Articles by Clark Williams-Derry

Anti-Kelo measures cover for anti-planning measures

There was an odd little story in USA Today on Sunday, covering the raft of so-called "property rights" initiatives on the November ballot throughout the Western U.S.

I say odd, because it almost completely misses the point.

Behavioral science shows that demanding short-term change activates the brain’s fear centers

Taking a cue from my boss, I just finished this article on behavioral economics -- a growing field that explores how, and why, flesh-and-blood humans don't behave like the "rational" profit-maximizers that underpin most economic models. It seems to me there are some lessons here for the theory and practice of social change.

In a nutshell: calling for immediate action to address a long-term problem may prompt resistance from the emotional and fearful sides of our brains; but calling for delayed action may put emotional reactions on hold, and allow for a more sober (and potentially more favorable) response to the issue.

Walking tall tale

Looking for something else, I came across a web page that makes this rather startling claim:

[W]alking actually uses more fossil energy than driving, if the calories burned from walking come from a typical American diet.

The crux of the claim is that the North American food system uses so much fossil fuel -- for manufacturing fertilizer and pesticides, running farm machinery, transporting food from farm fields to stores and homes, powering refrigerators and stoves, etc. -- that producing the food calories to power a one mile walk uses up more fossil fuel energy than a typical car burns in a one-mile drive.

That seemed counterintuitive, to be sure -- but not completely ridiculous. So I spent some time looking at the issues.

As far as I can tell, the web page is probably wrong: walking is more energy-efficient than driving.

However, they're closer than I might have thought.

Beanies and the jets

Get out your propeller beanies, folks. I'm going into full-on geek mode.

On Monday I mentioned that -- despite my family's best efforts to cut back on our CO2 emissions by reducing how much we fly -- the world has conspired to defeat us. Sure, we're flying less, but the rest of our extended family is flying more as a consequence.

One commenter asked if I shouldn't forget all the personal sacrifice folderol, and just work to convince Boeing to build more efficient planes.

Oh, if only it were so easy ...