In Edmonton there are a number of massive, I mean really massive road work projects underway, these have been going on for years now it seems. When i travel into Edmonton I have to pass the junction of highway 16(Yellow head) and highway 43 which some consider to be the lowest end of the Alaska Highway, there is a single bridge on highway 16 which is a divided highway over the end of the highway 43. There are lots of big trucks and all sorts of other travellers over this intersection and I have never seen an accident there in over 40 years of passing over this bridge never mind and sort of traffic congestion or traffic jam.
Then we come to the diabolical mess that is being perpetrated on the citizens of Edmonton at the junction of the same highway 16 and the still being constructed "The Henday" This engineering "wet dream" seems to fulfil all the criteria of "milking the system" for all the money that we can possibly make. One of those "shovel ready" projects literally. The sheer volume of dirt moved would probably equal that of a small mountain, maybe a couple of great pyramids, A few thousand tons of steel for the,Ive lost count of the number of under and over bridges in this intersection, and the thousands of tons of concrete and reinforcing steel. All so that a few drivers can turn the corner or not fast. In my opinion a colossal waste of money. Ah but it employed a lot of people you say, well i can think of a few better ways of employing a lot of people,
1) How about building some greenhouses on the reclaimed land that uses the waste heat from the power generating stations at Genesee, then the citizens of Edmonton can get fresh garden vegetables year round from less than 50 miles away, instead of via the airport or the highway trucks coming up all the way from California or similar distant lands. I have a feeling that it would be a lot less expensive.
2)How about a few low footbridges over the river in the downtown area and on out to to the zoo, surely we have the technology to build some beautifully engineered suspension bridges over the river, after all the capture wires used on the Canada Arm were made right here at the International Airport in Spar Aerospace. I have a feeling that they would cost a lot less as well.
Oh but the bridges do not include the "Almighty Automobile" what a pity, then what is the point if it is only for people walking or riding bicycles or pushing baby carriages.
As the world moves closer to a serious decline in the oil production These massive traffic projects will be seen as more and more huge white elephants, and people will wonder why nobody was thinking about the real future and not the fantasy one that seems to be captivating the politicians minds.
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Another lost opportunity
I listened to the budget speech today and I have to wonder if there is any sense in hoping that, one day our government will make the decision to take the courageous step of admitting, that continued economic growth in a finite world will not work.
We need to do things differently if we do not want to destroy our habitat. Making real changes is not easy after many years of being told that growth is good for the community, and for the country, and for the world at large. Not once during the entire speech was there a mention of the ecological costs of making the country a free tariff zone. Nature is not free, although economists seem to regard it as such.
Some years ago I read a book about finance that was quite a revelation to me, it was called “Your Money or Your Life” it was a game changer for me. I still have made plenty of mistakes regarding how I managed my finances, but the seed that the author planted hit a chord that has continued to grow louder each year. The whole concept of getting out there to spend money to help the economy “grow” strikes me as pretty absurd if I really think hard about it. I do not need any more stuff, certainly I need to buy food, and clothing when it is worn out. I have 9 bicycles that I picked up for free at the local waste transfer station (dump). I would like to see a budget that advocated repairing broken equipment, reducing the speed limits to half of what they are presently, to reducing spending on more and bigger roads, curtailing lavish subsides to resource extraction, to tax cuts to corporations. Improve transit systems, and education. Include a tax on products that travel more than a specified distance, (an idea from a good friend) that would make local products and services more favorable. I will continue to work toward reducing my own footprint on the planet and hope that one of these days the government of the day will take the leap we need to take.
We need to do things differently if we do not want to destroy our habitat. Making real changes is not easy after many years of being told that growth is good for the community, and for the country, and for the world at large. Not once during the entire speech was there a mention of the ecological costs of making the country a free tariff zone. Nature is not free, although economists seem to regard it as such.
