Smart growth—a solution to climate change?

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/es900293g

Smart growth—a solution to climate change?

Rhitu Chatterjee
Environ. Sci. Technol., Article ASAP
DOI: 10.1021/es900293g
Publication Date (Web): February 10, 2009
Copyright © 2009 American Chemical Society

Replacing all existing cars with hybrid electric ones can significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but curbing urban sprawl and enforcing smart-growth measures can knock those emissions down a notch farther, according to a study published in ES&T (DOI 10.1021/es8021655). The study is the first to investigate the long-term impacts of combining smart-growth measures and hybrid electric cars across several metropolitan areas in six states in the midwestern U.S.

“In general, there are three main strategies that people talk about for reducing motor vehicle greenhouse emissions,” says Julian Marshall, who is an environmental engineer at the University of Minnesota and was not associated with this study. One is improving vehicle fuel efficiency, for example by switching to hybrid electric cars. The second is converting to a low-carbon fuel. The third approach, Marshall says, combines measures such as smart-growth policies (laws and regulations that help create more compact, densely populated cities like Portland, Ore.) with measures that encourage walking, biking, and increased use of public transport. This approach controls the number of “vehicle miles traveled,” which is actually a measure of transportation activity, he says.

“Most of the research on addressing climate change has focused on vehicles and fuels,” says Marshall. Similarly, federal regulations have focused on cutting emissions at the tailpipe, adds Brian Stone, corresponding author of the new study and an expert on urban environmental management at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Switching to more fuel-efficient cars will definitely cut emissions per mile traveled, he notes. “But that only takes you so far.” That is because a growing population with a highly mobile lifestyle has increased the number of miles traveled. Since the 1960s, we’ve reduced tailpipe emissions of regulated pollutants by as much as 90%, but we’ve also more than tripled our vehicle miles traveled, he notes.

Policies that prevent urban sprawl and create densely populated cities with good public transport systems, and pedestrian- and bicycle-friendly urban designs, bring down the number of miles traveled per vehicle, thus reducing the emissions. In a Viewpoint published last May in ES&T (DOI 10.1021/es087047l), Marshall argued that well-planned, energy-efficient urban landscapes could play an important role in mitigating climate change.

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[kestrel91316]

1. Growth, however "smart" or "green", is still ultimately unsustainable.

We need a new goal as a species: a stable steady-state.

[The2ndWheel]

2. We need to adapt to the environment, not the other way around

No such thing as a steady state either. You'll grow. You'll contract. You'll stay the same. Then things change no matter what you do.