The Week’s Links

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I’m not going to be "bullied" by a bunch of over-heated penguins (NYT)
PBS’s Penguins of the Antarctic is slow, visually opulent and it makes New York Times television critic Virginia Heffernan feel bad about global climate change. So she pans it.

The Final Environmental Impact Statement for Atlantic Yards is Released (AYR)
Norman Oder reports: DDDB legal chair Candace Carponter said yesterday that the FEIS fails to adequately explore alternatives to the project or crucial issues like emergency response times for police and fire service. "The part about the traffic is almost a joke," she added, speaking at a community forum held at the Hanson Place United Methodist Church in Fort Greene. "We believe there are major flaws, because they worked so fast."

The Accident Externality From Driving
According to a study by Berkeley economist Aaron Edlin: "On balance, accident externalities are so large that a correcting Pigouvian tax could raise $45 billion annually in California alone, and over $140 billion nationally."

Is Peak Oil a Myth? (Oil Drum)
The Oil Drum responds to "Why the ‘Peak Oil’ Theory Falls Down," the heavily-publicized report from Daniel Yergin’s Cambridge Energy Research Associates.

General Motors Presents: Give Yourself the Green Light (GM)
An awesome 1954 industrial propaganda film starring Robert Moses and "the American dream of freedom on wheels, an automotive age traveling on time-saving superhighways, futurama’s free-flowing channels of concrete and steel…" Pop open a beer and watch this.

Photo: Ben Osborne/BBC

  • Heffernan says:

    maybe we should look to the heroic birds of the ice for exoneration. Surely penguins would also have driven high-emission cars and burned fossil fuels on their 60-mile treks if they’d been smart enough to dream them up; would they have happily given up their toasty Subarus, and gone back to the tedious tottering over ice? No.

    So in her world it’s ok to use your species native intelligence to increase your convenience and comfort, but not to save the fragile ecological balance that you have disrupted in the process. Screw the penguins. Let them fight back when they can grow a cerebral cortex that can concieve of an internal combustion engine.

  • Yeah, Glenn.

    Likewise, in Virginia’s world, all responses to global climate chage are sacrifices and pain-inducing. The idea that alternatives to her “toasty Subaru” might actually bring us greater pleasure and benefit is completely unthinkable.

    This little article invites so much analysis I’m not even sure where to begin.

  • JK

    Great feature Aaron.

    At least her comment is a moment of honesty in a sea of hypocrisy in which the liberal elite pledges concern about environmental destruction, then continues on with business as usual.

    Our new, very popular governor — a purported “reformer”, will be tested very soon by profound issues like the designation of Stewart Airport (near Newburgh about 60miles north of GWB)as the 4th big regional. This would make it the biggest sprawl/traffic creation bomb since Moses highway system and the GWB itself.

ALSO ON STREETSBLOG

Rally at City Hall for Pedestrian Safety Legislation, 12:45 Today

By Aaron Naparstek |
The New York City Council’s Transportation and Technology in Government committees are conducting a joint hearing this afternoon on Council Member Vincent Gentile’s accident reporting and review bill, Introduction 567 of 2007. The legislation would require long-sought changes in the way that the NYPD and DOT report and investigate pedestrian injuries and fatalities: The New […]

Is It Right to Forgive the Deadly Driver?

By Brad Aaron |
Nine years ago next week my wife was hit by a cab driver. She was crossing at an intersection at the edge of downtown Athens, Georgia, on her way to meet me for some grocery shopping and, per usual for a Friday, an evening at our favorite watering hole. I was wrapping up editing duties […]

Bratton on NYC’s Vision Zero Goal: “It Will Probably Remain Elusive”

By Brad Aaron |
#HappeningNow: @CommissBratton speaks at @transalt's Vision Zero Cities Conference. #VisionZero2016 pic.twitter.com/flf4y3UNFs — NYPD NEWS (@NYPDnews) March 10, 2016 If New York City hopes to achieve Vision Zero, it probably won’t happen on Police Commissioner Bill Bratton’s watch. Bratton kicked off the Vision Zero Cities conference, happening today and tomorrow at NYU, with a big helping […]