Changing the color of L.A. streets and growing out the urban canopy are part of a campaign to fight the heat island in and around Los Angeles.
Los Angeles is undergoing a proactive campaign to fight the effects of a warming planet but trying to mitigate or reverse the effects of its urban heat island. Among the city’s strategies for doing so is the use of white street sealant so that the street will hold less heat. "This is what the city of Los Angeles is calling 'cool pavement'—whitening blocks in each of LA’s 15 council districts to see how changing the color of streets can bring down the overall temperature," Nate Berg reports in Gizmodo.
The city also encourages property owners to plant more trees on their land to create shade, "They hold more than 100 tree adoption events a year, and gave away nearly 18,000 trees in 2016 alone. Though street trees can play a part in cooling the city, Skrzat says there’s much more potential in the front and back yards of L.A.'s low density residential areas," Berg writes. Changing the colors of streets, roofs and maintaining more trees are all part of "Sustainable City pLAn," which includes a goal drop the city's heat differential by 3 degrees.
FULL STORY: The Radical Plan to Cool Down LA as the World Heats Up
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In the wake of the Eaton Fire, Altadena Green is working to preserve fire-damaged but recoverable trees, advocating for better assessment processes, educating homeowners, and protecting the community’s urban canopy from unnecessary removal.
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Florida Considers Legalizing ADUs
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Research: Walkability Linked to Improved Public Health
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Report Outlines Strategies for Resilient Wildfire Recovery in LA
Project Recovery offers a roadmap for rebuilding more sustainable and climate-resilient communities after wildfires and other disasters.
New Executive Order Renews Attack on Public Lands
An order issued late last week pushes for increased mineral extraction on federally owned public lands.
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