The United Nations Development Program is piloting an insurance scheme to protect and boost the Meso-American reef in Mexico as a natural defense, and as a source of income for coastal populations. vlad61 / Getty Images
By Andrea Willige
More than half of the world's population lives in cities, and most future population growth is predicted to happen in urban areas. But the concentration of large numbers of people and the ecosystems built around their lives has also been a driver of climate change.
<p><a href="https://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/librarypage/poverty-reduction/private_sector/catalyzing-private-sector-investment-in-climate-smart-cities.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Cities are responsible for 70% of global greenhouse gas emissions</a>, according to a new report from the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). And they are highly exposed to many of the impacts of the climate change they contribute to, in particular heat stress, flooding and health emergencies. <a href="https://population.un.org/wpp/Publications/Files/WPP2019_Highlights.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Making cities more resilient, sustainable, inclusive and safe</a> is one of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 11), requiring sustained investment.</p><p>By becoming more "climate-smart," as the UN calls it, cities can combat the mounting pressure of climate change they both cause and suffer from. Ultimately, improving the urban infrastructure in this way, cities can enhance their resilience, reduce climate risk and increase liveability and competitiveness.</p><p>Building climate-smart cities can involve a vast range of measures, depending on the location's needs – from flood defenses and drainage canals, to electrified transport and the <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/332278222_Urban_green_space_cooling_effect_in_cities" target="_blank">creation of green spaces</a> for urban cooling.</p><p>Here are three examples of projects <a href="https://www.undp.org/content/dam/undp/library/km-qap/undp-wb-gif-gpn-Catalyzing_Private_Sector_Investment_in_Climate_Smart_Cities.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">highlighted by the UNDP</a> that underscore the impact of climate-risk-abating measures.</p>
Electric Buses in Santiago de Chile
<p>Over the past few years, Chile's capital, <a href="https://cleantechnica.com/2020/07/01/chile-orders-150-electric-buses-from-byd/" target="_blank">Santiago de Chile, has bought 455 electric buses</a>, and plans to raise this to nearly 800 by the end of 2020. The e-buses do not generate emissions through their operation, reducing air pollution and its associated impact on human heath and productivity. Air conditioning and a quieter ride are also popular with Santiago's public transport users.</p><p><a href="https://iea.blob.core.windows.net/assets/db408b53-276c-47d6-8b05-52e53b1208e1/e-bus-case-study-Santiago-From-pilots-to-scale-Zebra-paper.pdf" target="_blank">Latin America's first "electric corridor"</a> now operates along one of Santiago's major transport axes, the International Energy Agency (IEA) reports. It is only served by e-buses and consists of bus stops using solar panels to power free Wi-Fi, USB charging and LED lighting – further adding to the attractiveness of the e-bus network for users.</p><p>The e-buses also help the local government to reduce operational expenditure. They cost an impressive 70% less to operate and maintain than diesel-powered buses, offsetting their higher cost of purchase, which is nearly double that of a conventional bus. These huge reductions may also lead to lower fares – which could encourage more people to use public transport.</p><p>Chile has <a href="https://webstore.iea.org/download/direct/3007" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">electrification targets</a> for both private and public transport and has put substantial effort into building demand for EVs and charging infrastructure. Its transport minister has recently issued a tender for the procurement of 2,000 more e-buses, and the project is set to be extended to other cities in Chile.</p><p>Although more than nine out of 10 electric buses in 2019 were registered in China, <a href="https://webstore.iea.org/download/direct/3007" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">South America is a major growth market for e-buses</a>, according to the IEA. Santiago's e-fleet is the largest, but cities in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Ecuador also operate electric buses.</p>New Farming Methods in Abu Dhabi
<p>As the number of urban dwellers grows, feeding them is likely to become an ever greater challenge. By 2050, it is expected that <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/01/how-to-build-a-circular-economy-for-food/" target="_blank">80% of all food will be consumed in cities</a>. Where space is limited for traditional farming or the climate makes it difficult to grow sufficient food, <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/02/hydroponics-future-of-farming/" target="_blank">hydroponic farming</a> could be one solution.</p><p>Hydroponics is a water-based farming process that feeds plants nutrient-rich water, rather than them being planted in soil. Because roots don't have to burrow into the ground, hydroponically farmed plants take up a smaller footprint and can be stacked vertically.</p><p>By carefully controlling the plant's environment and nutrient intake, hydroponic farming can not only <a href="https://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/librarypage/poverty-reduction/private_sector/catalyzing-private-sector-investment-in-climate-smart-cities.html" target="_blank">increases yield by a factor of 10 per hectare</a>, but it can also make better use of resources – reducing waste, water usage, pesticides and fertilizers - compared with traditional farming methods. Being indoors, they are less affected by pests and weather events, and crops can be grown close to where they will be consumed. This can save 'food miles' and associated emissions, according to the UN report.</p><p>Abu Dhabi is now providing $100 million in funding to build a vertical farm of over 8,200 square meters (88,000 square feet) for both research and development and the commercialization of crops. The objective for the Abu Dhabi Investment Office, which has granted the funding, is to turn <a href="https://www.just-food.com/news/abu-dhabi-invests-big-in-vertical-farming-initiatives_id143518.aspx" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">"sand into farmland,"</a> boost local food production and accelerate the growth of its agricultural technology ecosystem.</p><p>The facility will house four different vertical farming companies, whose initiatives will include indoor tomato cultivation, the development of an irrigation system and an R&D center.</p><p>Similar forays into vertical farming are under way around the world, including in neighboring Dubai, which recently launched <a href="https://gulfagriculture.com/majid-al-futtaim-launches-dubais-first-in-store-hydroponic-farm-bringing-fresh-and-sustainable-food-options-to-shoppers/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">its first in-store hydroponic farm</a>.</p>Insuring Coral Reefs in Mexico
<p>When hedging against climate risk, natural solutions can be important elements in a city's sustainable infrastructure.</p><p>Coral reefs are a case in point, serving as natural barriers against hazards such as ocean surges and flooding. <a href="https://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/librarypage/poverty-reduction/private_sector/catalyzing-private-sector-investment-in-climate-smart-cities.html" target="_blank">They can absorb as much wave energy as seawalls and breakwaters</a>, which are less durable.</p><p>The UNDP report says reefs and other natural defenses are less costly to maintain than man-made solutions and could save as much as $100 billion in cases of natural disasters.</p><p>However, it says, 20% of reefs have been lost globally and another 15% are in danger, and funding for their restoration and maintenance is limited and such initiatives only happen on a small scale.</p><p>In Mexico, the UNDP is now piloting an insurance scheme to protect and boost the Meso-American reef – the second largest globally – as a natural defense, and as a source of income for coastal populations.</p><p>Reef2Resilience is similar to a trust fund that local businesses pay into. The role of the fund is two-fold. It invests in restoring and maintaining the reef – so it can offer better natural protection. And it pays for catastrophe insurance so that the reef and its surrounding ecosystem can recover quickly after a natural disaster, ensuring future protection and protecting the livelihoods of coastal communities.</p><p>An extension of the project to the Caribbean and Asia is being discussed.</p>Climate-Smart Infrastructure as an Investment Opportunity
<p>Climate-smart urban infrastructure, whether technology-driven or natural, represents a $30 trillion investment opportunity – ranging from renewable energy to public transport and from electric vehicles to green buildings, the report says. And that's just in developing economies.</p><p>New funding models, policies and risk assessment will be needed to overcome barriers to investment and bring out the long-term value of climate-smart infrastructure for growing urban populations.</p>
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If we want to reap the benefits of urban treescapes, ecologists say it's vital trees are seen as more than just an aesthetic addition to cities. ParisSharing / Wikimedia Commons / CC by 2.0
By Charli Shield
Not too long ago, many people weren't sure if trees had a place in cities. People, cars, houses and buildings made up urban areas — there wasn't much room for nature.
<p>Trees now have a fundamental place in many big cities around the world, says Sonja Dümpelmann, landscape historian at the University of Pennsylvania — though in most of them, they are still vying for space.</p><p>If we want to reap the benefits of urban treescapes, ecologists say it's vital trees are seen as more than just an aesthetic addition to cities. That's especially true now that half the world's population live in cities and a further 2.5 billion are projected to live in them by 2050.</p>
As Cities Evolve, Trees Keep Us Grounded.
