Sustainability in Pittsburgh

Could the irony be any richer? Upon the departure of Pittsburgh’s greencoordinator, we learn there is actually a full time permanent position bearing that title. According to one Council member the position is necessary to enhance Pittsburgh’s greenness. A City with spending that is unsustainable, with legacy costs that are unsustainable, with huge debt burdens, a school system that is little more than a high cost money pit, a declining population and a decade long flat private sector employment base is consumed by worry about Pittsburgh’s impact on the global climate.

We might never know if the two year tenure of the now resigned coordinator did much to save the planet, but we can say with some assurance that having a government dedicated to economic principles known to be inimical to growth and private sector employment expansion has done a great job of holding Pittsburgh’s economy in check. Whether the resultant slow or no pickup in CO2 emissions and actual pollutants has made any difference to the global climate is at best a guess.

It is too bad the same degree of Council zealotry, clarity of purpose and devotion to the world’s wellbeing is not in evidence when it comes to dealing with the problems the Council is elected to deal with.