-----Original Message-----
From: [log in to unmask] [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On
Behalf Of Leanne Mitchell
Sent: Monday, July 02, 2001 1:00 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: WW: LIVE CHAT WITH AUTHOR OF NEW WORLDWATCH PAPER ON URBAN
SPRAWL
NEWS FROM THE WORLDWATCH INSTITUTE
LIVE CHAT WITH AUTHOR OF NEW WORLDWATCH PAPER ON URBAN SPRAWL
Worldwatch researcher, Molly O'Meara Sheehan, author of "City Limits:
Putting the Brakes on Sprawl," will appear on Live Online from 12 noon
to 1PM Eastern Daylight Time on Tuesday, July 3rd on the Washington
Post's website. You can ask questions in advance, and follow the chat
at:
http://discuss.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/zforum/01/world_sheehan0703.htm
Every world region suffers from sprawling, car-choked urban areas.
Transportation, spurred by road traffic, is now the fastest-growing
contributor to climate change. In this paper, author Molly Sheehan looks
at cities around the world where citizens and local leaders have
rejected car-centric development in favor of pedestrians and cyclists,
with new construction steered to locations easily reached by a variety
of transportation means.
(See press release for "City Limits" below.)
***********
To Order "City Limits: Putting the Brakes on Sprawl"
"City Limits" is available in print for $5 plus $4 shipping and
handling, or for $5 as an Adobe PDF file that you can download from the
Worldwatch web site. Discounts are available for multiple copy orders.
To order a printed copy:
1. Phone 800-555-2028, or 301-567-9522
2. Fax 301-567-9553
3. Email: [log in to unmask]
4. Worldwatch web site:
http://secure.worldwatch.org/cgi-bin/wwinst/WWP0156
5. Mail: Worldwatch Institute, P.O. Box 879, Oxon Hill, MD 20797
To order a PDF file online, go to:
http://secure.worldwatch.org/cgi-bin/wwinst/EWWP0156?uICBNCxn;;17
To order online, you will need a Visa, MasterCard, or American Express
credit card. Once you have submitted your ordering information, you will
be taken to a page where you can download the file.
**********
Press Release for "City Limits"
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Curbing Sprawl to Fight Climate Change
Strategies to combat climate change are likely to fail unless they
include incentives for stopping urban sprawl, reports a new study by the
Worldwatch Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based research organization.
Sprawling urban areas are helping to making road transportation the
fastest growing source of carbon emissions warming the Earth's
atmosphere.
"Wind turbines, efficient cars, and other new technologies have received
much attention in recent debates over energy policy, but changing the
way we design cities may be even more important to
stabilizing the climate," said Molly O'Meara Sheehan, author of City
Limits: Putting the Brakes on Sprawl. "Local concerns like clogged
roads, dirty air, and deteriorating neighborhoods are already fueling a
backlash against car-based urban development - or 'sprawl'."
Understanding the role of sprawl in climate change should only speed up
the shift towards more parks and less parking lots. We can have
healthier, more livable cities and protect the planet from climate
change too."
A large body of research shows that sprawl already wreaks havoc on
people's health. Each year, traffic accidents take up to a million lives
worldwide. Among cities studied in industrial countries, per-capita
traffic fatalities are highest in the places with the highest levels of
car use. In some countries, the number of lives cut short by illness
from air pollution exceeds those lost to accidents. And by making
driving necessary and walking and cycling less practical, sprawling
cities widen waistlines by depriving people of needed exercise. (One in
three Americans are now overweight.)
Cities in the United States have been sprawling for decades, spreading
out much faster than population growth. Chicago, for example, saw a 38
percent increase in population from 1950 to 1990, but the city's land
area grew more than three times as fast, a 124 percent increase.
But U.S. citizens are increasingly dissatisfied with sprawl. A recent
national poll found that sprawl topped the list of local concerns. And
in the year 2000 election, U.S. voters approved some 400 local and state
ballot initiatives addressing sprawl-related problems. At least 38 U.S.
states have passed laws creating incentives for more compact
development.
"The United States has the world's most car-reliant cities," said
Sheehan. "U.S. drivers consume roughly 43 percent of the world's
gasoline to propel less than 5 percent of the world's population. The
big question facing the United States today, and even more so facing
cities in the developing world, is whether we can turn away from a
car-centered model and develop better land-use practices and less
destructive transportation systems."
By the end of the decade, the majority of the world's population will
live in cities. The urban design decisions made today will have an
enormous impact on global warming in the decades ahead, especially in
cities in the developing world where car use is still low. Adoption of
the U.S.-car-centered model in these places would have disastrous
consequences.
By the year 2030, for example, China, excluding Hong Kong, is expected
to have 752 million urban dwellers, excluding Hong Kong. If each were to
copy the transportation habits of the average resident of the San
Francisco area in 1990, the carbon emissions from transportation in
urban China alone could exceed 1 billion tons, roughly as much carbon as
released in 1998 from all road transportation worldwide. (Urban rail
systems have been gaining favor in China, and carbon emissions have been
falling, so this worst-case scenario is unlikely to unfold.)
"Some cities in developing countries have already proved that a strategy
of de-emphasizing cars and providing public transit instead can work,"
said Sheehan. One outstanding example is the city of Curitiba, Brazil.
Starting in 1972, Curitiba built a system of dedicated busways and zoned
for higher-density development along those thoroughfares - and is now
enjoying better air quality and more parks for its 2.5 million people.
Today, other Latin American cities are adapting elements of Curitiba's
system. Bogotá, Colombia, has recently launched a similar bus system,
the TransMilenio, expanded its bike paths, and tried a bold "car-free"
day, where in the middle of the work week, the city of 6.8 million
functioned as normal - but without cars. Bogotá 's example also
illustrates the importance of higher population density to support buses
and cycling: if Bogotá sprawled like a typical American city, it would
cover more than 20 times as much land area.
Another indication of the reaction against sprawl is the growth of
light-rail and other forms of public transit. A surge in light rail
construction has brought the total number of systems in Western Europe
to over 100 in 2000, the highest point since 1970. In the United States,
public transportation use has increased for five straight years,
following decades of decline. Planners in Portland, Oregon, estimate
that a new light rail line there has saved the region from building
eight new parking garages and two extra lanes on major highways.
-END-
For more information about this paper, and links to other online
resources about sprawl, please go to:
http://secure.worldwatch.org/cgi-bin/wwinst/WWP0156.
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Leanne Mitchell
Public Relations Specialist
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Worldwatch Institute
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