<p>Trees are powerhouses when it comes to regulating city microclimates — filtering air pollution, providing shade, absorbing CO2, helping prevent flash flooding, as well as acting as an important antidote to the urban heat island effect that makes cities far hotter than surrounding rural areas.</p><p>"Trees can make a huge difference to a city's temperature," says Tobi Morakinyo, an urban climatologist whose <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2212095513000084" target="_blank">research</a> into the cooling effect of trees in Akure, southwest Nigeria, showed using trees to shade buildings could cool them down by up to five degrees Celsius.</p><p>In hot sub Saharan African cities like Akure — where average maximum summer temperatures can reach 38 degrees (100 degrees F) — Morakinyo says trees' cooling effect is an important tool councils can wield against both heat stress and cooling costs.</p><p>Alongside the eco-services urban trees provide, there are also the qualities "that we can't put monetary value on," adds Cris Brack, a forest ecologist from the Australian National University and director of the National Arboretum in Canberra. </p><p>Those are "biodiversity, aesthetics and our visceral, gut-need to experience nature," Brack told DW, referring to the concept of 'biophilia' — the idea that humans have an innate desire to connect with nature. Mounting <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/srep11610" target="_blank">evidence</a> shows that people who live in places with more trees experience lower levels of stress and <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41593-019-0451-y" target="_blank">mental illness</a>, even when controlling for socio-economic factors.</p>Trees Make Us Feel Good — Do We Return the Favor?
<p>Though our need for trees in cities appears to only be becoming greater, they often battle oppressive urban environments. Street trees are "in a constant struggle" for space in cities, says Brack, where below ground their root systems can be choked by water pipes, roads and underground car parks, and above ground by pollution, power lines and traffic.</p><p>They also face mechanical damage from cars, battering from increasingly extreme weather conditions and regular uprootings to make way for construction sites.</p><p>Perhaps the most damaging modern challenge for city trees, though, says Somidh Saha, urban forest ecologist at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany, is drought. Following Europe's unprecedented heatwave in 2018, a study co-authored by Saha found 30% of the trees planted in Karlsruhe in southwestern Germany over the previous four years had died — both directly and indirectly because of a lack of water.</p><p>"Without enough water, trees become weak and that makes them vulnerable to disease," Saha told DW. At the same time, declining city populations of birds and arboreal mammals, such as bats, leaves insect populations unchecked, and local trees susceptible to their growing numbers.</p>Seeing the Forest for the Trees
<p>Ambitious greening projects have cropped up in several megacities around the globe in recent years. New York City planted a million trees between 2007 and 2015, London mayor Sadiq Khan hopes to green more than half the capital by 2050 to make the world's first "National Park City," while Paris announced it would build four inner-city urban forests throughout 2020.</p><p>But outside the Global North, in places such as Saha's native India and Morakinyo's native Nigeria, where they cite a lack of resources and political will as big barriers to making urban greenery a priority, trees in cities are much scarcer.</p><p>As climate change brings hotter temperatures and unpredictable downpours, cities are demanding a new kind of resilience from urban trees. For many cities in the world, ecologists say that means planting more exotic species of trees.</p><p>While many people are opposed to the idea of planting non-native species, ecologists Brack and Saha say alternative species are usually better adapted to the artificial environment of a city — especially in the face of increasing heatwaves.</p><p>The three-toothed Maple, native to China, Korea and Japan, is one species that could appear in greater numbers in other parts of the world as temperatures rise. </p><p>There's also an important distinction to be made between "exotic" trees, which just means they aren't local, and "invasive" trees, which are harmful — spreading very quickly and dominating the environment. As for local wildlife, while ongoing studies are being carried out in places like Germany by Saha's team, Brack says in his local Canberra, where almost all tree species in the city are exotic, birds happily eat fruit from non-natives and mammals alike find homes wherever there is an appropriate hollow.</p>Citizens Pitch In
<p>One solution to preserving city trees that's grown in popularity in recent years is citizen involvement in urban tree caretaking. New York City's citizen pruner program allows city dwellers to take classes to become official city tree carers, and Berlin — a place that has typically excluded citizens from looking after urban flora — is now allowing residents to apply for permits to maintain tree pits and has proposed that they water city trees in summer.</p><p>Involving citizens has its pros and cons, Dümpelmann says, and these kinds of programs may or may not be effective depending on the culture of the city – but even watering trees alone "has been shown to be a really relevant maintenance effort."</p><p>While planting trees in urban spaces is an effective and fairly efficient way to adapt to climate change, Dümpelmann stresses that it isn't a holistic solution.</p><p>"It's something we should work on while at the same time addressing the root causes of climate change," she said. </p><p>Beyond using trees as geo-engineering fix, urban ecologists point out that more trees in cities could change perspectives on urban living and give people a greater understanding of how to value nature as part of a sustainable, livable city – not separate from it.</p><p>That means seeing trees as living, growing beings, Brack says – not fixed in time, or immune to the stressors of living in harsh urban environments.</p>From Your Site Articles
- Ireland to Plant 440 Million Trees in 20 Years to Fight Climate Change ›
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Increasingly, thinking about the future of cities suggests that chiefly relying on cars as a form of transport has run its course. Andreas Komodromos / Flickr / CC by 2.0
By Kevin J. Krizek
Sticking closer to home because of COVID-19 has shown many people what cities can be like with less traffic, noise, congestion and pollution. Roads and parking lots devoted to cars take up a lot of land. For example, in Phoenix, Los Angeles and New York City these spaces account for over one-third of each city's total area.
<p>When stay-at-home orders went into effect in many parts of the U.S. in March, streets and parking lots went dormant seemingly overnight. Within days, municipalities across the U.S. started <a href="http://pedbikeinfo.org/resources/resources_details.cfm?id=5209" target="_blank">shifting these spaces</a> to other uses that better suit people.</p><p>As a professor of environmental design and transport, I've worked for decades to <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=lfb0Tu4AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao" target="_blank">unravel the many factors</a> that keep people reliant on cars, SUVs and trucks. Weather, time constraints, children – there are many reasons that prevent people from using transportation modes like bicycles. Yet with a simple first step – starting to reconfigure city streets – meaningful change can begin to break down traditional transportation barriers and usher in a new culture of getting around town by means other than cars.</p>
The Dangerous, Expensive Automobile
