For decades, Americans have been losing their ability, even their right, to walk. [...] there are vast blankets and folds of the country where the ability to walk – to open a door and step outside and go somewhere or nowhere without getting behind the wheel of a car – is a struggle, a fight. A risk.

[...] we encourage car travel and discourage moving on foot. More than discourage it, we criminalise it where deemed necessary. — aeon.co

Cheryl Smith planned to move "off the grid" and into a small house near Clark's Harbour, N.S., a year ago.

But thanks to Canadian building regulations, the four-by-six metre structure remains half-built and empty. [...]

Canadian laws require living spaces to have access to power to run smoke detectors and air exchange systems.

But Smith said the point of moving into her tiny home was to disconnect from the power grid. — ctvnews.ca

“I was a little disappointed in the fire service,” said Belles, standing on the charred hillside next to the dome in his semi-rural neighbourhood on the edge of town. — theguardian.com

The Related Companies, the city’s largest developer, plans to “tube up” the residential towers in Hudson Yards, its massive real estate development atop the MTA’s west side rail yard. The first large-scale pneumatic waste network to be constructed in the US since Roosevelt Island’s, it will serve 5,000 apartments in six buildings, the first of which is scheduled for completion in 2018. — Urban Omnibus

Sadly, even the Grand Canyon, a symbolic landmark of America’s natural environment, unfortunately isn’t immune to the ravages of pollution.

Concentrations of mercury and selenium in canyon’s food webs — the interconnected food chains in the environment — regularly exceed levels considered risky for fish and wildlife. Those findings are from a study from the U.S. Geological Survey scientists published in the journal Environmental Toxicity and Chemistry. — Discovery

While wind may be one of the most economical power sources out there, photovoltaic solar energy has a big advantage: it can go small.

While wind gets cheaper as turbines grow larger, the PV hardware scales down to fit wherever we have infrastructure. In fact, simply throwing solar on our existing building stock could generate a very large amount of carbon-free electricity. — Ars Technica

Wood fell out of fashion as a building material in the Soviet Union in favour of concrete. Now, architects across the new east are returning to wood for its many qualities including cost-effectiveness and sustainability. [...]

“Urban wooden architecture is something completely different. It is for the people, without any kind of pretensions for the long-term. It has no direct economic benefit, but it promotes unity and healthy communication.” — calvertjournal.com

Waikiki Beach closed on Monday after heavy rains caused by a tropical storm set off the spills.

Tropical Storm Kilo caused 500,00 gallons of wastewater to come gushing out of manholes, making the waterfront unsafe for beachgoers.

"Now's not the time to go swimming," said Lori Kahikina, Honolulu's director of environmental services.

The beachfront sees about 4.5m tourists annually.

It will be a few days before the ocean is safe for people to swim in again, Ms Kahikina said... — BBC

Should the current drought extend for another two or three years, most California cities and much of the state's agriculture would be able to manage, but the toll on small rural communities dependent on well-water and on wetlands and wildlife could be extensive.

That was the assessment of a new study from the Public Policy Institute of California, released late Tuesday.

...the report cautions that “it would not be prudent to count on El Nino to end the drought.” — LA Times

In any event, it's as you were for the "haves" at the top of list, with Melbourne taking the top spot for a fifth year running, with Vienna, Vancouver, Toronto and Adelaide/Calgary (tied at 5) completing the top five most livable cities in 2015.

[...] these cities have "relatively few challenges to living standards," and enjoy a good infrastructure, healthcare system and a low murder rate.

Unsurprisingly, Damascus remains the least livable city, with Syria embroiled in a bloody civil war. — cnn.com

They were once the tallest residential structures in Europe and a beacon of hope for residents of Glasgow’s slums. Now ... the remaining structures of the Red Road flats will, at last, be demolished. [...]

Built in the 1960s on Glasgow’s north-eastern edge, the flats were intended to house almost 5,000 people as part of an effort to ease overcrowding and combat slum conditions. But in the decades that followed, they were plagued by a range of problems, social and structural. — theguardian.com

It is a region where America, the global superpower, looks more like a developing nation [...]. Indeed, the water crisis is becoming a humanitarian one -- because the absurd agricultural policy of many arid regions in California is being carried to extremes. More recklessly than elsewhere, wetlands in the state are being dried out to make irrigated agriculture possible.

Agriculture makes up 2 percent of California's GDP, and yet it consumes 80 percent of the state's water. — spiegel.de

Dublin is building a water park — in the middle of the worst drought in California’s modern history. [...]

“It just looks bad, frankly ... It looks like we are out there thinking, ‘Let’s just go out there and build a water park,’ when the rest of the state is suffering.” [...]

“Even if the drought weren’t to end,” said Lori Taylor, a spokeswoman for the city, “there will be a need for places where kids need to learn how to swim.” — nytimes.com

California has water resources that Australia does not have...

Even assuming the forecasts of climate change in California are correct, it is not correct to say California’s climate is likely to become drier overall—more like Australia—so much as it is to say that our dry periods may be longer, and our wet periods may be “flashier” and more intense.

The policy prescriptions that flow from that, then, make a discussion about adopting “the Australian model” a complete non-sequitur. — Natural Resource Report