Today is the second part of my “Plant, baby, plant ” series started last week with agroforestry. We shall delve here on urban forestry and its many advantages. Next week we shall conclude by the Billion Tree Campaign. As we have seen, planting trees among farming fields and gardens provide many advantages. But what about …
” Plant, baby, plant ” Episode 2, Urban forestry Read More »
What if we used wood as a construction material for high buildings ? Given how many trees we are planting to fight climate change, we are not going to lack from it any time soon if we manage it sustainably. Back to June the New York Times published an interesting article on how this is …
Sometimes the simplest solutions can have huge impacts. Indeed, painting dark roofs white can decrease by up to a fifth buildings air conditioning use. Generalized globally, this could make a big difference. Scientists at the Concordia University estimated that painting one percent of the world’s urban surfaces white could reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 130 …
Sometimes, the simplest things work best. To Grist : ” Bill Clinton urged mayors at the Large Cities Climate Summit to go after a pollutant 25 times more powerful than carbon dioxide: methane.” ” By capturing it from landfills, from which it leaches in prodigious amounts, cities could use it to generate power. Wrestling CO2 …
While I am a huge supporter of electric cars and mass transportation, I also believe bikes should play a more important role in our lives and cities. And so does Grist with its great Bikenomics series of three articles. Indeed, cycling allows people to stop buying foreign oil and thus spend their money in local …
According to the Canadian magazine Corporate Knights : ” If the concept of a sustainable city sounds like a paradox, that’s because it is, according to physicist Geoffrey West.” ” Ironically, because of their urban “metabolism,” cities require only 85 per cent of the resources necessary to double in size, and they’re more energy efficient …
In the age of scarcity, space can be a very expensive commodity. Hong Kong architect Gary Chang had an awesome idea to solve this : he transformed his 32 square meters appartment into a much bigger one with sliding walls. This very simple yet ingenious idea allows him to have in a relatively secluded place many …
Urban sprawl poses many problems in terms of infrastructures to maintain, increased energy consumption and last but not least important health and environmental issues. With the economic downturn and high energy prices, people are sometimes returning to the urban cores. This leaves empty houses and even districts. In some cases these suburbs are litterally bulldozed …
In a recent article Franke James was wondering ” Why do we cover up the earth with impermeable materials that stop the rain from going into the ground and require expensive sewers? According to the Chicago Green Alleys Handbook quoted by Franke, unpaving our streets would bring many advantages such as reducing localized flooding, recharging groundwater …