<p>In large U.S. cities, nearly half of all car trips are <a href="https://doi.org/10.32866/10777" target="_blank">less than four miles</a>. Using cars to travel such short distances has many costs.</p><p>For example, consider traffic fatalities. Two pedestrians or cyclists die every hour on U.S. city streets, a national trend that's been <a href="http://www.trb.org/Main/Blurbs/180624.aspx" target="_blank">worsening</a> in recent years, even though cycling and walking rates are <a href="https://bikeleague.org/content/new-data-bike-commuting" target="_blank">steady or declining</a>. Pollution from cars contributes to climate change and worsens air quality. Designing cities around cars <a href="https://theconversation.com/people-are-stranded-in-transit-deserts-in-dozens-of-us-cities-92722" target="_blank">marginalizes individuals who don't have them</a>.</p><span style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="b5c9ddfda1e03726192181fedaef4a35"><iframe lazy-loadable="true" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/h-I6HFQXquU?rel=0" width="100%" height="auto" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;"></iframe></span><p>In my view, this is the time to move beyond the "grab the keys" mentality on the way out the door, as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/01944363.2015.1057196" target="_blank">millennials</a> and <a href="https://washpirg.org/blogs/blog/usp/don%E2%80%99t-believe-hype-%E2%80%93-millennials%E2%80%99-transportation-habits-are-changing" target="_blank">GenXers</a> already are doing. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/09/opinion/ban-cars-manhattan-cities.html" target="_blank">New visions</a> for streets, where cars use less space and are replaced by smaller vehicles built for individual riders, are gaining currency.</p><p>These modes of transport might be <a href="https://electrek.co/2020/06/19/cityqs-enclosed-electric-car-ebike-begins-taking-pre-orders/" target="_blank">new forms of e-bikes</a>, e-scooters or hoverboards. These novel vehicles, which were already <a href="https://usa.streetsblog.org/2020/06/17/four-signs-this-might-be-micromobilitys-big-moment/" target="_blank">attracting attention</a> before COVID-19, complement conventional bicycles, whose <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/18/nyregion/bike-shortage-coronavirus.html" target="_blank">sales have boomed</a> during the pandemic.</p>
New Thinking, Different Results
<p>Increasingly, thinking about the future of cities suggests that chiefly relying on cars as a form of transport <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/08/opinion/us-infrastructure-plan.html" target="_blank">has run its course</a>. By minimally modifying the existing infrastructure, it is possible for city leaders to repurpose roads and parking spaces while ensuring the same ease of being able to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trd.2020.102336" target="_blank">reach daily services</a>.</p><p>Emerging forms of mobility and changing mindsets can help deliver these opportunities. Bicycles and bicycle-like vehicles provide a catalyst to shift how city streets are used.</p><p>Research demonstrates that people will adopt new ways of getting around town when they are confident that an entire route, including intersections and parking lots, is safe for travel. Some COVID-19-induced street changes that have emerged recently, such as <a href="https://globaldesigningcities.org/publication/global-street-design-guide/designing-streets-people/designing-for-motorists/traffic-calming-strategies/" target="_blank">reducing the number of traffic lanes</a> and <a href="https://www.insider.com/cities-closed-streets-for-pedestrians-covid-lockdowns-2020-5#eventually-new-york-city-aims-to-open-a-total-of-100-miles-of-streets-for-free-use-to-pedestrians-2" target="_blank">closing streets to traffic</a>, are a good first step. But they lack the network component.</p><p>Networks quickly develop the more people use them. The quickest way to build one that is scaled and purposed for people begins by identifying streets used to make short trips. These are places near neighborhood retail districts, schools and other activity centers.</p><p>Informed by local data, leaders can make decisions about which streets should give priority to vehicles such as bicycles, not cars. Changes might include physically demarcated lanes and signs making statements like "Cars are guests." Initially, these changes might require waivers to exempt them from adhering to current engineering guidelines and standards – restrictions that stifle innovation.</p><div id="96008" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="3bf9becba1577cd577d5dbdcf6a08dc6"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1264305002203492352" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Avenue B, as it should B, as it was meant to B, serving a variety of active road users AND promoting social distanc… https://t.co/KPWPu4wdzu</div> — madamwestbikes (@madamwestbikes)<a href="https://twitter.com/madamwestbikes/statuses/1264305002203492352">1590268776.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>Now large and small U.S. cities are experimenting with different strategies and contending with long-standing equity concerns about <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/20/upshot/pandemic-city-planning-inequality.html?action=click&module=Spotlight&pgtype=Homepage" target="_blank">which streets</a> to change. For example, Minneapolis has <a href="https://www.minneapolisparks.org/news/2020/04/03/minneapolis-park-and-recreation-board-announces-three-more-parkway-closures-to-motor-vehicles-to-allow-pedestrians-more-space-for-social-distancing/" target="_blank">closed a number of parkways to cars</a>, reserving them exclusively for cyclists and walkers.</p><p>Pioneering cities like <a href="https://bikeportland.org/2020/04/29/heres-what-to-expect-with-portlands-new-slow-streets-plan-314117" target="_blank">Portland, Oregon</a>, <a href="https://www.seattle.gov/transportation/projects-and-programs/programs/stay-healthy-streets" target="_blank">Seattle</a> and <a href="https://www.oaklandca.gov/projects/oakland-slow-streets" target="_blank">Oakland</a> are using this time to test ways of sharing a broader array of streets among cyclists, walkers and car users. Researchers are providing tools to identify the most promising places to reallocate space for <a href="https://doi.org/10.32866/001c.13421" target="_blank">pop-up cycle ways</a>.</p><p>Enacting change now – in a strategic manner and while travel levels are down – may be an opportunity to reap <a href="https://twitter.com/BrentToderian/status/1280517484362129409" target="_blank">quick gains</a> with <a href="https://twitter.com/Jamesdestafford/status/1278735426312945664" target="_blank">high impact</a>. I believe that a better transport future is within reach by taking advantage of the space dominated by automobiles. This is the time to leverage current low-traffic conditions so that streets and roads can be converted to accommodate new technology and transport.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/kevin-j-krizek-1114954" target="_blank"><em>Kevin J. Krizek</em></a><em> is a Professor of Environmental Design, University of Colorado Boulder.<br/>
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<em>Disclosure statement: Kevin J. Krizek does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</em>
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<em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://theconversation.com/with-fewer-cars-on-us-streets-now-is-the-time-to-reinvent-roadways-and-how-we-use-them-140408" target="_blank">The Conversation</a>.</em>
</p><iframe height="1" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/140408/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-advanced" width="1"></iframe>From Your Site Articles
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Looking south from New York City's Central Park. Ajay Suresh / Wikipedia / CC BY 4.0
By Richard leBrasseur
The COVID-19 pandemic has altered humans' relationship with natural landscapes in ways that may be long-lasting. One of its most direct effects on people's daily lives is reduced access to public parks.
<p>
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has issued <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/prevention.html" target="_blank">guidelines</a> urging Americans to stay at home whenever feasible, and to avoid discretionary travel and gatherings of more than 10 people. Emergency declarations and stay-at-home orders <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._state_and_local_government_response_to_the_COVID-19_pandemic" target="_blank">vary from state to state</a>, but many jurisdictions have closed <a href="https://thedyrt.com/magazine/local/campground-closures-list-covid-19/" target="_blank">state</a> and <a href="https://parks.arlingtonva.us/2020/04/parks-recreation-working-to-keep-people-healthy-and-safe/" target="_blank">county parks</a>, as well as smaller parks, playgrounds, beaches and other outdoor destinations.