Some years ago I read a book about finance that was quite a revelation to me, it was called “Your Money or Your Life” it was a game changer for me. I still have made plenty of mistakes regarding how I managed my finances, but the seed that the author planted hit a chord that has continued to grow louder each year. The whole concept of getting out there to spend money to help the economy “grow” strikes me as pretty absurd if I really think hard about it. I do not need any more stuff, certainly I need to buy food, and clothing when it is worn out. I have 9 bicycles that I picked up for free at the local waste transfer station (dump). I would like to see a budget that advocated repairing broken equipment, reducing the speed limits to half of what they are presently, to reducing spending on more and bigger roads, curtailing lavish subsides to resource extraction, to tax cuts to corporations. Improve transit systems, and education. Include a tax on products that travel more than a specified distance, (an idea from a good friend) that would make local products and services more favorable. I will continue to work toward reducing my own footprint on the planet and hope that one of these days the government of the day will take the leap we need to take.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
More wasted money south of the border
One of the things that I find particularly strange is the current
appliance rebates program the American government is pursuing, that is intended to improve energy efficiency and stimulate the economy. It is reported that $300 million dollars will be rebated to those buying certain new appliances.
This strikes me as another silly political maneuver calculated to lull people away from the real issues. Fraudulent banking practices, massive campaigns to prop up the "corporatization" of the planet. Where are the new appliances being manufactured? If they are being manufactured close to where they are used then there might be some validity to the program. If the majority of the new appliances are being manufactured overseas, it would seem to negate any gains over the cradle to grave life cycle of them.
Anyone who thinks that these sorts of programs that are limited to our southern neighbors will not affect us in Canada are I think dreaming.
After the American government bailed out the auto industry, Canada followed suit. And the Canadian Dollar is always compared to the American Dollar. If the American Dollar goes down the toilet guess what?
I think it would be far more prudent to begin introducing policies that seriously curbed the phenomenal wastage of petroleum products, being burned like there is no tomorrow, on the ridiculously heavy and rather over powered auto fleet.
The other question which comes to mind regarding the fate of all of the old appliances and the associated materials involved in there manufacture. How are they recycled? Where does the material go? And how much of it is simply wasted, and land filled.
appliance rebates program the American government is pursuing, that is intended to improve energy efficiency and stimulate the economy. It is reported that $300 million dollars will be rebated to those buying certain new appliances.
This strikes me as another silly political maneuver calculated to lull people away from the real issues. Fraudulent banking practices, massive campaigns to prop up the "corporatization" of the planet. Where are the new appliances being manufactured? If they are being manufactured close to where they are used then there might be some validity to the program. If the majority of the new appliances are being manufactured overseas, it would seem to negate any gains over the cradle to grave life cycle of them.
Anyone who thinks that these sorts of programs that are limited to our southern neighbors will not affect us in Canada are I think dreaming.
After the American government bailed out the auto industry, Canada followed suit. And the Canadian Dollar is always compared to the American Dollar. If the American Dollar goes down the toilet guess what?
I think it would be far more prudent to begin introducing policies that seriously curbed the phenomenal wastage of petroleum products, being burned like there is no tomorrow, on the ridiculously heavy and rather over powered auto fleet.
The other question which comes to mind regarding the fate of all of the old appliances and the associated materials involved in there manufacture. How are they recycled? Where does the material go? And how much of it is simply wasted, and land filled.
Sunday, February 21, 2010
An interesting thought
I have just been reading a blog by Scott B about limiting the speed of all vehicular traffic to 34MPH or 55KPH max speed This is a very interesting blog and I am beginning to wonder if our rush to get anywhere isn't rather short sighted.
I have already started driving at 80KPH most of the time. Most of my driving is on the highway and pretty much everybody passes me, I am not bothered by this because it saves a lot of fuel, and being on a fixed income this saving is very important for my budget.
The big question for me is what is the hurry?
I remember a friend once telling me that if you add up all of the costs that are associated with driving a car, The energy it takes to earn the money to pay all the expenses, it amounts to an average of 4MPH, if you convert all of the time taken to earn those monies into hours divided by the hours driving.
I am not sure of the math involved, but it does indeed seem like we spend a great deal of time and energy just to be able to drive 3 blocks, to pick up a cup of coffee at the local drive through.
The whole drive through issue will be the topic of another post.
I have already started driving at 80KPH most of the time. Most of my driving is on the highway and pretty much everybody passes me, I am not bothered by this because it saves a lot of fuel, and being on a fixed income this saving is very important for my budget.
The big question for me is what is the hurry?
I remember a friend once telling me that if you add up all of the costs that are associated with driving a car, The energy it takes to earn the money to pay all the expenses, it amounts to an average of 4MPH, if you convert all of the time taken to earn those monies into hours divided by the hours driving.
