Comments for davidpritchard.org

Comment on GO Transit by drpritch

drpritch — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 19:37:47 +0000

Updates, both recent and older:

KML versions of the TTC and GO maps, available for use in Google Earth etc. See link at top-right of pages.
Text-search capability, just doing a regular Google Maps-style query. Doesn't support searching for station names.
Added new GO stations: Lisgar and Barrie South.

Comment on Monbiot & Climate Mitigation by davidpritchard.org » Backcasting: From Climate to Transportation

davidpritchard.org » Backcasting: From Climate to Transportation — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 16:25:32 +0000

[…] is a follow-up to my earlier post about Monbiot’s book on climate change. In that post, I stated that I was interested in […]

Comment on Monbiot & Climate Mitigation by drpritch

drpritch — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 19:27:36 +0000

Allow me to add one more link: a blog post that tries to summarize the content of the book.

Comment on Sustrans talks galore, and the story of the Cheonggyecheon River by drpritch

drpritch — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 00:37:48 +0000

I found the image in a http://www.skyscrapercity.com/archive/index.php/t-243092.html“>SkyscraperCity post. You can click on the image to go to the original source - it’s still at the original source site.

Comment on Monbiot & Climate Mitigation by drpritch

drpritch — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 05:21:11 +0000

B* - wow, that’s funny! I had no idea he was your supervisor. Unfortunately, I’m going to be in BC over xmas/new years, so we may have to put off the climate summit.

Jonathan - Glad it’s useful. I really liked your article on your Russian friend, by the way - a very interesting connection between anecdote and idea.

As for step one… well, that’d be another article. Steps one through four probably look like this: build grassroots support for issue, get a binding international agreement on as many countries as possible, get the carbon prices right (probably a predictably escalating carbon tax), and slap big tariffs on all countries outside the agreement.

That’s just my 60-second shot in the dark.

Comment on Sustrans talks galore, and the story of the Cheonggyecheon River by Tim Davie

Tim Davie — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 02:01:03 +0000

Hi,
I’m trying to track down the original version of the photograph you have of the Cheonggyecheon expressway (i.e. before). This is for a report I’m putting together on teh Cheonggyecheon. ARe you able to help on where teh orinal came from? Is it your photograph, in which case I’d like to correspond over usage rights etc.
Regards,
Tim

Comment on Google Transit Map by drpritch

drpritch — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 20:05:27 +0000

If you click the “2010″ link at the top right, you’ll see the Canada Line (and the future Evergreen line… now likely much later than 2010, if ever).

I still have the early names given to the stations, rather than the current ones… one of these days I’ll fix that.

Comment on Google Transit Map by Graham

Graham — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 19:46:17 +0000

I love this map - http://davidpritchard.org/maps/vantransit.html However, it is missing the Canada Line? Is there a map that shows the Canada Line? Thank you, GB

Comment on Monbiot & Climate Mitigation by Jonathan Stray

Jonathan Stray — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 19:05:13 +0000

Wow. Someone I trust has done the research I was thinking of doing. That’s the power of mediated information. Thank you! And I will certainly read Pacala and Socolow (”Heat” will be somewhat hard for me to obtain here in India)

The even harder question I still don’t even begin to know how to answer is, would be the next political or social step? How does one actually effect the necessary cultural change?

Got any Sociology/Pol Si PhD friends? Probably we need Econ too. Where are our specialists in this joint field?

Comment on Monbiot & Climate Mitigation by beestar

beestar — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 10:46:24 +0000

dr pritch,

It was really interesting to read your summary. Socolow was my advisor in grad school, but I’ve been out of the loop on carbon mitigation for several years now. I enjoyed your summary here and I’m with you on how you approach the problem.

You know, I’ve always been annoyed at how the environmental movement often adopts a moralistic and hectoring tone (I’m reminded of the two drunken guys at the taxi stand last night, who were loudly telling others in the lineup to share taxis for ecological reasons, and booing those who didn’t). Maybe some people will feel guilty; maybe our minor changes will make us feel better; but it’s not the way to create real change. Not like, say, a massive carbon tax.

I will note that people are different here in the UK. They actually care about airplane carbon miles and food miles in a way that people didn’t seem to in the places I lived before (or at least in the circles I moved in). Even the Conservative party has to pay lip service to these issues.

Have you heard that Google has launched a program to support companies developing renewable sources of electricity? (Critically, they’re aiming to reduce the cost below coal (presumably at unsubsidized rates). As Monbiot and you both imply, present day renewables are unsupportable - when fossil fuels become expensive and the world’s factories and automobiles start to sputter, you can bet that we’ll be burning craploads of coal without fretting about carbon emissions.) It’s not clear to me whether Google actually wants to do research, or act as a venture capital investor, or make products, or what.

Hey, let’s have an international climate summit when I’m back in Toronto this Xmas.