Global warming, peak oil affect town's land policy

Published on December 21, 2007

It's cold and snowy as I write, the wind is blowing, and the furnace is running full tilt; it's a good time to think about oil and global warming.

It might seem that these are not local issues. Energy policies are set at the federal level, global warming is addressed - or not - by international treaties negotiated in Kyoto, Bali and elsewhere.

The fact is, however, that these are local concerns. Global warming can only be slowed, let alone reversed, through the actions of governments at all levels, businesses and individuals. Like many communities around the world, though not nearly enough, Amherst has recognized this and developed a local Climate Action Plan aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions locally. This is a first step; our ability to implement the plan depends on policy decisions over the next few years.

Energy supply is also a local issue. "Peak oil" - the point at which global oil production begins a permanent decline - is a reality and, although experts disagree on the exact timing, it is clear that our well-being in the coming decades depends on how well we prepare now for energy shortages and high energy prices.

The challenge, locally as well as nationally, is not just in acknowledging the new reality, but also in revising assumptions about how things work and what is good economic policy. I doubt that many Bulletin readers agree with the Bush administration that mandatory limits on carbon emissions are bad for the economy. Instead, I expect most accept that such limits are essential to long-term economic health, and recognize that, in the short term, making the shift can be an economic stimulator as new technologies and new businesses respond to such a policy.

Just as national economic strategies need to change (stop subsidizing oil and auto industries; embrace alternative energy and conservation as economic stimuli) so, too, do local strategies. We need an economy based less on the automobile, with small local businesses serving people where they live. We need local production of food and other products, as shipping goods thousands of miles becomes prohibitively expensive. Policies supporting farming, energy efficiency and public transportation will protect our economy in the long run and stimulate it in the short term.

In this context, recent resistance to land preservation in our town, based on the argument that what there is an imbalance between conservation and economic development, is unfortunate and wrong-headed. For example, during debate in Town Meeting last spring, several influential members spoke against purchasing development rights to (and thereby preserving) valuable farmland in North Amherst, on economic grounds. One even argued that before we "tie up" more land in agricultural use "in perpetuity," we should understand the implications of making it impossible to use this land for economic development.

Not only does this invert reality in terms of what we understand as irrevocable (we are told that the decision not to destroy a resource needs to be thoroughly vetted, whereas day after day, landowners are allowed to remove topsoil and permanently convert arable land to unproductivity), but it misses the point that sustainable economic development depends, now more than ever, on the careful use of our natural resources.

Changing our thinking is hard, and in times of tight budgets, it is particularly difficult to take a longer-term view. However, global warming and energy uncertainty are no longer in some distant future, and we need to understand economic development in this context. Preserving land isn't simply a quality-of-life issue, based on the aesthetics of bucolic vistas or love of the outdoors; it is an economic necessity.

In the Amherst town seal, book and plow reflect the history that made our town, but they also point to resources we can draw on as we look toward the future. Recent discussions of potential economic development have focused on the book - economic spin-offs from university research, for example - but less attention has been paid to the plow.

With peak oil and rising energy prices, land resources are gaining in value. Food production now competes with agricultural energy production, as reflected in the push for ethanol in the federal energy bill and business initiatives such as the local start-up SunEthanol. The growing interest in local foods, combined with rising economic cost of shipping food, means increased demand for food produced here in the Pioneer Valley. There is great potential in the coming years for local farmers to provide for the cities to the south and for local businesses to develop to complement and support this development.

We can't afford, nationally or locally, to continue to trade off environmental protection against supposed economic development necessities. Rather, we need to figure out how to make preservation and sustainable use of our natural resources the basis of a stable economy in times of energy uncertainty.

Jim Oldham is a Town Meeting member and is also on the Comprehensive Planning Committee.