i think most people would want cleaner air and a reasonably stable climate iff they could get it, but they also know that they need to drive to work from where they live, and they live where htey live because it's cheaper or the schools are better or or it's safer or all of the above and who knows what else.
it seems to me that the issue is the presumption that the environment vs. lifestyle/economic demands is a zero-sum game, and maybe that's what most people understand better than we do. they'd like to be able to live reasonably stable, safe lives, but they can't imagine why that means we should also have to destroy our environment.
now, i'll be the first to admit that these may be unreasonable expectations, but why shouldn't there be an effort to challenge the conventional wisdom on both the right and the left that they are?
it makes me think of software design. developers always want to say to designers (not graphic designers, product or interaction/interface designers), you can't have this *and* that. frankly, and speaking as someone who's done some coding, you usually can, it just means someone has to work harder and think differently to make it happen. and it might take longer. but a lot of things are doable that no one wants to admit.
i'll bet that if the auto industry was told that it would be shut down in two years if it didn't come up with safe vehicles that ran on next to no gas, or on no gas at all, you'd see some pretty amazing advances. but they don't see that as life-or-death any more than most people can imagine a big chunk of ice somewhere in the antarctic as life or death (whether it is or not--just because they think it's not don't make it so).
i wonder what you think the world would be like right now if we hadn't forced the auto industry to de-lead gasoline. if you like at the improvements in public health in mexico city just since they managed to get the lead out of hte gas, you'll see what i mean.
demand more. and when they say they can't do it, they're probably lying, or at best just plain lazy.
my ten cents.
jeff
Original Message: ----------------- From: James Heartfield Jim at heartfield.demon.co.uk Date: Wed, 20 Mar 2002 16:57:43 +0000 To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com Subject: car use is popular, tree hugging isn't
Nathan Newman <nathan at newman.org> writes (against me)
'As for elites versus the public, the US public overwhelming supports environmental regulation, even at the expense of short-term jobs'
and
'On tightening standards on car emissions, the public wants them by a 3-to-1 standard, yet the elites continue to defeat them. And the public overwhelming supports solor energy while opposing nuclear energy.'
But these are the results of opinion polls, not a register of actual behaviour. Indeed they are a bit bizarre, since what 'the public' are polled as saying is that they want to see the public, themselves, restrained by legislation from excessive energy use. But if they were remotely serious, wouldn't they themselves reduce their energy use?
Against the opinions polled for lower energy use and limits on car emissions one has to set the actions of American citizens. Like the citizens of countries all over the world, Americans increase there actual energy use, year on year.
As against their stated opinions, the actual practice of Americans and Europeans says that they are indifferent to the threat to the environment.
Nathan counterposes 'elitist car users' to populist tree huggers. But car ownership is a far more popular activity than environmental protest. As incomes have increased car ownership now embraces a majority of families in Europe and America. By contrast the British Social Attitudes survey found that the tiny minority of people who had been involved in direct action over the environment were predominantly older 35+ and most likely educated to university level or beyond (a smaller group than that would be in the US, I think). -- James Heartfield Sustaining Architecture in the Anti-Machine Age is available at GBP19.99, plus GBP5.01 p&p from Publications, audacity.org, 8 College Close, Hackney, London, E9 6ER. Make cheques payable to 'Audacity Ltd'. www.audacity.org
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