tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-62978469590948086132024-03-13T01:54:49.465-04:00The Green LanternAdam Maynardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11501772366020096483noreply@blogger.comBlogger83125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6297846959094808613.post-6065788842057864062013-02-18T19:09:00.000-05:002013-02-18T19:09:26.318-05:00David Maddalena on Design, Technology, and IntentionThis morning I finished <a href="http://www.lowtechwriter.com/">(low) tech writer</a> by David Maddalena. When I first heard about it via <a href="http://www.treehugger.com/gadgets/must-read-book-low-tech-writer.html">this TreeHugger review</a>, I wanted to get my hands on it because it seemed to explore themes I've been reflecting on recently. Primarily, in the must-have, new-tech-every-year, and for-every-problem consumer culture we find ourselves in, how do we restore the balance and regain some sanity? As with anything you anticipate, there's the gap what you expect something to be and what it actually is, how you think things will be and how they are, but this little volume didn't disappoint. Disclaimer: I am very much from the 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it' school of thought, or more precisely, if this still works, why buy another one? Or something different that does the same thing?<br />
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<a href="http://media.treehugger.com/assets/images/2012/05/low-tech-writer.jpg.492x0_q85_crop-smart.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://media.treehugger.com/assets/images/2012/05/low-tech-writer.jpg.492x0_q85_crop-smart.jpg" width="221" /></a>Maddalena's charge is looking into the things (the tools, the activities, the technologies) that last, performing functions as well or better than their Newer, Better, More Innovative [read: marketing buzzwords] cousins. Through a series of essays about bread knives, typewriters, bicycles, and hand-made maps, he covers topics like mobility, creativity, travel, ingenuity, craftsmanship and how they have adapted, for better or for worse, to the digital age. In its examination of craft and intention in design and the finished product, (low) tech writer reminds me of Roland Barthes' <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=yT0iaUzDmIUC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false" style="font-style: italic;">Camera Lucida</a> and its reflection on the photograph.<br />
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Today 'technology' means (largely) electronics, when technology in and of itself can be defined simply as a tool -- any tool that helps achieve a goal (go back to the dawn of humanity and think fire or the wheel or lever). For society, technology (i.e. tech) has come to mean something powered by electricity, battery, and/or microchip. Are we really not making, and thereby inventing, other tools? Hint: We are, but they're typically not as shiny or entertaining. At least not at first glance.<br />
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Maddalena pins this desire for something new on something he calls <a href="http://lowtechwriter.blogspot.com/2010/02/grooming-habits-and-cult-of-innovation.html">the Cult of Innovation</a>. Designers, especially those in the employ of companies making and marketing products, invent new tools for which there exist successful and effective predecessors. Then there are the cases of inventions for problems we don't have, or ones we didn't know we had (because we already had something that seemed to do the trick just fine). I'm not going to go too far down this train of thought because it could be covered in a post all its own, but this redundancy is the result of an economy predicated on never-ending growth as a business model. One of the central questions of the collection is: What are the risks of innovating all of our problems away with more and more stuff? This sparks the related, what do we lose? What do we value? We shape things, the material, as much as they shape us.<br />
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Throughout, Maddalena shares his low tech principles, or characteristics that designers should incorporate into their products and consumers should seek. Key characteristics include simple, cheap, flexible (in terms of function) and durable. The high tech alternatives of complex, expensive, rigid (in terms of function) and disposable (literally or because of their short vanity timelines) should be considered carefully. The use of technology is, after all, for our benefit, and not the other way around.<br />
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(Low) tech writer is part lamenting progress, part a tutorial on intuition, and part philosophical text. Maddalena can be whiney and preachy at times (consider yourself warned) and truly insightful and powerful at others. I find it relates to larger themes of finding meaning in life (not to be confused with the Meaning of Life), and the knowledge that having more stuff ≠ being happy. On some level, we wouldn't be attracted to high tech things if they didn't bring us joy, and serve a purpose. As Maddalena points out, it's not that new technology is always bad, but it's about achieving a balance and having a clear answer to the question, "Who's the boss here?" Something I have tried to do lately (that can be really difficult) is be more intentional about using high tech and leave room for those low tech gems (objects and practices) that are generally more grounding and fulfilling.<br />
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I encourage you to check out more of Maddalena's work at <a href="http://www.lowtechwriter.com/">www.lowtechwriter.com</a>, where you can read his essays and order a copy of the book.<br />
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<br />Adam Maynardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11501772366020096483noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6297846959094808613.post-66227214853348550032013-02-14T11:36:00.000-05:002013-02-14T11:36:19.219-05:00Happy Valentine's Day from the Green Lantern<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.coffeewithanarchitect.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Valentines-CWAA-7-600x373.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="311" src="http://www.coffeewithanarchitect.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Valentines-CWAA-7-600x373.png" width="500" /></a></div>
Dear Architecture Nerds,<br />
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I know I haven't posted here in a long time, but I still love you.<br />
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xoxo,<br />
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AdamAdam Maynardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11501772366020096483noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6297846959094808613.post-68671907956443840662012-05-21T22:04:00.000-04:002012-05-21T22:05:15.778-04:00How A Bicycle Is MadeI came across this gem last week and knew it had to be shared. It's a 1945 documentary entitled, "How a Bicycle is Made." As described by the <a href="http://film.britishcouncil.org/how-a-bicycle-is-made">British Council Film website</a>, the video depicts the design and manufacture of Raleigh bicycles in the UK.<br />
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It's a little over 17 minutes long, but it's worth every second. Take a look:<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="375" mozallowfullscreen="" src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/39401575?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0&color=ffffff" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="500"></iframe> <br />
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A few quick observations about the window into the past this film gives us. First of all, this is a labor intensive operation, and skilled labor at that (decidedly male too...). It takes a lot of elbow grease and know-how to successfully complete the many stages of producing a bicycle, from drawing the concepts, to welding, smelting, strengthening and purifying the metal, and assembling of all of the intricate parts into a complete model. Sidenote: Extra points if you can find the mechanic smelting in a sweater vest. I am sure modern day bicycle manufacture needs a lot fewer employees and uses a more mechanized approach. Secondly, I think operations like these birthed agencies like OSHA. I can't imagine the health risks these workers assumed by inhaling fumes and dealing with open baths of chemicals strong enough to rust-proof steel. But thankfully these are hazards of a bygone era. <br />
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As dated as the video may seem, some of it is startlingly relevant to the discussion today concerning the role bicycles play in our everyday lives. As the narrator concludes (starting at the 16:47 mark), "A bicycle is a comfortable and cheap way of getting about. A great boon
to man [and woman]. Ideal for shopping, easy to park, handy for work. A faithful
friend, ever ready to take tired workers back home, and after work to
bring relaxation, health, and happiness."Adam Maynardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11501772366020096483noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6297846959094808613.post-70166620791774483812012-05-13T18:38:00.002-04:002012-05-13T18:38:55.163-04:00Rising Gas Prices, Part Two: What Aren't We Paying For?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBcSL1W0NVqcpKwVR8JMgbFFol8Tm7c6djuEKppEo7OWH9DJsZoVnT4fjD3RV-a0SeqXFFX2ELjz_r1el0Z-MHJkLOANR_r5RYpTwy2PBmjKpW5UI5gLFXYLYPn-Zl-NtIgVivZSjhds4/s1600/gaspump.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBcSL1W0NVqcpKwVR8JMgbFFol8Tm7c6djuEKppEo7OWH9DJsZoVnT4fjD3RV-a0SeqXFFX2ELjz_r1el0Z-MHJkLOANR_r5RYpTwy2PBmjKpW5UI5gLFXYLYPn-Zl-NtIgVivZSjhds4/s1600/gaspump.gif" /></a></div>
<i>This post is the second in a series on the soaring price of gasoline. I originally thought I could fit all of these ideas in one post -- boy was I wrong. If you missed out on Part One, <a href="http://agmaynard.blogspot.com/2012/04/rising-gas-prices-part-one-pain-at-pump.html">read it here</a>.</i> <br />
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One of my favorite finds in the enviro-journalism world recently has been <a href="http://climatedesk.org/">Climate Desk</a>, a collaborative reporting effort from some of my already favorite news outlets like Grist, Mother Jones, and The Atlantic. They consistently cover the issues that I have on my radar, and do it very well. My investigation into the rising price of gasoline is no exception. I encourage you to <a href="http://climatedesk.org/2012/04/the-gas-prices-are-too-damn-high/">click through their slideshow</a> which covers the ins and outs of the issue, but I will share with you two of the highlights from it here.<br />
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The first is a video of Christopher Knittel, professor of energy economics at MIT, who speaks about the "true social cost of a gallon of gasoline."<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="284" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/l7OOIgpHhbU" width="500"></iframe><br />
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He hits a lot of important points in a short clip, including how gas is linked on the global market to the price of oil, four types of externalities (a larger military, pollution and human health effects, climate change, and an economy susceptible to oil price shocks), how the price of gasoline affects our decision-making processes as consumers, and the fact that much of our modern way of life is predicated on cheap gasoline.<br />
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One of his most perspective-shifting comments is surely, "Even though the price of gas is historically high these days it turns out there's a lot of costs that society bears of our decisions to buy gasoline that aren't incorporated in the price." Maybe we've gotten away with a cheaper price than we really could have been paying all this time.<br />
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The second clip takes Knittel's ideas one step further, exploring the question: What contributes to the cost of a gallon of gasoline? In the process it explains what maybe should be included, but isn't. Take a look at this animation from Climate Desk partner, the Center for Investigative Reporting:<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="284" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/6RhYY_4Wzls" width="500"></iframe><br />
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Nothing is more telling than this quote, "What's the true price of gas? It's a lot more than what we pay at the pump." I appreciate the way they quantify the total cost of externalities (somewhere between $550 billion and $1.7 trillion) and also the pollution impact of a gallon of gasoline, much of which accumulates before it even reaches the tank of your car.<br />
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These videos effectively capture the social and environmental costs not reflected in the price we pay, borne by others or even by us at a later date. Deferring risk and responsibility to separate communities or future generations in the name of near-term gain -- now where have I heard that before?<br />
<br />Adam Maynardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11501772366020096483noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6297846959094808613.post-23242457659274277712012-04-25T10:51:00.001-04:002012-04-25T10:51:25.596-04:00Rising Gas Prices, Part One: Pain at the Pump, World Markets<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzO6vXyzHTDIuQ8cZIdvi5Y_fUOhmaFNMx46DRRON8sv-fbPIoucqeHHjV8hM9RVcvV2j5GvgY1rVfphBdGQjB0m01wRjUyy0RjDNRR2jUniUFhEB8VrHxOwd14aLhrJ6MuhF9xJFEm-o/s1600/fillerup.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5723517224000606402" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzO6vXyzHTDIuQ8cZIdvi5Y_fUOhmaFNMx46DRRON8sv-fbPIoucqeHHjV8hM9RVcvV2j5GvgY1rVfphBdGQjB0m01wRjUyy0RjDNRR2jUniUFhEB8VrHxOwd14aLhrJ6MuhF9xJFEm-o/s500/fillerup.jpg" style="height: 375px; width: 500px;" /></a><br />
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Nothing speaks louder to our addiction to oil than the panic over rising gas prices. I've felt it too, I am driving a lot, and I mean A LOT to and from work these days. Just check out the tab I ran up at the pump during a recent fill-up. For the past two months, gas in Connecticut has steadily risen to just under $4.00/gallon when the above pic was taken. The upward trend hasn't slowed though, and more and more stations have surpassed the $4.00 mark for regular unleaded. Even when I shop for the very best price among the nearly two-dozen filling stations I pass during my commute (it's true, regional variation doesn't change that much), I can't best the $4.00 beast. Soon I'll be living and working in a place where I won't need to own a car, but that day hasn't come just yet (and it won't stop <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/23/business/media/to-draw-reluctant-young-buyers-gm-turns-to-mtv.html?pagewanted=all">GM from enlisting MTV</a> to help draw us young whippersnappers into the showroom).<br />
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If you follow me on twitter (<a href="http://twitter.com/agmaynard">@agmaynard</a>) you'll remember I began on this train of thought a few weeks ago in a series of tweets about the origins of the pain at the pump panic. My thinking out loud went like this:<br />
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The response "use less oil" to those worried about rising gas prices must sting to the subset whose livelihoods depend on driving to work//But keeping costs cheap perpetuates dependency on that system, hmm... (assuming we can have any control over oil markets in the 1st place)//Hint: no single agent does, really, especially not @BarackObama//Doesn't the question then become, how do we gradually increase cost to shift paradigm while assisting the most impacted?//Increasing costs = decreasing oil subsidies, transfer the difference to fund renewable tech? But then there's the problem of design...//...that facilitates long car commutes in the first place and is a longer-term fix. Need to do some more thinking on this.//This comes to mind for some reason: "The only way not to think about money is to have a great deal of it" - Edith Wharton, House of Mirth//<b>Panic comes partly from the pain at the pump, but I'm guessing more so from the anxious feeling that they have no other choice but to pay.//That panic goes away if there are viable (and cheaper) alternatives.</b></blockquote>
