Comment 17320

By statius (registered) | Posted January 19, 2008 at 22:38:43

Gilbert's arguments are generally sound but hardly depart at all from the academic centrist approach to the pending energy/climate crisis. I remember the case for "peak oil v. climate change as civilazation's most pressing concern" being argued as far back as a second year geology class. Nothing new. Moreover, Gilbert seems to be aping a lot of what Chris Paine argued in WKEC? (particularly with regards to the unfeasibility of hydrogen fuel cells, a criticism which has been much maligned as short-sighted and tendentious of late). Again, this is not to impugn the soundness of the arguments but rather their originality.

As for Gilbert's recommendation that we "Increase use of rail and water for goods transport rather than trucking", this sounds nice but I suspect it's ultimately unrealistic. Anyone who has ever worked in logistics knows that rail and water transport are only truly useful for transporting very large quantities of goods across vast geographical distances. Rail and water are almost always cheaper than truck transport and companies naturally employ these modes of transport whenever possible. However, rail and water almost never deliver to points of sale and are simply unamenable to the fluctuating itineraries of modern businesses. Mammoth infrastructure expenditure (particularly in North America) would be required to make rail and water transport even remotely competitive with the speed and precision afforded by truck.

In general, I fail to see anything new or truly incisive in Gilbert's critique. His recommendations are so blatantly obvious (except perhaps to the governing minds of Hamilton) that they seem utterly redundant in the wake of all the energy crisis rhetoric flying through the mainstream media today. Yes, yes cycling and "collectively managed transport" are superior to the paradigm of the three-car family which does its banking at a drive-thru but who hasn't had this drilled into her/his head repeatedly over the last ten years? Nowadays it just seems like pablum.

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