PLANNING RE SAB (and anywhere else)

Planning and preservation indeed! If you fail to plan you plan to fail. And we ARE tying to figure how to save colonial heritage, which is a basis for tourism and having a sense of identity. A lot of people are passionate about putting up new buildings, while I've spent my life opposing new buildings. All over Jamaica, they have erased history through demolition of the old. The cement to build them comes at the cost of environment and scenic value. I wonder if a better way to provide jobs can'rt be found. 

We must consider fossil fuel for all the modern conveniences--electricty, cooling, refrigeration, transportation--that come with new buildings. 

There is climate crisis. The percentage of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is higher than in all of human history.

We have a topsoil crisis, vegetation is being scraped away uncritically, wildlife has halved in the past 40 years, the oceans are almost dead.

We have a population crisis. Population has doubled in the last 40 years alone, based on the the exponential growth factor. This crisis in growth troubles the heck out of me, even if it doesn't disturb others at all. Half the Amazon Rainforest, the lungs of the planet, has gone since I was born. 

I don't put individual rights over the ability of planetary life to exist in the future. 

If there was planning people with land wouldn't be left hanging. There would be transfer of development rights, like we sort of have in some places here. The land holder gets money from the sale of their development quota to a buyer in a "receiver" site that is allowed to build more densely than would be normal for that zoning. But while that is more thoughtful and fair, we're still up against absolute limits of a finite world. So I don't know what is a fair way out of the hell we've backed into. One suggestion might be to wrest deserted buildings away in some deal and compensate open-land owners by letting them restore it and use it profitably.

It's not that I have any power over planning, or the destruction of the planet. It's not that my side is winning. It's just that as long as I live, I will oppose new buildings with my puny ability to affect anything. I can give assurance that I'm not into win/lose outcomes. I believe you have to plan like crazy to avoid that and see that everyone comes out with something. You can turn lemons into lemonade. Every dark cloud has a silver lining. Open land can be used for camping and retreats..,.producing some income rather than none. All of these thorny issues require intense planning.