Edward L. Glaeser (Professor of Economics at Harvard) article on density vs. urban farming

http://articles.boston.com/2011-06-16/bostonglobe/29666344_1_greenhouse-gas-carbon-emissions-local-food

"In 2008, two Carnegie Mellon researchers analyzed the reduction in carbon emissions that might come from moving to local food. They found that American food consumption produces greenhouse gas equivalent to 8.9 tons of carbon dioxide per household per year. Food delivery represents .4 tons of that total; all agricultural transportation up and down the food chain creates one ton of carbon dioxide per household annually."

NY Times American Community Survey Household Demographics

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/06/19/nyregion/how-many-households-are-like-yours.html?ref=nyregion

Kunstler article on smaller cities

I take some of Kunstler's ideas and moods and leave others. This article had some great ideas. The way he describes the structure of smaller cities reminds me of the nodal city system of the Netherlands. I think the deepening economic crisis and peaking energy crisis will draw attention to our country being too large too manage.

http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/article/6336


"I see our cities getting smaller and denser, with fewer people. Skyscrapers will be obsolete, travel greatly reduced, and the rural edge more distinct. The energy inputs to our economies will decrease a lot, and probably in ways that prove destabilizing. The first manifestations of climate change will be food shortages, one of the reasons I think super slum cities will be short-lived. The growth of urban megaslums in the past one hundred years has been predicated on turning oil into food, and the failure of that equation is aggravating weather-related crop failures around the world. Food shortages will quickly bend the arc of world population growth downward from the poorer margins and inward to the “developed” center—with stark implications for politics and even civil order. The crisis of money is already hampering the operation of cities and will soon critically impede the repair of water systems, paved streets, electric service, and other vital infrastructure. We are heading into a major reset of daily life, a phase of history I call The Long Emergency. Tomorrow will be a lot more like a distant yesteryear in terms of reduced comforts, commerce, and the scale of things."

Seattle Community Solar and an article on solar energy

http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/blog/post/2011/06/value-of-solar-power-far-exceeds-the-electricity


http://www.seattle.gov/light/Solar/community.asp

NY Times American Community Survey Maps

http://projects.nytimes.com/census/2010/explorer

Flow batteries could replace gas system in cars

New battery design could give electric vehicles a jolt
Significant advance in battery architecture could be breakthrough for electric vehicles and grid storage.

http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2011/flow-batteries-0606.html

China ends wind power subsidies after US challenge

I support the United Steel Workers Union, but I am frustrated that the US always has its cake and eats it too.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-13692255