The U.S. Energy Information administration reports the U.S. fossil fuel consumption increased 4 percent from 2017 to 2018, to the highest ever. Economic development without fuel use growth theoretically may be possible, but instead of slowing climate change we are driving the heedless bulldozers of development straight to oblivion.
If the Vermont population has in fact stabilized (the 2020 census will tell), that will be a blessing. “Undeveloped” lands are the heart and lungs, indeed, the limbs and bodies of our life support systems. We can’t live on computers and iphones, nor on asphalt and concrete. We must have breathable air, clean water, fertile soil and forests that are neither burning nor drowning.
Conservation, clean energy conversion and small families should be the priorities for planning.
David Tier
Middlebury