The relationship between transportation and climate change could use some improvement! While some of us may aspire to drive an electric vehicle, that in itself is not the answer. Among other things, we need more mass transit, but according to the Report Card for America’s Infrastructure by the American Society of Civil Engineers, 45% of Americans have no access to mass transit, and our transit infrastructure has a backlog of maintenance and repairs that is expected to reach $270 billion by 2029.
This is a difficult topic to grapple with, but we don’t avoid difficult. Come tease out the roots of the problem, its true ramifications, and what our limits and possibilities are with long-time climate organizer and author Mark Dunlea.
Mark Dunlea is a graduate of RPI and Albany law school, where he was a co-founder of both NYPIRG (Public Interest Research Group) and national PIRG. After law school, Mark spent more than 35 years doing community organizing for ACORN and the Hunger Action Network of New York State, working on issues such as single-payer healthcare, economic justice, welfare rights, corporate accountability, and food sovereignty. He has also been active in the peace movement and a host of public affairs radio shows for 25 years. Mark and his wife in 1985 built their own passive solar home in Common Farms, an intentional community based on sustainability principles in Poestenkill NY. For the last decade, Mark has worked full-time on climate advocacy. He helped coordinate the campaigns to divest both the NYC and NYS public pension funds from fossil fuels for 350NYC. He is the “convenor” of PAUSE (People of Albany United for Safe Energy, the 350 affiliate in the Capital district).
Mark is the author of Putting Out the Planetary Fire: An Introduction to Climate Change and Advocacy. Mark wrote the book after teaching a course on climate change on Bennington College, finding that there was not a good introductory book to climate change for colleges. He recently wrote a chapter on climate change for a book that Ralph Nader is publishing on The Five Omnicides. You can read for free (and download a copy of the book) at https://gelfny.org/putting-out-the-planetary-fire/
You can read the section on transportation at