| Greenwash or Green Eugene? |
Eugene's Greenwashing
public relations boosterism
"World's Greatest City of
the Arts & Outdoors"
world's most absurd slogan
Ecocentrism: Eugene not "number one Green City"
What is greenwash?
Greenwash and the environmental movement
Carbon Absolution:
the "carbon neutral" hoax
Honesty Needed for real solutions
Bypassing Sustainability:
Planes, Trains, Automobiles
Eugene, Springfield, Lane County promote $817 million for new & bigger highways
Troubled Bridges Over Water
I-5 cracked bridges
West Eugene Parkway
proposed 1951, stopped 2007
Kulongoski - Bush plans for
I-5 NAFTA Superhighway
at www.road-scholar.org
Development boondoggles
Intelligent Urban Design:
sensible downtown development
Nodal Development: fake environmentalism
Bus Rapid Transit (EmX)
Nike Basketball Arena: funded by sweatshop blood money
EWEB's paving of west Eugene wetlands: money that could fund renewable energy
Tax Breaks for Polluters
Big Box Stores
2050 fantasy: Lane County ignores limits to growth
Human Rights City?
Chinese Olympics
June 1, 1997: pepper spray used on peaceful protestors
rapist cops convicted of felonies
tasers
Greenwash Building
Wetland Homes: "Sustainable Eugene" paving wetlands with subdivisions
Polluted Air and Water
Clearcutting the Cascades and Coast Range
Aerial Herbicides Blanket Lane County's Forests
Slash pile burning - a huge waste of trees
Toxic Eugene:
Plywood glue factories
Railroad pollution
wood preserving
Grass Seed Capital of the World: Pollen and Smoke Pollution
Nano-pollution
general info at oilempire.us
greenwash groups:
Activist Malpractice
1000 Friends of Portland promotes timber industry
Oregon Environmental Council
Oregon League of Compromising Voters (OLCV)
SOLV
Portland environmentalists greenwash Governor
energy return on energy invested:
excessive meetings fail to reach potentials
strategy for effectiveness, unity and transformation
Eugene's cliques: People's Front of Judea
peace groups
climate crisis
Peak Oil
forest protection
land use & transportation
West Eugene Collaborators:
environmentalists who proposed a worse route for the West Eugene Porkway
West Eugene Collaborative: two flavors of elites
WEC's map of a highway sized loophole
Butt Ugly Architecture
Wayne Morse federal building: Homeland Security
Strip Mauls: West 11th and Coburg Road
Disasters: preventative, permaculture perspectives
Eugene's Multi-Hazard Mitigation program
Cascadia Subduction Zone - Richter Nine
Dangerous Dams and the Willamette Valley Tsunami
Firestorms, Loggers, Fireworks
Oregon Coast energy national sacrifice zone
LNG: Liquid Natural Gas
Coos Bay, Columbia River
floods: don’t build hospitals in floodplains
storms: plant fruit trees, not firs, around homes
landslides: ban clearcuts and new road cuts
wildfires: fireworks and clearcuts increase risk
earthquakes and coastal tsunami: seismic retrofit bridges & buildings
volcanoes: plan to do without Calif. products if Mt. Shasta erupts
dam collapse:
the Willamette Valley tsunami, strengthen - or remove - the
dams
critical infrastructure: redundancy, relocalization and renewables needed
hazardous material: ban toxics, monitor train & truck shipments through region
terrorism: community cohesion is solution
Disaster Mitigation and Land Use:
Eugene needs intelligent (urban) design
Hospitals, Earthquakes, Floods,
and Lahars
Troubled Bridges Over Water:
the I-5 bridge crisis
West Eugene sprawl in floodplains: WEP, Target megastore, Royal Node
subdivision
The Long Emergency: Peak Oil and Climate Collapse require paradigm shift
Katrina disaster shows the Federal government response: we are on our own
Eugene: the bubble
this page is under construction
Ugliness and Beauty
driving on the WEP would be more visually pleasant than driving past the West 11th strip malls ... but would ruin the landscape
"little boxes on the hillside"
West 11th strip mauls
Gateway / Beltline
Coburg Road
Springfield Main Street / Springfield lighting
| Billboard Bans |
Former Mayors Jim Torrey and Brian Obie were in the billboard industry, and the landscape of Eugene suffers as a result. Late in Torrey's second term, a large billboard (with Torrey's corporate logo at the bottom) magically appeared facing the Washington-Jefferson bridge off ramp.
Now that Eugene has a mayor not connected to what is euphemistically called the "outdoor advertising" industry, the City has the opportunity to prevent further uglification. Here are several suggestions for coping with this problem.
1. Ban Billboards
The State of Vermont prohibits billboards, since their natural beauty is an important asset. The highway department allows small signs to provide public notices for upcoming shops is sufficient to indicate destinations for motorists.
2. Moratorium on more billboards
A less controversial, but less effective approach would be to ban further construction of more billboards -- we already have more than enough.
3. Ban lighting of billboards
It is absurd that non-renewable coal and natural gas are being burned so that billboards can be lit, forcing everyone to see their messages (whether you want to or not).
4. Dark Sky Association recommendations for lighting
The least intrusive restriction on billboards would be to mandate the guidelines from the International Dark Sky Association (www.darksky.org), a group of astronomers fighting light pollution. These standards require lights to be pointed downward, not upward, so that pointless light pollution of the heavens is prevented.
uglification - Wal-Mart / Target / Home Depot
WETLANDS:
West Eugene Transportation,
Land and Neighborhood
Design Solutions
West Eugene Porkway alternative
| TREES:
Transportation, Energy, Environment, Sustainability |
TRANSPORTATION after Peak Oil
change regional plans to anticipate Peak Oil
maintain road networks, don't expand them
upgrade Amtrak and inter-city buses
convert RV factories to make buses
local manufacture of electric cars, bicycles
no “mileage
tax” to track motorists 24/7/365
Hybrids should not subsidize Hummers
ENVIRONMENT
Protection and Restoration
ecoforestry:
selective logging to restore tree farms to forests
no clearcuts or biocides,
value added products
green business, clean industry
myco and bioremediation,
zero discharge
ban toxics to protect public health
carbohydrate
economy, no petrochemicals
reduce garbage: waste is a terrible thing to mind
intelligent (urban) design:
beauty not ugliness
(prevent strip mauls, billboards)
ENERGY
for the Year 2025
build solar panel and wind turbine factories
convert grass seed farms to grow biofuels
require passive solar design in building codes
relocalize production to reduce
consumption
(fewer delivery trucks)
retrofit buildings: conservation & renewables
initiatives for sustainable jobs after Peak Oil
SUSTAINABILITY
is not efficiency, it is post-petroleum
paradigm shifts: psychological and political
beyond boom and bust: steady state economy
local food security,
more community
gardens,
teach gardening skills at neighborhood levels,
protect farm soils
from "development"
regional inventories of food production and
processing
economic stability needs democratic
decisions,
Campaign Finance Reform
public health: single payer health care
support local economy:
strengthen
local businesses,
build downtown Farmers Market
not Whole Foods predator,
ban big box megastores & franchises