We're losing our Garden

Reaction to the IPCC report is strong.

IPCC is the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. the world's best science is telling us that we need to ACT NOW. To limit our Earth's temperature rise to two Centigrade degrees, we need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) to 40-70 percent of what they were in 2010. We as a planet need to shift gears. Our current ways of doing things are not sustainable. Do we really want to mess us Garden Earth?

Defossilization is now a new word, pronounced with many different accents, in the world vocabulary of environmental discourse. It means that we need to reduce the burning of fossil fuels to do so many things -- heat our buildings, move around, generate electricity, etc. It's just making it too hot in the Garden. We need to act.

While that threatens those making money in the oil, car and coal industries, it opens great opportunities for others to create new wealth in the transition to sustainable energy. "It's eminently affordable," declared 350.org to those who abhor next taxes to raise trillions of dollars for new infrastructure. Given the IPCC-documented costs that Climate Change is already bringing, defossilization is a compelling investment.

In cities and towns of the New Economy walking, biking and public transit are to be encouraged. Happily, solar powered ATN is a potent addition to the mix, reinforcing existing rail and spreading a fine mesh of service access to most districts and neighborhoods. What will the stations look like? What do they mean for architects, designers and planners? How will community life change?

TOOL UP: Urban and airport progressives will gather in Stockholm this coming September 3-5 to assess the options and take sustainable transportation to the next level at the 8th Podcar City conference. For more info or to reserve a place for your corporate or professional name in the PCC8 Booklet, email lfabian21@gmail.com.

Post-Car Urbanism:  Implications for Town & Airport District Planning

The 8^th annual Podcar City conference will advance the vision of sustainable urban transportation that reduces our auto-addiction and its high costs. Most modern countries are auto-addicted. Recent converts are in oil-rich areas and the choking cities and towns of India and China.

Auto-addiction is life when cars serve almost all everyday needs. On the whole, and especially from a community viewpoint, this degrades the quality of life. Whenever too many people want to gather somewhere, parking becomes a problem. If more people walked, rode bikes or came by transit attractive enough to make them prefer it, community life would improve. Automated Transit Networks (ATNs) do that. Planners, civic designers and landscape and building architects need guidelines. PCC8 will help create them by addressing issues head on.

Airports present special challenges. PCC8 will learn from professional studies of sustainable development underway near Stockholm’s Arlanda Airport. What efficiencies can be achieved to create good jobs for thousands of Swedes? Mark your calendars for September 3-5 north of Stockholm.

Conference Theme

Here are the themes to be explored in the PCC8 program:

·   Revitalization of maturing suburbs and inner neighborhoods

·   Rationalization of airport clutter into airfront development

·   Definition of the evolving range of ATN options including solar

·   Innovative remote parking solutions, robo-valets, and urban infill

·   How PPPs can finance and implement infrastructure projects

The  Icebreaker on Wednesday, September 3 will be close up and personal with the Podcar Station Display  already greeting from afar thousands of highway motorists approaching Arlanda Airport. The conference technical sessions will take place September 4 and 5 at the Arlanda Radisson.   

For current information on PCC8 and to register, www.podcarcity.org.