The parts I want to focus on are the beginning and the end, where I attempt to identify the motive of those beating the cheap gas war drums. For the purposes of this post let's ignore the middle bit about transferring oil subsidies to renewables R&D. What I meant to say there was more along the lines of assistance programs for those most impacted by rising gas prices, but regardless I don't think that'd be an even 1:1 exchange. Then of course there are the obvious political ramifications and deadlocks necessary to thwart Obama's socialist agenda ;)<br />
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SO, pain at the pump. What is it? Fear. Anxiety. A sense of being trapped, locked into a system, at the mercy of fluctuating global markets. Is anything more maddening, or hopeless, for a household struggling to pay the bills, who simply can't afford a bigger bite out of their income? Especially in this economy. This is a very real fear for those living from month to month, paycheck to paycheck. Budget dependability? What a pipeline, er-- I mean pipedream.<br />
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This panic reminds me of a similar fervor displayed by some residents from my hometown over a proposed Costco development two years ago. The retail giant would provide jobs and economic development, they said, and thus the proposed megastore should be unanimously approved by the Planning and Zoning Commission. During interviews with local planning officials for a paper I wrote on the plan, they told me that for these residents Costco symbolized relief from the sometimes crippling financial stress associated with the recession. It didn't matter if the developer's jobs and salary claims were overstated or that much of Costco's labor force doesn't originate in its host communities. It represented stability, and an <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m76PFLg5jpc">escape from the doldrums</a> of a down economy.<br />
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What's important to realize though is that I grew up in small-town Connecticut. We have a Walmart that was only approved because it was an as-of-right development (aka it conformed to all existing zoning regulations). What this means though, is that we are home to one of the smallest -- if not THE smallest -- Walmarts in the country at just over 85,000 square feet. A request at the time to expand the building into the surrounding parking lot was denied. The proposed Costco would have been almost double the size at 150,000 SF. In my opinion (when do well-researched opinions become facts, anyway?) it would have been disastrous for the intimate character of the town that, ironically, makes Guilford such a vibrant economic landscape in the first place. I digress; this is a post about gas prices, after all. <span style="font-weight: bold;">The takeaway from this anecdote, though, is that sometimes people jump at short-term fixes to chronic problems because they don't have the luxury of looking further into the future. Their immediate needs aren't being met, or there's a very real threat that in the near term they won't be met.</span><br />
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CNN's John King summarized this message well during a broadcast a few weeks ago: "Your views on energy are driven by your bottom line."<br />
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So the next logical question is what can we do about alleviating pain at the pump, or avoiding it entirely? Drill baby drill, right? Riiiiiiiiiiight? I say no, and here's why. I'll be the first one to admit that I am not an authority on global oil markets, but I've been sifting through the literature for the last month or two and if I've learned one thing it's this: We're all connected. Take this graph, for example.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQUIqfPcHqGS9emBQTOhNj4t_bWwB4fH40olczYPWfYIYrazdj6a7fNkG0jSol8tvs5dbvkZSqgfAhPp4Vyaiaj-FZSUpBk6MXOGTBzHTJ-EWqe44huBqm_IJDaOFr95BzGYm5feywmVk/s1600/global+prices+move+in+tandem.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5727317762601334674" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQUIqfPcHqGS9emBQTOhNj4t_bWwB4fH40olczYPWfYIYrazdj6a7fNkG0jSol8tvs5dbvkZSqgfAhPp4Vyaiaj-FZSUpBk6MXOGTBzHTJ-EWqe44huBqm_IJDaOFr95BzGYm5feywmVk/s500/global+prices+move+in+tandem.png" style="cursor: pointer; height: 365px; width: 500px;" /></a><br />
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The United States is connected to other global economies through the intricate web of petroleum production and distribution networks. It is incredibly difficult for one nation, even the US which admittedly
uses a disproportionate amount of global supply, to tip the scales through increased domestic production. When prices go up for us, they go up for (most) everybody else. The same goes for when prices drop, but there may not be much reason to hope for cheaper gas in the future.<br />
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Here's the reality as we move further into the 21st Century: Gas prices are not going to go down. At least not over the long-term. As developing countries like China and India continue to industrialize and as their bulging populations rise into the middle class, they are going to demand a higher standard of living (implication here, powered by fossil fuels). They have quite the role models (U-S-A, U-S-A!) and Econ 101 says that when demand for a product increases, so does price.<br />
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So if we're locked into the global market and prices will steadily go up and up and up regardless of an increase in domestic production, what are our other options? How do we get some relief from that pain at the pump?<br />
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In my next post I'll explore some of the alternatives to emptying your wallet at the gas station. I'll focus mainly on efficiency, hybrid/electric vehicles, and algae-based biofuels. Stay tuned for Part Two of this Rising Gas Prices series.Adam Maynardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11501772366020096483noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6297846959094808613.post-38870704759496016352012-03-11T23:14:00.006-04:002012-03-12T00:12:45.983-04:00Paris, 1928Last year in a post entitled <a href="http://agmaynard.blogspot.com/2011/04/barcelona-1908.html">Barcelona, 1908</a> I shared an video shot from the front of a streetcar navigating the avenues of the title city a little over a century ago. As you'll remember (if you don't, feel free to go back and take a look), I commented on the complexity of the methods of mobility that took up street-space in relative harmony. From pedestrians, to bicyclists, to carriages, to even a few early automobiles, the streets were a genuine mix of modes of transportation. Now I bring you back to an early 20th Century European city, but this time it's Paris, 1928.<br /><br /><iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/qE9ufzL9PYo" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="369" width="500"></iframe><br /><br />The differences are immediately apparent. There are many more automobiles, and pedestrians largely keep to the sidewalks instead of weaving in front of the streetcar-mounted camera as they did in Barcelona. It's interesting to see the changes and the prevalence of the automobile only twenty years after the first clip.<br /><br />In 1928 Paris you will notice a city struggling with the pressures of this increase in automobile traffic. Street activity, largely unregulated and unsupervised before, now necessitates direction from officers who stand down oncoming vehicles. At the 1:18 mark, the camera captures the somewhat organized chaos of the bustling intersection where one car drifts into the flow of oncoming traffic. But no one really has right of way anyway and there aren't even lanes, so who is at fault here? Here's a frightening thought -- think of being on the road with that many new drivers, operating largely unfamiliar technology in a space with little oversight. No wonder the pedestrians stick to the sidewalks except to cross...<br /><br />My takeaway from this video (in reference to the first) is the pace at which automobiles infiltrated the centers of these old cities that for centuries had operated largely on foot traffic as the primary mode of transportation. More autos traveling at higher speeds on cramped streets relegated pedestrians to the sidewalk where they understandably felt more safe. This separation transformed the function of these streets, and had serious implications for them as public spaces. This compartmentalization of uses is the challenge the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shared_space#European_.22Shared_Space.22_project">shared space movement</a>, and to a certain extent the <a href="http://www.completestreets.org/">complete streets initiative</a>, attempt to correct through redesign and reprogramming of streets, thereby changing public perception of streets as car-only zones to ones accepting and emboldening of more diverse modes of transportation.<br /><br />Sometimes we must look back in order to move forward.Adam Maynardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11501772366020096483noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6297846959094808613.post-31010008401045381572012-02-26T15:39:00.008-05:002012-02-26T16:25:33.004-05:00Back in Action//Analyst versus Advocate*wipes away cobwebs across computer screen*<br /><br />Hey all, it's me. Yeah me. Remember way back when I actually contributed to this blog? I know I've been absent for quite some time--it's interesting how unplanned breaks can balloon into extended sabbaticals--but here I am, back in action.<br /><br />So what have I been up to these past six months, you ask? Well in October I started working at the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. I have contributed to numerous projects so far, including writing press releases and other copy for the Communications Office, administering an energy efficiency program charged with reducing energy consumption in state-owned buildings by 10 percent in the next year, and I'm also the mind behind a massive restructuring effort for the energy-related content on the agency's website.<br /><br />Overall, working at DEEP has been an incredible experience. Having a boss and supervisors who trust in my abilities and challenge me to meet their high expectations is rewarding. It's also been a unique opportunity to see the inner workings of government itself, often given a bad rap for being a bloated mess of bureaucracy and red tape. My impression of DEEP couldn't be further from that perception. Thanks to a commitment to environmental goals from Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy and the leadership of DEEP Commissioner Daniel Esty, the Department is well-poised to drive real change in a state in desperate need of better economic performance. And that's the thing, environmental policy and programs are viewed as our ticket out of the recession. The conversation is about how we achieve environmental and energy goals while stimulating local job growth. My time at DEEP has shown me how there is a growing opportunity for E&E policy action at the state level, especially given the failure of Congress to pass any meaningful and comprehensive climate legislation.<br /><br /><hr /><br />Now that I've updated you on one of the major goings-on in my life since I left you, let's get down to business. For my first post post-hiatus (see what I did there), let's discuss Analysts versus Advocates.<br /><br /><a href="http://greenpolicyprof.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Alo20RFCQAAzGMK1.png"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 500px; height: 320px;" src="http://greenpolicyprof.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Alo20RFCQAAzGMK1.png" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />University of British Columbia professor George Hoberg recently <a href="http://greenpolicyprof.org/wordpress/?p=790">posted this explanation</a> of climate-political mindsets to his blog, <a href="http://greenpolicyprof.org/wordpress/">GreenPolicyProf</a>. Hoberg describes how there are three approaches to climate politics--skeptic, analyst, and advocate. He devotes most of the post to the last two, and describes skepticism as "too mysterious" to warrant extended investigation. As someone who has assumed both the analyst and advocate roles in the last year even, I found the piece an interesting critique of each.<br /><br />Here are the fundamental differences between analysts and advocates, as explained by Hoberg:<br /><blockquote>The logics of analysis and advocacy are fundamentally different. The analyst is guided by aspirations for truth and well-reasoned argument, and guided largely by the value of maximizing the cost-effectiveness of solutions. They chaff against exaggerations and misuse of data by advocates on all sides, and search for the best reasoned argument for the most efficient path forward.<br /><br />In contrast, the climate advocate is trying to maximize political leverage in an effort to foster systemic transformation of the energy system. The logic of political action and movement building is different from the logic of policy efficiency. The advocate works to strategically frame problems and solutions that work politically, not those that best adhere to the standards of analytical rigor. Frequently, this involves exaggerated claims that aggravate the analyst.<br /></blockquote>Using the <a href="http://agmaynard.blogspot.com/2011/08/we-shall-overcome.html">Keystone XL Pipeline debate</a> as an example, he says the typical analyst mind evaluates the proposal as follows. We need oil--> building it won't significantly contribute to climate change--> Canada is a friendly trade partner --> approve the pipeline. Advocates on the other hand view the pipeline as a symbol for the larger environmental crises, and use it as political capital to push their overall message.<br /><br />Hoberg again:<br /><blockquote>[Bill] McKibben and his allies didn’t choose to draw a line in the sand on Keystone XL because it was the most cost-effective policy to reduce GHG emissions. They picked it because it made political sense given the state of the climate movement in US and global politics. Having failed so spectacularly at Copenhagen and then in the US Congress to get meaningful action, McKibben and Co. recognized that to have meaningful success, more direct action would be required to galvanize the intensity of preferences at the grassroots level needed to foster a powerful social movement. Keystone XL turned out to be a perfect short-term vehicle for that. It was a point of leverage they could use to focus concentrated pressure, and it turned out to be a spectacular success on its own terms.</blockquote>As someone still defining his professional and personal identity, I'd like to think I combine the advocate's passion for positive environmental change with the analyst's pragmatism. I don't think the two are necessarily exclusive. In my mind the philosophical construct is more a sliding scale than distinct silos. I'll continue to think about how I define my approach to solving the environmental challenges we face in the 21st Century, and I encourage you to do the same.<br /><br /><hr /><br />When I set out to write this post I was worried I would be out of blogging shape. I really have missed writing on a regular basis on a topic I care deeply about. I can't promise anything, but I do plan to post more and I have a few ideas in the works so we'll see where we end up.<br /><br />Happy reading, reflecting, world-changing.Adam Maynardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11501772366020096483noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6297846959094808613.post-72479300461838899982011-09-07T11:57:00.001-04:002011-09-07T12:04:56.953-04:00You Disappoint Me, Mr. President<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-j_-HxacZRfc/TZmxntv5VKI/AAAAAAAABCs/z4KNy0iM6e0/s1600/Obama2012ItBeginsWithUs.bmp"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 500px; height: 235px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-j_-HxacZRfc/TZmxntv5VKI/AAAAAAAABCs/z4KNy0iM6e0/s1600/Obama2012ItBeginsWithUs.bmp" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />This morning I received an email from <a href="http://www.barackobama.com/">Obama for America</a>, the organizing group for President Obama's 2012 campaign, with the headline "This Email Will Offend You."