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I heard brand talk about his 2009 book Whole Earth Discipline. He surprised me as not being a rabid environmentalism but what he called a pragmatic environmenta
by peter303 8y ago
I heard brand talk about his 2009 book Whole Earth Discipline. He surprised me as not being a rabid environmentalism but what he called a pragmatic environmentalism supporting urbanization, nuclear and genetic engineering as a way to improve humanities environmental footprint. Take the first for example: until then I hand realized that dense Manhattan has one of the lowest per capita carbon footprints in the developed world. Density reduces transportation and building interior cost.
- maxxxxx 8y agoi think there is something to this but we shouldn't forget that big cities depend on a lot of goods being transported there. So a lot of the emissions of rural areas should be counted towards big cities.
- snarf21 8y agoExactly this. All of these systems are so complex that we can only ever make the crudest estimates. Similarly, people want to "fix" something by changing X and don't bother to account for all of the ripple effects of said change.
- jfoutz 8y agoOne train saves 100 trucks. Yes. For sure. Cities consume. Perhaps diffuse population would have a lower cost. I sorta think moving diverse goods to a central depot is easier and less damaging than point to point transfer.