Organizing Salem around cars and pouring money into autosprawl amenities like the Bridgasaurus Boondogglus is killing us.
The millions squandered on that should be spent on making Salem safe, convenient and accessible for all, rich and poor, young and old, with or without disabilities. That means first a robust transit system and then sustained, amply funded attention to bike and pedestrian access, not yet more money to serve single occupant vehicles and promote sprawl to the west of town.
We need to make it a priority to ensure that every child in Salem gets abundant, daily physical exercise, and has a working bicycle and lots of safe routes to ride on. That would be an outstanding use for the money we are currently giving CH2M-Hill to plot how to worsen our city.
> Without taking measures such as weight loss and increased exercise, 15 percent to 30 percent of people with prediabetes typically go on to develop type 2 diabetes within five years, the CDC report said. . . .
> Left untreated, diabetes boosts the risk of serious health problems such as heart disease, stroke, vision loss, kidney failure, limb amputation and premature death. Diabetes can be managed through physical activity, diet and the use of insulin and medications to lower blood sugar levels.
> Unless diabetes can be prevented or well treated and blood sugar controlled, we face an escalating and devastating future of human and financial cost," she said.
Wednesday, June 11, 2014
Tuesday, June 10, 2014
Frighteningly accurate prophecy
In the 1960s, John Brunner wrote two astoundingly prescient novels, Stand on Zanzibar and The Sheep Look Up.
In these dystopian times, it is a strange sensation to greet each new horror (like today's shooting in Troutdale) with a sad feeling of recognition and to think, "Ah, so he was right about that too."
Get a gift match 1-1: Only 3 days left!
$10 could buy you a nice lunch or a new book. Most of the time $10 donated to Marion-Polk Food Share provides 1 family with a 3-4 day supply of emergency food. For 3 more days only your $10 can provide assistance for up to 7 hungry families.
Rick GaupoPresident & CEOMarion-Polk Food ShareP.S. - If you have already heard about the match and have made a gift thank you! I will be sure to let you know your impact as soon as all of the numbers are tallied.
Click Here to Give Today
Sunday, June 8, 2014
Going to Eugene this Summer?
Consider trying the Amtrak Cascades, a nice way to go.
With a nice 30% fare discount running until Sep. 12
Take Amtrak Cascades to Eugene: Leave your car and save big! (PDF attached) 06/04/2014 June 4, 2014
For more information: Shelley M. Snow, ODOT Public Affairs, (503) 986-3438, mobile/text: (503) 881-5362
SALEM - The Oregon Department of Transportation is partnering with Amtrak Cascades and Lane Transit District for the ninth annual "Dump the Pump" campaign, encouraging commuters and other travelers to take an alternative to a personal car on an upcoming journey or two...or ten!
During June, if your destination, via Amtrak Cascades or POINT (Amtrak Thruway) bus, is Eugene*, then you get a free day pass for Lane Transit District (LTD). LTD provides connections in Eugene, Springfield and throughout Lane County – even up to the McKenzie River area. It just goes to show: sometimes you can get around without a car!
National "Dump the Pump Day," Thursday, June 19, is aimed at raising awareness of the financial and environmental benefits of choosing a commute option other than driving alone (use an alternate mode of transportation, and you don't have to go to the gas pump!). In addition to saving on LTD bus fares, travelers on Amtrak Cascades in the Willamette Valley may take advantage of a 30% discount running now until Sept. 12. (You must use this link to access the discount.)
"We're hoping people who haven't taken our passenger trains lately, or ever, will venture out," said Hal Gard, ODOT Rail & Public Transit Division Administrator. "We have the two new trainsets now, so we're encouraging everyone to consider the train/bus option. Give it a try – you might find you really like it."
Get the details (PDF attached) on the free day pass from LTD, and prepare to dump the pump!
##ODOT##
*Take the train or bus from Portland, Oregon City, Woodburn, Salem or Albany. For 30% off details, visit http://www.amtrak.com/save-30-percent-between-portland-and-eugene-on-amtrak-cascades.
Second of Two Great Events (starting) at Straub, Sunday June 15
Subject: Two Events at Straub Environmental Center this coming weekend!
Reply-To: FSELC Upcoming Events <fselc@fselc.org>
Spring Nature Hike
Sunday, June 15th
Kingston Prairie
Meet at Straub Environmental Center to carpool
8am - 11:30am
This 52-acre Nature Conservancy Preserve southeast of Stayton is the best example of native prairie remaining in the Central Willamette Valley. Both wet and dry habitats harbor native grasses and a host of wildflowers. The hike is free and open to the public.
To register and get carpooling instructions, call John Savage at 503-399-8615 after 7p.m.
First of Two Great Events at Straub Environmental Center
Subject: Two Events at Straub Environmental Center this coming weekend!
Reply-To: FSELC Upcoming Events <fselc@fselc.org>
Citizen Science Class
Saturday, June 14th
Straub Environmental Center
12noon - 4pm
$5/person
Citizen Science is the collection and analysis of data relating to the natural world by members of the general public, typically as part of a collaborative project with professional scientists.
