Ben Ciccati

Hardly a day goes by that Californians don’t hear more dire news about the weather and the impact it is having on our natural resources and economy. Even those who don’t watch the news, read a newspaper, own a computer, or talk to their neighbors can walk outside and observe that it is getting warmer and drier here in the West. While there are still a few flat-earthers (mostly oil company executives) who refuse to acknowledge the overwhelming scientific evidence that humans are radically altering the Earth’s climate, ignorance will not insulate them, or their children, from the consequences of our love affair with oil. We are not going to be “inconvenienced” by global climate change; we are going to be slapped upside the head.

While the ship is going down, the politicians make a big show of rearranging the deck chairs. There is a lot of hot air being expended in Sacramento talking about reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but the real money continues to be spent widening freeways and building new roads to access sprawling new development and accommodate ever-increasing numbers of private (single-occupancy) automobiles — one of the largest producers of greenhouse gases in California. Meanwhile, public transportation systems are chronically underfunded, disrespected, and given little more than symbolic lipservice by our political “leaders.”

News flash: Widening freeways does not reduce congestion or air pollution. Widening freeways increases congestion and air pollution. The generally accepted definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. How is widening freeways in Southern California not insane by that definition?

James Howard Kunstler has observed that we have a national rail system the Bulgarians would be ashamed of. I ride the train most days to work, and I can attest that Amtrak’s rolling stock is ancient, dirty, broken, and notoriously not on schedule. Each morning, between sips of coffee and reading my newspaper, I look out the window at the bumper-to-bumper snarl on Highway 101 between Ventura and Santa Barbara and wonder at the stupidity of ignoring the obvious rail solution while sinking wads of cash into widening the freeway. The rails have been in place for more than 100 years, but we are blind to everything except cars, cars, cars.

Instead of spending transportation dollars to hasten our demise, how about spending them to build a public transportation system that reduces greenhouse gas emissions, reduces congestion, and provides lower-cost transportation alternatives in the face of rising gasoline prices? Instead of fighting wars over dwindling oil resources, how about reducing our dependency on foreign oil and increasing our independence? Instead of doing what’s politically expedient, how about doing what’s right?

We find ourselves at a moment in history where our choices are rapidly becoming fewer. There are almost no second chances left. The future becomes more bleak with each bad decision we make. Either we start making good decisions and extricate ourselves from this tar pit, or we join the dinosaurs in becoming the oil of the future. ­

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