More Measles - #21
[Note: This is part of a series on property fairness and a rash of ballot initiatives in the Northwest.]
Last week, we pointed out some maps of residential development claims under Oregon's Measure 37. And we noted that the rural land surrounding greater Portland, OR was bracing for new crop of houses.
Now, Portland State University has some even better maps with much more detail on how Measure 37 is affecting farmland around metro Portland. Here's my favorite, in miniature (the original is a big image):
Obviously, the dots aren't to scale; they're much larger on the map than in real life. Still, if you like farmland -- and Portland's well-deserved reputation for controlling the worst excesses of exurban sprawl -- you can't help but be a little sad about what's happening in the Portland area right now.
I suppose that some people call this sort of thing progress. Perhaps that's the saddest thing of all.
Walking Tall Tale
Looking for something else, I came across a web page that makes this rather startling claim:
[W]alking actually uses more fossil energy than driving, if the calories burned from walking come from a typical American diet.
The crux of the claim is that the North American food system is so dependent on fossil fuels -- for manufacturing fertilizer and pesticides, running farm machinery, transporting food from farm fields to stores and homes, and powering refrigerators and stoves -- that based on the typical American diet, walking a mile actually uses more fossil fuel than driving a mile!
This struck me as counterintuitive, but not completely ridiculous. So I spent some time looking at the issues.
And as far as I can tell, the web page is mostly wrong: walking is more energy-efficient than driving.
However, they're closer than I might have thought.