Join other community members in an opportunity to be involved in collecting authentic and meaningful data to support the preservation of species and ecosystems with our first ever Citizen Science Class at Straub Enviornmental Center!
In partnership with the City of Salem and School District employees, participants will:
- Participate in two local data collection projects – Urban Tree Inventory and Neighborhood Inventory
- Investigate a wide variety of regional and national data collection opportunities online
- Select a project to participate in
- Share the experience of data collection at an August meeting
Please RSVP at nichole@fselc.org or via phone at (503) 391-4145
Awesome resource for every thinker: Quandl - Find, Use and Share Numerical Data
http://www.quandl.com/about/data
THIS is what the Interwebs are for. Like a giant planet-sized reference library that you can wander through to your heart's content.
Genius.
THIS is what the Interwebs are for. Like a giant planet-sized reference library that you can wander through to your heart's content.
Genius.
Saturday, June 7, 2014
Just because the 3rd Bridge will never happen . . .
. . . Is no reason to be sanguine about the huge wasted effort Salem is funding.
The excellent summary explanation of Peak Oil (where oil supply, the lifeblood of industrial societies, stays flat or grows very little, despite massive increases in spending to maintain that supply) illustrates how little time we have to boost our resiliency and prepare for the unavoidable, the era when private motoring returns to being a pleasure reserves for the wealthy, the way flying is today.
Salem has sprawled in a particularly destructive way, setting itself up for real trouble, because we've acted as if the bills for that sprawl will never come due. But reality is not to be denied, and the critical reality of today is that the era of abundant wealth being pulled straight out of the ground with little or no effort is over, so we are soon to experience the wealth contraction ratchet, where all our squirming will only cause the ratchet to contract faster.
The worst thing we can do is squander precious capital on autosprawl amenities like the Bridgasaurus Boondogglus. Spending money to try to maintain the good old days of sprawl development is like tying a cinderblock to each leg before trying to run a marathon -- not only stupid in itself, but counterproductive to the conditions we will soon be facing.
http://read.feedly.com/html?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.resilience.org%2Fstories%2F2014-06-06%2Fpeak-oil-revisited&theme=white&size=medium
In a lecture to the Columbia University Center on Global Energy Policy in February of 2014 Steven Kopits, who is the Managing Director of the consultancy, Douglas Westwood explains how conventional "legacy" oil production peaked in 2005 and has not increased since. All the increase in oil production since that date has been from unconventional sources like the Alberta Tar sands, from shale oil or natural gas liquids that are a by-product of shale gas production. This is despite a massive increase in investment by the oil industry that has not yielded any increase in 'conventional oil' production but has merely served to slow what would otherwise have been a faster decline.
More specifically the total spend on upstream oil and gas exploration and production from 2005 to 2013 was $4 trillion. Of that $3.5 trillion was spent on the 'legacy' oil and gas system. This is a sum of money equal to the GDP of Germany. Despite all that investment in conventional oil production it fell by 1 million barrels a day. By way of comparison investment of $1.5 trillion between 1998 and 2005 yielded an increase in oil production of 8.6 million barrels a day.
Further to this, unfortunately for the oil industry, it has not been possible for oil prices to rise high enough to cover the increasing capital expenditure and operating costs. This is because high oil prices lead to recessionary conditions and slow or no growth in the economy. Because prices are not rising fast enough, and costs are increasing, the costs of the independent oil majors are rising at 2 to 3% a year more than their revenues. Overall profitability is falling and some oil majors have had to borrow and sell assets to pay dividends. The next stage in this crisis has then been that investment projects are being cancelled – which suggests that oil production will soon begin to fall more rapidly.
The situation can be understood by reference to the nursery story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Goldilocks tries three kinds of porridge – some that is too hot, some that is too cold and some where the temperature is somewhere in the middle and therefore just right. The working assumption of mainstream economists is that there is an oil price that is not too high to undermine economic growth but also not too low so that the oil companies could not cover their extraction costs – a price that is just right. The problem is that the Goldilocks situation no longer describes what is happening – another story provides a better metaphor – that story is 'Catch 22'. According to Kopits the vast majority of the publically quoted oil majors require oil prices of over $100 a barrel to achieve positive cash flow and nearly a half need more than $120 a barrel. But it is these oil prices that drags down the economies of the OECD economies.
