Doing good works feels good, too. He uses water as an example of how sprawl is a population issue because sprawl affects the use of resources. At the end of many of Kostmayer s speeches, someone asks him what one person can do. He reinforces the importance of creating the connection between doing work and effecting meaningful change. He worries that we are becoming a country where people know the price of everything but the value of nothing.
Recycling is asuccessful example of people taking control.
Kostmayer attributes some of today s cynicism to the dramatically increased speed and glut of communication. Returning to the subject of sprawl, he wonders why Americans have such an enormous disconnect between what we want and what s happening. Conversation 3 Portland, Oregon is one of Kostmayer s examples of communities who are making headway addressing issues of urban sprawl. He tells why he thinks solutions are coming from the ground up, not from the top down, and why he thinks this is hopeful. At our current rate, today s population of 5.9 billion humans will double in 50 years.