Urban humans

As the world sees the biggest wave of urban growth in history – with almost 70% of its population expected to be living in urban areas by 2050, up from 56% today – the task of making cities greener and safer is becoming more urgent.  https://packages.trust.org/urban-humans/index.html#Urban-humans-oDMBpzerY6
Article courtesy of The Daily Climate from Place by Zoe Tabary and Claudio Accheri

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Appalachia is transitioning from coal. Here’s what it could learn from Germany.

Germany's transition away from coal is about more than reimagining a place. Significant environmental restoration throughout Ruhr was necessary to bolster economic efforts, and for those efforts to be meaningful, miners and their communities couldn't be left behind.
https://www.dailyclimate.org/appalachia-sustainable-transition-from-coal-2640987386.html
Article courtesy of The Daily Climate by Katherine Webb-Hehn

Using Old Cellphones to Listen for Illegal Loggers

Pakan Rabaa, Indonesia-This village in West Sumatra had a problem with illegal loggers.    So, residents asked a local environmental group for camera traps or some other equipment that might help. In July, they got more than they expected: A treetop surveillance system that uses recycled cellphones and artificial intelligence software to listen for rogue loggers and catch them in the act.  https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/15/climate/indonesia-logging-deforestation.html  Article courtesy of The New York Times by Mike Ives

Shrimp and Chemicals: What You Need to Know

Whether farmed or wild caught, the cheaper the shrimp, the more likely it is to have been treated with chemicals, particularly sodium tripolyphosphate and sodium bisulfite.  https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/15/dining/shrimp-additives.html
Article courtesy of the New York Times by Melissa Clark

Despite Their Promises, Giant Energy Companies Burn Away Vast Amounts of Natural Gas

When leaders from Exxon Mobil and BP gathered last month with other fossil-fuel executives to declare they were serious about climate change, they cited progress in curbing an energy-wasting practice called flaring — the intentional burning of natural gas as companies drill faster than pipelines can move the energy away.  https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/16/climate/natural-gas-flaring-exxon-bp.html
Article courtesy of the New York Times by Hiroko Tabuchi

BIG CITIES GO GREEN TO FIGHT AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE

In 2018, New York became the first US city to require buildings to publicly display letter grades indicating their energy efficiency.
New York is also making efforts to increase the greenery dotting the city’s skyline through recent legislation that provides larger tax breaks to owners who install green roofs in locations where they can offer the most social and environmental value. These actions are part of a slew of urban initiatives to advance and strengthen environmental protections.
https://www.futurity.org/cities-climate-change-2176322/
Article courtesy of Futurity post by Jade McClain NYU

Radical warming in Siberia leaves millions on unstable ground

ON THE ZYRYANKA RIVER, Russia — Andrey Danilov eased his motorboat onto the gravel riverbank, where the bones of a woolly mammoth lay scattered on the beach. A putrid odor filled the air — the stench of ancient plants and animals decomposing after millennia entombed in a frozen purgatory.  https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/national/climate-environment/climate-change-siberia/
Article courtesy of The Washington Post by Anton Troianovski and Chris Mooney
Photo and video by Michael Robinson Chavez

Peter Dykstra: Are you ready for some good news?

After years of promise and halting progress, wind and solar energy have simply, undeniably, irrefutably arrived.  https://www.dailyclimate.org/peter-dykstra-are-you-ready-for-some-good-news-2640364591.html
Article courtesy of The Daily Climate  by Peter Dykstra

MAN VS. MOSQUITO: AT THE FRONT LINES OF A PUBLIC HEALTH WAR

Mosquito-borne illnesses are on the rise, and climate change will worsen the threat. Little-known local agencies are the main line of defense.  https://publicintegrity.org/environment/man-vs-mosquito-public-health-war/
Article courtesy of The Center for Public Integrity by Jie Jenny Zou

Money is the oxygen on which the fire of global warming burns

What if the banking, asset-management, and insurance industries decided to move away from fossil fuels? https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/money-is-the-oxygen-on-which-the-fire-of-global-warming-burns
Article courtesy of The New Yorker by Bill McKibben

Why the Planet Needs You to Repair Your Broken Stuff

Overproduction and planned obsolescence are the new normal. But fixing your broken things is a way to resist—and build community.https://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/death/repair-broken-things-climate-change-capitalism-20190917
Article courtesy of YES! by Sarah Lazarovic

Climate change: Could ‘climigration’ help reverse Vermont’s population trends?