<br /><br />Here's how the email began:<br /><span style=""></span><blockquote style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Adam --<br /><br />Here's something you and I weren't supposed to find out:<br /><br />At a private function at a Colorado resort, oil billionaire Charles Koch stood in front of hundreds of conservative millionaires and said the 2012 election will be, in the words of Saddam Hussein -- yes, he decided to quote Saddam Hussein -- "the mother of all wars."<br /><br />He then read through a list of 32 contributors who gave more than a million dollars <strong>each</strong> to bankroll the network of corporate special-interest groups that aim to tear down President Obama.<br /><br />If that offends you, it absolutely should. But it should also motivate you, because you are the only thing that can stop them.</span></blockquote>Sure, it offends me that one of the biggest oil barons of our time, responsible for more environmental destruction and climate change than maybe any other American (I admit I'm not sure if this is true, but just think of all of that oil...) would quote a vile dictator in reference to the 2012 presidential race. But this email seemed out of touch with something I've been thinking for a little while now -- that Obama himself is alienating his base by disregarding the values that got him elected. Obama the president could not be more different than Obama the candidate. Plus I could think of something that offends me more -- his recent cave on improved ozone standards. As Adrianna Quintero writes on <a href="http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/aquintero/mr_president_what_would_sasha.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+switchboard_all+%28Switchboard:+Blogs+from+NRDC%27s+Environmental+Experts%29&utm_campaign=nrdctweets&utm_source=twitter&utm_term=kg&utm_medium=manual">NRDC's Switchboard</a>:<br /><blockquote style="font-style: italic;">Passing a stronger standard would<strong> <a href="http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/plehner/new_smog_standards_will_preven.html"></a></strong><span><span>save (yes, SAVE!) as much as $37 billion per year in health benefits at a cost of roughly $20 billion by:</span></span><a href="http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/plehner/new_smog_standards_will_preven.html" target="_blank"></a> <ul><li><a href="http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/jwalke/240_million_americans_will_bre.html">saving up to 4,300 lives;</a></li><li><a href="http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/jwalke/240_million_americans_will_bre.html">preventing up to 23,000 cases of aggravated asthma; </a></li><li><a href="http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/jwalke/240_million_americans_will_bre.html">avoiding almost 7,000 hospital visits; and</a></li><li><a href="http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/jwalke/240_million_americans_will_bre.html">2.6 million days of work or school that people otherwise would miss due to air pollution.</a></li></ul></blockquote>She continues, sharing my frustration with Obama's compromise or inaction on these important issues:<br /><blockquote></blockquote> <blockquote style="font-style: italic;">It seems that none of these very obvious questions matter to them [politicians] anymore. Knee-jerk reactions to overblown claims by political rivals are what rule the day and motivate action in Congress and in the Administration. Reason and facts are looked down upon. Thoughtfulness is viewed as pretentious. And protecting our country, our children, MY children, equals political poison.</blockquote>With this sentiment and that of <a href="http://agmaynard.blogspot.com/2011/08/we-shall-overcome.html">being arrested at the White House</a> taking nonviolent direct action for climate fresh in my mind, I responded to the initial email with this message:<br /><br />"You know what really offends me? That the man I voted into office in 2008 (my first ever presidential election vote, by the way) on the platform of hope and change has done little on the subject of climate change. His cave on ozone regulation makes me sick, literally and figuratively. I was arrested in front of the White House two weeks ago when I engaged in civil disobedience against the Keystone XL pipeline, which would bring tar sands, the dirtiest fuel on the planet, from Canada to US refineries along the Gulf Coast. If President Obama approves this pipeline, and continues his track record of caving on and not actively pursuing stricter climate policy, <b>I will not vote for him in 2012.</b> I know many of my friends, family members, and fellow concerned Americans feel the same way, and I hope you can somehow relay this message to him."<br /><br />A group of Keystone XL pipeline opponents recently gathered at an Obama campaign office in Seattle to share this same message with the staff there. They bring up the point that not only are their votes at stake, but also their willingness to donate and volunteer for the campaign and defend Obama to their friends and colleagues.<br /><br /><iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/lAfqFraOE0s" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="311" width="500"></iframe><br /><br />Obama clearly has some explaining to do or I fear he'll have a tough time of it next November. I never thought Obama would ever be the lesser-of-two-evils candidate, but if he doesn't start proving his commitment to climate and the other core values that so endeared him to us in 2008 he will face that fate and risk being a one-term president.Adam Maynardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11501772366020096483noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6297846959094808613.post-77816008754640794062011-08-23T23:25:00.006-04:002011-08-24T14:47:38.643-04:00We Shall Overcome"Sir, step forward please."
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<br />A buff mustachioed officer of the DC Park Police motioned me to come closer. I'll never forget his next four words, "You are under arrest." He then told me to turn around and snapped thick plastic bands around my wrists.
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<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXNu92fvA5RlaNxrPf_MI_p3Jyc050I5XaqmsXLXhWZtJp1AFh4_YzFyovb-1rox42ux72mbIpBzNpY3wsD2LpAG2Lmgr7hjYwy_jO0WH4rlQ6giMbYYZKNoyCfXncPaPHjxDTdWWP0-w/s1600/Arrested.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 500px; height: 348px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXNu92fvA5RlaNxrPf_MI_p3Jyc050I5XaqmsXLXhWZtJp1AFh4_YzFyovb-1rox42ux72mbIpBzNpY3wsD2LpAG2Lmgr7hjYwy_jO0WH4rlQ6giMbYYZKNoyCfXncPaPHjxDTdWWP0-w/s500/Arrested.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5644276433593407458" border="0" /></a>
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<br />I was the third-to-last of 59 participants in civil disobedience earlier today to be arrested at the White House. We were taking nonviolent direct action in opposition to the proposed Keystone XL Pipeline, which would bring tar sands oil from Alberta, Canada to the US Gulf Coast. Aside from the danger this pipeline would pose to sources of drinking water, rural and indigenous peoples, and wildlife, if this carbon were to enter the atmosphere it would be game over for climate. Estimates place the tar sands contribution to CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere at 600 parts per million (ppm), so this pipeline is kind of a big deal. For reference, 350 ppm is the concentration at which human life on Earth developed. We're currently somewhere between 385 and 395 ppm CO2, and steadily climbing.
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<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuGbO51YzPLArsaAYYeNg7caXnD6MquQQud6vshuKzS1dIrw-_SMrIWTA6SfC-8JigLoNy8tWU_wjlntv0l93BRh-gSJ0Y0p4f4eYYzg-lxeQnn9PYyO_oAI_FEhEcD7bPx6o0n4j4YLU/s1600/the+group.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 500px; height: 205px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuGbO51YzPLArsaAYYeNg7caXnD6MquQQud6vshuKzS1dIrw-_SMrIWTA6SfC-8JigLoNy8tWU_wjlntv0l93BRh-gSJ0Y0p4f4eYYzg-lxeQnn9PYyO_oAI_FEhEcD7bPx6o0n4j4YLU/s500/the+group.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5644190219679736290" border="0" /></a>
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<br />After each of us was pulled from the rest of group lined up along the sidewalk, we were led into a small tent and then loaded into a paddy wagon to be transported to the Anacostia branch of the Park Police for further processing. I was loaded into the last truck along with Jerome from New Jersey and Bishop from Virginia. To say we were cramped would be an understatement. Imagine bouncing around in the back of a mobile toaster. Then imagine having your hands behind your back, and you'll get a sense of our experience. I was first on the transport so I had a view out of the front of the vehicle through the metal mesh between myself and the driver. As we wove through the streets of DC behind our motorcycle escort past the White House, through the Mall beside the Washington Monument, and across the Anacostia River, I wondered what the tourists were thinking. What's all this ruckus? Who are these criminals being transported across town? I could see them turning their heads along the sidewalks as they heard the whine of the sirens coming down the street. I chuckled to myself. If only they knew that behind the windowless walls of the truck sat a recent college graduate, an environmental engineer, and a lawyer who'd all been demonstrating at the White House only moments before. We're doing this for you, I thought, and we're doing this for each other.
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<br />Processing once we arrived at the jailhouse was relatively painless. One by one they snapped off our plastic cuffs and led us to a long table staffed with officers who had us fill out paperwork for our release. Because of the low severity of our crime - we were charged with failure to obey a lawful order (aka get off the sidewalk) - and the benevolence of the Park Police, we were granted a "post and forfeit" release. Under these terms we could pay a $100 fine instead of staying overnight in jail and arranging a date in court. Thankfully we were instructed to have cash on us beforehand, and we were all out of police custody by 2:00 or so. Not so bad considering arrests had started around 11:30. I also want to make a point of saying that the DC Park Police were courteous and professional throughout the process, and I hope they spend my $100 wisely.
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<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDy2IltSzw9cc10EkaKbmd7R3X_4_r4MzdQq5n_3Rl2j1ijcrm3Vj2OvHGQ9VFxqFcscUZpyEeOHbmOTwazI_RKG1RQ4El27h-nSIlJYVeT-E7Wbmx7p0hMPHpcOXc9zOGn7u6vZCMoi8/s1600/The+mug.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 266px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDy2IltSzw9cc10EkaKbmd7R3X_4_r4MzdQq5n_3Rl2j1ijcrm3Vj2OvHGQ9VFxqFcscUZpyEeOHbmOTwazI_RKG1RQ4El27h-nSIlJYVeT-E7Wbmx7p0hMPHpcOXc9zOGn7u6vZCMoi8/s400/The+mug.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5644274133625091490" border="0" /></a>One of the most remarkable things for me about this action was the ability of a group of complete strangers to come together and rally around a common vision. It was even more astonishing to me that part of that goal was arrest. Action organizers affectionately used the phrase "risking arrest" when describing the action we were to take but after three previous days of arrested participants we had a good idea of what we were in for. The vast majority of us, like myself, were first-time participants in a demonstration of this kind and had never been arrested before. This could have made for a nervous bunch, but after spending several hours at a civil disobedience training session last night we were comfortable enough to put our trust in one another and take this leap of faith together. Leading up to the action I was anxious about entering into a scenario where I wasn't in control of my personal well-being (wait, you mean we're actually going to be arrested, like <span style="font-style: italic;">arrested</span> arrested?), but as soon as I showed up at the White House this morning I knew that I would be in good hands - those of the wonderful, courageous, and passionate people who had come from all over the country to stand beside me. I realized too that sometimes you must relinquish that control in order to take control of something you care about.
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<br />One of the most memorable moments from today was when my buddy (we each had action buddies who were our go-to's for support throughout the day) Lawrence MacDonald and others led us in a variation of <span style="font-style: italic;">We Shall Overcome</span>, an anthem of the Civil Rights movement. The lyrics drew nicely on the essence of what we were trying to accomplish.
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<br /><div style="text-align: center; font-style: italic;">We shall overcome, we shall overcome,
<br />We shall overcome someday;
<br />Deep in my heart, I do believe,
<br />We shall overcome someday.
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<br />We'll walk hand in hand, we'll walk hand in hand,
<br />We'll walk hand in hand someday;
<br />Deep in my heart, I do believe,
<br />We'll walk hand in hand someday.
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<br />We shall live in peace, we shall live in peace,
<br />We shall live in peace someday;
<br />Deep in my heart, I do believe,
<br />We shall live in peace someday.
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<br />We shall heal the earth, we shall heal the earth,
<br />We shall heal the earth someday;
<br />Oh, deep in my heart, I do believe,
<br />We shall heal the earth someday.
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<br />If today showed me anything, it's that this day is coming and we can get there even quicker if we work together to oppose injustice and bring positive change to the world.
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<br />Final note: Infinite thanks to the Tar Sands Action organizing team. Your help in preparing us for what we could expect throughout the day and your presence before, during, and after the action were invaluable to this experience. It honestly wouldn't have been possible, and won't continue to be possible this next week and a half, without your tireless work. I'm exhausted after participating in a single day, I can't imagine the resolve it must take to be out there day after day training a new group and seeing them safely through the arrest process. I think I speak for all of those who participated with me today when I say you are the real heroes of this action. Thank you!
<br />Adam Maynardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11501772366020096483noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6297846959094808613.post-91187170666940539332011-08-20T13:30:00.001-04:002011-08-20T13:32:49.778-04:00Stop the Tar Sands: Stand Tall Generation Y<span style="font-style: italic;">This post originally appeared last week in <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/08/16/1007700/-Stop-the-Tar-Sands:-Stand-Tall-Generation-Y">a Daily Kos blogathon</a> featuring responses to the proposed Keystone XL pipeline. If this were to be approved, the pipeline would bring tar sands oil from Canada to the US Gulf Coast and serve as the fuse to one of the largest carbon bombs on the planet. If we are to have any hope of mitigating the catastrophic consequences of climate change, this carbon must stay in the ground. Here's why I'm participating in civil disobedience against the Keystone XL this week.</span>
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<br />I've always balked a little at the notion that we should take action on climate change for the sake of our children, and for our children's children. This idea rubs me the wrong way because it creates a temporal disconnect with the immediacy of these issues, reinforcing the misconception that climate change is something that isn't happening while giving those suspicious of doing good for the environment another reason not to care. That, and of course it's not true. We need to take action on climate to save ourselves too.
