I hear a great deal about sustainability in the built environment that sounds both encouraging and delusional. These messages come from well intentioned environmentalists as well as corporate marketing departments. The general tone of the conversation is similar either way. Everyone can continue to live the way we do now, but by making a few minor adjustments we’ll transition away from coal, oil, and natural gas to benign materials and clean renewable energy. This transition will save households money, preserve nature, and be profitable for private enterprise. read more »
Transportation
Learning From Las Vegas: Sustainable vs. Susceptible
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May Transit 59.5% of Pre-Pandemic Levels
Transit ridership remained below 60 percent of pre-pandemic levels in May 2022, according to data released by the Federal Transit Administration recently. This was only a slight improvement over April’s 58.7 percent despite average fuel prices climbing from a little over $4 in April to more than $4.50 in May. read more »
Densification in Toronto: The Evolving Urban Form
Like many of the world’s largest cities (Note 1), public policy seeks to densify Toronto, which is already the densest urban area (the international term) or population centre (the Canadian term) in North America (as used here, north of Mexico). An urban area is continuously built up urbanization and is routinely at the core of a metropolitan area (in Canada, a Census Metropolitan Area, or CMA). read more »
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Biden is Disconnected from American’s Reluctance to be Regulated Out of Fossil Fuel Prosperity
Civilization has benefited from more than 6,000 products made from the oil derivatives manufactured out of raw crude oil at refineries. None of these products were available to society before 1900. With no known replacement for crude oil in the foreseeable future, President Biden has stated “we are going to get rid of fossil fuels” implying that he is going to change society’s lifestyle and economy demands for the products made from fossil fuels that were not available before 1900. read more »
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Dark Clouds on the Horizon for Electric Vehicles
There are a couple of dark clouds hanging over the optimistic growth of electric vehicles (EV’s) that may decimate the supply chain of lithium to make the EV batteries, and how to safely transport EV’s across wide oceans: read more »
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Landing in London Without a Connection
On a recent visit to London, my phone did not connect to the networks abroad when I landed. Within seconds, I was filled with anxiety; as someone who is constantly texting, using social media, and consuming information on my device, I felt empty and exposed read more »
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Merchant Ships and Planes Needed to Support the World's Eight Billion
Escalating climate change pressures are strangling capital flows for oil and gas producers, driving up the price of gasoline, electricity, and home heating and cooling. read more »
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Inflation Eats Infrastructure Bill
In addition to restoring allegedly crumbling highways and transit lines, the 2021 infrastructure bill was supposed to provide tens of billions of dollars for building new infrastructure. read more »
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April Transit Falls to 58.7% of Pre-Pandemic Levels
Transit ridership in April 2022 was 58.7 percent of April 2019, according to data released yesterday by the Federal Transit Administration. This is down from March read more »
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Is it Ethical to Purchase a Lithium Battery Powered EV?
With numerous State Governor’s having issued executive orders to phase out the purchasing of gasoline driven cars within the next decade or so, and the automobile manufacturers efforts to phase into only manufacturing EV’s here’s some food for thought read more »
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