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News & Views Curation

December 31, 2019

India: Prime Minister's Perculiar Proposal

Headline, verbatim "Indian PM Modi's office proposes waiving carbon tax on coal"

Hobart: Hot As Hell

With temperatures hitting 105 degrees, is the capital of the Australian state nearest Antarctica suffering the new climate normal?

Now We Know, Climate Scientists Got It Right

Eloquent writing about our planet + knowledge about our climate tragedy

December 30, 2019

Paris Is For Bike Lane Lovers

How the City of Light is becoming the City Of Bikes

Local Climate News In An Era Of Shrinking Local Newspapers

8 targeted tips to aid local reporters excel at climate journalism

2020: More Than A New Year, A New Era

Protect Cyclists Now

What's NYC doing to counteract the shocking rise in 2019's bike deaths?

December 27, 2019

Wouldn't It Be Nice

Governor Cuomo to propose a feasibility study for high-speed rail in NY

2010's: Top Climate Science Lessons

A decade of climate research reveals that risks are rising now. Take aways: feedback loops + tipping points

Attention Must Be Paid

December 26, 2019

Northeast Heating Fastest

Evidence shows northeast states as the fastest-warming part of the US over the last 5 years

Cruise Ships In Brooklyn - Exhausting

Cruise ships in port in Red Hook, could plug into to pollution-free electricity, but they don't. Who's going to make them?

December 24, 2019

Con Ed's Climate Vulnersability Report

New Yorkers depend on reliable electric power, now, Con Ed examines its climate risks

Word Of The Year - Trashion

Fast, cheap + out of eco-control, what's the fix for "trashion"? Sallan found fashion fixers in 2016

December 23, 2019

Summer's Coming

Get ready for having the coolest summer ever with this Lower East Side Green Map

Utility Biz Transformers

3 emerging trends will mean it's no longer your grandpa's utility business

Bye-Bye Styrofoam

Will NY become the second state to ban single use polystyrene food containers + packaging? If not, why not?

CMA - Yes We Can

NYC's track record of doing big, difficult things boosts hopes for a sustainable energy future by way of keeping its Climate Mobilization Act promises

Climate's Fingerprints Make Weather Weirder

Signs of climate change impacts on globe-wide weather events

How 2019 Will Pollute 2020

FERC - The 2019 Finale

The federal regulator of interstate electric markets, FERC, issues a year-end rule hostile to renewable energy. Read + prepare for 2020

December 20, 2019

The Price Of Oil Painting

Can museums filled with great art survive without oil industry money?

Holland: High Court Upholds Emissions Cuts

The Dutch high court rules GHG emissions cuts of at least 25% must occur in 2020

Pulaski Bridge Bike Lane Safety

Want to stop cyclist/pedestrian crashes? Here's how

Federal Energy Regulator Riles Enviros

FERC, the federal energy system regulator, issues a rule that will raise costs for clean energy suppliers, environmentalists call this a partisan attempt to protect fossil fuels

Green New Deal Endorsement Goes To...

December 19, 2019

Guess What's 75 Years Old And Growing Greener

Stuyvesant Town + Peter Cooper Village were built in the 1940's, now they're leaders of 21 century residential sustainability

Candidates' Climate Platform - Mike Bloomberg

Based on his record + his platform, what would President Bloomberg do to advance climate protection?

Control Climate Anxiety - Be Prepared

12 specific + realistic legal tools to advance climate 'preparedness'

A Winner With Potential

December 18, 2019

Miracle On 34th 14th Street

The 14th Street busway is making bus tri[ps faster, boosting both ridership + biking, a transportation hat trick!

Energy Transition - An Optimist's POV

Making the case for global carbon emissions peaking now, but declining by the end of the 2020's with insurgent renewable energy

Australia: Too Hot For Humans

First nations peoples of Australia could become the world's first heat-crisis refugees

Before Tuning Out For The Holidays

This decade in climate trends

Net-Zero Buildings Get Real

Net zero energy buildings move from aspiration to reality

Making Take Out Guilt Free

DeliverZero provides a take out container recycling service at nine Park Slope restaurants.

Kick Tansport Emissions To the Curb

A cap + trade program for tailpipe emissions announced by 11 east coast states + Washington DC

Space Heating - The Next Carbon Frontier

(READ THE LINK, READ THE THREAD)

December 17, 2019

California: Energy Efficiency Pacesetter

States can do big things when innovating their regulatory frameworks for energy efficiency, check out California

At Long Last

Germany: Increase Carbon Cost

Germany is poised to double its carbon emissions price, but critics demand higher prices

December 16, 2019

Electric Buses Ply 14 Street

The MTA makes mass transit history, deploys its first fleet of 15 articulated all-electric buses on 14th Street, with the purchase of another 500 in the works

NYC's For The Birds

COP25 - Global Futility

COP 25 fails to make any progress on global climate action plans, with the US, China, India + Brazil the biggest baddies

COP25 - Diplomacy's A Climate Bust

The failure of UN climate diplomacy in Madrid makes the economic self-interest of advancing decarbonizing technologies our best hope