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<br />Whenever I hear someone reference future generations in relation to climate change I can't help but think, "They're talking about me. These adults are talking about me." See, I was born in the late nineteen eighties which means that if US life expectancy is anywhere near accurate I will still be alive well after 2050. To put it simply, if I don't take action on climate then I'm not only jeopardizing my branch of the family tree but my own existence entirely. I don't have the luxury of playing wait and see. None of us do. Of course I'm an adult too now and as we charge further into the 21st Century an idea that may be a vestige of environmental messages of old becomes less and less relevant as more climate-passionate young people join the cause and conversation.
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<br />Climate must be a priority now. Our current greenhouse gas trajectory exceeds even the worst-case fossil fuel intensive projections made in 2007 for emissions over the next 100 years. The following video depicts <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/a-link-between-climate-change-and-joplin-tornadoes-never/2011/05/23/AFrVC49G_story.html">a message Bill McKibben articulated beautifully</a> in a Washington Post op-ed in May: Connect the dots. The destructive consequences of a changing climate are happening all around us.
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<br /><iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/xhCY-3XnqS0" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="314" width="500"></iframe>
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<br />When I first heard about the two weeks of civil disobedience in Washington I thought this is an incredible and unique opportunity. Through our participation we can show the one man responsible for approving or rejecting the pipeline, President Barack Obama, that we mean business. The groundswell of support for this action and the satellite protests that have cropped up across the country for those who cannot make it to DC prove that we've grown tired of our leaders' inability to make significant progress on climate change. Oftentimes when I think about direct actions I can take to have a positive impact on the environment my mind wanders to behavior changes in my personal life. But participating in civil disobedience is a whole different animal, and for me a no-brainer. Let's get this country's attention and convince the Commander in Chief to stop one of the most destructive projects in discussion today.
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<br />I recently came across a passage of <a href="http://obamaspeeches.com/060-Energy-Independence-and-the-Safety-of-Our-Planet-Obama-Speech.htm">a speech Obama gave back in 2006</a>. He said:
<br /><blockquote><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:Courier New,Courier,mono;"><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:georgia;" >"The issue of climate change is one that we ignore at our own peril. There may still be disputes about exactly how much we're contributing to the warming of the earth's atmosphere and how much is naturally occurring, but what we can be scientifically certain of is that our continued use of fossil fuels is pushing us to a point of no return. And unless we free ourselves from a dependence on these fossil fuels and chart a new course on energy in this country, we are condemning future generations to global catastrophe."</span>
<br /></span></span></blockquote>Without a doubt President Obama has diverged from this message. Sure, he may not think he has enough remaining political capital to craft meaningful climate legislation, especially when current members of Congress advocate abolishing the EPA and recently rejected a measure that would have admitted the climate is changing and human activities are the cause. In the midst of such an obstructionist political setting it's up to us to show him he's not alone. Further action simply cannot wait. He needs to understand that approving the Keystone XL pipeline would be a direct affront to those who elected him.
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<br />Therefore this post is a call to all members of Generation Y to come out in strength and stand tall outside the White House starting this weekend. The votes of the 18- to 25-year-old demographic were essential to Obama's victory in 2008 and we need to hold him accountable. <style>@font-face { font-family: "Times New Roman"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }a:link, span.MsoHyperlink { color: blue; text-decoration: underline; }a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed { color: purple; text-decoration: underline; }table.MsoNormalTable { font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }div.Section1 { page: Sect</style><span style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;font-family:Arial;font-size:11pt;color:transparent;" id="internal-source-marker_0.22679273714138815" ></span>We’ve inherited quite the complex global problem and it’s up to us to solve it, or perish. We ARE the future generation we’ve heard so much about. The clock is ticking.
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<br />I remember in the <a href="http://www.grist.org/climate-change/2011-06-23-join-us-in-civil-disobedience-to-stop-the-keystone-xl-tar-sands">very first announcement</a><a href="http://www.grist.org/climate-change/2011-06-23-join-us-in-civil-disobedience-to-stop-the-keystone-xl-tar-sands"> on Grist</a> about the plans for the civil disobedience there was a portion which read: "We don’t want college-age kids to be the only cannon fodder in this fight.... Now it’s time for people who’ve spent their lives pouring carbon into the atmosphere (and whose careers won’t be as damaged by an arrest record) to step up too." Fellow Gen-Yers, will we get arrested? It's entirely possible. We're not supposed to stand still in the location where we'll be gathering outside the White House. But this space offers President Obama such a prime view of us we simply can't pass it up. Should we let the threat of tainting our personal records deter us from showing our support for this cause? Never. Would we want to work somewhere that couldn't understand and accept the type of thoughtful and principled action we'll be engaging in? I don't think so. I will be outside the White House a week from today, on Tuesday August 23rd, and I hope you will join me.
<br />Adam Maynardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11501772366020096483noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6297846959094808613.post-17862689091200610132011-07-25T23:23:00.001-04:002011-07-25T23:28:24.337-04:00Test Driving the 100% Electric Nissan Leaf<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqOgd77VpfBtnz6FsVfN4UFaHKmWD6rQAAJj2_c4Yo1QRkLqKPMdTvMPJbzn238OE2KTYJF2qZFNl5ime7OjVoTdOujz24IXfgO0jzURXkDiUVwLjtlh4lgHTX0xf3ts2YVwCY59tVvP8/s1600/The+Leaf+Rules1.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 500px; height: 375px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqOgd77VpfBtnz6FsVfN4UFaHKmWD6rQAAJj2_c4Yo1QRkLqKPMdTvMPJbzn238OE2KTYJF2qZFNl5ime7OjVoTdOujz24IXfgO0jzURXkDiUVwLjtlh4lgHTX0xf3ts2YVwCY59tVvP8/s500/The+Leaf+Rules1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5633441644735800850" border="0" /></a><br /><br />On Saturday I had the opportunity to test drive the Leaf, the 100% electric car manufactured by Nissan. It's no secret I've had a mini-love affair with the Leaf marketing team ever since I first saw their commercials a while ago (see posts <a href="http://agmaynard.blogspot.com/2010/09/innovation-for-today-innovation-for.html">here</a>, <a href="http://agmaynard.blogspot.com/2011/01/nissans-new-way-leading-way.html">here</a> and most recently <a href="http://agmaynard.blogspot.com/2011/06/nissan-asks-what-if-everything-ran-on.html">here</a>). When I noticed on Twitter a few weeks ago that they were launching a Drive Electric Tour and that they were stopping in nearby Hartford, I knew I had to take advantage of the chance to get in the driver's seat myself and see what all the hype was about.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEji3X0Uon7lpewNi6mUqhHUBf-5lpN0KyCMMLOE06eo6l8YM9Mkk8fVDiUZnsCJXDDY0ek8dWmo01hKAfE_orq5KtqAZv5V41Rm4HupxVQZLeuK3eUVP47QdgyLDltIf4sCsC50LZbxV0k/s1600/0723011331.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 500px; height: 375px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEji3X0Uon7lpewNi6mUqhHUBf-5lpN0KyCMMLOE06eo6l8YM9Mkk8fVDiUZnsCJXDDY0ek8dWmo01hKAfE_orq5KtqAZv5V41Rm4HupxVQZLeuK3eUVP47QdgyLDltIf4sCsC50LZbxV0k/s500/0723011331.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5633446215175240258" border="0" /></a><br /><br />The event itself was awesome. It was a brutally hot day and they had cornered off a large section of the parking lot at the West Farms Mall for the driving course. There were also tents with information about the Leaf and refreshments. I was a part of the 1:30 tour group -- There were about 20 of us in all. Most of them were families with kids and I was probably the youngest person who drove himself to the event. Go figure. It didn't matter that I'm not planning on actually buying a Leaf, or any car for that matter anytime soon (I'm hoping to live in a place where it's not necessary to drive everywhere). That said, if and when I come to a point in my life where I want to buy a car, this is definitely towards the top of my wish list.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4xFj1NUhB8O5fthXw033d9vPMkYI6sp1qOSfQzy4tgEMHFEIljFbVMLbnOC6yQBLtpBdeDWAs8pH6V47nYEHGZ82ZoLRmfdElnRbOeBAdBitpbeLpEv6nc6wGv_jGwz_z-dPM9hWhiCk/s1600/0723011404.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 500px; height: 375px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4xFj1NUhB8O5fthXw033d9vPMkYI6sp1qOSfQzy4tgEMHFEIljFbVMLbnOC6yQBLtpBdeDWAs8pH6V47nYEHGZ82ZoLRmfdElnRbOeBAdBitpbeLpEv6nc6wGv_jGwz_z-dPM9hWhiCk/s500/0723011404.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5633473105747254018" border="0" /></a><br /><br />I was just along for the ride and to get a glimpse of the technology of the future. And that's really what it felt like. It made me think of what it must have been like to visit a world's fair and see the technologies of the coming era. Okay, maybe that's a stretch -- it's only a new car. Then again, the Leaf has no mufflers. I digress...<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZ8UbE2e2W4r6jYPt_49znUYE_5cA8nwWoABfJCJXIpIxeNUYtzz3Qpt5bow8coG8kkA3qtHqSpza1qBSkuDfwjNVC98zaA3iuvBrJ2K4P3P3g5jqOY6JFw96AheoaqJB74KvYdgI78vo/s1600/0723011410.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 500px; height: 375px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZ8UbE2e2W4r6jYPt_49znUYE_5cA8nwWoABfJCJXIpIxeNUYtzz3Qpt5bow8coG8kkA3qtHqSpza1qBSkuDfwjNVC98zaA3iuvBrJ2K4P3P3g5jqOY6JFw96AheoaqJB74KvYdgI78vo/s500/0723011410.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5633484554642326162" border="0" /></a><br /><br />One of the Nissan Tour staff members ushered us through the first tent and told us about the car. Because it has roughly a 100-mile charge, he was honest that the Leaf is not a road trip vehicle. He was quick to point out that over 90 percent of us never travel 100 miles in a day, so the Leaf is perfect for the commute to school or work, or for running errands around town. He also explained that since the Leaf can recharge its battery while braking or coasting, some drivers can achieve distances of up to 130 miles. The navigation system built into the Leaf can locate nearby charging stations as well as show the driver all possible destinations, one-way and round-trip, within the current battery life. He pointed out the many other features of the Leaf, including the solar panel on the roof that powers the radio, headlights, AC, etc. The model underneath the tent had been running all day, yet all the components under the hood were cool to the touch. The seats themselves are made out of recycled plastic water bottles. The headlights were designed to direct airflow around the sideview mirrors to reduce drag. The list went on and on. Needless to say I was very impressed by the care Nissan had taken to create the Leaf.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7L1F73F5Gegkb2zUSoHRxgylwQ6BF3Wq1k-bgNmfLWf7uiH4Ape4wkMFA8VL6BjRHZMH7OyzCYVH3wRImsOCIEXtfeYkjeCTEzt3z1Yn1u0JNY_JS8PcKZxok7Z6p59CRTHb0uVPC3K8/s1600/0723011357.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 500px; height: 375px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7L1F73F5Gegkb2zUSoHRxgylwQ6BF3Wq1k-bgNmfLWf7uiH4Ape4wkMFA8VL6BjRHZMH7OyzCYVH3wRImsOCIEXtfeYkjeCTEzt3z1Yn1u0JNY_JS8PcKZxok7Z6p59CRTHb0uVPC3K8/s500/0723011357.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5633486901237567650" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Before long it was time to head out on the course. I was accompanied by Nissan staff to a car waiting in the lot. I climbed into the drivers seat and pushed the power button. The only sound was that of the air conditioning turning on. Soon it was my turn to take off, and I slid out of the starting area. One of the coolest things about driving the Leaf was the way it calculated the remaining range in the vehicle on the dashboard. It even told you by how many miles you could increase the range by turning of the AC or radio, or by putting the car into eco-mode (effectively the equivalent of a lower gear in any normal car, i.e. slower pickup).<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVBo-KhobxfuCFaDydDOqPZZ63q3mg9GihPUPPBzgIvFI5Fp0gAY7cvlEl6rbKYiygeX9ygFOOsqPA2feLiwM26HLq-_U09AR-0YE7TROXb-lklebvklybTscyoWl8mccIzOCdAAspU5s/s1600/0723011357a.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 500px; height: 375px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVBo-KhobxfuCFaDydDOqPZZ63q3mg9GihPUPPBzgIvFI5Fp0gAY7cvlEl6rbKYiygeX9ygFOOsqPA2feLiwM26HLq-_U09AR-0YE7TROXb-lklebvklybTscyoWl8mccIzOCdAAspU5s/s500/0723011357a.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5633489279636628594" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Unfortunately we weren't allowed to push more than 15-20 mph through the course, so it was a little difficult for me to tell how it would fare on the open road. It did handle really well weaving through the cones they had set up and from what I could tell it was very similar to driving other small to midsized cars. When I asked one of the tent staffers what his favorite thing was about the Leaf he said it was the torque. He agreed that the course was limiting and didn't do the car justice, but that it had to be that way for liability reasons. Next time I'd really like to get one of these out on the open road and just cruise around for a little while. Due to hit the open market this fall, I may get that chance soon.