I am not sure of the math involved, but it does indeed seem like we spend a great deal of time and energy just to be able to drive 3 blocks, to pick up a cup of coffee at the local drive through.
The whole drive through issue will be the topic of another post.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Cowards
Some thoughts today about the continued hope, that as a species we learn to stop killing each other in the most cowardly ways. I watched a news clip the other day that is still bothering me.
It entailed a group of five young men taken to the town square some where in Nigeria; they were handcuffed behind their backs, told to lay face down. A soldier then walked over, and using a semi automatic rifle shot each one dead through the middle of the upper back.
Just writing about it has upset me all over again.
It brings to mind some questions about why we behave this way toward one another.
Were these politically motivated killings?
Were they meting out punishment to criminals?
Were they simply cleaning out members of a different tribal group (political)?
Were these young men themselves killers?
Whatever the reason, these young men were killed by cowards plain and simple. Ours is the only species on the planet to kill in a cowardly way, why is that?
I think that if we had to face our foe/opponent/enemy face to face and kill with our bare hands that we would develop much more tolerant ways toward each other, which would be a good thing both for the species and the planet.
It entailed a group of five young men taken to the town square some where in Nigeria; they were handcuffed behind their backs, told to lay face down. A soldier then walked over, and using a semi automatic rifle shot each one dead through the middle of the upper back.
Just writing about it has upset me all over again.
It brings to mind some questions about why we behave this way toward one another.
Were these politically motivated killings?
Were they meting out punishment to criminals?
Were they simply cleaning out members of a different tribal group (political)?
Were these young men themselves killers?
Whatever the reason, these young men were killed by cowards plain and simple. Ours is the only species on the planet to kill in a cowardly way, why is that?
I think that if we had to face our foe/opponent/enemy face to face and kill with our bare hands that we would develop much more tolerant ways toward each other, which would be a good thing both for the species and the planet.
Saturday, February 6, 2010
What If?
I have been thinking about the issue of the global financial system for a while now, and a few thoughts have come to mind.
Most of these thoughts have been discarded as we do with cerebral chatter. One thought keeps coming to the front however, most likely this will be dismissed out of hand.
What if the entire world forgave the global debt carried by all governments and businesses?disbanded the IMF and the World Bank. What would be the consequences?
I think that the globes parasites would suddenly find themselves lacking a host! and I think that that might be a good thing. Think about it every single government could suddenly use the taxes that it collected to help the citizens of its country.
What about the debts to the businesses that have done work for governments you say. well those businesses would also have had all their debts forgiven as well.
We are now at square one.
6 billion people on the planet who need feeding, medicine, and shelter. who grows the food? who knows how to grow the food? How do we help the sick and dying? Who knows how to help the sick and dying? How do we shelter 6 billion people? Who knows how to build shelters for the people that need it(everyone)?
These are obviously rhetorical questions, but I ask them of myself with all sincerity as a citizen of planet Earth. When do we abandon the the insane ideology that we can forever grow on a finite planet? When do we realize that continuing along this trajectory will ultimately end in extinction, probably of ourselves, and most likely of much of the other life on this small spaceship in our corner of the Universe.
Most of these thoughts have been discarded as we do with cerebral chatter. One thought keeps coming to the front however, most likely this will be dismissed out of hand.
What if the entire world forgave the global debt carried by all governments and businesses?disbanded the IMF and the World Bank. What would be the consequences?
I think that the globes parasites would suddenly find themselves lacking a host! and I think that that might be a good thing. Think about it every single government could suddenly use the taxes that it collected to help the citizens of its country.
What about the debts to the businesses that have done work for governments you say. well those businesses would also have had all their debts forgiven as well.
We are now at square one.
6 billion people on the planet who need feeding, medicine, and shelter. who grows the food? who knows how to grow the food? How do we help the sick and dying? Who knows how to help the sick and dying? How do we shelter 6 billion people? Who knows how to build shelters for the people that need it(everyone)?
These are obviously rhetorical questions, but I ask them of myself with all sincerity as a citizen of planet Earth. When do we abandon the the insane ideology that we can forever grow on a finite planet? When do we realize that continuing along this trajectory will ultimately end in extinction, probably of ourselves, and most likely of much of the other life on this small spaceship in our corner of the Universe.
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