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(Photo: Steven Godfrey)
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@plantedcity
Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.
John F. Kennedy
(Photo: Steven Godfrey)

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Itâs Getting Hot in Here:Â âInvestment Funds Worth Trillions Are Dropping Fossil Fuel Stocksâ
From The New York Times:
Investors controlling more than $5 trillion in assets have committed to dropping some or all fossil fuel stocks from their portfolios, according to a new report tracking the trend.
The report, released Monday, said the new total was twice the amount measured 15 months ago â a remarkable rise for a movement that began on American college campuses in 2011. Since then, divestment has expanded to the business world and institutional world, and includes large pension funds, insurers, financial institutions and religious organizations. It has also spread around the world, with 688 institutions and nearly 60,000 individuals in 76 countries divesting themselves of shares in at least some kinds of oil, gas and coal companies, according to the report.
âItâs a stunning number,â said Ellen Dorsey, the executive director of the Wallace Global Fund, which has promoted fossil fuel divestment and clean energy investment as part of its philanthropy.
The movement has also received a boost from last yearâs Paris climate agreement, which set targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions to avoid the worst effects of climate change. The push for emissions reductions underscored the potential for the industry to be faced with reserves of fuels that cannot be burned if the targets are to be met â a prospect known as âstranded assets.â
Ms. Dorsey argued that since its beginnings as a moral statement against profiting from companies whose products were exacerbating climate change, more institutions have come to detect vulnerabilities in fossil fuel companies as the world shifts toward renewable sources of energy.
Read the rest of the article here.Â
(Photo: Steven Godfrey; Infographic: Carbon Tracker)
Related:
Average people can make a difference on global challenges (Phys.Org)
A beginnerâs guide to fossil fuel divestment (The Guardian)
Canadian Medical Association completes divestment from fossil fuels (National Observer)
As fossil fuel diehards take over the White House, the evidence of a fast-moving global energy transition has never been clearer (Jeremy Leggett)
China is going all in on clean energy as the U.S. waffles (Forbes)
... the more we can get people walking, biking and taking transit, (the better the chance) that when you have to drive a car somewhere it will be a better experience for you.
Torontoâs new transportation manager, Barbara Gray, makes one of the points that often gets lost in heated debates (e.g. here, here and here)  about how we get around in the 21st century. Think about it for a second: More people đśđ˝, đ´đ˝ââď¸ and riding đ = fewer đ on the road = more space for those that still get need to get around by car. Everybody wins!Â
The quote comes from a Toronto Star interview, which notes that as Seattleâs deputy director of transportation Gray authored one of the first guides for designing âcomplete streetsâ in an American city. Complete streets are streets designed for the safe, comfortable and convenient use by all ages and abilities however they choose to get around. Is your community building complete streets? How many different ways can you get from A to B and maybe C, D and E in your community?đĄ
Related:
âTorontoâs new transportation chief key to cityâs futureâ (Globe & Mail)
âLos Angeles breaks from its âcar reliant reputation with âMobility Plan 2035ââ (CityLab)
âParis boosts cycling infrastructure, names 2017Â âYear of the Bikeâ (Reuters)
Jeff Speck: â4 ways to make a city more walkableâ (Ted.com)
âThe 6 biggest roadblocks to building complete streets in our communitiesâ (Vancity Buzz)
Society grows great when old people* plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.
Greek proverb
Photo: Steven Godfrey (* The original quote uses the word âmenâ rather than people. Planting trees is a responsibility of all of us; not just some of us. đł)
Choosing Sustainability: Half of All Trips in Vancouver Are Now by Foot, Bike or Transit (Video) From Streetfilms:
Perhaps one of the best transportation stories of 2016 comes from Vancouver, B.C. where they have achieved a 50% sustainable mode share (bike, walk, transit) a full four years earlier than goal (2020). 10% of all work commuters now ride bikes to work.
Long traditionally a region that prides itself on transportation options and rejecting the freeway movement in the 1960's and 70's (still the only major city in North America that boasts no freeways within its core) what Vancouver has done is set an impressive goal to have at least two-thirds of all trips by sustainable ways by 2040.
More here.
Photo: Steven Godfrey
Related:
âTransit, cycling, walking together rival the car for Vancouver travelâ (Vancouver Sun)
âMillennials drive Vancouverâs transportation revolutionâ (Vancouver Observer)
âCity of Vancouver approves bold plan for zero emission buildings by 2030Ⲡ(Georgia Straight)
âTinder for cities: how tech is making urban planning more inclusiveâ (The Guardian)
âGreen cities: Why invest in sustainable cities?â (CNN)

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Of the 17 hottest years on record, 16 have now occurred since 2000.
