[sustran] Hammer of Thor

[eric.britton at ecoplan.org]

This is an important shot in the sustainable transport wars and is one to
which I would like to invite discussion. I think that we all have a lot to
learn about the politics of sustainability, and what better way than to
study the terrain.

I can think of two possible paths to carry out these discussions, though it
may be that a combination of the two might be the most creative. Path I
would be simply  to open the floor right here on SUSTRAN for an exchange on
the basic issues that Mr. Argawal's fine piece points up. Path II might be
for us somehow to integrate all this in a way in which our contributions can
somehow be more accessible once we put down our pens - and that might be via
the Politics of Sustainability web site at http://www.ecoplan.org/politics.

I do not pretend to know that best way to do this, but what we have done is
to go into the Politics site over the weekend and do what we could to make
it a better and more efficient home for such discussions. If you click the
Indian Cities? Link there, you will see the following by way of invitation:

"The point of departure for this consideration is an article which has just
appeared in the quarterly Down to Earth of the Centre for Science and
Environment under the title, Hammer of Thor. The author paints a grim
picture of the institutional and political setting of sustainability in his
country. But suppose we take this not so much as a reason to ring our hands
and write off the prospects for any real progress in the sustainability
agenda in their cities, but rather as our point of departure -- warts and
all (as it always is in the real world). Suppose instead we take the potion:
"given this, let's try that". Well... what do we try?

This we propose as the topic of discussion under this forum and in the
SUSTRAN site (and perhaps others, as may emerge as the exchanges advance)."

Any thoughts on this?



Eric Britton

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