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<p>There's good reason for these actions, especially in places where people have <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/26/us/southern-california-beaches-coronavirus-heat/index.html" target="_blank">spurned social distancing rules</a>. But particularly in urban environments, parks are important to human health and well-being.</p><p>As a <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Richard_Le_Brasseur" target="_blank">landscape architect</a>, I believe that <a href="https://www.olmsted.org/the-olmsted-legacy/frederick-law-olmsted-sr" target="_blank">Frederick Law Olmsted</a>, the founder of our field, took the right approach. Olmsted served as general secretary of the U.S. Sanitary Commission during the Civil War, and his knowledge of contagious diseases informed his visions for his great North American urban parks, including <a href="https://www.centralpark.com/" target="_blank">Central Park</a> in New York, <a href="https://www.lemontroyal.qc.ca/en" target="_blank">Mount Royal Park</a> in Montreal and Boston's <a href="https://www.emeraldnecklace.org/park-overview/" target="_blank">Emerald Necklace</a> park system. In my view, closing parks and public green spaces should be a temporary, last-resort measure for disease control, and reopening closed parks should be a priority as cities emerge from shutdowns.</p>
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Making Healthy Places
<p>Olmsted was born in 1822 but became a landscape architect rather late in his career, at <a href="https://www.olmsted.org/the-olmsted-legacy/olmsted-theory-and-design-principles/olmsted-his-essential-theory" target="_blank">age 43</a>. His ideas evolved from a diverse and unique set of experiences.</p><p>From the start, Olmsted recognized the positive effect of nature, noting how urban trees provided a "<a href="https://loa-shared.s3.amazonaws.com/static/pdf/Olmsted_Trees.pdf" target="_blank">soothing and refreshing sanitary influence</a>." His "sanitary style" of design offered more than mere decoration and ornamentation. "Service must precede art" was his cry.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzMxMzY0Ni9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY2MDAxMzU4NH0.7HO1vlHxHZXowNrxFdabiUNPhc4bmcc4N-ct7Mq37bI/img.png?width=980" id="7dac7" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="56aeeebf247c3a9dd09d5fc14e90805c" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Olmsted's 1874 plan for the U.S. Capitol grounds in Washington, DC. Architect of the Capitol
<p>Olmsted came of age in the mid-19th century, as the public health movement was rapidly developing in response to typhoid, cholera and typhus epidemics in European cities. As managing editor of Putnam's Monthly in New York City, he regularly walked the crowded tenement streets of Lower Manhattan.</p><p>At the U.S. Sanitary Commission during the Civil War, Olmsted led efforts to improve sanitation in Union Army military camps and protect soldiers' health. He initiated policies for selecting proper camp locations, installing drainage and disposing of waste, ventilating tents and preparing food, all designed to reduce disease. And in 1866 he witnessed adoption of New York's <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan_Health_Bill" target="_blank">Metropolitan Health Bill</a>, the first city law to control unhealthy housing conditions.</p>Antidotes to Urban Stress
<p>The insights Olmsted gained into connections between space, disease control and public health clearly influenced his landscape architectural career and the design of many urban park systems. For example, his design for the interlinked parks that forms Boston's <a href="https://ramboll.com/-/media/files/rgr/lcl/bgi_final-report_mit_boston_20160403.pdf?la=en" target="_blank">Emerald Necklace</a> foreshadowed the concept of green infrastructure.</p><p>This system centered on stagnant and deteriorated marshes that had became disconnected from the tidal flow of the Charles River as Boston grew. City residents were dumping trash and sewage in the marshes, creating <a href="https://landscapes.northeastern.edu/water-sanitation-and-public-health-in-boston/" target="_blank">fetid dumps that spread waterborne diseases</a>. Olmsted's design reconnected these water systems to improve flow and flush out stagnant zones, while integrating a series of smaller parks along its trailways.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzMxMzY1Mi9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxMzA0MTM4Nn0.NDri69ZuP5S1-FFERwACr1MFhgb4eqhxc4DkXq8OLR0/img.png?width=980" id="4f7fc" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="15936574ba99f0927e4a509d7a6b3694" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Boston's Emerald Necklace park system today. Emerald Necklace Conservancy / CC BY-ND
<p>Olmsted also designed <a href="https://www.6sqft.com/in-1894-the-first-bike-lane-in-america-was-built-on-brooklyns-ocean-parkway/" target="_blank">America's first bike lane</a>, which originated in Brooklyn, New York's Prospect Park. Of the tree-lined boulevards in his design for Central Park, Olmsted said, "Air is disinfected by sunlight and foliage. Foliage also acts mechanically to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/04419057.2013.836557" target="_blank">purify the air by screening it.</a>"</p><p>In all of his urban parks, Olmsted sought to immerse visitors in restorative and therapeutic natural landscapes — an experience he viewed as the most profound and effective antidote to the stress and ailments of urban life.</p>Parks in the Time of COVID-19
<p>Today researchers are documenting many health benefits associated with being outside. Spending time in parks and green spaces clearly benefits urban dwellers' <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2007.09.009" target="_blank">psychological, emotional and overall well-being</a>. It <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph10030913" target="_blank">reduces stress</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0013916591231001" target="_blank">improves cognitive functioning</a> and is associated with <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s40471-015-0043-7" target="_blank">improved overall health</a>.</p><p>In my view, government agencies should work to make these vital services as widely available as possible, especially during stressful periods like pandemic shutdowns. Certain types of public green spaces, such as botanical gardens, arboretums and wide trails, are well suited to maintaining social distancing rules. Other types where visitors may be likely to cluster, such as beaches and playgrounds, require stricter regulation.</p><p>There are many ways to make parks accessible with appropriate levels of control. One option is stationing agents at entry points to monitor and enforce capacity controls. Park managers can use timed entries and parking area restrictions to limit social crowding, as well as temperature screening and face mask provisions.</p><div id="c0c52" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="defaeca6d251c3f521f316ea78e9a454"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1258546078162419712" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">The weather's going to be awesome this weekend. Heading to your local #WaStatePark? Be like mascots Bagley and Ruth… https://t.co/BwCzquGx75</div> — WaStatePks (@WaStatePks)<a href="https://twitter.com/WAStatePks/statuses/1258546078162419712">1588895742.0</a></blockquote></div><p>For example, in <a href="https://www.state.nj.us/dep/parksandforests/sps_covid.html" target="_blank">New Jersey</a>, many public parks have reopened for walking, hiking, bicycling and fishing while keeping playgrounds, picnic and camping areas and restrooms closed. They also have limited parking capacity to 50 percent of capacity.</p><p>In Shanghai, <a href="https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3075224/coronavirus-parks-and-tourist-attractions-reopen-china-tries-get" target="_blank">China</a>, the government recently reopened most parks and several major attractions, including the <a href="http://en.csnbgsh.cn/sites/chenshan/chenshan_en/index.ashx" target="_blank">Chenshan Botanical Garden</a> and the <a href="http://www.smartshanghai.com/venue/2401/Shanghai_Zoo_shanghai" target="_blank">city zoo</a>. Entry requires successful screening and online reservations, and visits are limited to a maximum of two hours.</p><p>Technologies such as GPS tracking and biometrics can set a precedent for future green space interaction. Residents could sign up for reserved time slots and log into apps that monitor their entry and distancing behavior. Some Americans might be put off by such technocentric means, but officials should be clear that making visitation easy and safe for all is the priority.</p><p>There will be challenges, especially when people <a href="https://www.wxyz.com/news/coronavirus/dnr-state-park-closures-likely-if-people-dont-follow-social-distancing-rules" target="_blank">flout social distancing rules</a>. But urban parks and nature offer plenty of benefits that are especially important during a pandemic. I believe that finding ways to enjoy them now in a manner safe for all will be well worth the effort.</p>
<p>
<em>Reposted with permission from </em><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/parks-matter-more-than-ever-during-a-time-of-sickness-something-frederick-law-olmsted-understood-in-the-19th-century-137882" target="_blank">The Conversation</a></em><em>.</em>
</p><script async="async" data-counter="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/137882/count?distributor=republish-lightbox-advanced" id="theconversation_tracker_hook" src="https://theconversation.com/javascripts/lib/content_tracker_hook.js" type="text/javascript"></script>From Your Site Articles
- National Parks to Start Partial Reopening - EcoWatch ›
- Singapore Uses 'Scary' Robot Dog to Enforce Social Distancing ... ›
- COVID-19 Reveals a Crisis of Public Spaces - EcoWatch ›
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Trending
Pedro Szekely / Flickr / CC BY-SA 2.0
By Andrea Germanos
Chicago made history on Wednesday by becoming the largest U.S. city to commit to 100 percent renewable energy before the middle of the century.
<p>It is, in the <a href="https://www.sierraclub.org/press-releases/2019/04/chicago-becomes-largest-city-country-committed-100-percent-clean-energy" target="_blank">summation</a> of Kyra Woods, Chicago organizer with the Sierra Club's Ready for 100 Action Campaign, "a monumental achievement."</p>
<div id="e25bc" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="ZT431V1568219096"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1116047186926755840" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Chicago Becomes the Largest City in the Country Committed to 100 Percent Clean Energy https://t.co/WhL0mTgJWe… https://t.co/GsqZad0fON</div> — Sierra Club (@Sierra Club)<a href="https://twitter.com/SierraClub/statuses/1116047186926755840">1554921359.0</a></blockquote></div><p><a href="https://www.sierraclub.org/press-releases/2019/04/chicago-becomes-largest-city-country-committed-100-percent-clean-energy" target="_blank">According to</a> the Sierra Club, the city council unanimously passed a <a href="https://chicago.councilmatic.org/legislation/r2019-157/" target="_blank">resolution</a> that commits the city to 100 percent renewable energy in buildings by 2035 and electrification of the city's bus fleet by 2040.</p><p>The <a href="https://news.wttw.com/2019/04/10/chicago-city-council-approves-clean-energy-resolution" target="_blank">nonbinding</a> resolution, backed by the <a href="https://www.sierraclub.org/press-releases/ready-for-100" target="_blank">Ready For 100</a> Chicago Collective, points to the kind of <a href="https://weather.com/storms/winter/news/2019-04-10-plains-midwest-extreme-weather-snow-cold-flooding" target="_blank">extreme weather</a> including catastrophic flooding the region is already experiencing. "Climate change," it reads, "will bring unprecedented environmental changes including extreme heat, heavy precipitation, and flooding to our region."</p><p>"Residents of communities experiencing disproportionate cumulative impacts of environmental exposures and population vulnerability, as well as other communities across Chicago, desire a just transition away from all fossil fuels that prioritizes environmental justice, public health, community self-determination, high-quality jobs, and ownership opportunities for local residents," the resolution also states.</p>
<p>As Woods noted, the move adds the Midwest metropolis to a <a href="https://www.sierraclub.org/ready-for-100/commitments" target="_blank">list</a> of more than 100 other cities including Atlanta, Berkeley, California and Gainesville, Florida that have adopted clean energy goals.</p><p>"The Chicago Collective who wrote this resolution — comprised of frontline environmental justice communities, green groups, and unions — proves that not only can Chicago build a climate-safe future for next generations, but that a truly just transition also creates good, family-sustaining jobs to lift up communities," said Kassie Beyer, campaign director of Jobs to Move America Illinois.</p><p>"We look forward to working with the mayor's office in making our vision for a just transition a reality," she added.</p>
<p> <em>Reposted with permission from our media associate <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/04/10/monumental-chicago-commits-100-renewable-energy-2040" target="_blank">Common Dreams</a>.</em><em></em></p>
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Why U.S. Cities Are Becoming More Dangerous for Cyclists and Pedestrians
21 February 2019
Insights + Opinion
Cycling advocates set up "ghost bikes," like this one in Brooklyn, in memory of bikers killed in traffic. Nick Gray / CC BY-SA
By John Rennie Short
As cities strive to improve the quality of life for their residents, many are working to promote walking and biking. Such policies make sense, since they can, in the long run, lead to less traffic, cleaner air and healthier people. But the results aren't all positive, especially in the short to medium term.
<p>
In Washington DC, for example, traffic fatalities as a whole declined in 2018 compared to the year before, but the number of pedestrian and bicyclist deaths
<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/trafficandcommuting/pedestrians-continue-to-be-at-high-risk-on-washington-regions-roads-data-show/2019/02/09/e6a4e7a8-1f52-11e9-8b59-0a28f2191131_story.html?utm_term=.bf31bf0e0b04" target="_blank">increased by 20 percent</a>. Pedestrian deaths also have <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/01/nyregion/traffic-deaths-decrease-nyc.html" target="_blank">risen in New York</a>, and pedestrian and cycling fatalities have <a href="https://www.outsideonline.com/2313301/would-you-ride-bike-los-angeles" target="_blank">increased in Los Angeles</a> in the past several years.
</p><p>
Across the nation, cyclist fatalities have increased by 25 percent since 2010 and pedestrian deaths have risen by
<a href="https://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/facts_stats/" target="_blank">a staggering 45 percent</a>. More people are being killed because cities are encouraging residents to walk and bike, but their roads are still dominated by fast-moving vehicular traffic. As <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/17450100903434998" target="_blank">my research has shown</a>, this shifting mix can be deadly.
</p><h2>The Long Decline in Traffic Fatalities</h2><p>
From a long-term perspective, traffic fatalities in the U.S.
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motor_vehicle_fatality_rate_in_U.S._by_year#/media/File:US_traffic_deaths_per_VMT,_VMT,_per_capita,_and_total_annual_deaths.png" target="_blank">are declining</a>. In the early 1970s, almost 55,000 Americans were killed in traffic accidents yearly, including people in vehicles, pedestrians and cyclists. By 2017 that figure had fallen to around 40,000, even with an increase in the number of vehicle miles driven.
</p><p>
The overall decline is a confirmation of Smeed's Law, named after
<a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2984177?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents" target="_blank">R.J. Smeed</a>, a scholar at the United Kingdom's Road Research Laboratory. Smeed found that initially, with the early introduction of motor vehicles, traffic deaths tend to rise. Around the world, almost <a href="https://www.who.int/violence_injury_prevention/road_safety_status/2018/en/" target="_blank">1.35 million people die each year</a> in traffic accidents, but 93 percent of those fatalities occur in low- and middle- income countries where mass vehicle usage is a recent phenomenon.
</p><p>
As manufacturers produce safer vehicles, cities improve roads and drivers become more adept, fatalities
<a href="http://real.mtak.hu/30558/7/is_smeeds_law_still_valid.pdf" target="_blank">tend to decline</a>. But Smeed's Law only seems to hold up for people in cars—not for other road users.
</p><p>
A
<a href="https://www.who.int/violence_injury_prevention/road_safety_status/2018/en/" target="_blank">global status report</a> shows that road traffic injuries are now the single biggest cause of death for children and young adults, and that more than half of all traffic deaths are pedestrians, bicyclists and motorcyclists. In the U.S. driver fatalities fell from 27,348 in 2006 to 23,611 in 2017, but <a href="https://www.iihs.org/iihs/topics/t/pedestrians-and-bicyclists/fatalityfacts/pedestrians" target="_blank">pedestrian and cyclist fatalities increased</a> from 5,567 to 6,760.</p><h2>The Vehicle-Centric City</h2><p>
Modern U.S. cities are designed largely for motor vehicles. At the turn of the 20th century, people and cars shared city streets, which served as places for children to play, adults to walk and neighbors to meet. From the 1900s to the early 1930s
<a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/fighting-traffic" target="_blank">a battle was fought</a> as motor vehicles became increasingly dominant. As traffic fatalities rose, angry mobs <a href="https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/michigan-history/2015/04/26/auto-traffic-history-detroit/26312107/" target="_blank">dragged reckless drivers from their cars</a>, and some cities printed "murder maps" showing where people had been killed in traffic.
</p><p>
However, automotive interests won out. From the 1950s forward, city streets lost their conviviality. Roads were engineered for fast-moving and unhindered vehicular traffic, with few pedestrian crossings or bike lanes.
</p><p>
Even today, motorists in many cities are able to turn onto streets at intersections where pedestrians are also crossing. Most pedestrians and bicyclists are killed or injured while they are
<a href="https://www.bostonmagazine.com/news/2018/05/01/anita-kurmann-bicycle-crash-boston/" target="_blank">obeying the law</a>.
</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-twitter_embed">
</p><div id="e4cd4" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="3CGES11576662645"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="851921674400346113" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Where Anita Kurmann was killed by a truck driver.
If @BostonBTD doesn't put the posts back & tighten this corner it… https://t.co/qzVeV4E2Q4</div> — Jonathan Fertig (@Jonathan Fertig)<a href="https://twitter.com/rightlegpegged/statuses/851921674400346113">1491948929.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p></p><h2>A New Wild West</h2><p>
In the 21st century, a new city ideal has emerged of a more bike-friendly, walking-oriented city. But piecemeal implementation of bike lanes, pedestrianized zones and traffic calming measures often just adds to the confusion.
</p><p>
Many bike lanes and pedestrianized zones only extend for short distances. Most American drivers have yet to fully appreciate that urban streets are to be shared. And even in the best of times, cars and trucks are not good at sharing the road. Vehicle drivers are often
<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3122986.3123009" target="_blank">moving too fast to identify and respond</a> to pedestrians and bicyclists. Blind spots for drivers can be <a href="http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/2008/11/30/what-cyclists-need-to-know-about-trucks/" target="_blank">death traps for other road users</a>.
</p><p>
Then there's the asymmetry. Drivers are operating fast-moving lethal weapons, and are encased in a protective shield. And speed literally kills. A car hitting a pedestrian at 36 to 45 mph per hour is
<a href="https://one.nhtsa.gov/people/injury/research/pub/hs809012.html" target="_blank">four times more likely to cause death</a> than a vehicle traveling between 26 to 30 mph.
</p><p>
Adding to the dangers are
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-value-of-unplugging-in-the-age-of-distraction-43572" target="_blank">distracted drivers and pedestrians</a> and the introduction of <a href="https://www.insurancejournal.com/news/national/2018/10/31/506097.htm" target="_blank">electric scooters</a>. Some observers also believe an epidemic of <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/freedom-learn/201401/why-is-narcissism-increasing-among-young-americans" target="_blank">narcissism</a> is causing <a href="https://www.psychologicalscience.org/news/motr/narcissism-is-a-driving-hazard-research-suggests.html" target="_blank">more aggressive driving</a>.