<br /><br />Overall the event was so much fun and I feel like I now have a better understanding of the Leaf and a greater appreciation for Nissan in doing what it has to promote electric vehicles. If you are interested in test driving one yourself, check out the <a href="https://drivenissanleaf.com/">Drive Electric Tour</a> and see if the Leaf will be coming to a city near you soon. The national tour just started, so chances are you'll have an opportunity to participate. I highly recommend it!Adam Maynardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11501772366020096483noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6297846959094808613.post-68715032093671738062011-07-11T21:22:00.009-04:002011-07-12T16:18:54.535-04:00TGL, Two Years Later<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://agmaynard.blogspot.com/2009/07/2009-campus-progress-national.html"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 500px; height: 333px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJ0WMFAiVi-oYzxVqoaGBUSkhciJrTgnQbBSL_T5CtpF7RxGc_9WkHu8Asooir5_pyuUGrE4BzBZtgM6DbCSX5aX7LIis0Ea8_NDrxSHprburksWHmalMopTSyt5t7yI1c5f6u2wyw56c/s1600/CPNC+2009+-+John+Oliver.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />It was two years ago last Friday that I sat down in my Washington D.C. apartment and wrote and published the very first post on this here blog. I had spent the day at the 2009 Campus Progress National Conference where I was inspired by speeches from such luminaries as former President Bill Clinton, then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, oh, and of course, Daily Show correspondent John Oliver. Having deliberated for the better part of the preceding months over whether or not to start my voyage into the unknown depths of the internets, I finally could not resist the temptation to stake a claim on my own personal corner of the virtual frontier.<br /><br /><a href="http://agmaynard.blogspot.com/2009/07/for-all-you-alternative-transportation.html"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 204px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvRb9gAquAVMFASwurJI5GHuDOQRa9YSWcsxGSXaKqIYcy81c1BSexsebD_OXT0giay7gYw96zpaFz93t_LTs8FJA4-O1P4DTJp385WXDqFi4MDQL8Z9yDl-DwX_0cB7DbeT-riuFZhsQ/s400/Bus,+Bike,+Car+-+FINAL" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />When I go back and <a href="http://agmaynard.blogspot.com/2009/07/when-beginning-began.html">read that post</a> now I hear a self-conscious writer (can I even call my nascent blogger self a writer?) dipping his toes into the blogging pool. I didn't even really know at the time what I wanted to write about -- baseball? comic books? (HA.) -- I simply knew that I had ideas that I wanted to share. Soon The Green Lantern became my outlet for my observations on the world of sustainability, urbanism, or the two together. It helped me apply concepts and theories I'd learn in the classroom to the current web of events we now find ourselves caught up in.<br /><br /><a href="http://agmaynard.blogspot.com/2010/10/creating-better-world-by-design.html"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 350px; height: 350px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmuABhhbzqnboSCT8_gXixRU_Adk6XaOsfrEvKjtPTvD3WD_i4_gcSz3hGXbskx-0aLm2l3hrFlFBPM16K-hGAgTgW8Mwko5A0JiettPMEgDcPDlNr-qaiDAeoU4XdydRl-muUdj65HVY/s400/Logo.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Several times I remarked that blogging took a certain bravado to think that people would want to read what I had to say. As I honed my message and my method, I began to attract more and more visitors. Some were friends, family members, and colleagues, and some were people I had never met before who were interested in hearing what I had to say. I feel incredibly fortunate to have seen my readership grow to the point it is at now. I had just under 500 pageviews last month:<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvVQiz_oGZSacpJpU0yK-Xdx-vsW9XDVJTXsgJq4rMn9spStlVEY7heKBkBh4QXJ-lgJ4vAOlzf6xxEFNS7P5W2vGZgCg3AL4nu6XmFObmeEv-JnLihpTIMHCZn3AoSHRY8tVNQNTbJ2o/s1600/TGL+views.png"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 125px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvVQiz_oGZSacpJpU0yK-Xdx-vsW9XDVJTXsgJq4rMn9spStlVEY7heKBkBh4QXJ-lgJ4vAOlzf6xxEFNS7P5W2vGZgCg3AL4nu6XmFObmeEv-JnLihpTIMHCZn3AoSHRY8tVNQNTbJ2o/s400/TGL+views.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5628278005750458962" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br />Inherent in this endeavor was finding my "voice," something I knew would be paramount to this process way back in that very first post. In some ways I think my writing style has remained remarkably constant, though the strength of argument has improved. I've also learned to loosen up in some of my posts, because who likes to read something that's stuffy and boring (the answer is no one...). Over the past two years I've written on time-lapse videos of NYC, about 100 different electric car commercials, my love of biking, and cities from the sky. My most popular posts to date are <a href="http://agmaynard.blogspot.com/2010/09/lock-it-up.html">Lock It Up</a> and a recent rallying cry against hydraulic fracturing, <a href="http://agmaynard.blogspot.com/2011/05/exxon-for-shame.html">Exxon, For Shame</a> (both worth a read if you missed them the first time around).<br /><br /><a href="http://agmaynard.blogspot.com/2010/11/lock-it-up-in-air.html"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 235px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKa053y8QujPV2RLGJqHuXZNzOo0l4Bwg4kKX30QzDwTu2xuCn4QcTN_KRL3e3ZeMBQNQ1y_v0yX4PxGwU_3hgBZ9tiOEHVKUY1N4T_BzlwysQMDn39O4RnybzJflupF8WZ1MXH39LLXM/s400/Picture+4.png" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />I'm a firm believer in the idea that you can't know where you're going if you don't know where you've been. Luckily for me I've kept a careful record of where I've been, and I can say that I want to keep heading in the direction I've set out for myself. Like a planetary body set in motion I won't stop now. I can't, even if I foolishly wanted to or even tried. My life is in a period of transition -- I just graduated from college and am (finally) and "adult." Hopefully building upon these writings will help me to further determine the solutions to the crises of the 21st Century.<br /><br />From those of you who have been there when the beginning began, to those of you for whom this is your first post, the only words I can say are thank you, thank you, thank you.Adam Maynardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11501772366020096483noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6297846959094808613.post-39058407066493719882011-06-13T22:35:00.004-04:002011-06-13T23:44:17.579-04:00Watch this Video. Just Watch It.<iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/xhCY-3XnqS0" allowfullscreen="" width="500" frameborder="0" height="314"></iframe><br /><br />Last year one of my professors warned my class not to associate extreme weather events with climate change, a point I explored in several posts that spring (See <a href="http://agmaynard.blogspot.com/2010/01/weather-versus-climate-whats-difference.html">here</a>, <a href="http://agmaynard.blogspot.com/2010/02/dylan-ratigan-understands-difference.html">here</a>, and <a href="http://agmaynard.blogspot.com/2010/02/bill-nye-falls-victim-to-he-said-she.html">here</a>). In this video <a href="http://plomomedia.com/">Stephen Thomson</a> narrates <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/a-link-between-climate-change-and-joplin-tornadoes-never/2011/05/23/AFrVC49G_story.html">Bill McKibben's Washington Post op-ed</a> over images of these disasters and relevant political tidbits, creating an incredibly haunting and convincing portrait of recent events. At this point I'm not really sure what to think, but I'm now asking myself this question: If no one extreme weather event can be linked to climate change then at what point (if any) can a series of such catastrophes be attributed to a changing climate? And if this connection is made, can they even be called "natural" disasters anymore?Adam Maynardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11501772366020096483noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6297846959094808613.post-84260258212397203332011-06-10T15:52:00.017-04:002011-06-10T21:00:36.988-04:00Nissan Asks, What if Everything Ran on Gas?The marketing team at Nissan is at it again, and this time they've struck gold.<br /><br /><iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/j0sCCJFkEbE" allowfullscreen="" width="500" frameborder="0" height="314"></iframe><br /><br />I saw this commercial for the first time last night, and I have seen it everywhere since (including the preview advertisement for another Youtube video of the ad itself. So meta, right?). The concept is incredible, so much so that I actually uttered the word "brilliant" when the commercial ended. After watching it several times through, I realize its message is different from the one I initially took away from it but that doesn't detract from the creativity of the clip nor the intended message itself.<br /><br />When I first watched it, I thought what the heck could this be for? A bunch of appliances running on two-stroke engines and spewing (noticeable) exhaust into the surrounding air? I was captivated by it because it visually represented an important connection -- that each of these technological amenities uses energy. It would be more obvious if we lived in a world where everything ran on gas, but when the plants spewing the same pollutants into the atmosphere are located in someone else's backyard this connection is more difficult to draw. I like this commercial for the same reason I like the wall decal below, from <a href="http://www.hu2.com/store/eco-reminders.html">Hu2 Design</a>. Both are innovative ways to remind people of their environmental impacts.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.hu2.com/store/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/420x/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/h/u/hu2_oil_spill_reminder_sticker_mr02_2011.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 420px; height: 420px;" src="http://www.hu2.com/store/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/420x/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/h/u/hu2_oil_spill_reminder_sticker_mr02_2011.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />The subtle aspects of the commercial really make it shine. It is meant to make you feel bored and uncomfortable. Watching someone go through their daily routine really gets you going, doesn't it? Waking up at 6:20? Yuck. And no one likes the dentist, especially if they try to put a <a href="http://www.yugster.com/images/products/milwaukee_sawzall_inuse.jpg">sawzall</a> in your mouth. After all, thinking about gasoline should unnerve you and to them I say job well done.<br /><br />My "Aha" moment came when we finally arrive at our tragic hero filling his Chevy Volt, a plug-in hybrid electric car (which means it can run on gas or electricity, or both), at the pump. Clever, I thought, to use gas-powered electric appliances to make the case for electrifying a typically gas-powered vehicle. But, of course, the magicians at Nissan weren't done yet. They took the commercial as an opportunity to make a light jab at their chief competitor, clearly taking pride in the fact that their car doesn't rely on the Volt's gas-dependent safety net. The only problem I have with their message is that the electricity they purport to be vastly better than gasoline isn't emissions-free either. Roughly two-thirds of the electricity produced in this country is done so using dirty sources such as coal or natural gas. Nissan Leafs (Leaves?) nor Chevy Volts will be true zero-emissions vehicles until we grow the percentage of renewables in our national energy portfolio. To the Volt's defense, there clearly aren't charging stations yet on the average street like the one shown beside the Leaf in this commercial. Because of this the Chevy hybrid model could be a more than acceptable stepping stone to a complete EV future, as long as its electric refueling capacity isn't ignored in practice in favor of the more familiar gasoline routine.Adam Maynardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11501772366020096483noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6297846959094808613.post-77339450464197695492011-06-06T22:29:00.006-04:002011-06-06T22:55:46.476-04:00Flickering Lights: Another NYC TimelapseEarlier this year I posted <a href="http://agmaynard.blogspot.com/2011/01/time-lapse-photography-captures-city.html">this time-lapse video</a> of New York City made by photographer <a href="http://www.mindrelic.com/">Josh Owens</a>. In that post, I commented on how cities are visually striking places and images like these have the power to illicit emotional responses in those viewing them. In case you found yourself wanting, don't worry -- Owens is at it again. Last week he released a second video of New York, once which incorporates many of the same elements of the first while focusing on different themes:<br /><br /><iframe src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/24492485?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0" width="500" frameborder="0" height="281"></iframe><br /><br />One of the aspects that stands out to me is the way Owens captures light. From the first few seconds of the video when the sun rises and bathes the rooftops in its glow, to the city streets flanked by tall buildings that only receive complete sun for moments each day, to the blurring red tail lights streaking through the streets, and then the office lights that blink on and off along the various facades, light is central to our impressions and understanding of cities.<br /><br />And like his first video, you can't ignore the sheer beauty of the images he captures.Adam Maynardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11501772366020096483noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6297846959094808613.post-35057296155715686702011-05-11T13:51:00.001-04:002011-05-16T14:04:33.428-04:00Exxon, For ShameIn the past week I've seen the following Exxon commercial probably a dozen times. You may have seen it too, or one like it. They usually include a charismatic narrator describing how some aspect of Exxon's operation is valuable to our country. You can almost hear them pleading, "We're doing the right thing, don't you see?" But this most recent commercial, <a href="http://www.exxonmobil.com/Corporate/news_ad_masters.aspx">part of their 2011 corporate ad program</a>, really rubbed me the wrong way. Why? Because it's a blatant lie. Brilliant marketing, and a blatant lie.<br /><br />Watch:<br /><br /><iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/LF4A4VnJNbA" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="314" width="500"></iframe><br /><br />Geologist Erik Oswald touts the benefits of natural gas exploration. "Technology has made it possible to safely unlock this cleaner burning natural gas," he boasts, "These deposits can provide us with fuel for 100 years, providing energy security and economic growth all across this country." All the while, the background video displays expanses of wilderness, sleepy households, and mom-and-pop shops on Main Street opening for business (complete with American flags, of course. Hurrah for exploiting patriotism).