@gungasnake,
gungasnake wrote:
Again, it is precisely the places which lack adequate technology and infrastructure where you see the ecological disasters. Austerity programs will create ecological disasters.
Driving, development/deforestation, and energy-consumption are the areas that cause the most waste/unsustainability and environmental harm. So if people would cut their transportation budgets to rely on walking/bicycling/transit instead of driving, that would make a huge difference.
This would mean they'd have to put more ingenuity into designing efficient systems for distributing food and goods to retail outlets closer to home. Generally, it would make room for reforestation throughout sprawling areas and wide multilane road/highway corridors.
All these reforms would save money as well as energy and other resources, and it would make it possible to restore trees and other carbon-absorbing life back into areas that have been deforested by development.