</p><p>
All of these factors are making walking and bicycling more dangerous. While pedestrian deaths in Norway declined by 37 percent from 2010 to 2016, in the U.S. they increased by 39 percent. Non-driver traffic fatalities are increasing in the U.S. at
<a href="https://www.itf-oecd.org/sites/default/files/docs/irtad-road-safety-annual-report-2018_0.pdf" target="_blank">higher rates than most other wealthy nations</a>.
</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-vimeo">
<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/263377367" width="100%" height="480" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="266e38e7763ff41c670411b6b7918a57"></iframe>
</p><h2>A Better Vision</h2><p>
Vision Zero, a strategy first proposed in Sweden in 1997, imagines cities with
<a href="https://visionzeronetwork.org/" target="_blank">no traffic fatalities or serious injuries</a>. At least 18 U.S. cities and states have signed on to reach that goal by 2024, including <a href="https://www.boston.gov/transportation/vision-zero" target="_blank">Boston</a>, <a href="http://visionzerochicago.org/" target="_blank">Chicago</a>, <a href="http://visionzero.lacity.org/" target="_blank">Los Angeles</a>, <a href="https://www1.nyc.gov/site/visionzero/index.page" target="_blank">New York</a> and <a href="https://ddot.dc.gov/page/vision-zero-initiative" target="_blank">Washington DC</a>.
</p><p>
Strategies vary from one city to another. Boston, for example, has
<a href="https://visionzeronetwork.org/cities-can-look-to-boston-iihs-for-inspiration-to-reduce-speed-limits/" target="_blank">reduced the city speed limit</a> from 30 miles per hour to 25 mph. Washington DC is improving 36 intersections that pose threats to pedestrians and enacting more bicycle-friendly policies. These cities still have far to go, but they are moving in the right direction.
</p><p>
There are many more options. Manufacturers can make vehicles
<a href="https://www.rospa.com/rospaweb/docs/advice-services/road-safety/vehicles/pedestrian-protection.pdf" target="_blank">less threatening to pedestrians and bicyclists</a> by reducing the height of front bumpers. And cities can <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2018/10/26/18025000/walkable-city-walk-score-economy" target="_blank">make streets safer</a> with a combination of speed limit reductions, traffic calming measures, "road diets" for neighborhoods that limit traffic speed and volume, and better education for all road users.
</p><p>
Initiatives to create more pedestrian- and bicycle-friendly infrastructure should also be sensitive to
<a href="https://theconversation.com/bike-friendly-cities-should-be-designed-for-everyone-not-just-for-wealthy-white-cyclists-109485" target="_blank">social and class differences</a> that may shape local priorities. And advocates contend that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tra.2015.04.003" target="_blank">shifting to autonomous vehicles</a> could make streets safer, although the <a href="https://theconversation.com/even-self-driving-cars-need-driver-education-97644" target="_blank">verdict is still out on this claim</a>.
</p><p>
The most radical shift will require not only re-engineering urban traffic, but also
<a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0631158243/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i9" target="_blank">reimagining our cities</a>. In my view, we need to think of them as shared spaces with slower traffic, and see neighborhood streets as places to live in and share, not just to drive through at high speed.
</p><p>
<em>Reposted with permission from our media associate </em><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/why-us-cities-are-becoming-more-dangerous-for-cyclists-and-pedestrians-111713" target="_blank">The Conversation</a></em><em>.</em>
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A coyote photographed by the motion-activated camera along the Los Angles River. National Park Service
By Jeff Turrentine
I used to live in a hilly, temperate corner of the American west, right near the banks of a meandering river. On late-evening walks with my two dogs, I would routinely encounter all manner of economy-size mammalian wildlife: skunks, raccoons, opossums, coyotes. Sightings of a mountain lion in the area had occurred more than once, though my dogs and I were perfectly happy never to have chanced upon him. During the day, it wasn't unusual to see red-tailed hawks or turkey vultures circling overhead, or rigid V-formations of migrating Canada geese, or even the occasional egret or blue heron swooping down as it made its descent to its riparian home.
<p>Oh, wait, I left out an important detail: My dogs and I were walking in the heart of Los Angeles—within earshot of the considerable traffic noise emanating from the I-5 Freeway, about 15 minutes from downtown as the crow (or the turkey vulture) flies. We were proximate, too, to Griffith Park, which at more than eight square miles is one of the largest urban parks of its kind, as well as one of the least developed. Our local mountain lion, the rather ignobly named <a href="http://www.latimes.com/projects/la-me-griffith-park-mountain-lion/" target="_blank">P-22</a>, called Griffith Park home; he's still there, in fact, roaming the hills and doing what mountain lions do, minding his own carnivorous business while largely (<a href="http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-mountain-lion-p22-too-dangerous-for-griffith-park-20160311-story.html" target="_blank">if not totally</a>) steering clear of awkward interactions with humans and the built environment.</p><p>I couldn't help but think of P-22, and of my old wild stomping ground, when I learned that researchers from the National Park Service had recently installed cameras along 30 miles of the Los Angeles River and its tributaries. The <a href="https://www.nps.gov/samo/learn/news/lariverwildlifeproject.htm" target="_blank">LA River Wildlife Camera Project</a> aims to document the abundance of fauna skulking, skittering and waddling along this waterway, to better understand their relationship to the river and—importantly—to increase public awareness of urban wildlife, in hopes of reducing instances of human-animal conflict.</p><p>Los Angeles is far from unique as an urban haven for unexpected forms of wildlife. Berlin is currently home to more than <a href="https://www.thelocal.de/20171215/how-wild-boars-are-thriving-in-berlin" target="_blank">3,000 wild boars</a>, which unabashedly forage in parks and front yards. In Mumbai, one of the world's most densely populated cities, <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-03-08/how-leopards-in-a-city-park-save-lives-in-mumbai/9528624" target="_blank">more than 40 leopards</a> wander the streets in and around Sanjay Gandhi National Park, often applying their instinctive predatory skills to the city's sizable population of feral dogs. Coyote sightings are becoming more and more common in <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/onearth/let-wily-go-wild" target="_blank">New York</a> and <a href="https://chicagotonight.wttw.com/2017/12/27/why-are-coyotes-thriving-chicago-area" target="_blank">Chicago</a>. In March, John McPhee, the longtime New Yorker contributor, <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/03/05/in-search-of-new-jerseys-wild-bears" target="_blank">wrote colorfully</a> of his fascination with the estimated 2,500 black bears that live (and sometimes <a href="https://www.northjersey.com/story/news/morris/rockaway-township/2018/05/10/bear-smashes-car-window-eats-2-dozen-assorted-cupcakes-rockaway-nj/597869002/" target="_blank">steal cupcakes</a> out of parked cars) in his home state of New Jersey. If you've ever visited Austin, Texas, and not been bitten by a mosquito, you can thank the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwWGvf38TVM" target="_blank">1.5 million Mexican free-tailed bats</a> that live beneath the Congress Avenue Bridge downtown.</p><p>As our civilization encroaches further and further into wildlife habitat, we find ourselves sharing space with more and more creatures that we don't expect to find in our midst. But to paraphrase one commenter to a YouTube video featuring a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dB3XzIrvFHE" target="_blank">mama bear and her cubs</a> frolicking in a backyard swimming pool: They're not in our backyards, we're in their front<em> </em>yards. When we build on wildlife habitat, the land doesn't suddenly become "ours" and no longer "theirs." It becomes shared. And as the most recent arrivals, we humans have an obligation—a moral and ecological imperative, you might even say—to understand the ways, habits and needs of the communities that we're asking to join.</p>
<p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xNzcxNzk0OC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzODY5MjQ4Mn0.dU0Mu4xwBgMCMrssMN-fR0AisEqRu7wByiK_Vte6Kno/img.jpg?width=980" id="ce313" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="650f3f3984435f04c622b7104b70fc04" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">A deer seems to spot the camera along the Los Angeles River.</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">National Park Service</small></p>
<p>In Los Angeles, the LA River Wildlife Camera Project is being conducted in partnership with the larger <a href="https://www.lpzoo.org/conservation-science/projects/urban-wildlife-information-network-uwin" target="_blank">Urban Wildlife Information Network</a>, a Chicago-based consortium of scientists and researchers dedicated to helping cities "understand the ecology and behavior of their own wildlife species ... why animals in different cities behave differently, and what patterns hold true around the world." Images of animals caught on camera will be uploaded to <a href="https://www.zooniverse.org/" target="_blank">Zooniverse</a>, a platform for crowdsourced research where volunteers can share ideas and engage in <a href="https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/sylvilagus/canid-camera/about/research" target="_blank">citizen-science scholarship</a>, which often proves to be of immense value to academic researchers.<br></p><p>The LA River, an ecologically vital yet troubled waterway, is a prime subject for such study. At 51 miles long, the river begins in the San Fernando Valley north of the city and winds its way through neighborhoods industrial, residential and semi-rural before finally emptying into the Pacific Ocean at Long Beach. Environmentalists, political leaders, scientists and civil engineers recently <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/onearth/concrete-river-gets-real" target="_blank">embarked on an ambitious plan</a> to restore it, a major component of which will entail reconnecting the channelized waterway to its historic tributaries, wetlands and floodplains—i.e., to historic wildlife habitat. Initiatives like the Camera Project have the potential to spur public support and private funding, because through compelling photographic evidence, the essential relationships among local people, local resources, and local wildlife are made clear.</p><p>As I learned on those late-night walks with my dogs: You're never really alone in the big city, even when there are no other people around. The more we learn about the animals within our shared communities, the more we learn about what they—and we—need in order to coexist harmoniously and sustainably. And that's about as good a definition of neighborliness as you're ever likely to come across.</p><p><span></span> <em>Reposted with permission from our media associate <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/onearth/cities-where-wild-things-are" target="_blank">onEarth</a>.</em></p>
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By Trina Hamilton and Winifred Curran
There are many indexes that aim to rank how green cities are. But what does it actually mean for a city to be green or sustainable?
