Home » Category » Other Voices Blog

Other Voices Blog

U.S. car fever waning after a century of growth

Monday, February 22nd, 2010

In 2009, the number of cars scrapped exceeded the number of new cars sold.

(This article, originally entitled U.S. Car Fleet Shrank by Four Million in 2009 – After a Century of Growth, U.S. Fleet Entering Era of Decline, previously ran on the Earth Policy Institute website. Lester R. Brown is president of the EPI and author of Plan B 4.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization.)

By Lester R. Brown

America’s century-old love affair with the automobile may be coming to an end. The U.S. fleet has apparently peaked and started to decline. In 2009, the 14 million cars scrapped exceeded the 10 million new cars sold, shrinking the U.S. fleet by 4 million, or nearly 2 percent in one year. While this is widely associated with the recession, it is in fact caused by several converging forces.

Future U.S. fleet size will be determined by the relationship between two trends: new car sales and cars scrapped. Cars scrapped exceeded new car sales in 2009 for the first time since World War II, shrinking the U.S. vehicle fleet from the all-time high of 250 million to 246 million. It now appears that this new trend of scrappage exceeding sales could continue through at least 2020. (See data.)

More >>>

Educating and empowering the next generation of green citizens

Monday, February 15th, 2010

By Jean M. Wallace, MAEd
CEO, Green Woods Charter School, Philadelphia

As a young girl, I spent every summer at the Jersey shore.  I loved the beach! I’d stand by the water’s edge and simply marvel at the vastness of the ocean. With my red plastic bucket in hand, I would spend countless hours exploring the small tide pools and discovering the diversity of life that lived within the ocean current. It was fascinating to me and, looking out over the horizon I always imagined to myself, “What is out there?”

When I went to high school, I had to meet with my high school counselor to help chart my course through high school and beyond.  The defining moment for me was when my counselor asked me, “What do you want to do in life?”  My response was clear and direct, “I want to be a marine biologist!” I said.  The counselor then asked, “Can your parents afford to send you to college?”  “No” I replied.  “Then I will put you in the Commercial Course track so that you can learn something productive and get a job.”

More >>>

Do we have to limit growth to save the planet?

Wednesday, January 20th, 2010

(The question “Do We Have To Limit Growth To Save The Planet?” was posed to sustainability expert Frances Moore Lappe by the Corporate Social Responsibility’s Talk Back Blog.)

By Frances Moore Lappé

We humans create the world according to ideas we hold. Our biggest ideas, our frames, determine what we can see and what we can’t. Ultimately, they will decide whether we can turn our beautiful planet toward life…or not.

Two frames I increasingly hear are “Because growth is killing the planet, we need no-growth;” and “We’ve hit the limits of a finite earth.”

Hmm.

“Growth” sounds pretty good to my ears, especially when I consider the opposite: shrink, shrivel, decline, decrease, die. So it’s hard to visualize excited crowds waving “No-growth NOW!” placards!

The danger in this frame goes far beyond its lack of sex appeal. The real danger is what it leaves unchallenged: the assumption that today’s economy is in fact defined by “growth” — ever-expanding abundance.

More >>>

2009: The Year in Wolves

Tuesday, January 5th, 2010

Howlsnow (Photo: Wikimedia)

(The following was originally posted Dec. 30, 2009 in the NRDC Switchboard blog, under Saving Wildlife and Wild Places)

2009: The Year in Wolves

By Matt Skoglund

2009 was a dismal, tragic year for Northern Rockies wolves. They lost all protections under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), were hunted for the first time in Montana and Idaho (and continue to be hunted in Idaho), and were killed by various causes in record numbers. In all, almost one third — one third! — of the Northern Rockies wolf population was killed in 2009.

The good news is that NRDC and other conservation groups have not relented one iota in our fight on behalf on Northern Rockies wolves, and our lawsuit to restore their ESA protections should be ruled upon in 2010.

Here is a recap of 2009 for Canis lupus in the Northern Rockies:

January 14, 2009: Dubya the Decider, wishing to go out with a bang, announced that wolves in Montana and Idaho were being removed from the endangered species list, but wolves in Wyoming would remain listed.

More >>>