But the EPA has ranked Vermont fourth in a nation-wide assessment of how resilient states are to more extreme weather events brought on by climate change. And authors of the 2014 state climate assessment wrote that Vermont might be a “receiving state” for residents of Northeast cities dealing with sea level rise.  https://vtdigger.org/2019/09/17/climate-change-will-vermonts-population-increase-from-climigration/
Article courtesy of VTDIGGER by Elizabeth Gribkoff

This new HP laptop is the first computer to use ocean-bound plastic

Inside a new notebook computer from HP, one component uses a new material: a blend of ABS, a standard type of plastic in computers, and PET recycled from plastic bottles that could have otherwise ended up in the ocean.  https://www.fastcompany.com/90405131/this-new-hp-latpop-is-the-first-computer-to-use-ocean-bound-plastic
Article courtesy of Fast Company by Adele Peters

Food, Glorious - and Sustainable

A recent survey of 6 European countries at the turn of the year surveyed their opinions on sustainable food. 64% declared that they believed sustainable products tasted better, which shows that good taste still exists.

Knorr (the soup people), part of the giant Unilever, commissioned the survey of 12,000 respondents. The country least likely to believe in the taste difference was the UK. Intriguingly, the British did buy the most sustainable food, despite their lack of taste as far as it is concerned

Read more at http://www.earthtimes.org/going-green/food-sustainable-WED/2943/#EfjpS3S33jjsCeyR.99
Article courtesy of Earth Times by JW Dowey

This gadget scans your trash to tell you if it’s recyclable

One of the challenges in the broken recycling system is basic confusion: It often isn’t obvious what a particular package is made from or whether it should go in a recycling bin or the trash. Items that could be recycled end up in the landfill, and recycling companies have to expend a lot of time and effort removing unrecyclable items from their facilities.  fastcompany.com/90397801/this-gadget-scans-your-trash-to-tell-you-if-its-recyclable
Article courtesy of Fast Company by Adele Peters

What’s Driving Dorian: Category 4 Hurricane Science

As Dorian spins up, it draws in warm air and sea-surface moisture from all points of the compass. This warm, moist air races toward the center and rises in the spiral arms, fueling thunderstorms, and then in the inner bands, near the eye, it soars skyward as if up a chimney.
https://onezero.medium.com/dorian-could-hit-florida-as-a-major-hurricane-3e1ecc999ad3
Article courtesy of One Zero by Robert Roy Britt

Rising seas threaten Egypt's fabled port city of Alexandria

ALEXANDRIA, Egypt (AP) — Egypt’s coastal city of Alexandria, which has survived invasions, fires and earthquakes since it was founded by Alexander the Great more than 2,000 years ago, now faces a new menace in the form of climate change.  https://www.apnews.com/e4fec321109941798cdbefae310695aa
Article Courtesy of The Associated Press by Samy Magday

Earth’s future in being written in fast-melting Greenland

New York University air and ocean scientist David Holland, who is tracking what's happening in Greenland from both above and below, calls it "the end of the planet." He is referring to geography more than the future. Yet in many ways this place is where the planet's warmer and watery future is being written.https://www.sltrib.com/news/environment/2019/08/20/earths-future-being/
Article courtesy of The Salt Lake City Tribune by Seth Borenstein/Associated Press

It’s coming: Pittsburgh’s bike plan readies for a 2020 debut

“One of the goals of the bike plan is that biking really supports the daily life of Pittsburgh,” she said. “It is going to help us build out more bike infrastructure so that people that currently don’t feel comfortable riding a bike with motor vehicles will feel more comfortable in new facilities.” https://www.wesa.fm/post/it-s-coming-pittsburgh-s-bike-plan-readies-2020-debut#stream/0
Article courtesy of 90.5 WESA by Sarah Kovash

With Ecosia, You Can Help Plant Trees by Just Surfing the Internet

Like other search engines, Ecosia makes money through advertising—every time someone clicks on one of the ads located next to search results, Ecosia makes a few cents. Only instead of using its profits to line shareholder pockets, the Berlin-based start-up invests 80 percent of its profits in tree planting. On average, it takes 45 searches to plant a tree. https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/ecosia-you-can-help-plant-trees-just-surfing-internet
Article courtesy of  Sierra magazine by Chloe Zilliac