Thursday, May 29, 2008

So proud to be from Indianapolis

Smokestacks cover the front of today's Indianapolis Star, which reports that Indianapolis is #2 in the nation in terms of carbon footprint per capita.

In fact, of the major metropolitan areas in the nation, the top five in the Brookings Institution study are in the triumverate of Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky. (How does your city look? Read the report.)

Why is Indy so bad?
  • Industrialization
  • Being the "crossroads of the nation," we have a tremendous amount of semis passing through our city
  • Lack of public transportation: busing is limited, there are few carpool lanes or bike trails, and lightrails are light years away
  • No renewable electricity standard
  • Our dependence on coal for electric heat, combined with the long winters

What scares me most is not that my city is one of the worst offenders. It's the comments by others reading this article, who believe that man-made climate change is a joke, that global warming is a scam, that liberals are to blame for this nonsense or that this is all an excuse for us to pay more for everything. It's a sad commentary on my community. (Read the comments that follow the Indy Star article if you're truly curious.)

No comments: