California has led the world and irritated the car industry for more than 40 years in its fight against the atmospheric pollution that fouls its cities and is blamed for killing trees hundreds of miles away. As long ago as 1943, Los Angeles scientists recorded the first episode of smog formation in the city’s basin and identified vehicle emission as the cause, leading to its first air pollution law in 1947. Last year, the state incensed manufacturers by imposing a 30 per cent reduction in tailpipe emissions of greenhouse gases – mainly carbon dioxide – from all new cars sold in the state. So when in 10 days’ time a group of 60 city mayors from around the globe arrive in San Francisco for a five-day meeting to mark the UN’s World Environment Day by discussing measures they can take to combat climate change, they will find plenty of inspiration from local lawmakers. The mayors will include Ken Livingstone of London, who instituted a congestion charge in order to cut traffic; Carlos Alberto Richa from Curitiba, Brazil, whose city has been called the cleanest in the world; and Han Zheng from Shanghai, who is confronting pollution in one of the world’s fastest growing urban areas. They will be joined by some of their US counterparts who have recently raised their voices to chide their own federal government over climate change. Earlier this month, New York City’s Michael Bloomberg joined the growing list of US mayors to resolve to cut their city’s greenhouse gas emissions by 7 per cent compared with 1990 levels by 2012 – the commitment the US would have made had the federal government ratified the Kyoto protocol on climate change. The meeting will agree a set of 21 measures, known as the Urban Environmental Accords, which will lay out actions every city can take to tackle environmental problems, from climate change to water pollution. Gavin Newsom, mayor of San Francisco, said: “The Accords represent an innovative response to the fact that we now live on an urban planet. We need to develop real solutions to urban environmental challenges.”
weblink: Financial Times in detail XlnkS6E9
Tag Archives: Text
To-do List for a Sustainable Civilization
A very bright essay on worldchanging.com based on the idea that the industrialized world does not need “sustainable development”. We need sustainable re-development, a set of transformations in the direction of sustainability, in virtually every sector. The essay lists a few of the challenges we actually face, challenges that we inherited from our recent ancestors and that we will almost certainly pass on to our descendants.
weblink: To-do List from: worldchanging in detail XlnkS6E8 XlnkC1941
CanMore Civic Centre
The Canmore Civic Centre is a multi-purpose focal point for the Town of Canmore, located in the spectacular Rocky Mountains. It serves as the Town Hall, the municipal government offices, council chambers, and the new Canmore Museum and GeoScience Centre. In total, the Centre is a 2-storey, 25 000ft2 building designed with an extensive sustainable mandate following the strong environmental attitudes rampant among the inhabitants of this beautiful town. In addition to considering orientation, massing, construction and sustainable transportation measures, a variety of green strategies were employed. The extensive use of low flow plumbing fixtures reduced building water consumption by approximately 55% compared to a standard building. High efficiency condensing boilers, exhaust/supply air heat recovery, occupancy sensors, daylighting and natural ventilation all contributed to maximizing energy efficiency, while delivering top indoor air quality.
from: Keen Engineering document: CanMore Civic Centre in detail XlnkS6E7 XlnkC17A6
Kevin Hydes
Kevin R. Hydes, president of Keen Engineering, has been appointed Chairman of the Board of the US Green Building Council (USGBC) effective 2005. Kevin has been actively involved with the USGBC since its early stages and has served on the board since 2003. Kevin is also the co-founder of the CaGBC and has been an active member of the Canadian Board since its inception.
