Despite pledges to work to mitigate and deal with climate change, current plans still lead to a 3-degree Celsius rise in temperatures by the end of the decade, a major new report warns. If that happens, it will not only break through the 2-degrees target set in the Paris agreement, but also lead to deadly…
Month: October 2017
Funding the Cooperative City
Funding the Cooperative City explores experiments in community-led urban development in European cities. Situated in the post-welfare transition of European societies within the context defined by austerity measures, unemployment, the financialisation of real estate stocks and the gradual withdrawal of public administrations from social services, this book aims at highlighting the importance of self-organised, locally…
Virtual coasts improve understanding of possible coastal planning outcomes | EurekAlert! Science News
A new immersive visualization allows people to make informed decisions on coastal plans by experiencing changes to an area through a first-person perspective. Published in Frontiers in Marine Science, the tool is the first of its kind to include both audio and visual animations, as well as simulate both above and below the water. The…
Sea level rise threatens deltas around the world, study finds | NOLA.com
More than 500 million people on earth live on a river delta, according to a news release about the new study. The tipping point between delta resilience and collapse will likely occur within the next 50 years, according to the study. “It could be sooner than that,” Turner said. “The history of making these predictions is…
U.S. Cities Most Vulnerable to Coastal Flooding and Sea Level Rise
Each analysis examined coastal cities with overall populations greater than 20,000. For the first one, we tabulated “at risk” population by overlaying 2010 Census block population counts against FEMA’s 100-year coastal floodplains (Crowell et al 2013) using methods adapted from Strauss et al (2012). FEMA 100-year coastal floodplains factor in storm surge, tides, and waves,…
Cities’ Best Bet For Fighting Climate Change Is Encouraging Sharing
“If cities can provide the social and technological infrastructure that facilitate [sharing], then it is possible that dense cities can help people leverage the benefits of sharing in the 21st century in much the same way that large households have done so in the past,” the paper, published in Ecological Economics, says. Source: Cities’ Best…
Climate Change and the Human Mind
“In all struggle, in all movements, there’s never a kumbaya moment. There’s never a moment of satori, where everything is realized. Rather, there’s a continuous struggle with ups and downs. And with the election of Trump and all that he represents, and the extremity of his dangerous behavior in relation to climate, with all that,…
Three Important Climate Change Stories Broke This Week – But You Probably Didn’t Hear About Them
The report was released by the bipartisan Government Accountability Office and recommends that the U.S federal government develop a plan to manage climate change risks. The report estimates that costs from climate change could balloon to $35 billion dollars per year within the next 30 to 40 years. This is not hard to believe Source:…
The only answer to rising seas is to retreat
There is no conceivable way to get around the fact that we eventually will have to retreat. There are several ways to retreat, including buying out homes in low-lying, flood-prone areas and returning those areas to a more natural state; demolishing or moving buildings; and not rebuilding storm-damaged buildings. Simply fleeing from the beach by…
Capturing CO2 from the air for accelerating growth of algae
A new air capture technology, developed by the University of Twente, captures CO2 from atmospheric air in a cheap and efficient way. The CO2, in turn, is used for growing algae, as a promising feedstock in the bio based economy. Another application is a closed cycle for storing solar and wind energy. Source: Capturing CO2…