The solutions aren't just buying electric widgets. We can also shift from car-dependent sprawl to attached housing in dense multi-use neighborhoods with frequent public transit and protected active transit. This can reduce energy demand by >half while improving convenience and public health.
France passed a law requiring solar panels on every parking lot with more than 80 spaces.
Equals 10 nuclear reactors
Reduces heat island, shades cars
The US -- 800 million parking spaces. Most of them are uncovered asphalt sitting in direct sunlight.
Why aren't we doing this?
It’s amazing to me, how quickly progressives have shifted their views on this issue. And encouraging!
Surprised myself with this story. Went into the desert expecting to write about a terrible solar project that would harm bighorn sheep...and ended up writing why California should maybe approve it anyway.
In the Anthropocene, there are no easy choices: www.climatecoloredgoggles.com/p/soda-mount...
Opposition leader Péter Magyar at a rally.
Orbán's electoral crushing is a far greater achievement than most people outside Hungary realise.
He systemically consolidated power for 16 years, fixed the electoral map, abused govt power for political purposes & censored media.
The hurdles that Hungarians overcame for this moment were immense.
Most food consumed in the US is already produced here. We were a net ag exporter for 60 years & only since 2019 net importer, bc we like access to tropical products & off-season produce. Also, we waste ~40% of the food we produce, and use the majority of our corn & soy for animal feed and biofuels.
NEW US electricity data ⚡️🇺🇸
In March, renewables produced more than a third of US electricity for the first time ever, even overtaking gas generation!
Wind and solar combined reached over a quarter (26%) for the first time.
“We’ve lost out on the ability to continue to improve this work to make it more effective, and to explore how to apply it to other areas…There are a lot of different ways that genetics has been used to justify prejudice and…that human-made social categories interface with biological categories“🧪
Whatever happens, this is a deeply shameful episode in American history that will leave a permanent stain on the country.
Repeatedly vowing to commit war crimes against millions of innocent civilians is beyond the pale.
So! Geothermal heat pumps strain power grids less than air-source. They save money on upsizing power grids by spending money (hopefully less!) digging holes instead. Networked geothermal - digging shared holes connected by pipes - may have some advantages over conventional, hole-by-hole geothermal.
A view across the Reflecting Pool toward the World War II Memorial and Washington Monument from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. People are strolling around in the sun and enjoying being out and about. The sky is blue.
Walked across the Mall this afternoon in the warm spring sun surrounded by people from all over speaking tons of different languages, flying kites, riding bikes and scooters, tossing footballs and frisbees, chilling with friends and family, jogging and walking, and enjoying free museums. Still hits.
The historic "snow drought" in the Western US this year is scary for water supply in CA and the CO River, and basically everywhere else in the West. Climate change is an undeniable factor, and we will see more of this going forward. Don't invest in ski areas. www.climatecentral.org/climate-matt...
Yes to everything in this @mattyglesias.bsky.social post about the downsides of most new townhouse developments www.slowboring.com/p/make-townh...
Even new urbanist townhouses that get the street grid and the architecture right fail on imo the most important thing—they’re in neighborhoods that are not even close to dense enough to support real walkability
📊 Explore updated data on how consumer prices have changed in the United States—
Since 1997, the price of college tuition in the United States has more than tripled. Over the same period, the price of televisions has fallen by 98%. You can see these and other trends in the chart.
Townhouses are the cheapest type of construction to build.
American cities contain many beloved historic townhouse neighborhoods.
So why do new townhouse projects generally suck? Can’t we do better?
www.slowboring.com/p/make-townh...
As a baseball fan of many years, I’ve never seen anything like this before. I love it. Normalize giving your fellow humans hugs.
This story does not mention the big blackout of April 2025 but the ENTSO-E report that came out on Friday said voltage control was a key factor in the outage.
Things like this, affecting how the Spanish grid is managed, could help avoid a repeat of the blackout.
www.pv-magazine.com/2026/03/25/s...
WABA — who sued the feds over the planned removal of the 15th Street NW protected bike lane — says the Justice Department reports the project won't begin today as previously announced, but rather on or after March 30.
Don't miss @maustermuhle.bsky.social's reporting on the bike lane brouhaha:
Just to be clear -- they want to remove the portion of the bike lane that's under federal control, on the National Mall. You could ride the bike lane through downtown, heading south, but it would vanish at Constitution Avenue.
Beautiful day yesterday. Biked past the Tidal Basin, up the 15th Street bike lane, with many other happy people. Our anti-bike federal officials now have ordered this lane removed. Reportedly starting today. Here's a petition to support the bike lane. waba.org/action-page/...
Austin’s surge of new housing supply drove down housing prices across the board, with the largest benefit going to renters in the lowest cost buildings: “Rents declined about 11% in older non-luxury buildings that cater to lower-income renters, known as Class C buildings.”
The administration is using our taxes to pay companies to worsen climate change
Live in NYC? Might want to check this out. Looks like an interesting way to test out more virtual power plant like approaches and potentially save you some money.
We're about 25 new members away from reaching our goal to be able to expand The 51st's newsroom! If you've been waiting for a sign to join, this is it!
One big missing piece in this plan: There's no decent route for bikers and pedestrians to get to the stadium from the east, coming across the river! (The ridiculously tiny pedestrian walkway on the East Capitol bridge has long been one of my pet peeves.)
Update: I now have a six-point plan to lower food prices.
1. Stop the war.
Certainly my experience with universities. Sustainability offices are great, but emissions really start to fall when the facilities department is well funded, staffed, and directed.
In Gmail, go to the settings gear, select All Settings. If you have the box for Smart Features checked, you can keep it checked. But below that, in a section called "Google Workspace Smart Features," uncheck "Smart Features in Workspace."
If you, like me, are incredibly annoyed by Gemini insisting on summarizing your emails -- it IS possible to turn off that "feature."
Seed oils are fine. GMOs are fine. High-fructose corn syrup is bad but no worse than cane sugar. Pasteurizing milk is good. Glyphosate is not causing a disease epidemic.
I wrote about RFK’s food and farming insanity. It’s related to his vaccine insanity!
www.thebulwark.com/p/robert-ken...