<br /><br />If Mr. Oswald were telling the truth, this commercial would go a little something like this: "Extremely toxic and unregulated technology has made it possible for us to extract natural gas right in your backyard. Natural gas produces about 30 percent less carbon dioxide than petroleum, so sure it's more efficient but it's still a dirty fuel." Smiling sheepishly, he'd continue, "These deposits can provide us with fuel for 100 years which is really no time at all, perpetuating our addiction to fossil fuels. It would lead to economic growth for those that have rigged the system to reap the benefits. Heck, <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Business/high-gas-prices-record-profits-big-oil/story?id=13447922">Exxon enjoyed record profits during Q1 in 2011</a>! For others, those we exploit, natural gas exploration will lead to extreme human health risks and contaminated drinking water. But who cares about them?"<br /><br />Sorry Mr. Oswald, but in the words of Michael Scott, "<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQD95EEJxg4">Boom, roasted</a>."<br /><br /><a href="http://www.treehugger.com/fracking-whats-in-your-water-cartoon.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 250px; height: 303px;" src="http://www.treehugger.com/fracking-whats-in-your-water-cartoon.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>It is precisely what is not mentioned in this commercial that is so troubling. The unspoken phrase here is hydraulic fracturing, even though that is exactly the type of natural gas exploration and extraction that it describes. For those of you who aren't familiar with the technique, hydraulic fracturing (also known as fracking) involves injecting a toxic cocktail of chemicals thousands of feet beneath the earth's surface to break up porous rock and release the natural gas trapped within. But of course the term "fracking" isn't used, because it's a dirty word (pun intended).<br /><br />One of the reasons I'm so worked up about this commercial is two weeks ago I saw <a href="http://gaslandthemovie.com/">Gasland</a>. After receiving a $100,000 offer for a gas lease on his land in Pennsylvania, filmmaker Jeff Fox decided to investigate fracking sites across the country and made this award-winning documentary. What he found could not be more contradictory to the natural gas utopia depicted by Oswald and Exxon.<br /><br />Watch the Gasland trailer to get a sense of what I'm talking about:<br /><br /><iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/dZe1AeH0Qz8" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="314" width="500"></iframe><br /><br />I'm unsure if any film has ever affected me the way Gasland did. I came out of the screening irate and upset. How could something so clearly dangerous and untested be allowed? I wanted to throw these images and these stories in the faces of those who continually deny a link between fracking and environmental and human health crises. I think that's why it moved me so much - because this just wasn't a story about environmental degradation on a national scale. It was also a narrative about the destruction the social fabric of the families and the communities that now can't fish in their waterways, let their kids play outside, or trust the air they breathe in their own homes.<br /><br />I think watching this movie had the same effect on me that reading Cormac McCarthy's <span style="font-style: italic;">The Road</span> did last year, even though the cause of the dying earth he vividly depicted was never explicitly stated to be environmentally rooted. The anger I feel towards this Exxon commercial reminds me of the fear I felt after reading that book. But what role do these emotions play in the climate movement? I think we shy away from the realities of climate change because what's happening to the planet is so immense in scale and complexity, and we need to remain hopeful and happy to pull us through. But these emotions are valuable in their own right, not to mention entirely justified. And this brings us to the central problem with this commercial - <span style="font-weight: bold;">Exxon expects us to accept it hook, line, and sinker.</span> I say, "How dare they?" They don't fool me and they shouldn't fool you either. The next time you see this commercial or one like it, understand it for what it is.<br /><br />In the last 24 hours I've signed this <a href="http://www.change.org/petitions/tell-erik-oswald-exxonmobil-stop-fracking-the-earth">Change.org petition</a> asking Mr. Oswald to halt fracking activities and <a href="http://action.350.org/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=5340">one from 350.org</a> asking Congress to end subsidies to oil companies. I urge you to do the same.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Image credit: "<span style="font-style: italic;">What the Frack?</span>" by <a href="http://option-g.com/">Option-G</a>.</span>Adam Maynardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11501772366020096483noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6297846959094808613.post-12607195050969388882011-04-29T16:45:00.001-04:002011-04-30T18:31:05.270-04:00Barcelona, 1908Sometimes it's hard to imagine a time when automobiles didn't rule the road. The following video gives us a glimpse into the streets of Barcelona one hundred years ago when there were no cars, only streetcars:<br /><br /><iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/l9ueCn1SfcA" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="405" width="500"></iframe><br /><br />It's almost impossible to envision a major modern city without cars (okay I'll come clean, there are a few of the first automobiles in this clip). One of the coolest things about this video though, is that without cars <span style="font-style: italic;">everyone</span> uses the street. There are more pedestrians in the street than on the sidewalk. Bicycles weave back and forth across the streetcar-mounted camera. There are few carriages and even fewer automobiles. The video commentary from <a href="http://patterncities.com/archives/341">Pattern Cities</a> echoes the importance of this idea:<br /><blockquote> <p>This incredible film... demonstrates the degree to which modern society has engineered complexity out of our streets. It also provides a glimpse into how our city streets operated before the automobile went mainstream, a seminal 20th century moment that has damaged cities the world over.</p> <p>But surely the streets of the 1900s were not entirely crash-free, or as romantic as this film and its whimsical music make them out to be. Yet, the inherent complexity– the organized chaos of streetcars, pedestrians, horse-drawn carriages, and yes, motorists all mixing together–is instructive and should make any urbanist long for a time when the tyranny of the automobile didn’t dominate the project of city building.</p></blockquote>Unfortunately I don't think we will ever return to the ideal displayed here. We've traveled too far along our current path. Effectively merging cars and cities is not an easy task, but it is something that is an important problem in the 21st Century. Throughout the discussion around the impacts of automobile use on the planet I am amused by those who wish to do away with them entirely. Aside from being unfeasible - we've developed a modern transportation network predicated on automobility - it's also unfavorable. There's a reason cars are so popular. Car owners love the autonomy inherent in being able to go where you want to, when you want to. I'm not foolish enough to suppose that nothing will ever replace the automobile (where is my jetpack, anyhow?) but I am certain they are here to stay for the foreseeable future. And yes, maybe even through the 100 year timeline often cited as the window of opportunity to improve the odds on climate change. Since altering the infrastructure that mandates automobile use will take longer than we realistically have time for, the answer could depend on the speed at which we improve efficiency of hybrid vehicles and develop better electric vehicle technology. That said, <a href="http://www.grist.org/sprawl/2011-04-26-desperate-sprawl-developer-gives-away-cars-with-houses">we could sure do ourselves a favor and make fewer decisions like this one</a>.Adam Maynardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11501772366020096483noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6297846959094808613.post-47669139434715936012011-04-18T12:04:00.007-04:002011-04-19T13:23:33.080-04:00Power Shift 2011: Bill McKibben and Tim DeChristopher<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5109/5631833414_748900f05f_z.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 500px; height: 333px;" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5109/5631833414_748900f05f_z.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Unfortunately I wasn't able to attend <a href="http://www.powershift2011.org/">Power Shift</a> this year, though the friends I've talked to about it have all said it was an incredible experience. Thankfully in the technology age I've been able to follow along with a lot of the action on Twitter (which has officially displaced Facebook as my social media outlet of choice; follow <a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/agmaynard">@agmaynard</a>). During my internet explorations I came across two videos of speeches that I think are worth sharing. The first is Bill McKibben, author and the founder of <a href="http://www.350.org/">350.org</a>. The second is Tim DeChristopher, a climate activist who was <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/04/us/04leases.html">in the news recently</a> for crashing a federal auction and bidding nearly $1.8 million for oil and gas leases he had no intention of paying for.<br /><br />Let's listen to McKibben first:<br /><br /><iframe title="YouTube video player" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/CdF8wz4Jwm8" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="311" width="500"></iframe><br /><br />McKibben speaks about corrupt politics in Washington, and how we can't let dirty money (largely from the Chamber of Commerce and the industrious Koch bothers, pun intended) win out in the end. He says building a movement that is louder and more impassioned than the opposition will be the key to achieving the significant policy victories necessary to prevent catastrophic changes to the climate system. We've already caused 1 degree of warming (that's Celsius, by the way) and if we get to 5 or more we're cooked. It's up to us to make sure that doesn't happen in the next hundred years or so.<br /><br />Some highlights:<br /><ul><li>They [politicians] believe that because they can amend the tax laws they can amend the laws of nature too, but they can't. (on Congress voting to deny anthropogenic climate change).</li><li>The first thing we need to do is build a movement. We will never have as much money as the oil companies so we need a different currency to work in. We need bodies, we need creativity, we need spirit. 350.org has been like a beta test for that movement.</li><li>We need to fight with art and with music too, not just with the side of our brain that likes bar graphs and pie charts but all our heart and all our soul.</li><li>We need to speak with one loud voice.<br /></li></ul>Now let's listen to DeChristopher. Pay attention to how his tone is different than McKibben's:<br /><br /><iframe title="YouTube video player" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/81EZUkYzrxU" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="311" width="500"></iframe><br /><br />DeChristopher's portrait of the future is far more dark than McKibben's. He speaks of the challenges we'll face and the sacrifices that must be made. Because the carbon we've already emitted into the atmosphere is there to stay, we are on track for the collapse of modern civilization. The greatest challenge moving forward will not be reducing emissions, but maintaining our humanity through the troubles to come. He also describes why events like Power Shift do little to prevent this from happening. "There's a lot of stuff about this movement that feels really good and that's really convenient but it's not preparing us for the challenge that we will face ahead of us," says DeChristopher. Of the problems we'll inherit he says, "We're not going to meet it in a convenient way. We're not going to meet it in a way that fits into our school schedules. We're not going to meet it in a way that we can avoid sacrifices." Without using these exact words he says this is war.<br /><br />Through their speeches I think McKibben and DeChristopher describe different means to the same end. Both use the term civil disobedience, but I don't know if McKibben would support the types of interference his counterpart does (after all, DeChristopher is likely facing 5-10 years in prison for the gas lease auction bids). McKibben advocates for the "movement," for using the political capital built through organizations like 350 to influence policymakers in Washington. DeChristopher on the other hand advocates direct action, picketing at mountaintop removal sites for example. What's interesting about this suggestion is it would probably work and wouldn't end in a prison sentence (at least I'd hope not). But how many of you would actually travel to West Virginia and engage in this type of protest? <br /><br />There is a palpable tension between what we need to do and what we are willing to do to solve the crisis of our generation. After listening to these perspectives one after another I find myself asking, "How far would I go to bring about the positive change we need?"Adam Maynardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11501772366020096483noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6297846959094808613.post-85071613957947746832011-04-04T12:37:00.032-04:002011-04-05T18:11:54.549-04:00Ghost Cities<iframe title="YouTube video player" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/rPILhiTJv7E" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="311" width="500"></iframe><br /><br />This really freaks me out (and it should freak you out too). Reporters from Australian TV show Dateline explore the empty streets of Dongguan to document the dark reality of China's real estate boom. Six years after its opening, the "New" South China Mall remains 99 percent vacant. Government development agencies raze single-story tenements to make way for high-rise apartments that few Chinese can afford. <span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-style: italic;"></span>But construction continues</span>.<br /><br />Admittedly one of the reasons I find this tour of Dongguan so spooky is because of the visual parallels I draw to one of my favorite movies, <span style="font-style: italic;">Serenity</span>. In the scene below, the crew of the Firefly discovers a secret the centralized Alliance government was determined to keep hidden. They stumble upon the planet Miranda and find it completely deserted, with no evidence of war, famine, or other catastrophe.