A small price to pay for a better future

Chatter among global warming alarmists infers that saving the planet will demand the rapid decline of GDP, the US dollar, population, income, opportunity, and life expediencies for unborn children. Maybe they are right!

But I wonder if there is another option — a parallel universe that already exists — another foundation already holding us back from chaos’ brink. If there is, I would suggest that brighter futures may lie upon the foundations of the public commons.

Ultimately I want to do good for the community, and leave a legacy. I, like so many folks, have volunteered for small service organizations. One is exploring the options of an facilities expansion and retrofit project which has made me think of ways we might integrate other community services.

Things like outdoor public showers, solar charging and repair stations for bikes, shade and diversified green-space, car-camping, shared ebikes or other emobility for employees and/or neighbors, an outdoor kitchen, a sewage drain area accessible for mobile homes may be ways to integrate the public commons into redevelopment design and do it at reduced-little-or-no extra costs.

With careful and widespread integration of preparedness our public commons can buffer our communities against the challenges we already have, and the tragedies to come, and the healthier our community, country, economy and planet will be.

Though our names be forgotten, by weaving our work into the camouflage of resilience, we imbue our legacies into the invisible numbers of sufferings avoided. Wouldn’t that be nice?

— Richard Roth, Chico