The winning projects of a global competition for innovative carbon-free and resilient urban projects were announced in Oslo and sent to us by C40 CITIES. Have a look.
Union Point, located on land that used to be the Waymouth Naval Air Station on Boston’s South Shore is a laboratory for how to build sustainable cities of the future, including using 100% renewable energy
Research finds cities join companies to lead on water security development following climate change and urban population pressure. This new infographic from CDP helps explain some of the challenges – and solutions.
The Pact of Amsterdam has been released, seeking collaboration from EU cities concerning pressing challenges such as air pollution, climate adaptation, transportation, and energy transition. “Cities have a key role to play in translating national and EU policy objectives into concrete action. They directly or indirectly implement EU policies and legislation and contribute to EU’s
The good news is that NASA has just released research on how temperature and rainfall patterns worldwide may change because of the concentrations of greenhouse gas growing in Earth’s atmosphere. The space scientists have based their conclusions on historical measurements and robust scenarios of increasing carbon dioxide produced from 21 climate models: specifically, General Circulation
Jeff Turrentine has some insights for us in today’s onEarth blog about the fate of cities during climate change. He takes a quick look at five cities around the world that are prepping for climate change… and five that are slacking, perhaps terminally. Turrentine’s basic premise, and it resonates with me, is that climate change will touch every
Move over, Copenhagen. Hamburg is following you into the 21st century by deemphasizing the role of the car. Almost half of Germany’s second-largest city already consists of green areas, parks, gardens, squares, cemeteries, and sports facilities (see map). Hamburg plans to link two large green areas in the north and south with bicycle routes and pedestrian
If you sit back and reflect on your own experiences for a moment, this is probably no surprise. When we’re driving through a new place, people on the street are easily seen as potential obstructions or sources of difficulty. When we are walking or biking along, that perception is much less so. A couple of new
Vitalize Without a Spa Last spring I stayed in NYC for a week. My stay in the city revitalized me better than any spa might have. This urban visit was the same as my experience of a visit to San Francisco for a few weeks in which my mental, emotional, and physical health improved. My urban
Here’s a totally awesome new vertical bike storage design I ran across this weekend. Green in more ways than one.
The American Lung Association (ALA) recently released State of the Air 2011, its annual report on air pollution and which cities have got the worst. In total, 18.5 million Americans live in regions with unhealthy levels of year-round particle pollution.
According to the ALA, 13,000 Americans a year are killed from particle pollution from power plants alone.
And for people in “at-risk” groups, like people who already have asthma, chronic lung disease, cardiovascular disease, or diabetes, the hazards of such pollution are even greater.
(Yet another environmental toxin in unacceptably high concentrations….) An analysis of 35 U.S. cities’ tap water has found that 31 one of these water sources contain exceedingly high levels of hexavalent chromium, a known carcinogen.The study is the first of its kind ever to be released to the public and comes, fortuitously, as the EPA
In the guest post below, Lester R. Brown of the Earth Policy Institute discusses transforming our cities into more sustainable and more livable places. (Subheadings and pictures added.) by Lester R. Brown As I was being driven through Tel Aviv from my hotel to a conference center in 1998, I could not help but note
Guest author Jack Lundee of Everything Left provides us with this thoughtful and thought-provoking article on green spaces, green architecture and green infrastructure. The addition and/or substitution of green spaces have been quite controversial topics as of late. Senior resident of the Urban Land Institute (ULI) Ed T. McMahon states: “Green space adds value to property.”
Cities and their even larger, fast-growing siblings — megacities (more than 10 million people) and hypercities (more than 20 million people) — aren’t just products of human civilization that dramatically affect their surrounding ecosystems. They’ve emerged as unique ecosystems in their own rights. In “Global Change and the Ecology of Cities,” published in the Feb.