<br /><br /><object height="365" width="500"><param name="movie" value="http://www.megavideo.com/v/6CF7XHU9c58c9f1dc4640f31d7b36fabcf15ed8b2"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><embed src="http://www.megavideo.com/v/6CF7XHU9c58c9f1dc4640f31d7b36fabcf15ed8b2" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" height="365" width="500"></embed></object><br /><br />My favorite quote from this clip (besides "She is starting to damage my calm") is when Jayne says, "She's right. Everybody's dead. This whole world is dead for no reason." Now let me ask you something: Decomposing bodies and government population-calming experiments aside, is Dongguan any less "dead" than Miranda? Can a city exist without the people who inhabit it?<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmloOqD4bluwMC7IRcQo5IUFwny2ex-XzkLO1dfbNb_a8gP31HU-DRLhDa0hLoSwL-3URI7_RW-pg1ZY_iy5csEzFEj6jZjMt3IxeK96lMo2aCtYljxypJb6qM1Xr7hLdfSQgJBSrg4cQ/s1600/Miranda.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 270px; height: 349px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmloOqD4bluwMC7IRcQo5IUFwny2ex-XzkLO1dfbNb_a8gP31HU-DRLhDa0hLoSwL-3URI7_RW-pg1ZY_iy5csEzFEj6jZjMt3IxeK96lMo2aCtYljxypJb6qM1Xr7hLdfSQgJBSrg4cQ/s400/Miranda.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5592222831342477154" border="0" /></a>Not only are the views of an empty Dongguan (and the pop-culture references they suggest) unnerving in and of themselves, but the implications of all of that real estate sitting vacant for years is equally alarming. I'm not familiar enough with Chinese property development trends to say what this means for China's economy, but real estate analyst Gillem Tulloch asserts that it is experiencing a property bubble like we've never seen before, one "that will make the United States pale in comparison." We all know how that turned out, don't we?<br /><br />Despite the warnings and the precedents, this type of development continues. In <a href="http://www.grist.org/cities/2011-03-31-chinas-ghost-cities-and-the-biggest-property-bubble-of-all">this Grist.org piece</a> about the video, Sarah Goodyear writes: "And yet around the globe, governments and business interests continue to build projects like these.... They should look more closely at the Chinese example -- beyond the GDP numbers to the bricks-and-mortar reality. Because when economic growth is pursued for its own sake, without regard to the needs and capabilities of the humans inside that economy, it is only a matter of time before the bubble will burst."<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcC9OijAlwYHoHYhUMQtGOQWvYeczUDUWFNgi-LFXLihTnvmSyTasKTDES6AuvXMoTDzsGdk5w2LWy4gBewH-9bBU_yJTLPYtn7CL9cWxz4yk-eHDcbDXDKhvivf41J_ICj-nQ_UbCV-Y/s1600/Miranda.jpg"><br /></a>Adam Maynardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11501772366020096483noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6297846959094808613.post-51674298323126060502011-03-21T11:54:00.008-04:002011-03-23T00:19:18.977-04:00BMW: Activate the Future<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvmAxP8LRfQqD-FYolp4sSZI3SHvFKo3d6pXN84k0y-eWN_0_YzrnUbUf3E2cx1tTEzbrUWfMsaQWOiLf7Kr65n_x3xC-_6CyvrY67YTImMa6bWGi7mjieYerq7-egrkJuCu4m8ZhE_4A/s1600/Wherever+You+Want+to+Go.png"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 500px; height: 261px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvmAxP8LRfQqD-FYolp4sSZI3SHvFKo3d6pXN84k0y-eWN_0_YzrnUbUf3E2cx1tTEzbrUWfMsaQWOiLf7Kr65n_x3xC-_6CyvrY67YTImMa6bWGi7mjieYerq7-egrkJuCu4m8ZhE_4A/s800/Wherever+You+Want+to+Go.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5587122900673335698" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Each Tuesday throughout the month of February, BMW released one segment of a four-part documentary entitled <span style="font-style: italic;">Wherever You Want to Go</span>. The film covers topics including how the changing shape of our cities will determine how we move through them, what we can learn from airplanes and astronauts, and how keeping mobility fun is essential to transforming our transportation system. Commentators include Lawrence Burns, author of "Reinventing the Automobile," Robin Chase, Founder of Zipcar, and astronaut Buzz Aldrin. Watch the documentary below (all four parts together are about 25 minutes long).<br /><br />Part 1: The New City<br /><br /><iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/JKLqRr--DDg?fs=1" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="307" width="500"></iframe><br /><br />Part 2: The Future Just Isn't What it Used to Be<br /><br /><iframe title="YouTube video player" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/RpaywPNdocA" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="311" width="500"></iframe><br /><br />Part 3: Reinventing Mobility<br /><br /><iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/fLHW5KNL69E?fs=1" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="307" width="500"></iframe><br /><br />Part 4: How We'll Learn to Stop Worrying and Love the Future<br /><br /><iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/fOsD7PMDh60?fs=1" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="307" width="500"></iframe><br /><br />For more information about the film, <a href="http://bmwactivatethefuture.com/index.php">visit the BWM Documentaries website</a>.Adam Maynardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11501772366020096483noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6297846959094808613.post-90403924289350767452011-03-14T14:28:00.001-04:002011-03-23T00:49:05.691-04:00Cities from the Sky, Part Four<span style="font-style: italic;font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;" >This is the fourth part in a series about aerial photography and the built environment. If you missed part one, </span><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;" ><a href="http://agmaynard.blogspot.com/2011/02/cities-from-air-part-one.html">click here</a></span><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;" >, </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;" >part two,</span><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;" > <a href="http://agmaynard.blogspot.com/2011/02/cities-from-sky-part-two.html">click here</a>, or part three, <a href="http://agmaynard.blogspot.com/2011/03/cities-from-sky-part-three.html">click here</a>.</span><br /><br /><a href="http://resources2.news.com.au/images/2011/03/14/1226021/370482-japan-quake.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 500px; height: 281px;" src="http://resources2.news.com.au/images/2011/03/14/1226021/370482-japan-quake.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />So I know I said last week's post would be the final one in this series, but the events over the weekend in Japan have mandated an emergency post of sorts. If you are reading this than you are probably someone predisposed to seeking out and consuming relevant news, so (I'm hoping) you've heard that last Friday a massive earthquake triggered a tsunami that decimated much of Japan's eastern coastline. If you don't know what I'm talking about, climb out from under that rock you've been living under and grab a copy of a major newspaper. Or just keep reading.<br /><br />At 8.9 on the Richter scale, the quake was one of the largest in recorded history. It could be felt in Tokyo, hundreds of miles from the epicenter, where large buildings swayed like flowers in a gentle breeze.<br /><br /><iframe title="YouTube video player" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/JhJzdtzl6KY" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="311" width="500"></iframe><br /><br />The wave itself reached heights of up to 33 feet and wreaked havoc on the low-lying coastland, sending houses, cars, people, and whatever else lay in its path miles inland. If you've been following the coverage, chances are you've seen videos of the surging water already, but in case you haven't behold its terrifying power.<br /><br /><iframe title="YouTube video player" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/5-zfCBCq-8I" frameborder="0" height="405" width="500"></iframe><br /><br />This destruction has also been well documented using satellite imagery, snapshots which give a comprehensive look at the massive scale of this disaster. Entire neighborhoods and towns disappear. Fields become lakes. Civilization is reminded of its fragility.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP5tquDrTpZAFhykImOhVdxdr0D3dm6bN0fcMy6GZsWK47JNTvcIlNWuuLJPAg87n8HlY86ONNMUb8DWRpqtdQIqeTG9tIM2iTsr13NXYSyM_BvpSklMW6Fb73BnFxHQ6i2MCrLPjaBcU/s1600/Picture+9.png"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 500px; height: 251px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP5tquDrTpZAFhykImOhVdxdr0D3dm6bN0fcMy6GZsWK47JNTvcIlNWuuLJPAg87n8HlY86ONNMUb8DWRpqtdQIqeTG9tIM2iTsr13NXYSyM_BvpSklMW6Fb73BnFxHQ6i2MCrLPjaBcU/s800/Picture+9.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5584370872468412690" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9L-AkwP-X6sVuJUCx_jSMcV04izSR6qDG1WUVDN-0l9NBPOm4Dun45Z4113lU9_CzDmm3siQ1WeNdTPsaQLHPHxJwmlBc79FktsUfYw_M9fTU3TEx4InjRJPZt6Yib7-sI3GXt6ghqQw/s1600/Picture+14.png"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 500px; height: 251px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9L-AkwP-X6sVuJUCx_jSMcV04izSR6qDG1WUVDN-0l9NBPOm4Dun45Z4113lU9_CzDmm3siQ1WeNdTPsaQLHPHxJwmlBc79FktsUfYw_M9fTU3TEx4InjRJPZt6Yib7-sI3GXt6ghqQw/s800/Picture+14.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5584371332940657682" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkaLSCBHNiJgrCK6YvK3tUfpWgRrub31RQf1AuxfyaGwu8WRhZyFnEzSoUTNrbEUpBOFSWMeKJ0beTEDSo-qXbI5VWuTW8owcCntM_oNgSgIcD-rAP02KZJzkSiXM-SrS1ktxddmwDORM/s1600/Picture+10.png"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 309px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkaLSCBHNiJgrCK6YvK3tUfpWgRrub31RQf1AuxfyaGwu8WRhZyFnEzSoUTNrbEUpBOFSWMeKJ0beTEDSo-qXbI5VWuTW8owcCntM_oNgSgIcD-rAP02KZJzkSiXM-SrS1ktxddmwDORM/s800/Picture+10.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5584371037809964578" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg6mofQ_HRYJ2sEmcgaS-kb01LLMXVh4yK96APS6_Gy3D3zZHXrMB1dqYKPzb4xJ_QyRRAYpwEYVUb_RgGszsQfBYqqlPkuLtocmsW7F7BiYT_On8jKu8eXaBaVFCb_VTpzuaiiaJWT2U/s1600/Picture+13.png"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 291px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg6mofQ_HRYJ2sEmcgaS-kb01LLMXVh4yK96APS6_Gy3D3zZHXrMB1dqYKPzb4xJ_QyRRAYpwEYVUb_RgGszsQfBYqqlPkuLtocmsW7F7BiYT_On8jKu8eXaBaVFCb_VTpzuaiiaJWT2U/s400/Picture+13.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5584371157181386098" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtL-rdff5e40K4oP0DI79N1APP6BkLkTcAMBKPSCkOHHRpPt-QIzrd7iWij8m09uYqo9PAlg9-E9pkpc3Vl7_aCVqzC-LL3N7qj5SiUa7-bglJF_JWSDkAqlwhvtnlNtnYvNikBmlXYIo/s1600/Picture+15.png"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 289px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtL-rdff5e40K4oP0DI79N1APP6BkLkTcAMBKPSCkOHHRpPt-QIzrd7iWij8m09uYqo9PAlg9-E9pkpc3Vl7_aCVqzC-LL3N7qj5SiUa7-bglJF_JWSDkAqlwhvtnlNtnYvNikBmlXYIo/s400/Picture+15.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5584371473212972274" border="0" /></a><br /><br />The New York Times has put together a remarkable interactive piece which lets you scan over the same aerial shot before and after the wave passed through. I strongly encourage you to <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/03/13/world/asia/satellite-photos-japan-before-and-after-tsunami.html?scp=1&sq=japan%20satellite&st=cse">take a look at it here</a>.Adam Maynardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11501772366020096483noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6297846959094808613.post-89353220543213459502011-03-07T23:48:00.027-05:002011-03-23T00:53:00.447-04:00Cities from the Sky, Part Three<span style="font-style: italic;font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;" >This is the third part in a series about aerial photography and the built environment. If you missed part one, </span><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;" ><a href="http://agmaynard.blogspot.com/2011/02/cities-from-air-part-one.html">click here</a></span><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;" >, </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;" >or part two,</span><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;" > <a href="http://agmaynard.blogspot.com/2011/02/cities-from-sky-part-two.html">click here</a>.<br /><br />So far in this series I've written about Christoph Gielen, a photographer who uses aerial imagery of suburban development to make commentary on current urban design paradigms. I've also brought you into orbit and introduced you to astronaut Don Pettit who took you on a global tour of cities at night. But in this third (and likely final) post in this series, I'm going to take you closer to home. My home, that is.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /><br /><a style="font-family: georgia;" href="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/83/235510804_aaa8fb012f_b.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 501px; height: 198px;" src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/83/235510804_aaa8fb012f_b.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /></span><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;" ><br />Guilford, Connecticut is a small town 14 miles east of New Haven on the shore of Long Island Sound. Founded in 1639, the town is host to hundreds of historic homes, a variety of natural amenities including beaches and wetlands, rolling hills and bluffs, and is also characterized by a community ethic of preservation and conservation that protects these assets.<br /><br />If you've taken an urban studies class with me, you should be familiar with Guilford. It is a usual topic of mine for projects, papers, and presentations. For example, I've written on the history of the Town Green, one of the largest in New England, I've profiled Guilford's Plan of Conservation and Development, a model document for land use planning, and I've written about Guilford's effort to block a proposed Costco development at exit 57 off of Interstate 95.<br /><br /></span><a href="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/106/295440238_7687819549_z.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 501px; height: 335px;" src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/106/295440238_7687819549_z.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;" ><br />But how does Guilford fit into the theme of this series? </span><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;" >In the late 1990s, renowned urbanist, author, and Yale professor <a href="http://www.doloreshayden.com/index.htm">Dolores Hayden</a> took to the air</span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:georgia;"> with photographer <a href="http://www.alexmaclean.com/#">Alex MacLean</a> to document what they refer to as Guilford's cultural landscape. They define this idea as a "broader way of analyzing architectural, economic, and environmental forces together, to look at how a society shapes its space over time." Where preservationists, planners, and conservationists examine at each of these elements individually, this approach produces a more comprehensive look at how they interact.