| I think the person you are replying to was being a little hyperbolic, but you can look at human-caused climate change and the effects on a spectrum based on whatever information you've obtained in your life. For some, naively, it means nothing will happen and it's all a "big government liberal hoax". For others it's an actual "apocalypse" with tidal waves and volcanoes erupting or something (also incorrect). But just like in normal life, you can chop both ends of the hysteria off because they're not useful, they're just the loudest. Global warming was probably a bad name choice, but it described the "thing happening" and not the effects. Climate change is probably a better term for it. It is a crises. Places like the American Gulf Coast and West Coast are in for a rough time ahead that's going to require gigantic expenses that probably won't materialize to solve problems. Aside from the actual effects that will occur, the degree of severity and location can certainly be debated within some sort of reasonable parameters, we really fucked ourselves with this car-first infrastructure. It's a gigantic tax on productivity. All the money that goes into maintaining cars, roads, parking lots, etc. while losing natural habitats, gaining obesity, and unnecessary deaths because instead of walking a half mile round trip to a local grocery store you have to drive 30 miles to go to Costco. I've also noticed comments about "living packed like sardines", which shows me that those making these comments really haven't thought much about this walkability thing. While I'd argue something like Hong Kong is better than Houston on just about every metric except the illusion of having "land", it's also not a desirable outcome. Better to look at Europe where small towns and villages, and medium-sized cities dot the landscape. If you still want to live in a rural community or live on a property with a lot of acreage nobody is stopping you! What we're trying to stop is a top-down program that enforces suburbia, to the benefit of car manufacturers and government transportation budgets, and to the degradation of the rest of us. You should be looking at mixed-use walkable neighborhoods as your model for the future. This "either Hong Kong or Houston" discussion is nonsense. And us Americans know this at their core. That's why they all "love Europe" and "love the cafe on the corner". Building in this way solves just about every problem we have. It can't be stressed enough how fucked up urban planning and architecture are making our country. |