A 2.3% rise in public transportation ridership may not seem like much, but it is significant because most people can’t easily change their behavior when gasoline prices rise. More expensive gas at the pump is probably responsible for some of the increase in mass transit ridership. More riders can create a virtuous circle. Fuller buses
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Why is there so much energy wasted in big, rich, hot cities like Hong Kong? In part, it’s because real estate is so expensive that energy costs seem trivial, a tiny fraction of the building’s value. The main alternatives are oil, coal, nuclear, and renewables like solar. Little attention is paid to the “fifth fuel,”
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Many colleges and universities now measure their environmental footprint, but few have taken the next steps toward true sustainability by focusing on environmental justice and ecological economics. Most have not rigorously addressed their role in planetary deterioration, nor have they done well in meeting the challenges confronting humans now or that will in the future.
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The urban population is growing, but urban areas are growing even faster. By 2030, a land mass as big as Mongolia will be urbanized. Factors include population and economic growth, land-use and agricultural policies, and official graft. Ominously, 2/3 of cities over 5 million are coastal. GR
This important article from the New York Times tells about a major effort to quantify the value of nature. The idea is to protect the environment by determining the value of “natural capital” — nature’s goods and services essential to human life –, and making that value known to decision makers. The Natural Capital Project
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CS Blog Green Climate Matters – State of the Planet SeaAndSkyNY
