I got a kick out of the reaction from a rather inconsequential report released this week stating that New York City produces just under 1% of all greenhouse gas emissions in the USA.
State Radio (aka Fox News) is on the story, of course. Whenever they find an opening to bash either liberal Gotham or the climate change crowd, they're sure to jump all over it. So, this just proves what hyprocrites the eastern elite are when it comes to a "do what I say, but don't do as I do" approach to environmentalism, right? Well, not quite...
What these spawn of Holocaust-deniers don't take into consideration -- or aren't capable of understanding-- is that one needs to take an analytical look at such research before trying to form a somewhat intelligent conclusion from its data. In this particular case, one must consider that metro New York is also responsible for over 7 1/2% of the nation's Gross Domestic Product. Get it? Translation: while producing 7 1/2 % of the economic activity in the US, the Big Apple is operating at an Comparative Energy Efficiency rate of 88%. It simply uses less energy to produce more goods and services than do other cities, states and even countries. Talk about another Inconvenient Truth.
So, as opposed to the drive-by logic of the conservative right's media hacks, along with their similary hampered cousins in the blogosphere, the proper conclusion that can be gained from this report is that new urbanist tenets of encouraging urban desnity and public transportation are the proper public policies for environmental stewardship and energy conservation.
Of course, I'm assuming that such concerns are universally shared. You'd think I would know better than that, wouldn't you?
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