Progress Now Action

Mike Nickerson, author of Life, Money & Illusion; Living on Earth as if we want to stay, will be speaking in Colorado Springs on July 8 (details below). You are invited to hear him and participate in the discussion.

It’s impossible to escape climate change headlines these days. Awareness and concern about climate change has risen to the point that even George W. Bush can no longer deny it. It must be showing up in his pop-up books. :) In fact, Vanity Fair magazine has astutely declared green the new black. That’s a positive change for our modern world, but to keep moving forward we need to separate the meaningless or even dangerous trendy shades of green from the real thing.   Read More »

Colorado Springs' proposed Southern Delivery System, a massive water pipeline project, is the subject of a Bureau of Reclamation environmental impact statement. Public comments on that EIS are due tomorrow, June 13. Send your comments today to Kara Lamb klamb@gp.usbr.gov

Have you thought about the carbon footprint of powering SDS' massive pumps operating 24 hours a day? Roughly, SDS electrical requirements will exceed 25% of today’s current residential power use in the city.   Read More »

A developer recently repeated the typical talking points he believes prove that growth pays its way. He didn't anticipate he was addressing someone who's done his homework on costs of community growth.   Read More »

It's the economy, stupid! Former President Bill Clinton might have stunned the world from Colorado January 30 when he said, "We just have to slow down our economy and cut back our greenhouse gas emissions 'cause we have to save the planet for our grandchildren." This would have been remarkable, unprecedented candor from a politician, especially today in the U.S. where politicians race to promote a stimulus package to jump-start our lagging economy, but for the fact he wasn't really suggesting we do this.

I've uploaded a clip of Clinton's statement http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPDnaQMAO6E followed by Fox News commentators totally baffled by this notion. With all the talk these days about dire economic news, you may be as dumbfounded as they were. I wouldn't blame you.   Read More »

A front page story in today's Gazette (11/25/07)is a good indication of the insanity we face in Colorado about water: http://www.gazette.com/articles/water_30128___article.html/colorado_drought.html

It's great local residents stepped up and conserved water when the need became apparent. Our reward? Our city-owned utility has continued to connect thousands of new customers to our water system during this time, AND subsidizes those new connections through artificially low tap fees. Our City Council keeps these tap fees low out of fear that realistic fees might slow the growth. Perhaps logic and big-picture thinking are not their long suit?   Read More »

Many of you know I've spent the past five years championing a sane and sustainable approach to growth in the Pikes Peak region. The roadblocks I've encountered led to the realization that society needs to examine and adjust our prosperity paradigm. Since I'm a professional filmmaker, I decided the best way to begin is with a documentary film. So I've started a nonprofit and am producing the documentary, GROWTHBUSTERS presents Hooked on Growth: Our Misguided Quest for Prosperity.   Read More »

Should Colorado Springs be investing over $2 billion in a water diversion project that promises poorer water quality to farmers in the Lower Arkansas Valley, worsens environmental problems in Fountain Creek, and with a primary purpose of enabling and subsidizing suburban sprawl on the eastern fringes of Colorado Springs?

Our citizen-owned utility is playing it fast and loose with logic and facts in its attempts to persuade us this is the right thing to do.   Read More »

Dirt began flying and nail guns popping this year on the massive Banning Lewis Ranch on the east side of Colorado Springs. This development represents the worst of our expansion-based prosperity strategy.   Read More »

I got a laugh out of "Environmentalism is a danger to all human beings," published in the C. Springs Business Journal 4/27/07. The Ayn Rand Institute's Michael Berliner made assertions so absurd I wondered if the author was pulling our legs. A Google search indicates the Business Journal was about the only publication that felt Berliner's essay was worth printing (after all, it wasn't April Fool's Day). Still, if even one reader fell for his fictions, a reality check is in order. So I sent this response to the journal and it ran in this week's edition.   Read More »

"Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on or by imbeciles who really mean it." - Mark Twain

Members of Colorado Springs City Council offended our democratic sensibilities this week and committed a reprehensible act of oppression. Over the past several years I've observed members of this Council treat very disrespectfully citizens who dare to offer viewpoints different than theirs (or those of the wealthy special interests who got them elected). So they've successfully lowered my expectations - to the point they couldn't be much lower. This week they lived down to those expectations.   Read More »

"The question should be how do we keep Aurora wet, but (also) how do we keep La Junta viable," commented former state engineer Jeris Danielson, who represents the Arkansas Basin Roundtable on the new Interbasin Compact Committee. It sums up the challenge facing the committee, which held its first meeting in Denver Friday.

The 27-member committee was created to set the stage for interbasin cooperation over state water problems. My sense, from remarks of agricultural and western slope basin representatives over the past few years, is those folks are resigned that Front Range cities will end up with their water. It's just a matter of what they get in return. I encourage them to stand much more firmly against damming their rivers, diminishing their flows, and degrading the quality of the water that does flow downstream to them.

Let's look down the road at what will happen to Colorado's population if we continue current policies, in denial of the limits of our natural resources. Our growth plans are so huge the only way to meet those water needs would be to devastate agriculture, recreation and wildlife. Even then, we'll find we cannot suck enough water out of Colorado's mountains to provide for that population. Any doubt?

