Recently I spent about two weeks in Denmark and Sweden. It's inspiring to see what can be done differently regarding environmental policy implementation.
I think someone should arrange to send every Rhode Islander, and
especially our political leaders, to Copenhagen or Stockholm or Malmo to live
for a few days with residents and Danish/Swedish planners and civic leaders. We would learn a lot by discovering firsthand how they set up their
infrastructures and provide public services. Visitors can't help noticing millions of bikes and
wide, separate bike lanes raised a bit from the auto lanes; frequent on-time
buses; no overhead wires! buried utility wires except for street lights; compact cities and farms everywhere else,
it seems; cows grazing just outside the Copenhagen airport; wind
turbines lined up along the Copenhagen shore and near the Oresund
bridge.... Take a look at this fabulous Flickr
image of the bridge and turbines. This is within sight of Copenhagen
and Malmo, Sweden.
Click on photos to enlarge.
The first photo shows, from the
left, a Copenhagen sidewalk, separate bike lane (atypically empty but there is a
bike with front cart coming along), parked car lane and auto lanes, with
minimal overhead wires needed only for street lights. The second photo, taken not far from
the Little
Mermaid's spot (she is at the World's Fair in China at the moment ~
Shanghai'd so to speak), shows the
Copenhagen skyline toward the harbor with some wind turbines just offshore.
Denmark and Sweden are world leaders in environmental matters. Of course they have much smaller land areas and populations than the United States. However, they can be models for Rhode Island if we take a closer look at them. Both the Copenhagen and Stockholm urban areas have populations about the same or double that of Rhode Island, and like Rhode Island, they have significant waterfront and water features -- notably canals all over Copenhagen, and islands -- 24,000 of them -- in the Stockholm archipelago. It's worth exploring the similarities and differences between Rhode Island and Scandinavia as we work toward restoring Rhode Island's economy by incorporating environmental industries and sustainable ways of life.
Until this recent Great Recession, Denmark had extremely low unemployment and a robust economy. It still is one of the strongest economies in the European Union. Sweden has had a similarly strong economy but is experiencing more strain from the recession. I heard more than once that many young Swedes are going to work in Norway, where jobs are more plentiful and the pay is better.
Nevertheless, these nations were able to reach substantial internal consensus
years ago on transportation and energy policy, recognizing the importance
of self-sufficiency and the need to collaborate and cooperate for the
public good. Why can't we learn some things from them? Once you see Copenhagen and Stockholm, you'll see it's obviously possible to implement sustainable environmental policies AND maintain a robust economy. Can't Rhode Islanders find the willpower to create our own sustainable and robust economy?
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