For several years however there have been some countries that have been able to afford the higher prices. The countries that have coped with the high energy prices best are the so called "emerging non OECD countries" and above all China. China has been bidding away an increasing part of the oil production and continuing to grow while higher energy prices have led to stagnation in the OECD economies. (Kopits, 2014)
Now lets put that in a bigger context. In a presentation to the All party Parliamentary Group on Peak Oil and Gas Charles Hall showed a number of diagrams on slides to express the consequences of depletion and rising energy costs of energy. I have taken just two of these diagrams here – comparing 1970 with what might be the case in 2030. (Hall C. , 2012) What they show is how the economy produces different sorts of stuff – some of the production is consumer goods – either staples (essentials) or discretionary (luxury) goods. The rest of production is devoted to goods that are used in production – investment goods in the form of machinery, equipment, buildings, roads, infrastracture and their maintenance. Some of these investment goods must take the form of energy acquisition equipment. As a society runs up against energy depletion and other problems more and more production must go into energy acquisition, infrastructure and maintenance – less and less is available for consumption, and particularly for discretionary consumption.
Click on images to enlarge
Whether the economy would evolve in this way can be questioned. As we seen the increasing needs of the oil and gas sector implies a transfer of resources from elsewhere through rising prices but the rest of the economy cannot actually pay this without crashing. That is what the above diagrams show – a transfer of resources from discretionary consumption to investment in energy infrastructure. But such a transfer would be crushing for the other sectors and their decline will likely drag down the whole economy.
Over the last few years central banks have had a policy of quantitative easing to try to keep interest rates low – the economy cannot pay high energy prices AND high interest rates so, in effect, the policy has been to try to bring down interest rates as low as possible to counter the stagnation. However, this has not really created production growth – it has instead created a succession of asset price bubbles. The underlying trend continues to be one of stagnation, decline and crisis. The severity of the recessions may be variable in different countries because competitive strength in this model goes to those countries where energy is used most efficiently and which can afford to pay somewhat higher prices for energy. Such countries are likely to do better but will not escape the general decline if they stay wedded to the conventional growth model. Whatever the variability this is still a dead end model and at some point people will see that entirely different ways of thinking about economy and ecology are needed – unless they get drawn into conflicts and wars over energy by psychopathic policy idiots. There is no way out of the Catch 22 within the growth economy model. That's why de-growth is needed.
References
Hall, C. (2012, March 30th). "Peak Oil, declining EROI and the new economic realities" The All party Parliamentary Group on Peak Oil and Gas:http://www.slideshare.net/APPGOPO/energy-return-on-energy-investment/ (Slides 94 and 98)
Thursday, June 5, 2014
it's the cars
Yes, the insane American diet of processed industrial phood is a huge problem.
But it's not the only one.
We have systematically won the war against our health and the health of our children (and the future of our species) by placing the infernal combustion engine on a carriage at the center of all domestic policy, successfully eliminating from our lives nearly all exertion.
In Salem, we have turned a city that should be a bicycling and pedestrian paradise into a lethal, obesity ridden, economically devastated tract pockmarked with ugly strips of autosprawl and vast acreages and vast portions of our public budgets devoted to nothing but care, feeding, and storage of cars, thus ensuring that each household must equip itself with its own private auto transport fleet at great expense, helping perpetuate both the poverty and the ill effects on health.
A city that requires people to have a car just to take part in the normal activities of life is a city that levies a huge unrecognized tax on its residents, a crushing burden that is part of a vicious cycle, where even those who most need transit oppose it because, with a crippled system like ours, the cost of transit is on top of the cost of the private transit fleet, instead of as an efficient, lower cost replacement.
The auto era is ending, however. The only question is how much sprawl we're going to shackle ourselves to first, how much development that will crater in value when most of the cars get parked or sold for scrap.
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Being Happy With Sugar
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Being Happy With Sugar
High-fructose corn syrup can't be a particular driver of the obesity epidemic in the U.S., Brouns says, "because obesity has grown just as quickly in countries that barely use HFCS. It is a misconception." For one example, Coca-Cola in Mexico famously contains sucrose in place of high-fructose corn syrup. "Natural" sodas at places like Whole Foods advertise that they, too, have sucrose or fruit-juice concentrate instead of HFCS. But Mexico has recently been jockeying with the United States for claim to the most obese country in the world.
Wednesday, June 4, 2014
Salem airport's strategy: you pay for their private plaything
But if the airport is going to continue to be "an economic engine," as Wales calls it, airport maintenance problems will have to be addressed. And paying for repairs and upgrades is expensive.
"Like most general aviation airports, money is tight," Wales said
Day-to-day operations of the airport are paid for with revenues generated at the airport, such as land leases and fuel fees. Dollars from the Federal Aviation Administration pay for the majority of big, capital projects. The city, however, still must come up with a 10 percent local match through grants or savings.
The city that has one half-starved library and one nearly gutted one less than a mile away, and that has no transit service at all on weekends and limited service weekdays -- that same city pours millions into subsidizing the airport for the 1% to enjoy, but not pay for.
In other words, this property doesn't generate tax revenue at all, it consumes it, both local and federal -- all so the 1% can enjoy the amenities, including the millions squandered on baggage handling facilities after there was no baggage to handle.
Some "economic engine."
Time to put out a request for bids--get the airport off welfare, put it to work: sell the operation to a private investor, let them operate it, setting the rates, and paying taxes. The businesses out there can form a company to be the buyer and can make all the improvements they want.
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