North American (United States and Canada) policy generally favors low energy prices, with low taxes, production subsidies and other types of energy industry support. As a result, North Americans are energy rich: an average worker can purchase more fuel per hour of labor than almost any other time or place. In response North Americans have developed energy intensive lifestyles and industrial practices, have failed to implement many energy conservation practices common in other parts of the world, and consume more energy per capita than most other times and places.
Climate Change
ARB Climate Change Plan Criticized By Both Sides
The CA Air Resources Board unveiled its final ‘scoping plan’ to meet the climate change targets set in the landmark 2006 law, AB 32. Business groups condemned it for its costs while land use planners criticized it for not doing more to curb sprawl.
San Francisco Chronicle
Climate Change Actually Is A Matter of Individual Choice
A new study finds that 65% of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. are under the direct or indirect control of individuals. However, many of those habits are difficult to change given land uses.
The Wall St. Journal
BP's Chief Scientist Advocates Higher Gas Prices
BP's chief scientist provides his insight into solving the energy and climate crises, including the affect of higher gas prices and separating transportation from the heat and power sectors when dealing with strategies to reduce carbon emissions.
Technology Review (MIT)
Dangerous Pockets of Methane Gas Discovered
Scientists along Russia's northern coast are reporting that methane, a greenhouse gas twenty times more potent than carbon dioxide, is being released into the atmosphere at an alarming new rate.
The Independent
Climate Plan Shows California Can Be A Leader
It has been a long time since the State of California was a public policy innovator. But a draft plan for implementing a greenhouse gas reduction law places California right on the cutting edge.
California Planning & Development Report
Climate Change Changing Assumptions on Land Use, Energy
Critic John King reflects on how common assumptions of Bay Area residents about urban growth boundaries and protesting nuclear power are challenged by the growing problem of climate change and energy access.
The San Francisco Chronicle
Mike Davis Reflects on the Meaning of Dubai
Mike Davis wonders if the excesses of Dubai portend a rapidly-warming and deteriorating world of diverging urban fortunes, where a minority live in eco-friendly luxury, while most endure polluted squalor.
TomDispatch
The Quest for Energy: The Input/Output Problem
Tue, 06/24/2008 - 09:00
In August of 2006, an unknown Irish company called Steorn took out a full-page ad in The Economist to announce that they had created a magnetic technology that produced more energy than it used- essentially, a perpetual motion machine, the Holy Grail of energy.
Bangla-Doomed?
Rising sea levels caused by global climate change are predicted to swallow the country of Bangladesh by the end of the century.
Belfast Telegraph
Will We All Become 'Envirogees'?
Climate change, desertification and resource wars are displacing millions of people, and threaten to turn us all into environmental refugees, warns Scott Thill.
AlterNet
Sweden Tops All Nations As Climate-Friendly
One country stands out in Europe in surpassing the greenhouse gas emission reductions required by the Kyoto Protocol - Sweden. While it used several environmental technologies to achieve those reductions, experts give credit to its carbon tax.
The Guardian
The Next Steps Toward A Sustainable Sacramento
The Sacramento region has become a national model for smart growth planning. But what, asks Bill Fulton, will it take to make the region sustainable for decades to come?
California Planning & Development Report
San Francisco's Bay Area Growth May Change With Climate
Officials forecast need to adapt development model: to retreat from some areas, build in others, and reduce reliance on cars.
The San Francisco Chronicle
Time to Adapt to a Warmer World is Now
Public officials and scientists are starting to say that adaptation to climate change is just as important as trying to stem climate change. One way to adapt is to embrace smart growth principles that reduce energy usage, according to this article.
California Planning & Development Report
Planning Cities In The Age Of Global Warming
A recent conference hosted by the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy focused on how planners around the world are designing urban areas that respond to the impacts of climate change.
MIT Technology Review
Water Supply Crisis Facing 36 States
Rising temperatures, shrinking ice packs and the salinization of coastal fresh water sources are all contributing to a growing water crisis in the United States.
Natural News
How Housing Choices Affect Climate Change
NPR's Climate Connections series explores how American's lifestyles affect climate change. In this first of two articles, Elizabeth Shogren introduces an Emory University researcher who moves out of Atlanta into her 'dream house' in the suburbs.
National Public Radio
Best Ideas of the Week
Fri, 04/04/2008 - 16:00
Another week has passed, and some more exciting and interesting ideas have taken root in the world of urban planning.
The Burn and the Boom of Climate Change in Alaska
Climate change will probably be pretty devastating for coastal Alaska, but it could also bring a boom to the area's economy, according to a recent report.
Juneau Empire