Remember this year: 2121. None of us will live to see that year, but our grandchildren will. It's not that far off. Yet that will be the year, if we continue at recent growth rates, that today's entire statewide population will reside in Colorado Springs. That's right - today's state population of 4.6 million, all packed neatly like sardines into El Paso County. And the state? Just move that decimal point; instead of today's 4.6 million, it will have 46 million!

If anyone thinks they have the conservation program to stretch our water resource to sustain 46 million in Colorado, raise your hand. How about the money, let alone the plan, for a transportation system? Clean air? What do you think I-70 will look like? I-25? The cost of these impacts to our citizens and state will more than wipe out any prosperity we might hope to achieve by going down this road. The sooner we take off the rose-colored glasses and come to terms with the fact we cannot base our state and local economies on continued expansion, the better our future will look.

We do have a choice in the matter. We can continue to pursue public policies that promote and depend on migration of additional population into our state in pursuit of an illusion of prosperity (resigned that we have no choice but to destroy Colorado in the interest of steady employment). Or we can shift to more enlightened, sustainable economic development strategies - strategies that offer reality-based optimism that we can sustain our economy and Colorado can still be a nice place to live for our grandchildren in 2121. At Friday's meeting, Department of Natural Resources Director Russ George got it right. He said, "We're at a point where we may be too many for the water Mother Nature provides." Duh!

Dave Gardner
Founder & Chair, SaveTheSprings

A sustainable approach to our environment & quality of life - for current & future generations
Visit us at www.savethesprings.org

Can anyone tell me we aren't following in Southern California's footsteps? If you want to know what our future holds on Colorado's Front Range, assuming we continue on our current path, here is a very credible crystal ball. But notice how the people seem to think they just aren't spending enough money soon enough to solve their growth problems. They could do that if growth was profitable for the communities, cities or state. But it's obviously profitable only to a few businesses in the growth industry.

Region flunks traffic test
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA: The area receives its first F.
Inland drivers spend 55 hours a year stuck in jams.
January 6, 2006
By KIMBERLY TRONE / The Press-Enterprise   Read More »

"The debate needs to be about the future, about our role as stewards of the city." These wise words are from this week's Outsider column by former city councilman John Hazlehurst - in the Colorado Springs Independent. John gets it, and...okay, okay he mentions my name (you know how I love to be in the spotlight), even if he does dub me "our cheefully exasperated party pooper! Great reading at Link Or pick up a copy free at great area merchants!

Colorado Springs City Council on November 22, 2005 approved the 2006 Utilities budget and rate case, perpetuating unwise growth subsidies and continued public funding of the private special-interest EDC (which is lobbying behind closed doors for bigger subsidies). This happens year after year because council members are wined and dined by special-interests who make millions of dollars through this program. It continues because council members hear very little from everyday citizens on this subject. These citizens are busy making a living. They don't have time to educate themselves about a very complex subject. They hope their elected officials are downtown representing their best interests. They are being let down in a big way.

A number of people have expressed interest in this subject and how it will impact the future of our community. We have posted quite a bit of data on the subject under "Hot Topics" at www.savethesprings.org.

More importantly, I've written an essay on the subject that explains where we are today, where our current program is taking us, and where we might want to be headed. It is a call to action. I urge you to take a look, and to send this link to people you believe care deeply about the future of this community. We need to get started protecting our future, today.

Please check it out here, or download a pdf: Link

Thanks to all for your interest and support!   Read More »

The Gazette's "Our View" on developers agreeing to pony up a portion of the funds necessary for Falcon School District 49 to keep up with rampant growth (Perseverance paid off in D-49 agreement, 9/9/05) demands some illumination.

While the piece concedes new developer contributions won't pay fully for building new schools to keep pace with growth, it opines that such growth should not be required to pay the full cost: "…pile on enough of these kinds of fees and before long you are pricing some people out of home ownership and putting a chill on the new home buying market, which will choke off the flow of funds to the schools," the editorialist writes.

Since each new home built in the district creates additional financial burden, the only flow that might be choked off is the outflow of district money to subsidize growth that - even with this new development contribution - still doesn't pay its way.

D49 and other school districts will continue to face tax increases. We passed the 1% RTA sales tax increase last year, and we'll probably pass referenda C and D this fall. Tax increases are necessary when we don't require growth to fully pay its way. I think it's better fiscal policy NOT to socialize growth, but rather to attach the true costs to the behavior. But until we do, we'd better get used to digging into our own pockets to make up the difference.   Read More »

(A slightly abbreviated version of this was published in the Colorado Springs Independent on September 1.)

Two related Indy items August 18 were thought-provoking: First, Colorado Springs' desperate quest for water to supply the 75,000 homes planned for Banning-Lewis Ranch ("Water woes may freeze growth"). Second, John Hazlehurst's column about Colorado Springs Utilities' concurrent water and CEO searches ("We need a superstar"). Hazlehurst's words about the tenuous nature of our city's water-grab plans haunt me:

"There are those who may think, that's fine. This city's growth - disorderly, cancerous, unsustainable - has to stop sooner or later, so why not now? Maybe we could become a model of conservation, sustainability and appropriate resource use. Maybe - but probably not."

Such inspiration! The last sentence an opportunity lost for vision and leadership. Alas, John has joined the many in our fine city who've given up hope for responsible stewardship in the face of well-funded growth industry opposition. Why?   Read More »