from: Keen Engineering document: Kevin Hydes Chair in detail see also: USGBC XlnkS6E6 XlnkC17A6
Ecoimagination
GE is announcing that the $150 billion company is hitching its future to the growth of clean energy, clean water, and other clean technologies through a commitment to what GE is calling “ecomagination.†Ecomagination aims to “focus our unique energy, technology, manufacturing, and infrastructure capabilities to develop tomorrow’s solutions such as solar energy, hybrid locomotives, fuel cells, lower-emission aircraft engines, lighter and stronger materials, efficient lighting, and water purification technology.â€
weblink: EcoImagination from: General Electric in detail XlnkS6E4 XlnkC1942
Ed Burtynsky
Canadian photo-artist Edward Burtynsky presented three wishes to TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) conference audience. In his first wish, Burtynsky proposed that he would use his artwork to persuade millions of people to join a productive global conversation about sustainability. Burtynsky plans to launch a media campaign developed with help from design guru Stefan Sagmeister. The campaign will encourage millions to contribute to a worldwide discussion in progress about sustainable living on the increasingly popular weblog worldchanging.com. Burtynsky’s goal for wish two is to raise environmental consciousness in grade school kids; to empower them to propose solutions and act upon them. He announced that he would launch a ground-breaking competition throughout North American primary schools called “In My World†challenging kids to invent new ideas in sustainable living. In wish three, Burtynsky questioned how to extend his artwork’s environment-oriented subject matter to an audience that wouldn’t normally visit galleries and museums where his work is normally viewed. To achieve this, Mr. Burtynsky wishes to learn how to translate his work to film format in order to make an Imax film.
weblink: World Changing from: Ted Burtynsky in detail XlnkS6E2 XlnkC1940
The environmental challenges of urban economies
Booming urban economies have created environmental challenges for Canada’s largest cities and urban areas, according to a new report released today by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM). The third theme report in FCM’s Quality of Life Reporting System (QOLRS) series, entitled Growth, the Economy and the Urban Environment, finds that “while a vibrant local economy is generally considered to be a positive feature of quality of life, there is a real risk that continuously expanding urban populations, increasing incomes and growing economic activity will result in increased pressure on the quality of air, water and soil.â€
weblink: FCM Quality of Life report from: Federation of Canadian Municipalities in detail XlnkS6E1 XlnkC1896
Investment in Clean technology
US and British institutional investors who collectively manage over $3 trillion in assets pledged on Tuesday to invest $1 billion in clean energy companies in an effort to reduce risks posed by climate change. Institutional investors, including state treasurers from Connecticut and California, labor pension funds, and British pension funds, pledged to make the investment at the Institutional Investor Summit on Climate Risk. The combination of oil prices trading at over $50 a barrel and growing concerns about possible future US regulations on carbon emissions make it a good time to invest in clean energy and that investments could soon well exceed Tuesday’s pledge.
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Climate Change Data Validated
Climate scientists armed with new data from the ocean depths and from space satellites have found that Earth is absorbing much more heat than it is giving off, which they say validates computer projections of global warming. The NASA-led researchers were able to measure Earth’s energy imbalance because of more- precise ocean readings collected by 1,800 technology-packed floats deployed in seas worldwide beginning in 2000, in an international monitoring effort called Argo. The robots regularly dive as deep as a mile undersea to take temperature and other readings. Their measurements are supplemented by better satellite gauging of ocean levels, which rise from meltwater and as the sea warms and expands. With this data, the scientists calculated the oceans’ heat content and the global energy imbalance. They found that for every square meter of surface area, the planet is absorbing almost 1 watt more of the sun’s energy than it is radiating back to space as heat — a historically large imbalance. Such absorbed energy will steadily warm the atmosphere.
weblink: Common Dreams from: Commons Dreams in detail see also: Climate Change XlnkS6DA XlnkC193D
New Urbanism
NEW URBANISM promotes the creation and restoration of diverse, walkable, compact, vibrant, mixed-use communities composed of the same components as conventional development, but assembled in a more integrated fashion, in the form of complete communities. These contain housing, work places, shops, entertainment, schools, parks, and civic facilities essential to the daily lives of the residents, all within easy walking distance of each other. New Urbanism promotes the increased use of trains and light rail, instead of more highways and roads. Urban living is rapidly becoming the new hip and modern way to live for people of all ages. Currently, there are over 500 New Urbanist projects planned or under construction in the United States alone, half of which are in historic urban centers
weblink: New urbanism web site in detail XlnkS6D7