Tag Archives: environmental aspects
(1260) Driving Grandpa
This feature from Vox.com gains emphasis in times and places of bad weather, such as the so-called Bomb Cyclone now locking down swathes of North America home to aging populations.
Once seniors are too old to drive, our transportation system totally fails them
See also: (109) Aging suburbia: assume the crash position!
image: Scooter Flix via Flickr/CC
(1219) Milleniburbs
Some bits of this item on future suburbia are intriguing. Others are less convincing extrapolations. With their monstrous student debt alone it is unlikely the Millennials will carry the burbs Atlas-style into the overheated decades to come.
The suburb of the future, almost here
nytimes.com
(1207) Hurricane Harvey
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
(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
(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
(1067) Climate change pushes American public housing tenants
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
(1003) San Francisco’s scavenging economics tighten up
Scavenging 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.
See also:
(128) Scrapping the suburbs
(375) Scavenging
image: Ken Ishikawa via Flickr/CC