One of the stunning facts found in Justin Gillis' must-read New York Times article, âEarth Sets a Temperature Record for the Third Straight Yearâ.Â
2016 is the new hottest year on record globally. Carbon emissions, which are driving the warming and come mainly from the burning of fossil fuels, keep climbing. They havenât been this high in 66 million years. In other words, since dinosaurs roamed the Earth.Â
In case youâre not sure why this matters read this and then do something about it.Â
Related:
âAverage people can make a difference on global challengesâ (Phys.Org)
âAs fossil fuel die-hards take over White House evidence of global energy transition has never been clearerâ (Jeremy Leggett)
âItâs not in your head: The weather is getting weirder and climate change is the reason whyâ (Popular Science)
âScotland sets ambitious goal of 66% emissions cut within 15 yearsâ (The Guardian)
âChina to spend $361 billion on renewable energy by 2020; part of shift away from fossil fuelsâ (Mashable)
đşđ¸ Women's Marches Go Global: Marches on All Seven Continents Demand 'A Better Future'
From Common Dreams:
The second day of the Trump administration has seen an unprecedented wave of protests swell across the globe, as the Women's March on Washington and its sister marches on all continentsâyes, including Antarcticaâfight back against the U.S. president's frightening rhetoric.
Organizers' informal tally now puts the total number of march participants at a stunning 2.5 million around the world. And with an estimated 500,000 marchers on the National Mall in Washington D.C., the Women's March is now the largest inaugural-related protest in U.S. history. Â
Read the rest of the article here. Related:
âThe absolutely best signs from the Womenâs Marchâ (Vice)
âOne out of every 100 Americans took to the streetâ (Quartz)
âFor one day of protest, every city belonged to its pedestriansâ (New York Magazine)
I'm asking you to believe. Not in my ability to bring about change â but in yours.
Barack Obama makes a request of all of us in his farewell address as U.S. President. #ThanksObama  Â
Photo: Letâs Move
Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.
Martin Luther King, JrÂ
The transformative American civil rights leader first used the line in a speech on March 8, 1965; the day after demonstrators crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama were met with police and mob violence. It sadly seems just as relevant in 2017.
â... countries and their businesses are moving forward, seeking to reap benefits for their countries by being at the front of the clean-energy race. This has not always been the case. A short time ago, many believed that only a small number of advanced economies should be responsible for reducing GHG [greenhouse gas] emissions and contributing to the fight against climate change. But nations agreed in Paris that all countries should put forward increasingly ambitious climate policies and be subject to consistent transparency and accountability requirements. This was a fundamental shift in the diplomatic landscape, which has already yielded substantial dividends. The Paris Agreement entered into force in less than a year, and, at the follow-up meeting this fall in Marrakesh, countries agreed that, with more than 110 countries representing more than 75% of global emissions having already joined the Paris Agreement, climate action âmomentum is irreversible.â
A quote from U.S. President Barack Obamaâs parting article on the âirreversible momentum of clean energyâ and its importance to our fight for a safe climate future. It wonât be easy, but we can do this!
Image: Ed Hawkins
Infographic: Global Carbon Project
Related:
2016 was the year solar panels finally became cheaper than fossil fuels. Just wait for 2017 (Quartz)
From Obamaâs top scientist, words of caution on climate (Yale e360)
China is about to kick America's butt in renewable energy (Mashable)
India targets 60% of electricity fossil fuel free by 2027 (The Guardian)
630 major firms warn Donald Trump his climate denial âputs American prosperity at riskâ (The Independent)
Republicans want to fight climate change, but fossil-fuel bullies wonât let them (Washington Post)

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For me, I am driven by two main philosophies: know more today about the world than I knew yesterday and lessen the suffering of others. You'd be surprised how far that gets you.â
Neil deGrasse Tyson, American astrophysicist, host of Star Talk and Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey and an all-around-awesome champion of science, facts and sustainability. He also has a very cool collection of ties.Â
Seen Around Town: Cool, Frosty Mornings
Iâve got more pics here if you like what you see.
Itâs Getting Hot in Here: The Climate War on Christmas
Some of the things that Iâve known and loved since I was a kid are taking a hit from as we warm our climate and oceans. The sockeye salmon that I grew up catching with my grandpa are declining in numbers as the rivers they travel warm. There is less snow on the mountains making snow sports and Winter Olympics increasingly difficult. The lack of prolonged cold temperatures is making backyard skating rinks another canary in the coal mine. Meanwhile, up in North Pole global warming is making Santa Clausâ job a whole lot more difficult. Last week we learned that global sea ice hit a low so low last month that climate scientists described it as a black swan event:
If every swan you ever saw was white, you might think a black swan is impossible. That idea is the basis for what people in the world of commerce call a black swan event: a situationâsuch as the 2008 financial crisisâso rare that few people saw it coming. In the world of sea ice, November 2016 brought the kind of surprise that few sea ice scientists anticipated. Ice conditions were so unusual that Ted Scambos, the lead scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center, described them as a black swan event. In early December, the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) reported that both Arctic and Antarctic sea ice extents had dropped to record lows in November 2016. The surprise was more than just both hemispheres experiencing record-low extents. The extents were far outside the range of variability that we'd expect based on historical observations. (NOAA)
Take a look at this chart and pay close attention to the red line. Thatâs global sea ice, which helps keep our planet cool and civilization stable, plummeting:
This is already making our weather more extreme:
The dramatic melting of Arctic ice is already driving extreme weather that affects hundreds of millions of people across North America, Europe and Asia, leading climate scientists have told the Guardian.
...
In November, ice levels hit a record low, and we are now in âuncharted territoryâ, said Prof Jennifer Francis, an Arctic climate expert at Rutgers University in the US, who first became interested in the region when she sailed through it on a round-the-world trip in the 1980s.
âThese rapid changes in the Arctic are affecting weather patterns where you live right now,â she said. âIn the past you have had natural variations like El NiĂąo, but they have never happened before in combination with this very warm Arctic, so it is a whole new ball game.
âIt is inconceivable that this ridiculously warm Arctic would not have an impact on weather patterns in the middle latitudes further south, where so many people live. (The Guardian)
So what does this have to do with Santa? Well, nobody likes to travel in terrible weather, but it goes much, much further than that (e.g. here, here and here). The extra challenge for Santa is that the reindeer that guide his sleight so bright are losing their food supply as the Arctic warms:
Reindeer populations are down, in large part thanks to climate change, reports a study focusing on China, which found numbers for the species were down more than 25 per cent since the 1970s.
But itâs not a problem limited to one country. A 2013 study by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration found declines in major reindeer herds in Canada, Russia and Alaska. The largest herd, with habitat in Russiaâs Tamyr peninsula, saw its population in 2000, roughly one million animals, drop to 700,000.
In Canada, the situation is no better. According to the World Wildlife Fund, fewer than half of Canadaâs barren-ground caribou population remain; certain groups, such as the Bathurst herd, have shown a drop from a historic high of 472,000 in 1986 to a present level of 19,769 â a decline of 95 per cent. Why should this matter? If reindeer, like polar bears, are just another species to fall victim to climate change, should we simply move on with our lives?In fact, reindeer, like any species, have a profound impact on their habitat, and according to research from University of Turku in Finland, a decline in their numbers can actually make climate change worse. Grazing by reindeer keeps Arctic vegetation in check, which in turn keeps solar heat absorption down; with fewer reindeer grazing, darker shrubs and trees spring up, absorbing more heat and thus warming their surroundings and the Earthâs atmosphere. (Winnipeg Free Press)
So, long story short, our warming of the icy and non-icy parts of our planet is a huge, increasingly concerning change that is unprecedented in human history. Just stop and think about that for a second. Unprecedented in human history! If we want to save some of it and keep something of the Christmases that weâve enjoyed in the past we really need to supercharge our efforts to power up our lives, communities and economies with evermore affordable and abundant renewable energy. That may be one of the best gift we can give to our families this year and going forward. Oh yeah, almost forgot if youâre wondering I could use some solar panels and an electric bike for Christmas. But, please, no coal or oil. We need to keep it in the hole. Ho ho ho!Â
Related:
An average U.S. familyâs carbon footprint destroys a football fieldâs worth of sea ice every 30 years (Science)
Mental health: How to stay sane in the face of climate change (Climate Progress)
People prepare to fight their governments on climate change (New Scientist)
Investment funds worth trillions are dropping fossil fuel stocks (New York Times)
Las Vegas is now powered 100% by renewable energy and more cities will follow (Quartz)
(Graph: New Scientist; Cartoon: Tom Toles via The Washington Post; Reindeer Photo: Wikipedia)
Every time you spend money, youâre casting a vote for the kind of world you want.
Anna Lappe (Diet for a Hot Planet) on the power and impacts attached to our everyday choices. What do you choose?
(Photo: Steven Godfrey)
Thriving Cities: Londonâs Mayor Invests Big to Make Bike Transport "Safe and Obviousâ Choice From The Guardian:
Londonâs mayor, Sadiq Khan, has promised to spend ÂŁ770m [$960 million] on cycling initiatives over the course of his term, saying he wants to make riding a bike the âsafe and obviousâ transport choice for all Londoners.
