Interim Times

These are interim times. Most of us alive now will probably not get to see the big questions answered. Will world population peak at 9 billion or 11 billion? Will the effects of global warming be calamitous for our species and for other species? Will environmental disruption and resulting mass extinctions result in an impoverished world in both an economic and aesthetic sense? Or will doom and gloom be avoided and will we be able to manage wisely our peak population and handle the problematic economic effects of a long population decline?

Would that we could happily pack ourselves back into our formerly crowded cities. And imagine if tram lines radiated out and cross-connected so we could move about in a metropolitan or regional sense. Sort of like the description in E. L. Doctorow’s Ragtime of traveling from New York all the way to Boston by switching from one street car line to another. I say this having today driven my six-cylinder car to North White Plains and back to Yorktown and then over to Peekskill and back to Yorktown again. And I still must make another trip to Peekskill and back.

At the gym yesterday I saw a guy in the locker room using what seemed like half a roll of paper towels to dry his hands. Can we survive such thoughtless profligacy on the part of 50% of the population? Or 20%? Or 1%? Is the answer education or to design systems that subtly or not-so-subtly guide the consumer? The consumer-paid tax on plastic shopping bags that the Republic of Ireland has imposed comes to mind:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/2205419.stm

I caught part of the National Popular Vote press conference on C-SPAN yesterday. Someone has had a truly original idea – keep the Electoral College but ensure that the winner of the popular vote is elected President of the United States. More details at:
http://www.nationalpopularvote.com/npv/
I fully support these efforts. Let’s spread some democracy around at home before we try to impose it on a reluctant world. Once the concept of the interstate compact is implemented, a constitutional amendment to abolish the Electoral College would become a possibility.

Credit given where credit due: Also on C-SPAN yesterday, I watched the interview with blogger Glenn Reynolds who is a Professor at the University of Tennessee College of Law in Knoxville. Glenn’s brain was throwing so many creative sparks that it threatened to set the room on fire. HillsofHome, lying dormant deep in my frontal cortex, has bubbled up into activity as a result. Glenn’s blog:
http://www.instapundit.com

More credit: Hills of Home after the 1941 painting My Hills of Home by Anna Mary Robertson Moses (Copyright © 1970 [renewed 1998], Grandma Moses Properties Co., New York):
Memorial Art Gallery, University of Rochester.