A new video
Metro Vancouver has a long way to go before it can call itself a livable region. Why are we further committing ourselves to car orientation? Building roads just adds to the problem we’re trying to address, and just think of the transit service $3.9 billion could buy.
Driving, shopping, advertising, consumer culture, Hummers, sprawl, it’s all here. Our addiction to the status quo is quickly working against our needs for community, complete infrastructure, and efficient ways of getting around. What in the hell are we doing?
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Stephen Rees's blog 
Go Stephen! Nice video.
Carless in Seattle
April 17, 2008 at 9:25 am
It is maddening.
Today’s Vancouver Sun has yet another column by Babara Yaffe on peak oil with a focus on the potential decimation of air travel as we know it ( http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/editorial/story.html?id=4da2acd1-aa12-4d22-adf9-4e611a93a258 ). She consults Anthony Perl who was just appointed to the Via Rail board by Stephen Harper … which makes me wonder if the PM is halfways paying attention after all. She quotes him slamming gateway.
After reading Yaffe’s column I rechecked the Energy Watch Group’s posted report and, yep, there it is on pages 68 and 70, the tell-all graphs about the world production of conventional (i.e. cheap) oil which by their best estimates peaked in 2006 ( http://www.energywatchgroup.org/fileadmin/global/pdf/EWG_Oilreport_10-2007.pdf ).
Apparently the 3.9 billion will be spent in vain and will further drain the public realm of vital resources that should be distributed to more appropriate things like building human-scale transit-based communities and, pardon the pun, beefing up our food security.
Meredith
April 17, 2008 at 10:40 am
[…] Peak Oil Graphs Posted in energy by Stephen Rees on April 17th, 2008 This is to help bring out the point Meredith made in a recent comment […]
Peak Oil Graphs « Stephen Rees’s blog
April 17, 2008 at 11:09 am
Thank you Meredith
As always your comments are most enlightening. I have created a new post to accommodate the graphs you refer to
Stephen Rees
April 17, 2008 at 11:10 am
zoom zoom zoom—-yes I recently saw a tv car ad , which looked like it was shot in vancouver—when this little car ran into gridlock–it simply bounced high in the air,then landed and bounced over the gridlock–and the 4 passengers in this vehicle were smiling and happy as they bounced their way around the city! I personally don`t believe gateway is going to happen! campbell and falcon didn`t move fast enough —I bet falcon wishes we were in china ( falcon stated to the vancouver board of trade in 2006 or early 2007 after returning from china ) boy china`s great–goverment decides to do something and its done!–no public consultation–no enviromental assessment——just move the people and do it !–wow if we could operate that way! I think that speaks volumes! signed…………………………………………toll toll toll
grant g
April 17, 2008 at 12:55 pm
Great video!
I guess the idea of helping our economy through supporting local agriculture, local artisans, and local anything else hasn’t crossed their minds.
Erika Rathje
April 18, 2008 at 10:37 pm
I was doing a stand up for Radio Canada (French TV) yesterday at Deltaport and someone passing by interrupted angrily “Do you know how much money this port puts into Tsawwassen? We need the jobs!”
Considering there is a shortage of labour here – and has been for some time (mainly due to the price of housing) I found his attitude incomprehensible
Stephen Rees
April 19, 2008 at 6:50 am