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On the heels of the US Supreme Court ruling that the Environmental Protection Agency has authority to regulate greenhouse gases as a pollutant (some called it a strong rebuke of the Bush administration’s policies), George W. Bush saw fit to ramp up his language on the issue of global warming (hint: the new key word is “serious”): The decision (of) the Supreme Court we take very seriously. It’s the new law...

A new international poll finds worldwide agreement that climate change is a threat. Opinions are split, however on the nuts and bolts: in particular, whether to act immediately and whether countermeasures are worth the investment. Even so, a window of opportunity seems to have opened that would allow leaders with bold solutions to spark international cooperation and make real strides. The poll included 17 countries, representing more than 55 percent...

If you live in Seattle, you may have noticed a little thing about some sort of vote…oh, what was it now…oh, that’s right, the Viaduct. City voters decided that they wantedno part of a new waterfront highway.  No tunnel, no elevated.  Period. Of course, this was just an advisory vote, and the whole election was pretty widely portrayed as a meaningless exercise. Legally, our elected officials are still free to...

Even by the weird and hysterical standards of Seattle’s great viaduct debate, something very strange is going on. The weirdness has got to do with what I’ll call the “equity argument” — that our treatment of the viaduct should not discriminate against workers. Good. Fair enough. No doubt most of us agree: voters and policymakers should be attentive to ordinary- and lower-income folks when making decisions. But what’s strange is this: according to the...

In 2006, Washington’s legislature spelled out a logical and egalitarian transportation strategy. It’s exactly what’s needed to maintain economic competitiveness while simultaneously reducing congestion and the negative effects of cars. Here’s an excerpt of the goals: (i) Reducing drive alone trips; (ii) reducing delay per person and delay per unit of goods; and (iii) improving levels of service that improve system performance for all transportation users. Here are the tools authorized to...

National Geographic has a fairly awesome new web feature. It’s an interactive look at smart growth that does a good job of spelling out—with pictures!—some of the key differences between low density sprawl and healthier compact communities. There’s more in the magazine. Unfortunately, NG’s representation of healthy urban development seems to make a puzzling omission. I was unable to find the multibillion dollar giantnew elevated freeway through the heart of...

(This post is part of a series.) It seems like state and city politicians are still dead set on spending billions of dollars on Seattle’s Alaskan Way Viaduct. (And just to be clear: I was wrong to declare the tunnel dead last week; the governor tried to put a stake in its heart, but city officials resurrected it as a 4-lane “hybrid” tunnel. And so, the saga continues…proving, yet again,...

The State of the Union address may be just a lot of talk. But considering that each word in these national speeches is painstakingly choreographed, a small phrase for a president can be a giant step for mankind. That’s why, when Bush uttered the words “global climate change,” before a TV audience of 45.5 million, I nearly jumped out of my seat. HE SAID IT! He said it for the...

Good news: the Federal Way School Board just lifted its moratorium on “An Inconvenient Truth.” Unfortunately, coverage in the Seattle Times, the largest paper in the region, was disappointing. It mostly treats the decision as a simple controversy without ever explaining that there is, in fact, only one right answer about the reality of human-induced climate change. To paraphrase my earlier rantings: this is not a matter of personal opinion...

Apparently Seattle city officials are fuming about this, but Gov. Gregoire has declared that the idea of replacing Seattle’s Alaskan Way Viaduct with a tunnel is, officially, dead. Now, I’m obviously an outsider to these sorts of debates; maybe “dead” doesn’t really mean dead.  But it seems to me that the tunnel has been dead for a while—or, if not completely dead, at least in critical condition, and hanging on...