It’s disheartening when some groups are willing to tell the rest of us how to live.
The latest effrontery in this respect is the American Planning Association’s Policy Guide on Planning & Climate Change.
Here are a few of the actions that planners will try to impose on us, as described in the APA Guide.
- Smart growth should be the key to all planning. “A more compact urban form has the potential to reduce both GHG emissions and infrastructure costs.” This includes, “promoting high density development arranged to encourage pedestrians, bicycle and transit use.”
- Transportation and parking restrictions should be employed to discourage automobile use.
- Planning should encourage the use of renewables to prevent CO2 emissions. (This, even though renewables are more expensive and reduce economic activity.)
- Historic buildings in downtown areas should be preserved to prevent constructing newer buildings away from city centers.
- Food should be grown locally to prevent having to transport it from distant farms.
- Communications centers should be established to allow businesses and people to communicate without having to travel. (Remember the image of Big Brother in Orwell’s 1984, where everyone could hear what Big Brother had to say?)
- A nationwide cap & trade system for CO2 should be established.
- Communities should regulate and evaluate development in a way that accounts for reducing GHG emissions. “The nation and our communities must commit to incorporating climate change considerations in a thorough, comprehensive new approach to physical, social and economic planning.”
And, taken directly from the APA Guide:
- “Planning is a tool that must guide change, engage citizens and assist decision makers, including regional agencies and groups; local governments; neighborhood organizations; property owners; real estate and development professionals; insurance and finance companies; business leaders; hospitals, school boards, colleges and universities; and state and federal agencies.”
While some of these proposals may seem benign, such as preserving historic buildings, they are all intended to restrict people’s choices. Note the reference to social planning.
The APA Guide begins with an assessment that supports the hypothesis that global warming is happening and is caused by humans. The APA Guide regurgitates the IPCC’s report, which is unproven. The APA goes even further and adopts the absurd position that regional climate change can be predicted by models. Hardly anyone believes that models can predict regional climate change, and most scientists are very leery about using models to predict future climate.
The APA Guide makes no attempt to recognize that there are thousands of scientists who do not agree with the IPCC and that the report Climate Change Reconsidered provides compelling evidence that the IPCC is wrong.
The following paragraph demonstrates how far the APA will go to scare people with their claim that there will be refugees because of climate change.
“Rapid population growth [i.e., refugees] may strain infrastructure, exacerbate NIMBYism, negatively impact community character, and create significant social services capacity issues. These effects can be compounded if there are humanitarian efforts to relocate non-U.S. populations from severely impacted areas of the world. (Emphasis added.)
Thus, the first part of the APA Guide is a political diatribe that is divorced from reality.
The remaining portions of the APA Guide show how rules and regulations should be established at every level of government.
Planning, as proposed by the APA, means government control over where and how we live.
“It is important to clearly define the roles of various levels of government in addressing climate change issues.”
And at the local level:
“Even if there is limited local support for direct climate change action due to political or economic concerns, significant progress can be made through relatively minor adjustments to other plans and programs.” (In other words, subvert the interests of the local community.)
And if people disagree, the APA Guide says:
“There is a need for public education in addressing the real or perceived concerns people may have with regard to urban living.” (Bottom line: force people to live in urban settings.)
In short, the American Planning Association is describing how to establish rules and regulations that take away our freedom.
You can read the APA Guide by going to this link and determine for yourself whether the proposals of the American Planning Association are appropriate for a free society. http://www.planning.org/policy/guides/pdf/climatechange.pdf
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