Five of the world’s largest oil companies are now in the process of being sued by New York City for their “contributions to global warming,” Comptroller Scott Stringer has revealed. The companies in question are: Chevron, BP, Exxon Mobil, Royal Dutch Shell, and ConocoPhillips — arguably the 5 top oil firms in the world that
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
Years ago, countries of the world committed to lock in a new international climate agreement at the 2015 U.N. Climate Change conference in Paris, informally called COP 21. It’s coming up fast, considering that for the past 50 years, scientists have been expressing their sense of an impending showdown between the people of earth and
We know that bike-sharing programs get people to switch from driving to bicycling. We know that good bike-sharing programs increase bicycle commute rates dramatically. We know that bike-sharing programs keep the air cleaner and citizens healthier. But new research has also found that bike-sharing programs improve street life. “Bike share stations are ideal triangulators,” David M.
The Union of Concerned Scientists’ Clean Vehicles program recently released an updated version of its rather comprehensive “backgrounder” on electric vehicles — “how much the technology is growing in the country, the opportunities it presents for consumers and automakers, and the challenges facing its adoption,” to be specific. Also included in the updated backgrounder is
An expansive office space or desk, or even a large car interior, alters our posture, making us feel more powerful…and this tends to make us dishonest…that’s according to new research to be published in a forthcoming issue of the journal Psychological Science. The study, entitled ‘The Ergonomics of Dishonesty’ (Yap et al), draws upon four
The wacky weather continues no matter where you live, apparently, with New York City residents baffled by the arrival of two tornadoes on Saturday, the first touching down near Breezy Point, a Queens neighbourhood, and the second in Brooklyn. Saturday was a day of severe weather across the Northeast and mid-Atlantic as a powerful cold
A group in New York City is looking “to transform an abandoned trolley terminal on the Lower East Side of Manhattan into the world’s first underground park.” It has been raising funds for the project on Kickstarter and already has $34,500 more than the $100,000 it was aiming to raise (but, of course, you
Some top global warming and climate change news from the past week (other than what we’ve already covered): 1. Record warmth sweeping through the Eastern U.S. and Midwest. Who knows why? 2. Drought in Texas continues to have a strong effect on Texas agriculture. “Come March 1, if there is less than 850,000 acre-feet of
New York City has some of the highest-priced real estate in the world. But building rooftops remain grossly underutilized (barring some notable exceptions). However, the city planning department is proposing that 1,200 acres of commercial rooftops be available for urban farmers to put greenhouses on. That would certainly boost local food and environmental stewardship in
NYC’s mayor, billionaire Michael Bloomberg, is not the 99%’s favorite politician. However, he has done more to push science-denying Republicans (members of a party he used to belong to) to wake up to the threats of global warming and climate change and take action. The latest news is that he is pushing all mayors
Movements have broken out all across the US (and even across the world) with their subjects ranging from war to corporate greed. Kicking off the start of protests was (in my opinion) the Tar Sands action in DC, where 1,252 people got arrested. Then it was Occupy Wall Street. Now it’s Occupy EVERYWHERE.
I don’t think this was planned, certainly not by the #occupywallstreet folks, but a big civilian protest on Wall Street mimicking social-media-fueled protests in Egypt and Iran and the Obama administration are both working to make the richest 1% of the country contribute more to society this weekend.
Of course, the Fat Cats aren’t fond of either effort.
The tremendous (and growing) power and wealth divide in the U.S. is closely tied to our energy and environmental problems. Solving one must mean solving the other. Thus, this news about protesters try to start a massive, long sit-in on Wall Street is a good fit for Planetsave.
To keep it simple, just think about what is keeping us from quickly addressing important environmental issues:
September 11, 2001 is a day that will always live in Americans minds. 2, 996 people died in the attacks on that horrific day, including an estimated 500 foreign nationals from 91 Nations.
Over the past few days Hurricane Irene has been making landfall off the Eastern Coast of America, in North Carolina and Virginia, New Jersey, and New York. The whole time, scientists from various institutions across the country have been monitoring, tracking, and investigating the hurricane.
