The European Commission on Monday unveiled a “single European transport area” aimed at enforcing “a profound shift in transport patterns for passengers” by 2050.
The plan also envisages an end to cheap holiday flights from Britain to southern Europe with a target that over 50 per cent of all journeys above 186 miles should be by rail.
Popularity: 1% [?]
Imagine visiting a city where the populace steadfastly refused to wear sweaters or coats despite a cold climate. You might tell your friends incredulous stories about how much people complain about being cold while ignoring an obvious solution. You might take pictures of the enormous three-story space heaters the city placed along its waterfront to let people enjoy the outdoors, and marvel at the ugliness and environmental waste of the practice. Why would the residents of this city endure such painful conditions at such cost to their city and their planet while ignoring such a simple alternative?
Popularity: 39% [?]
By requiring car drivers to pay a fee to drive in a city at peak hours, congestion pricing reduces traffic and raises money that can be used to support public transit—both worthy goals.
Yet congestion pricing has dubious environmental value. Traffic jams, if they’re managed well, can actually be good for the environment. They maintain a level of frustration that turns drivers into subway riders or pedestrians.
Popularity: 35% [?]
logorama is a short film by the french collective H5, which visualizes and explores the way that logos are increasingly embedded in our existence. after winning the kodak prix at the cannes film festival this year logorama is being screened at various international locations in the coming months.
Popularity: 47% [?]
You’ve heard all the reasons before: We drive too much. We eat too much meat and processed food. We spend too much time with plugged-in devices—computers, TVs, air conditioners.
But what problem are we talking about—climate change, or the worldwide rise in obesity?
Popularity: 30% [?]
Jayne Michaels, an interior designer who lives on East 57th Street in Manhattan, throws open her windows every chance she gets. “I need light and air in my life,” said Ms. Michaels, who favors gauzy fabrics in pale colors.
But breezes carry dirt, especially in New York, so once every six months Ms. Michaels pays about $400 to have her sofas, chairs, chaises and rugs shampooed.
It’s another price of living in New York: call it the dirt tax.
Popularity: 19% [?]
On numerous visits to Manhattan, I have found myself poking around the city trying to find a moment of quiet and once located a hint of it in Central Park during a windless, late-night snowfall. There I stood absolutely still in the lemon glow of the city, a sky full of snow. The city still roared from all sides, a thousand noises compressed down to just one. I counted that distant, mild roar as quiet, a welcome relief from the more pressing noises of the daytime city.
Popularity: 33% [?]
The words “air pollution” may sound archaic or inflated. There is a sense that air has gotten dramatically cleaner and is not as worrisome a problem as some other environmental issues. Air rarely makes national news anymore, unless it’s about dirty air in another country, or unless there is speculation that a brown cloud is creeping over from China, dirtying the air in California – a theory that has yet to be proven. More accurately, America is dirtying its own air in cities from Los Angeles to Pittsburgh.
Popularity: 25% [?]
A while ago, I heard an American scientist address an audience in Oxford, England, about his work on the climate crisis. He was precise, unemotional, rigorous, and impersonal: all strengths of a scientist.
The next day, talking informally to a small group, he pulled out of his wallet a much-loved photo of his thirteen-year-old son. He spoke as carefully as he had before, but this time his voice was sad, worried, and fatherly. His son, he said, had become so frightened about climate change that he was debilitated, depressed, and disturbed. Some might have suggested therapy, Prozac, or baseball for the child. But in this group one voice said gently, “What about the Transition Initiative?”
Popularity: 29% [?]
Use this interactive guide created by English Heritage to see how an urban environment can be improved. Roll over the red spots to see problem areas and click to reveal what can be done to eliminate them.
Popularity: 56% [?]