<p>
We've written about what we call the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13549839.2012.729569" target="_blank">"parks, cafes and a riverwalk" model of sustainability</a>, which focuses on providing new green spaces, mainly for high-income people. This vision of shiny residential towers and waterfront parks has become a widely-shared conception of <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=green+cities&safe=active&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiPyqGw5NrYAhUnkeAKHYoMCkwQ_AUICygC&biw=1920&bih=949" target="_blank">what green cities should look like</a>. But it can drive up real estate prices and displace low- and middle-income residents.
</p><p>
As scholars who study gentrification and social justice, we prefer a model that recognizes all three aspects of sustainability: <a href="http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/ourperspective/ourperspectivearticles/2012/03/17/why-equity-and-sustainability-matter-for-human-development-helen-clark.html" target="_blank">environment, economy and equity</a>. The equity piece is often missing from development projects promoted as green or sustainable. We are interested in models of urban greening that produce real environmental improvements and also benefit long-term working-class residents in neighborhoods that are historically underserved.
</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xNzQzNzQ4NC9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYwODIyMjUyNX0.hWs-fts3CVhaEaYuQ-d4RwCLgKgmn88IfoIcYiL88H8/img.png?width=980" id="7f623" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="511a30ba3185be732ec88967d2e5486d" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Aerial photo of Newtown Creek, which flows between Brooklyn and Queens into the East River. </small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit..."><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Newtown_Creek_Aerial_Photo.png" target="_blank">NASA</a></small>
</p><p>
Over a decade of research in an industrial section of New York City, we have seen an alternative vision take shape. This model, which we call "just green enough," aims to clean up the environment while also retaining and creating living-wage blue-collar jobs. By doing so, it enables residents who have endured decades of contamination to stay in place and enjoy the benefits of a greener neighborhood.<br>
</p><h4>'Parks, Cafes and a Riverwalk' Can Lead to Gentrification</h4><p>
Gentrification has become a catch-all term used to describe neighborhood change, and is often misunderstood as the only path to neighborhood improvement. In fact, its <a href="http://www.urbandisplacement.org/gentrification-explained" target="_blank">defining feature is displacement</a>. Typically, people who move into these changing neighborhoods are whiter, wealthier and more educated than residents who are displaced.
</p><p>
A recent spate of new research has focused on the displacement effects of environmental cleanup and green space initiatives. This phenomenon has variously been called <a href="https://critical-sustainabilities.ucsc.edu/environmental-gentrification/" target="_blank">environmental</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.2747/0272-3638.30.7.694" target="_blank">eco-</a> or <a href="https://www.crcpress.com/Green-Gentrification-Urban-sustainability-and-the-struggle-for-environmental/Gould-Lewis/p/book/9781138309135" target="_blank">green gentrification</a>.
</p><p>
Land for new development and resources to fund extensive cleanup of toxic sites are scarce in many cities. This creates pressure to rezone industrial land for condo towers or lucrative commercial space, in exchange for developer-funded cleanup. And in neighborhoods where gentrification has already begun, a new park or <a href="http://journals.openedition.org/metropoles/4970" target="_blank">farmers market can exacerbate the problem</a> by making the area even <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.901657" target="_blank">more attractive to potential gentrifiers</a> and pricing out long-term residents. In some cases, developers even create <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/27/business/a-beer-garden-lays-down-roots-for-a-technology-hub.html?_r=4" target="_blank">temporary community gardens or farmers markets</a> or promise more green space than they eventually deliver, in order to market a neighborhood to buyers looking for green amenities.
</p><p>
Environmental gentrification naturalizes the disappearance of manufacturing and the working class. It makes deindustrialization seem both inevitable and desirable, often by quite literally replacing industry with more natural-looking landscapes. When these neighborhoods are finally cleaned up, after years of activism by longtime residents, those advocates often are unable to stay and enjoy the benefits of their efforts.
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<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xNzQzNzQ4Ni9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyNzM1NDg0M30.KsHzDEgun9ciixS23ah1nfMv-EswbPYV5jBLE7sRYv0/img.jpg?width=980" id="51e4a" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="5d4d826306cc92159996216bae274549" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">The River Walk in San Antonio, Texas, is a popular shopping and dining area catering to tourists. </small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit..."><a href="https://flic.kr/p/6RKH2" target="_blank">Ken Lund</a>, <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" target="_blank">CC BY-SA</a></small>
</p><h4>Tools for Greening Differently</h4><p>
Greening and environmental cleanup do not automatically or necessarily lead to gentrification. There are tools that can make cities both greener and more inclusive, if the political will exists.
</p><p>
The work of the <a href="http://www.newtowncreekalliance.org/" target="_blank">Newtown Creek Alliance</a> in Brooklyn and Queens provides examples. The alliance is a community-led organization working to improve environmental conditions and revitalize industry in and along Newtown Creek, which separates these two boroughs. It focuses explicitly on social justice and environmental goals, as defined by the people who have been most negatively affected by contamination in the area.
</p><p>
The industrial zone surrounding Newtown Creek is a far cry from the toxic stew that The New York Times described in 1881 as <a href="https://historicgreenpoint.wordpress.com/2015/04/01/1870-smell-map/" target="_blank">"the worst smelling district in the world."</a> But it is also <a href="http://nymag.com/news/intelligencer/newtown-creek-2013-12/" target="_blank">far from clean</a>. For 220 years it has been a dumping ground for oil refineries, chemical plants, sugar refineries, fiber mills, copper smelting works, steel fabricators, tanneries, paint and varnish manufacturers, and lumber, coal and brick yards.
</p><p>
In the late 1970s, an investigation found that <a href="http://nysdecgreenpoint.com/ProjectHistory.aspx" target="_blank">17 million gallons of oil</a> had leaked under the neighborhood and into the creek from a nearby oil storage terminal. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/28/science/earth/28newtown.html" target="_blank">placed Newtown Creek on the Superfund list</a> of heavily polluted toxic waste sites in 2010.
</p><p>
The Newtown Creek Alliance and other groups are working to make sure that the <a href="https://cumulis.epa.gov/supercpad/cursites/csitinfo.cfm?id=0206282" target="_blank">Superfund cleanup</a> and <a href="http://www.newtowncreekalliance.org/greenpoint-oil-spill/" target="_blank">other remediation efforts</a> are as comprehensive as possible. At the same time, they are creating new <a href="http://www.newtowncreekalliance.org/plank-road/" target="_blank">green</a> <a href="http://www.newtowncreekalliance.org/north-henry-street/" target="_blank">spaces</a> within an area zoned for manufacturing, rather than pushing to rezone it.