This amazing video shows the Virginia earthquake ripple west across the United States, thanks to an array of detectors that are part of the USArray/EarthScope facility.
A 6.0 earthquake shook far beyond its epi-center in Mineral, Virginia; shaking was felt from as far north as Rhode Island, New York and as far south as Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Starting at approximately 1:51 PM at the epi-center 3.7 miles beneath the surface, reports are varying as to how long the quake lasted; best estimates are only a few seconds.
This is totally awesome. The ridiculousness of this guy getting a ticket for not riding in the bike lane is made obvious when he decides to then ALWAYS ride in the bike lane, film it, and show the world who should really be getting the tickets.
Brooklyn Grange (one of the farms featured in the video above) is reportedly the largest rooftop farm and it recently rolled into its second growing season. The organic urban farm, believe it or not, is located in Brooklyn, NY (funny coincidence with the name, eh?). The farm sits on top of a 6-story 1919 warehouse and is 40,000 square feet in size. It was built by Bromley Caldari Architects.
Some of the top clean energy, clean transport, and green living stories of the last day or so: Clean Energy China’s Green Economy Leadership “China sees green as the future engine of its economy. Although currently the world’s leading greenhouse gas emitter, China is serious about slowing greenhouse gas emissions and using renewable energy.” Green Jobs, Good
If you’re in the New York area, you may be interested to know that Greenpeace’s Arctic Sunrise (a ship) will be in New York City from February 4-11. It is rolling in as part of Greenpeace’s East Coast Coal Free Future Tour. Check it out if you have the time. via Greenpeace USA. Related Stories:
I’ve mentioned the great health benefits of bicycling on here a number of times. With the health benefits being so clear, you’d think more health professionals would be pushing for better biking infrastructure… Well, a number of them are starting to. Check out this email/news release I received from NYC transportation advocacy organization Transportation Alternatives:
As the former executive director of an organization promoting bicycling for transportation purposes (as well as walking, mass transit, and sustainable development), I can tell you that one of the biggest problems bicyclists face, in most cities across the United States, is uninformed and hostile police. New York City is apparently no exception. Hostile and illegal
Hydraulic fracking is bad news. Fracking, if you haven’t heard of it, is a means of natural gas extraction employed in deep natural gas well drilling. Once a well is drilled, millions of gallons of water, sand and proprietary chemicals are injected, under high pressure, into a well. The pressure fractures the shale and props open
Following up on global warming news of the week (one of the biggest environmental problems), here is some uplifting green tech and green living news from this week.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/v/fgT-QfcjXw4&hl=pl_PL&fs=1] Here is this week’s “greencast” or screencast of great green news from around the internet (that we didn’t already cover). Enjoy the video above via YouTube or in high definition on screenr. By the way, if you happen to notice the sound of pedestrians, cyclists or streetcars in the background, it is because I
Homeless advocates are trying to get New York City to take over long-vacant luxury apartments to help house the homeless. Leaders in the real estate market are saying ‘no way’, but this is generating some movement forward. A coalition of community organizations in NYC, Right to the City Coalition, has found that 264 luxury residential
Join other bicyclists or support a bicyclist to help combat global warming this Fall. For the second year in a row, bicyclists (and non-bicyclists) will join together for a climate conference “on wheels” — the Brita Climate Ride.
The 120-year-old lobster was out the door and heading towards freedom, but then an obstinate UPS driver wouldn’t agree to give the lobster’s box careful handling on its way back to the Atlantic. [social_buttons] Craig the 20-pound lobster made headlines after PETA asked Brooklyn restaurant owner Gina Ng to allow the animal to be released
Thanks to a new program, New Yorkers will now have yet another way to compare the relative prestige of where they live within the city: air quality. The NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene recently initiated what will be the city’s most comprehensive air quality monitoring effort to date. Rather than monitor air quality
[social_buttons] The police officer who seemingly randomly picked a bicyclist out of a critical mass crowd to tackle has been indicted for falsifying records and could also soon be charged with misdemeanor assault. The YouTube video [below], which went viral soon after the incident, was instrumental in the indictment.
