Architecture after the coronavirus
What happens when nobody wants to get on an elevator?
Your office is where you are: an update
The coronavirus may change the way we think about the office for a very long time.
The bike revolution needs safe and secure parking, like Oonee
As scooters and e-bikes proliferate, we need a place to put them.
Why we need fewer, smaller, lighter, slower cars: particulate pollution from brake wear is giving us "London Throat"
Got a froggy "city throat"? It might be from metal particles emitted from braking cars and trucks.
NHTSA keeps blaming victims instead of regulating SUVs and pickups
Activists everywhere were outraged by their latest public service message.
Bjarke Ingels Group and Toyota are building a wild, woven and wooden city of the future
It's actually rather elegant and understated for the Danish superstar.
Hyundai introduces flying Ubers, rolling toaster-cars
I can't wait for this exciting new world of urban mobility.
My wellness app is a bright green city
This year, we should resolve to walk more. It will keep you healthier and happier.
Idaho stops are now legal in Oregon too
Maybe other jurisdictions will learn from this.
Surprise! Study finds that gas heating is cheaper than electric
That doesn't mean we shouldn't still be trying to electrify everything.
Gas stoves are unhealthy and polluting, and the New York Times is on it
The message "Electrify Everything!" is beginning to spread.
If you think the Green New Deal is tough to do, think about the Rural Electrification Administration
Starting in 1936 they wired the entire country, the houses, the tools and the farms, changing America. It is time to think big and do it again.
Why we need "all of the above" carbon-free power sources
More on why the 626 environmental groups demanding action on climate change shouldn't be doctrinaire.
The UK sees lowest per-capita energy generation since 1984
It's not just renewables that are driving down emissions.
What's all that stuff on Sir Adam Beck's head?
It's an interesting art installation that brings some attention to an electrifying man.
UK has passed 1,000 hours without coal this year
That's compared to 624 in the whole of 2017...
Hard Brexit: Northern Ireland may need thousands of generator barges to keep the lights on
It turns out leaving the EU is quite hard. Who knew?
Why is the Trump administration putting a tariff on Chinese LEDs?
Could it be that more efficient lighting means less coal being dug to power it?
California utility offers rebates and incentives for going all-electric
SMUD demonstrate that all-electric living is actually cheaper than gas.
Turn out the lights at noon for Daylight Hour
Natural light is free and plentiful and the day is long.
It's Bitcoin in a box as Nordcoin introduces Mobile Mining Containers
It's a moveable feast of cheaper, cooler, greener electricity for building blockchains.
Duke Energy dedicates $25 million to EV charging in NC, promises 300 MW of battery storage
In a compromise with environmentalists, the energy giant is committing some significant resources to clean tech.
CA approves utilities' massive $738 million electric vehicle proposal
This will mark a significant scaling of electrified transportation—including trucks and buses too.
In California, people without rooftop solar panels pay a $65 per year subsidy to those with them
Solar power is a wonderful thing but the benefits are not evenly distributed.
The Economist looks at the Duck Curve, goes quackers on the metaphors
Perhaps it is time to stuff this duck analogy.
UK's National Grid supports 2030 petrol/diesel car ban
The electricity grid can handle a ban, ten years earlier than law makers are aiming for.
Bank signs one contract, goes 100% renewable by EOY
Fifth Third Bank shows us just how easy it is becoming for corporations to source all of their electricity from renewables.
Park Avenue Green is the largest Passive House building in North America
But Passive House is so expensive! How can you build housing for the homeless and low income families this way?
Should green homes have gas stoves and wood fireplaces?
One Passive House architect gives his clients what they want.
It's time to get serious about dealing with cars and trucks in the city
In Toronto and New York, Vision Zero is just talk. It's time for action.
More praise for dumb cities
Smart cities are not a panacea, and the New York Times is on it.
The House at Cornell Tech deserves to be put on such a visible pedestal
This is the future of building, and it works. Get used to it.
It's time to get serious about noise pollution
If you could see "aural litter" you would be shocked at how much of it there is.
New York State lawmakers want to ban walking with portable electronic devices
There are all kinds of distracted and compromised people in our roads. Some of them cannot help it. So why are phones a problem?
Passivhaus is Climate Action
Architects and builders take to the streets for the Extinction Rebellion, get arrested.
It's time for an upfront carbon emissions tax on building
These sliver towers are incredibly inefficient and even have fake mechanical spaces to make them even taller. We all pay the price in carbon.
Our urban problems aren't caused by restrictions on density, but by inequality
We have gone beyond gentrification and are now talking about Pikketyfication, aristocratization and plutocratification.
Wing Bikes is selling an e-bike that costs less than a New York Metrocard
This is very smart marketing, and not a bad looking bike.
Restructuring Argentina’s Private Debt is Essential
Argentina's creditors are being asked to accept a proposal that would reduce their revenue stream but make it sustainable. A responsible resolution will set a positive precedent, not only for Argentina, but for the international financial system as a whole.
The United States Forgot Its Strategy for Winning Cold Wars
Stephen Walt writes that arguments against U.S. offshore balancing misunderstand history. The strategy that worked against the Soviet Union can work against China.
How to Avoid a W-shaped Global Coronavirus Recession
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,” George Santayana famously quipped in 1905. It is a phrase that has been repeated for over a century, but rarely heeded. As Covid-19 decimates the global economy, our understanding of history could be the difference between a V- or U-shaped recession and a W-shaped one, in which incipient recovery is followed by successive relapses.
As recently as March, V-shaped recoveries in individual economies seemed plausible. Once infections and deaths had peaked and begun to decline, the logic went, people would eagerly return to work. The economic activity might even get an extra boost, as consumers released pent-up demand.
History Warns Us to Avoid a W-shaped Recession
“Those who do not study history are condemned to repeat it.” And the rest of us are condemned to repeat George Santayana.
Will the Coronavirus Recession of 2020 be V-shaped? Or U-shaped? If we fail to heed the lessons of history it is likely to be W-shaped, with incipient recovery followed by successive relapses into sickness and recession.
As has been widely noted, we would have been better prepared to cope with the Covid-19 pandemic in the first place if everyone had paid more attention to the past history of epidemics. Be that as it may, the world is now deep into the pandemic and its economic consequences, the most severe such events since the interwar period, 1918-1939. As decision-makers in every country contemplate their next steps, they would do well to ponder the precedents of that interwar period.
Romney's Reckless China Rhetoric Risks New Cold War
Rachel Esplin Odell argues for a wiser and more conservative strategy that resists the temptation to exaggerate the challenge posed by China.