"Today, China — with its 1.3 billion people — is on the same path. Picture Shanghai’s many bicycles filling the streets. No more. China banned bikes on Shanghai’s main roads to make room for millions of cars. China also wants to build more than five hundred coal-fired plants. India wants more than two hundred, and the United States has plans for seventy-two more."
And it's impressive to actually see these sentiments coming out of sprawling, land use planningless, North Carolina:
"Our sustainability nightmare began with the American dream — suburbia. At the turn of the twentieth century, cities were crowded and polluted, which caused public health problems. The government subsidized cars, oil, and highway construction. Banks gave better mortgage deals for suburban development. “We subsidized our way into sprawl,” says Philip Berke, professor of city and regional planning and chair of environmental studies. From an economic standpoint, it made sense. Environmentally, the problems keep popping up.
“If we continue to settle the way we do — with people in suburbs working thirty miles away and shopping twenty miles away — forget it,” Crawford-Brown says. “We’re doomed to high levels of energy use. Redesigning our communities is the ultimate answer.”
Too bad North Carolina city/burbs failed to invested in public transportation when times were good.