Tag Archives: air pollution
City Growth – The Smart Way
There has been much discussion about growth in my community and its impacts upon the quality of life of residents. I live in Silicon Valley which is currently undergoing an upturn in high-tech job growth which is considered healthy for our economy. But we are paying a heavy price in traffic congestion which is impacting our quality of life with more street noise, greater difficulty in getting around town, less safe streets, and increased air pollution…. But what if the cities planned new high density housing along existing transit corridors leading to major job centers in our city? What if there was a development within walking or biking distance from a major work center like Apple or Google where there was a large affordable housing complex incorporating a shopping center, daycare, offices for doctors, lawyers, etc. and even a school and library… Continue reading
Posted in Environment, Transportation Alternative
Tagged affordable housing, air pollution, growth impact, high density housing, housing growth, impact, job growth, minimize impact, public transportation, quality of life, Silicon Valley, Smart Growth, traffic, traffic congestion, transportation alternatives
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Sustainable
All living organisms on earth with the exception of man unknowingly obey Darwin’s theory of Evolution. Man has global impact due to his mobility and the shear volume of his pollution. That is because of man’s ability to create his own environment by consuming an enormous variety and amount of global resources just to build his communities. Medical science has made it possible to reduce the mortality rate of young, defective, and weak human beings to such an extent that his population continues to increase from 1 billion in 1800 to over 7 billion today in a little over 200 years and there is little letup as it increases by almost a billion every 15 years. Continue reading
Posted in Environment
Tagged air pollution, compete in a global economy, enviornment, evolution, medical science, population growth, resouces
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Negative Political Campaigns are unDemocratic
Somehow negative campaigns turn me off as I am getting older but unfortunately I see how effective they can be. But they are very distracting and confusing as political campaigns tend to be. With PACs and Super-PACs and now the ability of rich individuals and corporations to contribute almost endless amounts of money to their favorite candidates, parties and voting issues as part of free expression political campaigns are very big business. And as such candidate hires very pricy spin-doctors whose job it is to make their candidate look godlike and their opponents look like pure evil campaigns get uglier and uglier. This is truly a tragedy that Democracy is no longer about the truth about candidates but about winning. That is why we have a Congress that is so inept. Continue reading
The Price we Pay for Gas in the US
Since the price of oils is a commodity it is fixed everywhere around the world, so the difference people worldwide pay at the pump is based primarily upon the taxes imposed by each state or nation. In general the more wealthy the people are of a nation have the higher the taxes imposed upon fuel. The single most blatant exception is the United States where we have by far the lowest tax rate on gasoline of all the developed nations and most developing nations. Fuel is considered a luxury everywhere else except the United States. Currently the United States federal tax for gasoline is $.0184 per gallon vs. for example Germany where the tax is around $3.50 per gallon or about 20 time higher than the U.S. Continue reading
Posted in Economy, Government, Social Issues, Society
Tagged air pollution, better public transportation, developed nations, gasoline tax, gass guzzling cars, high speed rail, inconvenience of car ownership, oils is a commodity, standard of living, US has lowest gas tax, walking and biking
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ouR Social Conscience 