Songs About Buildings And Food. The guitars are doing all sorts of interesting things that blend together, and the lead singer’s voice is a bit, erm, adenoidal. I’m going to be listening to this again.

And, while I’m thinking about music, I just wanted to mention that I’ve fallen in love with Bikini Kill’s “Feels Blind”. Three chords, feedback, and attitude. That’s all you need to be great.

Today’s Toronto Star contains the results of a Decima Research poll that named the environment as the issue that was troubling Canadians the most. I’m not surprised. It’s 10C as I write this. In January. Did I mention yet that I’m scared now?

One of those days

You know those days when you feel positive and upbeat and full of energy? This isn’t one of those days for me, so I apologize in advance.

I still think that the new spiral fluorescent light bulbs are cool, but I see a potential problem showing up if they become popular: each of these bulbs contains a tiny bit of mercury. This isn’t enough to cause a health hazard, but it does mean that you can’t just throw your old CFL bulbs out – you have to take them to a special place where hazardous stuff is taken care of. If millions of consumers start buying CFL bulbs, how many of these consumers are just going to throw the bulbs out when they burn out? Will that create an environmental hazard a few years down the road?

The problem is that new inventions sometimes have unexpected uses or consequences. The telephone was apparently originally intended as a broadcast medium, not as a method of person-to-person communication. The development of universal broadband Internet access has accelerated the trend towards outsourcing – if you can send megabytes of files from North America to countries such as India (and vice versa) quickly and efficiently, outsourcing your company’s computer needs becomes more practical. And DDT, now considered lethal to the environment, was once hailed as a saviour because it reduced the threat of malaria.

The blank verse spam poetry I got in my email today is hauntingly beautiful, at least up until the ending:

Winds blow sharp, what then?
Silence. Your way of being. Your way of seeing
Allowing me to let your picture form and wake
Are muffled into silence that refuses
Preface to the 1970 Edition
III. Earliest Recorded Northern Explorers: The Greeks and the Vikings
I am sleeping, and dreaming, and wandering along
That open before me? What I see
At four, the spectators leave in pairs, off
Brush the lone giant in that somber pall.
I do not betray you, I still go forward,
Where lamps are lit: these, too,
That desire has ever built, have approached
Microsoft Windows Vista is now ready to download!

I love F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby to pieces. I can’t really tell you why. It’s set in the 1920s, which helps: I’ve always been a sucker for that period of history. Perhaps it’s the ending:

Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter—to-morrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther. . . . And one fine morning——

So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.

I’m getting old enough that I know this feeling all too well. The Great Gatsby is in the public domain: you can check it out here or here.

Lately, I’ve been on a mission to try to get caught up on what’s new in music. I fell behind a bit after emusic.com stopped offering unlimited downloads for a fixed monthly price, but am trying to catch up now. Now, I think I’m up to what was cool about six years ago!

Three different friends of mine have directly or indirectly recommended Sigur Rós, so I got hold of a copy of their Ágætis Byrjun album. (I had to cut and paste to get the proper special characters – I have no idea how this will read on your browser.) This is perfect for a gloomy late fall day: it’s atmospheric and it kind of swoops at you.

I like moody, atmospheric bands (as I mentioned already, I’ve been listening to a lot of Slowdive lately). Given my tendency to feel gloomy lately, I should probably be listening to more cheerful songs – such as “Pop Goes The World” by Men Without Hats, which is the most fun dumb song I know – but fuck that. I’m going to save the cheerful stuff for when I feel cheerful. Besides, I’d rather feel intense emotion, even if it’s bad, than feel nothing at all. I get scared when I go numb.

An inconvenient truth, part 2

The book version of Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth lists a bunch of things we ordinary consumers can do to try to maybe ensure that Florida isn’t under 20 feet of water by mid-century. Like most of us, I’m doing a few of them, but probably not enough; some of them, I have no control over. Here’s a couple of them:

Choose energy-efficient lighting. I did not know that compact fluorescent lights (CFLs) use much much less energy than standard light bulbs: a 13-watt CFL is as bright as a standard 60-watt light bulb. And it lasts longer, too, if the promotional material on the CFL packaging is to be believed: apparently, the bulbs I just bought will last until 2011.

According to Gore, if every household in the U.S. substituted one CFL bulb for one ordinary bulb, it would be equivalent to removing one million cars from American roads. (Fast Company magazine has an article describing the potential energy-saving and cost-saving benefits of CFLs in more detail. The numbers are kind of startling.)

Use your appliances efficiently: For example, your stove shouldn’t be next to your refrigerator. That makes sense. (And reminds me of the old Steven Wright routine about buying a dehumidifier and a humidifier, putting them in the same room, and letting them battle it out.) They also suggest only using your washer and dishwasher with full loads; me, I’ve never owned a dishwasher in my life. So there.

Heat and cool your house efficiently: I’ve never lived anywhere where I had control of my own heat. Seriously. I’ve mostly been in high-rises, except once when I lived in a duplex and the downstairs neighbours controlled the heat. (Which is a story in itself.) Right now, my apartment is way too warm, as it’s set for weather that’s colder than what we’ve had recently. It’s also set warm enough so that people who face north don’t freeze under normal winter conditions. I face south, and I had to open a window just now.

Bag your groceries in a reusable bag: I don’t do this, but I reuse my plastic grocery bags for wrapping my kitchen garbage in, so that I can dump it down the garbage chute of my building. I don’t know whether I get part marks for this.

Carry your own refillable bottle for water and other beverages: I used to be really bad about this, as I bought a bottle of water a day for the longest time. A few months ago, I bought one of those water purifier thingies that filters tap water. And, today, I finally found a refillable bottle – I was going to buy milk at the grocery store, and the refillable bottle display was right there. Woo hoo!

Reduce air travel: I haven’t flown anywhere since 2001. This isn’t because I’m an eco-warrior: it’s because I can’t afford it right now. (The moral: to become more energy-efficient, become poorer.)

Right now, my biggest environmental offense is my love of takeout food. That’s a lot of packaging, alas. If it weren’t for that, I’d be doing pretty well. Sorry about that, everybody.