December 13, 2019

Electrifying And Passive In Brooklyn

NYC's first all electric hi-rise, also meeting Passive House standards, will be built on Brooklyn's Flatbush Avenue

Bloomberg Climate Plan - Part 1

With a goal of cutting carbon emissions 50% by 2030, the Bloomberg-for-President climate plan starts with actions that can be taken by Executive Order

Waking Up To the Climate Alarm

Text, charts + photos

Legal Eagles To Climate Caring Cities

5 legal issues that climate-action cities need to tackle

December 12, 2019

If You're Going To Give Gifts

79 ideas for climate-friendly gifts

The Big Melt

Australia: Not The Smoke I Had In Mind

Demonstrators in Sydney protest bushfires + demand immediate climate action

Composting - Good To Do, But NYC Could Do Better

In 2018, New Yorkers composted just 5% of their food waste, but they could catch up with Seoul + Milan

Madrid: COP25 Stumbles

Overhauling + refreshing the old emissions trading scheme is a big stumbling block at the COP25 meeting in Madrid

Not Your Granddad's Roof

Seize the the high points of NYC's new sustainable roof laws

What A Waste

Can you guess how much energy is lost via today's electric power grid + translate that into added carbon emissions?

EU: A Green New Deal

Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, announces a Green New Deal, that'd sets a goal of carbon neutrality by 2050 + equitable economic growth, starting now

December 11, 2019

Madrid: COP25 Update

Is there a 'corporate takeover' of the UN's COP25 climate meeting?

A Climate Generation Gap Opens

Is the climate crisis movement suffering from a generation gap or is it facing big strategic choices?

Advance Planning

December 10, 2019

Arctic Report Card: D

Rapid heating, disappearing sea ice, methane-leaking permafrost, the Arctic as we know it gets a D grade, as in Dying

Read The Tweet Thread, No Skimming

December 09, 2019

On The Climate Front Line - Building Codes

What's a make or break in successful state + local climate action? Building codes

Introducing Community Choice Aggregation

With local government as the electric power purchaser, can renewable energy get cheaper + more in demand? BTW, the NYC Council is considering just such legislation

Community Coalition Building For Climate Activism

If denser building near mass transit is a good urban climate policy, how to push for affordable development as part of the package? And that's not all

December 06, 2019

Acting Concretely

Concrete's a climate killer, so what's the alternative?

You're Promising Us Lies

Electrification 101

Electrification? Why you need to know about its potential + its prospects

Think Like A Green Political Economist

What kind of industrial policy will be up to the task of advancing essential climate action goals?

NY: Environmental Budget Cutter

NY is one of 30 states to cut its environmental budget + staff numbers since 2008. Did its top officials figure the federal government had the state covered?

Be Prepared

12 essential legal tools to advance our climate impact preparedness

December 05, 2019

You Betcha

Sunrise: The Green New Deal Scorecard

Who's on first in the Sunrise Movement's Presidential Green New Deal Scorecard?

Build A Better Trash Can

Yes, there is an award for designing a better NYC trash can - the favorite of both Sanitation workers + the public

Faster Crisis Onset

What are the lurching changes that are keeping climate scientists up at night?

Making The Case For The GND

The American Prospect devotes an entire issue to making the feasibility case for the Green New Deal. Its migraine-level headache is the politics

Spain: Energy Big Pledges Net-Zero Carbon Emissions

A net zero carbon emissions by 2050 pledge made by Spanish energy firm Respol attracts expert attention

Valuing Sustainable Finance

Why are sustainable banking insiders glum about their industry's impact?

December 04, 2019

Australia: Fossil Award

From The Archives

In 2006, NYC hoped to delay the need for new power plants until 2012. In 2019, it's clear the City did better than it hoped.

Delivering Less Congestion

Allowing electric cargo-delivery bikes to park at existing commercial parking zones is a traffic decongestion experiment NYC will launch for 6 months

December 03, 2019

NY's PACE-Setters — The Slide Show

Now, both the State & the City of New York have PACE programs to link up lenders who want to make secure loans with owners who want to make their properties more energy efficient or transition to renewable energy. Here's how

Talking About Climate Activism

Whose attitudes + which actions shift in the wake of recent youth-lead climate demonstrations?

Storage Batteries: Some Q's Some A's

The storage battery industry is changing at warp speed + generating lots of questions. Answers here

2010-2019: The Weather Report

Weather exports report the 2010-2019 decade is likely to be the hottest on record + the heat's not the only thing setting records

A Bit Of Brooklyn History

Reader Alert. This is not about the climate crisis. Just a respite

Madrid: Climate Summit Update

‘The point of no return is no longer over the horizon,’ + climate laggard countries raise risks in sight now

An Excellent Climate And Energy Adventure

Could be the hot computer game of the year

December 02, 2019

Pelosi Takes An Impeachment Breather

Speaker Pelosi + 14 other House members attending the COP25 Madrid climate conference

Know Before You Go

To find your way on the NYC subway system, its map is a must, but who designed the map?

More Renewables Won't End The Climate Crisis

Is it the economics or the politics of the energy landscape that undercuts the power of renewables to address the climate crisis?