CUSP map: taking a look under the hood of the city
A new crowdsourced map shows some important features of the city and describes how we can respond to changing climate.
Bicycling around a warming globe
Part epic journey, part field research: David Kroodsma and Lindsey Fransen bicycled across Asia researching climate. It turns out that low carbon travel is possible with time and strong legs, and probably a much better way to see things.
New York’s lead role in solving for the future
A panel at Columbia looked at how New York is taking a leading role in how cities both cope with, and solve, the planetary challenge of climate change.
Joel Towers
“We’re educating students who will go out into the world and have 60 years or more of productive and engaged life. What is the world going to be like 60 years from now?”
A new book about what we don’t know
Gernot Wagner is an economist who focuses on what he doesn’t know. Tail events, the black swans, the unknown unknowns. The future.
How can global finance…help the globe?
Can global finance rapidly shift gears to trigger a new wave of sustainable investing?
Using geology to fix the atmosphere
What if the key to halting climate change lay not in the atmosphere above our heads, but in the rock beneath our feet?
Answering the hardest question on campus
By the time college freshmen graduate in 2018, we’ll know whether we’ve moved quickly enough on climate agreements and behavior change to stay within the 2°C target.
Oysters!
“In Dutch and English days, immense beds of oysters grew in the harbor. They bordered the shores of Brooklyn and Queens, and they encircled Manhattan, Staten Island, and the islands in the Upper Bay…”
The wilderness of the Gowanus Canal
Miska Draskoczy’s photography brings to life an area of Brooklyn that has only recently gotten major attention – for its real estate potential, Whole Foods establishment, and a…
MAS Summit 2014: four visits to New York’s big survey of ideas
This year’s theme was ‘equity, place, and opportunity,’ and the conference comprised a brisk review of new ideas and commentary on how to make the city work for all its citizens.
Climate change knowledge for an urbanized planet: UCCRN
The people behind the Urban Climate Change Research Network (UCCRN) are passionate about delivering climate science to cities, with over 100 citations in the latest IPCC report. So who are they?
The case for the electric taxi
In his January 2013 State of the City Address, Mayor Bloomberg called for a one-third electric taxi fleet by 2020. What will it take to make that happen?
Manhattan 2014: back and getting bigger than ever
Two years after Hurricane Sandy Manhattan is back and getting bigger than ever.
On forests, the gap between carbon ideals and binding commitments
Healthy forests make for healthy cities, and for a healthy planet, but a new declaration from the UN climate summit may not offer enough protection for them.
Reflections on the People’s Climate March
Four City Atlas interns and the editor reflect on their experiences at the People’s Climate March.
Food breakthroughs that launched our world of plenty (and Big Macs)
Ruth DeFries’ new book describes humanity’s incredible success at expanding our own food supply.