<br /></span></span><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;" ><br /><span style="font-family:georgia;">In a </span><a style="font-family: georgia;" href="http://classes.yale.edu/00-01/amst401a/guilford/wholedoc.html">companion essay to their aerial portfolio</a><span style="font-family:georgia;"> (also a great history of development in Guilford),</span></span><span style=";font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:100%;" > they describe the role aerial photographs play in capturing cultural landscape in a detailed and accessible way:<br /></span><span style=";font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:100%;" ></span><blockquote><span style=";font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:85%;" >Aerial images can capture the preserved parts of a town's cultural landscape, and can also help identify the threatened parts and the shape of land use conflicts, present and potential. Low-level, oblique-angle pictures of many parts of the town can establish a more complete visual inventory than ground-level shots. They can show inaccessible places, such as wetlands or steep terrain. They can reveal usually hidden sites, such as dumps or gated communities.... They convey the vast scale typical of twenty-first century development, and can bring up-to-the-minute data on the progress of sprawl. And, best of all, they are understood by people without technical training, in a way that zoning maps, zoning codes, satellite surveys, and traditional site plans are not. </span></blockquote><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;" >Let's take a look at some of their photographs.<br /><br /></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgArPz7fIxhjbchVVCJ8WqVVWFqUOLUrFNWLpm82hF_oUxDjqN976p8TEgw_lhI1VjrRQkRCewM19DJ4Aure2MF0XpvHez1SZlbxN9bXUdtMVupRaLZmdlQt1dljDN2c1-k-Fz4KfH1Dsw/s1600/Green.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 500px; height: 334px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgArPz7fIxhjbchVVCJ8WqVVWFqUOLUrFNWLpm82hF_oUxDjqN976p8TEgw_lhI1VjrRQkRCewM19DJ4Aure2MF0XpvHez1SZlbxN9bXUdtMVupRaLZmdlQt1dljDN2c1-k-Fz4KfH1Dsw/s800/Green.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5581814060378746626" border="0" /></a><br /><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;" ><br />We'll start off with the most important landmark in Guilford, the Town Green. The green serves as the central gathering space for town events including high school graduation, an annual handcrafts fair and other cultural events, town parades, and dozens of other community functions. The retail, municipal, and religious institutions lining the green also make it the nexus of activity in Guilford.<br /><br /></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWAW1gwxkgDkFM4jPOovhkB5WN1PhPpEWuN4IQa5_oEVJM8SilH0x5XKiLYT7540sCZxEZ88H4sJ8ii59WC_rSWOzM5fjNvDVELxjpPkquxkPVyad1wdDQiKKdDTmg-Ef2g7d5rF4qpA8/s1600/Historic+District+Line.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 500px; height: 334px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWAW1gwxkgDkFM4jPOovhkB5WN1PhPpEWuN4IQa5_oEVJM8SilH0x5XKiLYT7540sCZxEZ88H4sJ8ii59WC_rSWOzM5fjNvDVELxjpPkquxkPVyad1wdDQiKKdDTmg-Ef2g7d5rF4qpA8/s800/Historic+District+Line.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5581814949118987074" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;" ><br /></span>Do you notice anything interesting or odd about the image above? Route 1, the road running horizontally through the center of the picture, is also the dividing line of one of Guilford's historic districts. Just look at the difference in the (somewhat) dense neighborhood of old homes and the asphalt of the shopping center across the street. Bonus question: Can you find the octagon-shaped house?<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghEEmhPq5cwWnjaCC2ZUKbm_leDzpiKm60u7nNMzBlnnkuiMfgMxFKkIQFlHpZG85x0muAuFcKTm2bezUE_ecy2neLeTKuvP1FgQhr9BuEl2psoSpAHLGxy8IQ1icxoyj3GVWHxFfaLkg/s1600/Culdesac.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 500px; height: 334px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghEEmhPq5cwWnjaCC2ZUKbm_leDzpiKm60u7nNMzBlnnkuiMfgMxFKkIQFlHpZG85x0muAuFcKTm2bezUE_ecy2neLeTKuvP1FgQhr9BuEl2psoSpAHLGxy8IQ1icxoyj3GVWHxFfaLkg/s800/Culdesac.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5581815601166576994" border="0" /></a><br /><span style=";font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:100%;" ><br />Finally, the completion of Interstate 95 through Guilford in 1958 brought about a population explosion that would change the town forever. More people meant an increased demand for housing, and developments like the one above sprung up throughout town, mostly in the wooded areas north of the highway.<br /><br /></span><span style=";font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:100%;" ><span style="font-family:georgia;">To see the rest of the aerial portfolio, <a href="http://classes.yale.edu/00-01/amst401a/guilford/">click here</a>.</span></span><br /><span style=";font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:100%;" ><br /></span><span style=";font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:100%;" > Hayden and MacLean conclude their commentary with the following: "In 1935, the architect Le Corbusier wrote, 'The airplane indicts.' He claimed that anyone flying over old French towns would see the need to tear down and rebuild to his modernist designs. We suggest the opposite. Aerial photography with a hand-held camera heightens awareness of unique cultural landscapes by documenting land use in an accessible way.... They can help architecture buffs and environmentalists, citizens and specialists, visualize common ground."</span><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;" ><br /><br />This vision of the common ground is what I find so striking about these images, and what I hoped to share with you.</span> <span style=";font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:100%;" ><span style="font-family:georgia;">Guilford is a place I very much admire - in many ways my experiences growing up there set me on my current path of study and it seems only fitting that I return to it now as an example community for questions regarding urban development.</span><span style="font-family:georgia;"></span><br /></span>Adam Maynardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11501772366020096483noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6297846959094808613.post-52050267418927466462011-02-28T11:26:00.003-05:002011-03-07T20:58:42.339-05:00Cities from the Sky, Part Two<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje-fL2IyYon4qFe11bjU-sxcXFxXXE_psrE4cKE-gCkBGRzSOxIhyphenhyphenELGjvJggP79_efTgznmpzLdeFsTAx0zIL1-5T-kRapv9GBA3rmZZzCkEI6sOd9JSlmunlUOLv-FwL1rq2z0SlseQ/s1600/Earth+at+Night.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 500px; height: 375px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje-fL2IyYon4qFe11bjU-sxcXFxXXE_psrE4cKE-gCkBGRzSOxIhyphenhyphenELGjvJggP79_efTgznmpzLdeFsTAx0zIL1-5T-kRapv9GBA3rmZZzCkEI6sOd9JSlmunlUOLv-FwL1rq2z0SlseQ/s500/Earth+at+Night.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5578483770858103826" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">This post is the second in a series on cities as seen from above. If you missed part one, <a href="http://agmaynard.blogspot.com/2011/02/cities-from-air-part-one.html">click here</a>.<br /><br /></span><span>Cities at night are as wondrous as they are mysterious. With the setting of the sun, cities transform into entirely different entities. Just think about the varied experiences of walking down a street while the sun is shining and then again after dark. But how does this experience change if these cities are seen from above? And I'm not talking about just aerial photography this time.<br /><br /></span><span>In the following video, astronaut Don Pettit takes us on an orbital tour around the world of cities at night. He explains the challenges of capturing such clear images from space, as the International Space Station travels around the globe at over 17,000 miles per hour. Try going that fast and capturing a high-resolution, blur-free image from your point and shoot. It's not going to happen. But Pettit and his colleagues on the ISS assembled a sophisticated mechanism that cancels out orbital motion and produces the clear, striking images you see here:</span><span> </span><span style="font-style: italic;"><br /><br /><iframe title="YouTube video player" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/eEiy4zepuVE" width="500" frameborder="0" height="405"></iframe><br /></span><br /><span>Pettit's admiration of human settlement patters comes through in his commentary. His most insightful observation is that "</span><span>Cities at night are caught in a triangle between culture, geography, and technology." These elements influence everything from a city's color and brightness to its geometry. </span><span>Just as cities shape our actions, experiences, and quality of life, so too do we influence the forms our cities take. In <a href="http://agmaynard.blogspot.com/2011/02/cities-from-air-part-one.html">part one of this series</a>, I made the point that cities from the sky are works of art, and Pettit shares this sentiment: "We do not construct our cities by how they might look from space. Cities at night may very well be one of the most beautiful, unintentional consequences of humanity."</span><span style="font-style: italic;"><br /></span><br />This next video will bring us down to earth, quite literally. Shot from the nose of a commercial airplane, we are escorted to the tarmac during its final descent into LAX. As the sun sets and the plane travels closer and closer to its destination, we get a unique look at the City of Angels. Enjoy:<br /><br /><iframe title="YouTube video player" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/OpA3ORYlgGs" width="500" frameborder="0" height="311"></iframe>Adam Maynardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11501772366020096483noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6297846959094808613.post-26699001420862247552011-02-21T10:21:00.001-05:002011-02-22T03:16:38.130-05:00One Party, Two Very Different ViewsCan someone please tell me how someone like Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI) becomes Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee? In <a href="http://www.nationaljournal.com/conversations-with-the-chair-energy-and-commerce-chairman-fred-upton-20110208">a recent conversation with Ronald Brownstein</a>, Group Editorial Director at National Journal, Upton confirmed, after some beating around the bush and prodding by Brownstein, that while he accepts that Earth's climate is changing he doesn't believe that humans are the cause.<br /><br /><iframe title="YouTube video player" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/H5IGX4JUkAM" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="405" width="500"></iframe><br /><br />Upton has also been in the news recently for <a href="http://www.grist.org/article/2011-02-09-republican-congressmen-vote-away-scientific-facts/">introducing a bill</a> in the House that would block the EPA from regulating carbon pollution, even though <a href="http://www.good.is/post/fred-upton-s-own-people-want-him-to-leave-the-epa-alone/">62 percent of people from his own district</a> want him to leave the EPA alone. With these efforts Upton joins former chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee Joe "Government Shakedown" Barton (R-TX) as environmental skeptic extraordinaire. You remember Rep. Barton, don't you? He was the outspoken BP sympathizer during the gulf oil spill last summer:<br /><br /><iframe title="YouTube video player" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/xWAa3SVkRPU" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="405" width="500"></iframe><br /><br />Thankfully one of Upton and Barton's colleagues on the committee thinks differently about the climate crisis. Rep. Bob Inglis (R-SC) just plain gets it. He understands what's at stake. Listen carefully to what he has to say:<br /><br /><iframe title="YouTube video player" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/gRVlIT__w6A" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="405" width="500"></iframe><br /><br />Inglis touches on several important points in this address to a House subcommittee meeting on climate change. First and foremost, he makes a thinly veiled threat to climate deniers about saying their comments "on the record." The save-the-environment-for-our-children's-sake argument has long been used to inspire action on these issues, but never quite like this. Inglis says that future generations will not look kindly on those who sat idly by and failed to act on climate change. In doing so he reinforces the sense that his argument is the accurate one. Why else would he be so resolute? He also includes a startling, common-sense statistic to make his point. 98 percent of scientists say that the climate is changing and that we are the cause. Wouldn't you think that means we should heed their advice? And finally, Inglis makes an argument that his "free enterprise colleagues" can relate to more directly: economic opportunity.<br /><blockquote>"[The Chinese] plan on eating our lunch in this next century. They plan on innovating around these problems, and selling to us, and the rest of the world, the technology that'll lead the 21st century. So we may just press the pause button here for several years, but China is pressing the fast-forward button."</blockquote>It is perhaps important to point out that at the time of this speech Inglis knew he wouldn't be serving another term in Congress. A Tea Party primary challenger made sure of that. Regardless of his impending exit from national politics, it took courage to say what he said and defy his party. This is something that other Republicans like Lindsay Graham (R-SC) have toyed with but rarely committed to on the topic of climate change. Oftentimes when I think of Washington these days I'm frustrated that our political system has collapsed into the stubbornness and pettiness that we observe today. It's refreshing though, when someone like Bob Inglis surprises you and says something that actually makes quite a bit of sense.Adam Maynardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11501772366020096483noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6297846959094808613.post-5607707704995156482011-02-14T09:20:00.000-05:002011-02-14T09:20:00.805-05:00Bridges Under BridgesLast October a brand-new expansion of New York City's Willis Avenue Bridge opened to traffic, replacing it's crumbling ancestor built in 1901. The coolest part of the story, however, is how the bridge got there. The 2,400 ton span was transported 136 miles down the Hudson river on a double-wide barge, certainly a modern infrastructural feat. Photographer Stephen Mallon and his team were aboard to document the entire journey from Coeymans, NY to 125th Street. In total they took over 30,000 stills and used them to assemble the video below:<br /><br /><iframe src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/19020956?portrait=0" width="500" height="281" frameborder="0"></iframe><br /><br />To see more of Mallon's work, <a href="http://stephenmallon.com/">explore his website</a>.Adam Maynardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11501772366020096483noreply@blogger.com0