Following criticism that Khan has not been as bold as his predecessor, Boris Johnson, in committing to new bike routes, and amid increasing worries about air quality in London, Khanâs office has set out what is described as a hugely ambitious programme to boost cyclist numbers.
The proposed spending of about ÂŁ17 per person per year gets near the levels seen in cycle-friendly nations such as the Netherlands and Denmark.
Among the plans are proposals for two new cycle superhighways, routes on which riders are largely separated from motor traffic by kerbs and dedicated traffic lights, the first of which were built under Johnson and have proved hugely popular.
Check out the rest of the article here. Then go for a ride. Iâll see you in the bike lane. đ˛
Photos: Steven Godfrey
London may soon have more bikes than cars at rush hour (CityLab)
Four major cities move to ban diesel vehicles by 2025 (BBC)
Paris makes all public transport free in battle against âworst air pollution in 10 yearsâ (The Independent)
Building bike lanes could slow climate change (Momentum Mag)
In Detroit, a bike company prepares for a future with less cars (Inverse)
Torontoâs new transportation boss says the car is no longer king (Toronto Star)

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Worldwide, we are seeing a heterogeneous collection of cities interacting in a way that could have far-reaching influence on how Earthâs entire life-support system evolves. These cities are learning from one another, building on good ideas and jettisoning poorer ones. Los Angeles took decades to implement pollution controls, but other cities, like Beijing, converted rapidly when they saw the benefits. In the coming decades, we may see a global system of interconnected sustainable cities emerging. If successful, everyone will want to join the club.
Economist Elinor Ostrom, on the vital role of cities in building a sustainable future. The quote comes from the Project Syndicate article, âGreen From The Grassrootsâ. For those keeping score at home, Ostrom is the only woman to have won the Nobel Prize in Economics. Hereâs hoping that changes soon too.
Photo: Steven Godfrey
Related:
Mayors look to tackle climate change at city level (Financial Times)
Even under Trump, cities will fight climate change (CityLab)
7,000 cities around the world are way ahead of targets to cut carbon emissions (Quartz)
Why New York City canât ignore climate change (CityLab)
How to plan for an uncertain future (Planetizen)
Choosing Sustainability: Sweden Takes Big Step Away From Throwaway Culture Sweden is one of those countries that we often hear about doing things right. The Nordic nation is frequently ranked as one of the worldâs happiest countries in the world and is also home to the worldâs 5th most competitive economy. Not a bad mix! Sweden also happens to be a big big leader in the fight against climate change. The country has had a carbon tax since 1991 and is working toward its goal of becoming the 1st country to shift away from fossil fuels to an economy powered by 100% renewable energy. But, Swedenâs commitment to sustainability doesnât end with its efforts to reduce carbon pollution. The countryâs leaders understand that disposable consumer culture is at its core unsustainable and theyâve decided to do something about it:Â
"If we want to solve the problems of sustainability and the environment we have to work on consumption," Swedenâs finance and consumption minister Per Bolund told The Local. "One area we are really looking at is so-called ânudging.â That means, through various methods, making it easier for people to do the right thing." Nudging might involve clearer signage to reach the recycling station, for example.Â
The proposed legislation would cut regular tax on repairs of bikes, clothes, and shoes from 25% to 12%. Swedes would also be able to claim half the labor cost of appliance repairs (refrigerators, washing machines and other white goods) from their income tax. Together, these tax cuts are expected to cost the country around $54 million per year. This will be more than paid for by the estimated $233 million brought in by a new "chemical tax," which would tax the resources that go into making new goods and computers. (Source:Â FastCoExist)
Pretty impressive all things considered! What do you think? Are you ready to embrace sustainable choices like Sweden? Even if your state, province or country doesnât have leaders charting a sustainable path there are lots of ways to tackle this problem at the local level. The sharing economy with its access to bikes, cars, tools and more when you need them is one avenue to explore. Another is to visit your local repair cafe where people meet to fix and repair goods rather than just dump them in a landfill and buy something else. If there isnât a repair cafe where you live you might consider creating one. They're popping up in cities and towns all around the world and proving to be not just good for our future, but also a lot of fun. Who knows? You might even learn a useful skill along the way. Bonus!Â
Infographic: Forbes Â
Related:
The Story of Stuff (Video)
What Happens When Fashion Becomes Fast, Disposable And Cheap? (NPR)
Climate change, meet your apocalyptic twin: oceans poisoned by plastic (PRI)
Why Cities Can and Should Lead on Sustainable Consumption (Shareable)
US Car-Sharing Service Kept 28,000 Cars Off the Road in 3 Years (The Guardian)
The Problems and Potential of Sustainability in the Sharing Economy (Eco Business)
Local Repair Cafes Divert Waste From Landfills (Georgia Straight)