Step by step. Terrif.

<<In December 2006, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg challenged New Yorkers to generate ideas for achieving 10 key goals for the city's sustainable future. New Yorkers in all five boroughs responded. The result is the most sweeping plan to enhance New York's urban environment in the city's modern history. Focusing on the five key dimensions of the city's environment - land, air, water, energy, and transportation - we have developed a plan that can become a model for cities in the 21st century. The combined impact of this plan will not only help ensure a higher quality of life for generations of New Yorkers to come; it will also contribute to a 30% reduction in global warming emissions.>>

<<In September 2010, New York City released the NYC Green Infrastructure Plan which presents an alternative approach to improving water quality that integrates “green infrastructure,” such as swales and green roofs, with investments to optimize the existing system and to build targeted, cost-effective “grey” or traditional infrastructure.>>

"Stormwater Infrastructure Matters (S.W.I.M.) is a coalition dedicated to ensuring swimmable waters around New York City through natural, sustainable stormwater management practices in our neighborhoods."

GIS collection focused on environmental/ecological data.
"Data Basin is an innovative, online system that connects users with spatial datasets, tools, and expertise. Individuals and organization can explore and download a vast library of datasets, upload their own data, create and publish projects, form working groups, and produce customized maps that can be easily shared."

Argument that the NJ-PA state line saved the Jersey Pine Barrens aquifer from exploitation by Philadelphia. Mentions 'electoral college reform' map.

"dedicated to revitalizing, restoring and revealing Newtown Creek."

GIS clearinghouse in area of 'natural resource protection and land preservation' for Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana. "Partnership between the Center for Neighborhood Technology and Openlands. Funding for this project was generously provided by The Joyce Foundation."

Peter Del Tredici's plant site: "We vilify as weeds those organisms that flourish in the urban environment without our approval or assistance. It is these plants-the spontaneous vegetation of the urban environment-that are the subject of this website."

"project is to build communities equipped for the dual challenges of climate change and peak oil." Local food, renewable energy, more self-production. Welcome to the new medieval!

Central city residents produce far less carbon than suburbanites, Californian cities have small carbon footprints. Development restrictions are higher in metro areas with lower carbon footprints. More towers in SF, SJ, SD, LA, less development in ATL, TX, etc. Glaeser is lukewarm to a carbon tax, but his proposal mixes (inter)national policy and local implementation, which is unrealistic. Carbon tax seems a good way to go.

Newark Brownfields & Superfund sites.

Welcome to SiteMart, New Jersey's Online Searchable Database for Brownfield Properties

"While the stockyards are gone, Bubbly Creek remains in its contaminated state. Accumulated sediments fill most of the channel and continue to produce gases, which foul the air and contribute to global warming. The headwaters of the creek are no longer the drainages of the two small tributary swales but, rather, a combined sewer pumping station.
Today, Bubbly Creek is an opportunity, not the monstrous liability made famous by Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle. The creek could support a new kind of urban environment, one that brings beauty and wildlife into the city, provides high quality recreational opportunities, encourages and maintains economic development, and safely processes urban stormwater. Rehabilitation of Bubbly Creek is long overdue."

"The Baltimore Ecosystem Study (BES) conducts research on metropolitan Baltimore as an ecological system. The program integrates biological, physical, and social sciences. As a part of the National Science Foundation's Long-Term Ecological Research Network, BES seeks to understand how Baltimore's ecosystems change over time. The ecological knowledge created by BES supports educational and community-based activities, and interactions with the Baltimore community"

rural / urban test plots: "ecology on amphetamines ... domination by invasive weed trees: ailanthus, Norway maples and mulberries. [After] five years ... the biggest ailanthus in the rural test site measured about five feet tall. The city site boasted a 2

Oberlin college kids theme their off-campus house green via short showers & composting. Theme is simple lifestyle changes & small retrofit.

"The Canary Project produces visual media, events, and artwork that builds public understanding of human-induced climate change and energize commitment to solutions."

"Agriculture in the United States — much of which now serves the demand for meat — contributes to nearly 3/4 of all water-quality problems in the nation’s rivers and streams, according to the EPA."

waste lands

brownfield lookup

South Brother to go to the city

mapping tool

ghetto palm working group

This year's farm bill is slightly less worse than those in the past.

Let's name this phenomenon: shamemapping. Slavin was onto something.

Daily superfund site for 2007-8

54% more ammonia and 35% more 'suspended solids' to be dumped in Whiting. [this is why the Trib sucks; look at their front page every day, but read about this in the nyt]

"The scientists who produced the map estimate that more surface area is devoted to lawns than to any other single irrigated crop in the country. ...More than 3x the acreage than irrigated corn."

"fd. 1999 to disseminate work of Dr. Weston Price, whose studies of isolated nonindustrialized peoples ... demonstrated that humans achieve perfect physical form & perfect health only when they consume nutrient-dense whole foods & the vital fat-soluble ac

"sustainable urban farm [on a barge] powered by solar, wind, and biofuels, and irrigated by rainwater and purified river water."

Owner of Expedition, after explaining how it's useful bc. he has 2 (!) kids and goes to the mountains: "I'm concerned about global warming. We try to do as much as we can. ***We try not to drive that far.***"

Thoreau picking huckleberries after getting out of jail, the connections between city and country, landscape and politics and why "a passion for justice and pleasure in small things are not incompatible"

graphic: 92% favor more energy efficient cars, paying more for energy.

On the Farm Bill, the price of a calorie, & the effects subsidized corn, soy & dairy. $1 buys "1,200 calories of cookies or potato chips but only 250 calories of carrots." (I'll keep posting Pollan articles as long as he keeps writing them)

"Monolithic Dome walls are not only [green], [safe] & [cheap], they're easy & fun to decorate. Yes, curved walls are finally coming into their own. ... Interior designers have discovered the secret of dome decorating: Optical Illusion."

'Water' catching fire in three decades!

Rem in the deep end

~18m containers making ~200m trips on 70k ships use ~300m tonnes fuel and generate 600-800m tonnes of CO2, 5% of global total. [if each container doesn't generate $74K each year, we're not getting our environmental degredation's worth]

'Dr. Seager said that it was “silly” to put golf courses in the region’s desert areas.' prediction: Populations of AZ & NV begin to drop by 50 years from now.

Auto: 1,860; Bus:920; Rail:885; Foot:100; Bicycle:35 (a little specificity would be nice, but it's the web, a'ight)

"Deal With Reality or Reality Will Deal With You"

Fucking knot of tariffs & price props helps Agribiz, Big Sugar & Big Oil. Hurts environment, consumers, 3rd world sugar cane growers. I blame Illinois!

Comprehensive greenhouse gas stats & figures from the UK. far better than the US Energy Information Agency site

The 10,000 acre Hobet Mountaintop Removal Complex in Boone County, West Virginia, superimposed over 38 different cities with Google Earth.

"And always remember: Everything about food and cooking is a metaphor for sex. "

It's easy if you try... "All things considered, it will only take a few tens of thousands of years at most before almost every trace of our present dominance has vanished completely."

People are pink goo: "the ultimate crime, something to be stopped at any cost." [note: not via kio, but via the same 'look it up in wikipedia' impulse]

green buildings in Chicago. via paytonc

via bldgblog (now I have Starship in my head. damn)

"sustainable energy future is possible - can return soaring energy-related CO2 emissions to today’s levels by 2050 and halve the expected growth in both oil and electricity demand" not good enough, technocrats.

from Oak Ridge. FAQ is a highlight. Data aplenty. Programs exposing trees to higher lvls of CO2.

harder to find via casual googling than I would have thought. (LULUCF = Land Use, Land-Use Change and Forestry)

harder to find via casual googling than I would have thought. (cdiac = Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center, part of the DOE)

Socolow/Pacala paper on climate stabilization

"We use about one-sixth of our electricity to cool ourselves. That's more than the total electricity consumption of India, a country whose population exceeds 1 billion."

valvoline, gasoline, all the ones in between: more on the oil we eat. via estee.

Maps of states superimposed on watersheds: great

A little scary in the long-term; great map of East Branch Delaware (02040102) and Croton (02030101) watersheds. (#s thnx to next link)

carbon neutral arch by 2030

sweet little wind turbine. Another version by UIC students was up on the Sears Tower a few years ago. payback time (in UK) is 15+ years - bit long. via pruned

Bi-monthly mag "explores current issues in energy, population, biodiversity, agriculture, climate change, the economy, politics, and sustainability in general, through engaging feature articles and lively and informative departments"

"Climate science from climate scientists."

awesome charts... love it.

raw data on CO2, fossil fuels, agri production

site they tell you to go to in the credits. 'Take action' links lead mostly to horribly designed/confusing affiliate sites. Oops! [the film is worth seeing, tho] [and no, I did not 'make a difference' by seeing it]

More excerpts from M. Pollan's new one: "An evangelical Virginia farmer says a revolution against industrial agriculture is just down the road."

the burbs are looking to be the worst place for peak oil + global warming.

This is a great idea, but seems clumsily executed. Why wireless connectivity? Will wired internet be damaged in an oil crisis? Doesn't take into non transport energy costs, either. Farmers markets probably have a minimal effect on oil use, etc.

"provides fast & easy access to best-of-class information and resources for enjoying a healthier more sustainable life within your community."

"scientific" post-millenarianism: This is not the wacky proclamation of a doomsday cult, apocalypse bible prophecy sect, or conspiracy theory society.

"occasional reflections on historical, philosophical, and contemporary questions that involve the perplexing intersection of human ends and means. " (via plsj)

How much fossil fuel is required to produce a pound of beef on a feedlot?

delicious oil: "In 1940 the average farm in the United States produced 2.3 calories of food energy for every calorie of fossil energy it used. By 1974 (the last year anyone checked), that ratio was 1:1"

"Assuming [the cow] continues to eat 25 pounds of corn a day and reaches a weight of 1,250 pounds, he will have consumed in his lifetime roughly 284 gallons of oil. "

indulgences 2.0: "your money goes to alternative energy projects to offset the global warming impact of your car's CO2 emissions." or get a bike & zero your emissions.

"If you are what you eat, and especially if you eat industrial food, as 99 percent of Americans do, what you are is corn"