GOOD Magazine has a nice visual demonstration of a livable street, basically a city street designed to welcome pedestrians, cyclists, transit riders, and cars equally. Simple changes like curb extensions, textured crosswalks, bollards, and plantings turn car-choked urbanity into an inviting place to walk around. Continue reading
Category Archives: Environment
Recommended Feeds: Rodale Institute RSS
The Rodale Institute in Pennsylvania is doing some really interesting research — and they have a really excellent couple of blogs. I highly recommend you subscribe to these feeds. Especially the “Global Warming News and Research.” It will pretty much keep you up to date — and help me resist the temptation to re-post *all* of their articles here.
Regrowing a Rainforest
I haven’t even watched this TED talk by Willie Smits yet, but I know it’s going to be exceptional. We still need to stop destroying rainforest, and I imagine the list of caveats is a mile long, but it’s good to know that these places aren’t gone forever.
Drought
Bad news from California (like we didn’t already know) in the Wall Street Journal: Shrinking Water Supplies Imperil Farmers.
Dwindling water supplies are compounding economic woes in California’s Central Valley, causing farmers to leave fields fallow and confront the prospect of going under.
The state’s water supply has dropped precipitously of late. California is locked in the third year of one of its worst droughts on record, with reservoirs holding as little as 22% of capacity. On top of that, a federal judge in Fresno last year issued a ruling in an environmental lawsuit that could restrict diversions to farmers by as much as one-third, as part of an effort to save an endangered minnow, the Delta Smelt.
Keep in mind that at least half of the fresh produce in the United States comes from California! (Or so the gov’t is telling immigrants . . .)
Farming the White House
These folks aim to turn the White House lawn into something way more yummy and useful.
I say it’s about dern time!
EDIT: And these folks are working on picking which farmer . . .