At a public meeting I recently attended there was a discussion of building new parking garages in downtown Santa Cruz. Those opposed to new garages spoke about climate change and the need to switch to non-polluting forms of transportation. Those in favor of building more garages said that people will still be using cars in the future, but they will be powered by clean electricity and other clean energy sources.

While I have no crystal ball to see into the future, I feel this discussion is symptomatic of the lack of understanding of the enormity of climate change. It is also, in my opinion, a measure of the lack of imagination and creativity framing the entire discussion about global warming.

Like it or not, climate change is happening. Its effects will be so profound as to change our entire way of life. Experts in the know do not simply predict business as usual but powered by clean sources of energy. What is being talked about will shake our way of living to its very roots.

Currently much of the world economy operates on a model of perpetual growth. The economy is seen as ever expanding. Population will ever grow. Businesses must ever enlarge. For a business to be viable, it must sell more than the year before. Forever and ever.

Contrast that with a sustainable model. Many of us talk about sustainability, but few reflect on what that word really means. A sustainable economy is one which has reached a state of equilibrium, that is, a state of balance. It is neither continually growing or shrinking. It is stable.

A sustainable economy is one which does not use more resources per year than the earth can provide. It exists in a world in which the seas are not overfished, the forests are not overlogged, and the standard of living of the inhabitants does not reflect consumption run wild.

Which brings us back to the discussion about more parking garages. I am old enough to remember when most families had only one car, not two or three as is now the case. Children had to get themselves to school. Husbands and wives had to plan their schedules to share the single automobile. People took the bus or the train or walked to where they were going. And for the most part, families did not feel deprived by having only one vehicle.

Can we imagine a way of life where we are happy yet have less? It is not just cars we are talking about, but every aspect of our lives. It means smaller houses, less packaging, fewer material possessions, and fewer children.

And fewer parking spaces.

—Debbie Bulger

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