Tag Archives: environmental aspects

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(1312) Vegas in the frying pan

Just as the season begins to turn, though more these days that turning is about the relentless churning of some Category 5 hurricane than the expected memory of back-to-school rituals and soul-soothing autumn colours, advance word comes from Las Vegas of hot futures. The premier example of unsustainable sprawl in North America is now finding out what it is like to be on the public health front line of climate change. What else is it but a public health disaster if you cannot go outside? What if you are kinda stuck outside? How does this quotation grab you from an item in today’s Guardian? ”… homeless people with post-mortem burns from collapsing on hot streets.”

The hellish future of Las Vegas. A place where we never go outside

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(1207) Hurricane Harvey

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Climate change meets sprawl at the synthetic waterline along the Gulf of Mexico.  Perilous developments these days for the Houston Ship Channel and places like Rockport, Texas, seen in the image above from a Google Maps screen shot. Turning away from the spectacle of Hurricane Harvey’s wet trek into Texas is just about impossible.
A changing world asks questions about the way we build communities and operate their economies.  America’s fourth largest city is also a source of the fossil fuels that helped make sprawl and climate change possible.  Business as usual this time next year?
Boom town, flood town. Climate change will bring more frequent and fierce rainstorms to cities like Houston. But unchecked development remains a priority in the famously un-zoned city, creating short-term economic gains for some while increasing flood risks for everyone
texastribune.org
Hurricane Harvey poised to impact blacks in Texas, but no one is talking about it
dailykos.com
Hell and high water
propublica.org – this is a map/graphics rich feature from March 2016
See also:
(1067) Climate change pushes American public housing tenants
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(1199) Don’t forget the students


At a time in life when we should be building strength many of us are exposed to difficulty.
Unpaid internships damage long-term graduate pay prospects
theguardian.com
The poverty of student experience
sociologicalimagination.org
New study finds higher air pollution at school drop-off zones. Emissions were higher in the winter because of air stagnation around the Great Lakes
metronews.ca
image: Chris Murphy via Flickr/CC
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(1083) 86 million acres


Enormous pressure will soon be placed on the world’s croplands as they are exchanged for human habitat.  Mind boggling stuff, even without consideration of climate change!
By 2030 megacities may devour more than 86 million acres of prime farmland
modernfarmer.com
An elegant monochrome map of the  world’s settlements.
German scientists made this excruciatingly detailed simulacrum of the “global urban footprint”
citylab.com

image: Duncan Rawlinson via Flickr/CC

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(1067) Climate change pushes American public housing tenants

climate-change
An alarming feature from Bloomberg describes the impact of climate change on public housing in America.  Storms and rising sea levels have already put pressure on vulnerable tenants.  Questions are arising faster than answers, let alone resources, regarding this matter.
Climate change is already forcing Americans to move

image: Environmental Illness Network via Flickr/CC

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(1003) San Francisco’s scavenging economics tighten up

aluminium cansScavenging is one of the oldest continuous forms of industry found in human settlements.  Never romanticized,
it nonetheless seems to be always with us.  The value of aluminium cans and other recyclables travels up and down much like that of say oil.  When the price is good scavengers get busy creating a commodity from rejected material and earn some minor income for themselves.  Spend any time in a built-up area and you eventually spot scavengers.  That bastion of high priced housing and advanced technology, San Francisco, is no exception.  Lately, though, the cities network of businesses where pop cans and such are redeemed has begun to thin out.  This is tough on the scavengers.

Collecting cans to survive: a ‘dark future’ as California recycling centers vanish. Poor and homeless San Franciscans rely on income earned by trading cans for cash, but their subsistence is under threat as hundreds of centers close down
theguardian.com

See also:
(128) Scrapping the suburbs
(375) Scavenging

image: Ken Ishikawa via Flickr/CC