Cities

Trees capture particulate pollution

Air pollution kills a lot of people around the world and the situation in some Chinese cities has become nothing short of unbreathable. Meanwhile, we have seen in my series ” Plant, baby, plant “ that trees can solve many related problems. To a new study from Lancaster University, trees can absorb half of particulates, …

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Book review : Cradle to cradle

Inspiring : that’s the adjective that comes to mind as I have just finished reading Cradle to Cradle, by William McDonough and Michael Braungart. I had heard about that book for quite some time and I understand now why. The book  was written  in 2002 –with a 2008 reedition – and is replete with enlightening …

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Bike sharing is booming too

Last week I was reporting that biking is booming in cities around the world. Grist wrote about how bike sharing is an essential component of this phenomenon as they are more than 500 cities in 49 countries with bike-sharing programs. Collectively, they represent as many as 500,000 bicycles combined. This just might be the beginning …

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Starry, Starry, Starry Night

You may perhaps remember the not so distant time when I was posting astrophotography pictures on this very website. I have also wrote a few times on how we are lighting up our cities too much. Now a fellow Frenchman, Thierry Cohen, created a series of pictures of what the night could look like if …

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Hurricane Sandy, aka the Frankenstorm

Unless you have spent the week remote from civilization, you must have heard of THE event of the week : Disney bought the Star Wars franchise. Ooops, sorry, I meant : Hurricane Sandy, also known as the Frankenstorm. All joking aside, the matter is tremendously serious as dozens died in the Caribbean and the United …

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Painting roofs white

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 …

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Many large cities at risk due to rising sea levels

To new research carried out and recently released by Maplecroft, many booming megalopolis around the world are at extreme risk because of rising sea levels and other consequences of climate change. Manila, Jakarta and Kolkata (formerly known as Calcutta) would be threatened the most. Others cities, including Mumbai (Bombay), Delhi, Chennai, Karachi, Lagos and Guangdong, …

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The major threat of rising sea levels : the consequences (1/2)

After last week’s article on the scientific data of rising sea levels, it is time for us to have a look at how they would affect millions of people and possibly destroy assets worth billions. The OECD report mentioned last week gives us further data on this very topic and the least I can say …

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