</p><p>
As this approach shows, green cities don't have to be postindustrial. <a href="https://evergreenexchange.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/050117_Executive-Summary_FINAL_v4-pages.pdf" target="_blank">Some 20,000 people work in the North Brooklyn industrial area</a> that borders Newtown Creek. And a number of industrial businesses in the area have helped make environmental improvements.
</p><div class="rm-embed embed-media">
<iframe allowtransparency="true" class="instagram-media instagram-media-rendered" data-instgrm-payload-id="instagram-media-payload-1" frameborder="0" height="665" id="instagram-embed-1" scrolling="no" src="https://www.instagram.com/p/BcC1EungjE1/embed/captioned/?cr=1&v=8&wp=1346#%7B%22ci%22%3A1%2C%22os%22%3A1975713.7000000002%7D" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 1px solid rgb(219, 219, 219); margin: 0px 0px 12px; max-width: 658px; width: calc(100% - 2px); border-radius: 4px; box-shadow: none; display: block; padding: 0px;"></iframe>
</div><h4>Just Green Enough</h4><p>
The "<a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13549839.2012.729569" target="_blank">just green enough</a>" strategy uncouples environmental cleanup from high-end residential and commercial development. Our new anthology, <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Just-Green-Enough-Urban-Development-and-Environmental-Gentrification/Curran-Hamilton/p/book/9781138713826" target="_blank"><em>Just Green Enough: Urban Development and Environmental Gentrification</em></a>, provides many other examples of the need to plan for gentrification effects before displacement happens. It also describes efforts to create environmental improvements that explicitly consider equity concerns.
</p><p>
For example, <a href="https://www.uprose.org/" target="_blank">UPROSE</a>, Brooklyn's oldest Latino community-based organization, is combining racial justice activism with climate resilience planning in Brooklyn's Sunset Park neighborhood. The group <a href="https://www.uprose.org/industrial-retention" target="_blank">advocates for investment and training</a> for existing small businesses that often are Latino-owned. Its goal is not only to expand well-paid manufacturing jobs, but to include these businesses in rethinking what a sustainable economy looks like. Rather than rezoning the waterfront for high-end commercial and residential use, UPROSE is working for an inclusive vision of the neighborhood, built on the experience and expertise of its largely working-class immigrant residents.
</p><p>
This approach illustrates a broader pattern identified by Macalester College geographer <a href="https://www.macalester.edu/geography/facultystaff/danieltrudeau/" target="_blank">Dan Trudeau</a> in his <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Just-Green-Enough-Urban-Development-and-Environmental-Gentrification/Curran-Hamilton/p/book/9781138713826" target="_blank">chapter for our book</a>. His research on residential developments throughout the United States shows that socially and environmentally just neighborhoods have to be planned as such from the beginning, including affordable housing and green amenities for all residents. Trudeau highlights the need to find "patient capital"—investment that does not expect a quick profit—and shows that local governments need to take responsibility for setting out a vision and strategy for housing equity and inclusion.
</p><p>
In our view, it is time to expand the notion of what a green city looks like and who it is for. For cities to be truly sustainable, all residents should have access to affordable housing, living-wage jobs, clean air and water, and green space. Urban residents should not have to accept a false choice between contamination and environmental gentrification.
</p><p>
<em>Reposted with permission from our media associate </em><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/sustainable-cities-need-more-than-parks-cafes-and-a-riverwalk-88760" target="_blank">The Conversation</a></em><em>.</em>
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Mayors for 100% Clean Energy
The Sierra Club released a new analysis Friday that found that transitioning all 1,400+ U.S. Conference of Mayors member-cities to 100 percent clean and renewable electricity will significantly reduce electric sector carbon pollution nationwide and help the U.S. towards meeting the goals of the Paris climate agreement.
<p>According to the Sierra Club analysis, if cities belonging to the U.S. Conference of Mayors were to move to 100 percent clean and renewable electricity, it would reduce electric sector carbon emissions by more than that of the five worst carbon polluting U.S. states combined. If the 100 percent energy targets were achieved by 2025, the total electric sector carbon pollution reductions would fill anywhere from 87 percent to 110 percent of the <a href="http://sierraclub.pr-optout.com/Tracking.aspx?Data=HHL%3d84%3c8%401-%3eLCE5%3a2%3c5%3d%26SDG%3c90%3a.&RE=MC&RI=3646477&Preview=False&DistributionActionID=31791&Action=Follow+Link" target="_blank">remaining reductions</a> the U.S. would need to achieve in order to meet the goals of the Paris agreement. </p><p>The analysis of National Renewable Energy Laboratory and Energy Information Administration data comes before the start of the <a href="https://www.usmayors.org/meetings/85th-annual-meeting/" target="_blank">U.S. Conference of Mayors</a> annual meeting in Miami Beach, from June 23-26, where members will consider a resolution that would establish support for the goal of 100 percent clean, renewable energy in cities nationwide.</p><p>In addition, the Sierra Club's Ready for 100 campaign and the co-chairs of <a href="http://sierraclub.pr-optout.com/Tracking.aspx?Data=HHL%3d84%3c8%401-%3eLCE5%3a2%3c5%3d%26SDG%3c90%3a.&RE=MC&RI=3646477&Preview=False&DistributionActionID=31790&Action=Follow+Link" target="_blank">Mayors for 100% Clean Energy</a> announced Friday that 118 mayors across the country have endorsed a goal of powering their communities with 100 percent clean, renewable energy such as <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/wind">wind</a> and <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/solar">solar</a>.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-twitter_embed"></p><div id="8eb76" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="H2I1I91498244725"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="857371229409468416" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Mayors Take Bold Step Toward 100% Clean Energy https://t.co/hlOGOZhyOi @BusinessGreen @GreenCollarGuy</div> — EcoWatch (@EcoWatch)<a href="https://twitter.com/EcoWatch/statuses/857371229409468416">1493248204.0</a></blockquote></div><p></p><p>The Mayors for 100% Clean Energy initiative is co-chaired by Mayor Philip Levine of Miami Beach, Mayor Jackie Biskupski of Salt Lake City, Mayor Kevin Faulconer of San Diego and Mayor Stephen K. Benjamin of Columbia, South Carolina. Benjamin is also a vice president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors.</p><p>"It's up to us as leaders to creatively implement clean energy solutions for our cities across the nation. It's not merely an option now; it's imperative," said Mayor Benjamin. "Cities and mayors can lead the transition away from fossil fuels to 100 percent clean and renewable energy."</p><p>Mayoral endorsements of 100 percent renewable energy have led to ambitious action in municipalities across the U.S. The mayors of St. Petersburg, Florida and Abita Springs, Louisiana <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/cities-commit-renewable-energy-2324917492.html">issued proclamations</a> endorsing a goal of transitioning to 100 percent clean and renewable energy, followed by the formal adoption of a community-wide goal establishing 100 percent clean, renewable energy as the target for city energy planning. </p><p>"In San Diego, we brought business and environmental groups together to advance a goal of 100 percent renewable energy," said Mayor Faulconer. "It makes sense for mayors across the country to work together because when we talk about the future of our planet, we're talking about the future of our communities."</p><p>Salt Lake City recently released its Climate Positive 2040 plan which details the specific steps and policies the city will pursue with Rocky Mountain Power to achieve the goal of 100 percent clean, renewable energy by 2032.</p><p>Thirty-six cities across the U.S. have now committed to transition to 100 percent clean and renewable energy. This growing list of cities most recently includes Columbia, South Carolina, which this week unanimously voted to transition entirely to clean, renewable energy by 2036. Other cities including Los Angeles and Denver are studying pathways to 100 percent clean energy. </p><p>"We can't ignore climate change because climate change is not ignoring us," said Mayor Biskupski. "Cities must adapt to cope with the threats of climate change, and that's also why we must take action to mitigate them. Salt Lake City has set the ambitious but achievable goals of generating 100 percent of the community's electricity supply from renewable energy by 2032, followed by an 80 percent reduction in community greenhouse gas emissions by 2040. We are taking action to achieve these goals and I am honored to join mayors from across our nation to lead the transition to clean, renewable energy."</p>
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