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For nations and cities across the world, 2020 was set to be a milestone year in their fight against climate change. It’s the first in a series of globally earmarked emission-reduction waypoints—2020, 2030, 2050—with 2020 planned as an initial benchmarking moment, a time to see progress towards meeting targets aimed at limiting global warming.
Now, the year is nearly here, and early signs of overall progress should signal concern.
— Quartz
Quartz looked at the environmental data of selected cities that had set emission reduction targets for 2020 and analyzed the progress made thus far. According to the outlet, "only 20% of those targets have completed or are more than half-way towards their goal." Among the high-achieving cities... View full entry
London-based architecture practice Foster + Partners recently announced its goal to "outline a holistic sustainable approach" towards its projects as a way to measure "embodied and operational carbon in each project." Aiming to use their international stature and design prowess to... View full entry
Little Haiti’s elevation is 7 feet above sea level with pockets in the neighborhood that go as high as 14 feet above sea level. By comparison, Miami Beach is about 4 feet above sea level.
A building boom is happening all over Miami, including in low-lying areas, but some experts say sea level rise is speeding up gentrification in high-elevation communities that historically have seen very little investment from the outside.
— WLRN
WLRN, in collaboration with WNYC's The Stakes podcast, covers the impact of the recent investment interest in Miami-Dade County’s historically black inland communities, such as Little Haiti, which are "naturally resilient" to sea-level rise due to their higher elevation. View full entry
Architects from around the world are continue to sign onto the Architects Declare Climate & Biodiversity Emergency call. The most recent national delegation to join the call comes from Germany, where at least 38 firms—including GRAFT, Kéré Architecture, Max Dudler, and... View full entry
The U.S. central bank signaled on Friday it may be getting ready to join international peers in incorporating climate change risk into its assessments of financial stability, and may even take it into account when setting monetary policy. — Reuters
Despite the Trump administration's unabashed rejection of climate science, the United States Federal Reserve is moving in the opposite direction. The shift could impact how America's central bank assesses financial metrics like interest rates and how entities like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac... View full entry
Venice was reeling after experiencing its highest level of floodwater since 1966. High tides from the lagoon reached more than 6 feet higher than their usual level—the second-highest ever seen since records began in 1923. Two people were reported dead. Waters entered the nave of St. Mark’s Basilica and parts of the La Fenice opera house, left boats deposited on the canalside paving stones and in the middle of city streets, and surged across more than 80 percent of the city’s surface. — CityLab
Feargus O'Sullivan, writing in CityLab, reports on the devastating flooding that has impacted Venice, Italy, where five of the 20 worst floods in the city's history have occurred over the last ten years. Aside from being located on a spit of land in the northern Adriatic sea, Venice has... View full entry
Between 1946 and 1958, the United States detonated 67 nuclear bombs on, in and above the Marshall Islands — vaporizing whole islands, carving craters into its shallow lagoons and exiling hundreds of people from their homes.
[...] It then deposited the atoll’s most lethal debris and soil into the dome.
Now the concrete coffin, which locals call “the Tomb,” is at risk of collapsing from rising seas and other effects of climate change.
— The Los Angeles Times
A stunning report from The Los Angeles Times highlights America's deteriorating nuclear legacy on the Marshall Islands, where a vast concrete dome built to contain radioactive soil imported regionally and from Nevada is beginning to fail amid rising sea levels. According to the report... View full entry
The Trump administration has formally notified the United Nations that the U.S. is withdrawing from the Paris climate agreement. The withdrawal will be complete this time next year, after a one-year waiting period has elapsed.
"We will continue to work with our global partners to enhance resilience to the impacts of climate change and prepare for and respond to natural disasters," Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement Monday.
— NPR.com
Rachel Cleetus of the Union of Concerned Scientists told NPR, “The reality is, to really deliver on our climate goals, we do need strong federal action," adding, "The unfortunate reality is U.S. carbon emissions actually rose last year." View full entry
In 2005, the Port of Seattle predicted Sea-Tac would be at capacity by 2021, with 45 million annual passengers.
Last year, nearly 50 million people flew into or out of Sea-Tac. And the number of planes landing at the airport is expected to increase by nearly 60% between 2014 and 2034. The Port plans to spend roughly $6 billion by 2027 to expand Sea-Tac to meet that rising demand.
— The Seattle Times
For the third time in 25 years, Seattle is embarking on a quest to add a second regional airport serving the region, one of the fastest-growing in the country. View full entry
The United States Department of Defense (DoD) is studying the ways in which it can update its departmental building standards in order to make military bases and other sites less vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, including the increased frequency and intensity of natural... View full entry
The push for cleaner construction methods to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution on building sites has increased in recent years due to the worsening climate crisis. Nations across the globe have expressed their intent in finding better solutions for addressing the negative impacts... View full entry
To survive the summer heat, Qatar not only air-conditions its soccer stadiums, but also the outdoors — in markets, along sidewalks, even at outdoor malls so people can window shop with a cool breeze. “If you turn off air conditioners, it will be unbearable. You cannot function effectively,” says Yousef al-Horr, founder of the Gulf Organization for Research and Development. — The Washington Post
Want to see the future of climate change? Take a look at Qatar, where average temperatures have already risen by more than 2-degrees Celsius relative to pre-industrial times. View of the Al Wakrah Sports Club, designed by Zaha Hadid Architects. Image courtesy of Hufton + Crow. The... View full entry
“This moment, the beginning of the 21st century, is a big moment to change the direction — toward sustainability and disaster relief,” he said. “This will continue as the main theme of this century.” Times had changed since the Modernist era: “Those times, people believed that they would have utopia some day. But we know that it’s not true. There’s no utopia.” — T Magazine
Nikil Saval, writing in T Magazine profiles architect Shigeru Ban in a wide-ranging article, shedding light on Ban's American education at the Southern California Institute of Architecture and The Cooper Union, highlighting the architect's ideological disagreements with Peter Eisenman... View full entry
A few years ago, the owners of the Rangers concluded that the sweat-inducing weather was depressing attendance, and decided to build $1.2 billion Globe Life Field, with a retractable roof and air conditioning, right next to their not-very-old and still perfectly good stadium. The residents of Arlington are chipping in $500 million of that cost. — Bloomberg
As climate change continues to bestow its work upon the planet, Texas Rangers Baseball are one of the many feeling its effects. Globe Life Field, the new HKS designed baseball park under construction in Arlington, Texas, and due for completion in March of next year, is the $1.2 billion response to... View full entry
As the effects of climate change grow more apparent, the question of where to build is due to become a significantly more complicated affair. A case in point comes from a recent report in The New York Times highlighting the ties between financing, land-use, and climate... View full entry
