#- Environmental Planning

[reasonsforhope]

"With “green corridors” that mimic the natural forest, the Colombian city is driving down temperatures — and could become five degrees cooler over the next few decades.

In the face of a rapidly heating planet, the City of Eternal Spring — nicknamed so thanks to its year-round temperate climate — has found a way to keep its cool.

Previously, Medellín had undergone years of rapid urban expansion, which led to a severe urban heat island effect — raising temperatures in the city to significantly higher than in the surrounding suburban and rural areas. Roads and other concrete infrastructure absorb and maintain the sun’s heat for much longer than green infrastructure.

“Medellín grew at the expense of green spaces and vegetation,” says Pilar Vargas, a forest engineer working for City Hall. “We built and built and built. There wasn’t a lot of thought about the impact on the climate. It became obvious that had to change.”

Efforts began in 2016 under Medellín’s then mayor, Federico Gutiérrez (who, after completing one term in 2019, was re-elected at the end of 2023). The city launched a new approach to its urban development — one that focused on people and plants.

The $16.3 million initiative led to the creation of 30 Green Corridors along the city’s roads and waterways, improving or producing more than 70 hectares of green space, which includes 20 kilometers of shaded routes with cycle lanes and pedestrian paths.

These plant and tree-filled spaces — which connect all sorts of green areas such as the curb strips, squares, parks, vertical gardens, sidewalks, and even some of the seven hills that surround the city — produce fresh, cooling air in the face of urban heat. The corridors are also designed to mimic a natural forest with levels of low, medium and high plants, including native and tropical plants, bamboo grasses and palm trees.

Heat-trapping infrastructure like metro stations and bridges has also been greened as part of the project and government buildings have been adorned with green roofs and vertical gardens to beat the heat. The first of those was installed at Medellín’s City Hall, where nearly 100,000 plants and 12 species span the 1,810 square meter surface.

“It’s like urban acupuncture,” says Paula Zapata, advisor for Medellín at C40 Cities, a global network of about 100 of the world’s leading mayors. “The city is making these small interventions that together act to make a big impact.”

At the launch of the project, 120,000 individual plants and 12,500 trees were added to roads and parks across the city. By 2021, the figure had reached 2.5 million plants and 880,000 trees. Each has been carefully chosen to maximize their impact.

“The technical team thought a lot about the species used. They selected endemic ones that have a functional use,” explains Zapata.

The 72 species of plants and trees selected provide food for wildlife, help biodiversity to spread and fight air pollution. A study, for example, identified Mangifera indica as the best among six plant species found in Medellín at absorbing PM2.5 pollution — particulate matter that can cause asthma, bronchitis and heart disease — and surviving in polluted areas due to its “biochemical and biological mechanisms.”

And the urban planting continues to this day.

The groundwork is carried out by 150 citizen-gardeners like Pineda, who come from disadvantaged and minority backgrounds, with the support of 15 specialized forest engineers. Pineda is now the leader of a team of seven other gardeners who attend to corridors all across the city, shifting depending on the current priorities...

“I’m completely in favor of the corridors,” says [Victoria Perez, another citizen-gardener], who grew up in a poor suburb in the city of 2.5 million people. “It really improves the quality of life here.”

Wilmar Jesus, a 48-year-old Afro-Colombian farmer on his first day of the job, is pleased about the project’s possibilities for his own future. “I want to learn more and become better,” he says. “This gives me the opportunity to advance myself.”

The project’s wider impacts are like a breath of fresh air. Medellín’s temperatures fell by 2°C in the first three years of the program, and officials expect a further decrease of 4 to 5C over the next few decades, even taking into account climate change. In turn, City Hall says this will minimize the need for energy-intensive air conditioning...

In addition, the project has had a significant impact on air pollution. Between 2016 and 2019, the level of PM2.5 fell significantly, and in turn the city’s morbidity rate from acute respiratory infections decreased from 159.8 to 95.3 per 1,000 people [Note: That means the city's rate of people getting sick with lung/throat/respiratory infections.]

There’s also been a 34.6 percent rise in cycling in the city, likely due to the new bike paths built for the project, and biodiversity studies show that wildlife is coming back — one sample of five Green Corridors identified 30 different species of butterfly.

Other cities are already taking note. Bogotá and Barranquilla have adopted similar plans, among other Colombian cities, and last year São Paulo, Brazil, the largest city in South America, began expanding its corridors after launching them in 2022.

“For sure, Green Corridors could work in many other places,” says Zapata."

-via Reasons to Be Cheerful, March 4, 2024

[itsbansheebitch]

Rants at the Hairdresser

her, behind me trimming my hair: "it's so wild how big cars are. Seems a bit dangerous, ya know?"

me, enjoying the smell of the stuff she sprayed in my hair: "Yeah, apparently that's because it's cheaper to have a car classified as a 'light truck' since you can get past safety regulations and they have different frames."

her, who has paused working on my hair: "Wait, are you serious?"

me: "Yeah, apparently it's a lot cheaper for companies to do that. And it really sucks since driving one of those cars is super dangerous, but it's even more dangerous for other people, especially if they're in a smaller car. Since it would be more safe to be another driver if they ALSO have a 'light truck,' everyone is caught in a cycle of getting bigger and bigger cars. All of which are extremely dangerous and have made being a pedestrian even more dangerous."

her: deep in thought, silent.

me, happy that someone is letting me rant about this: "Oh, the new Cadillacs are the size of tanks. That's not an exaggeration, by the way."

her, stunned: ???? "what the actual hell???"

we're silent for a bit

her, hesitantly, since I look like white trash and she has at least 10 piercings and pink hair: "I feel like America has been that way for a while... ya know?"

me: "Oh yeah, I totally get what you're saying, like, putting profit over people's safety?"

her, assured now that she knows we're both too commie pilled for this kind of conversation with someone else: "Yes! Exactly! It really sucks, right?"

me: "God, tell me about it"

I was very happy with my haircut, btw. She's so good at her job. :D

[biblically-accurate-dca]

rainbow moon :]

[puttingherinhistory]

[avorbl]

Mr. Mitsuya’s Planned Feeding / Mitsuya Sensei no Keikakutekina Ezuke. Episode 7

[anarchistfrogposting]

Our urban landscapes are grey, controlled spaces because cities see the incorporation of nature into the framework of our built environment as an aesthetic choice; a design option. But more and more evidence arises every single day that urban spaces with deeply integrated natural environments aren’t just nice, they’re essential for our health and well-being. I’m not talking about manicured lawns and tree-lined streets, I’m talking about incorporating spaces of real natural biodiversity in and around us; spaces that animals can make their home - where we aren’t exerting control over the forms of our natural landscape. Leaving rivers and streams with their natural banks, trimmed by their natural flora - creating forested walkways - setting aside difficult terrain for natural settings as opposed to levelling it - making park spaces that function as managed and cultivated fragments of the ecosystems our cities flattened and paved; all of these things help improve not only the presence and health of our flora and fauna, but our levels of stress and our sense of belonging. The lack of real, thriving corners of nature are a health issue, not an aesthetic one.

[clonerightsagenda]

I am once again thinking about an Arcane alt ending where the hextech damage topside is bad enough that Piltover residents are forced to flee from toxic industrial magical waste to the undercity and they have to beg for scraps from Zaunite leadership instead of the other way around. And we finally check back in on Ekko's fucking tree.

[rebel-girl-queen-of-my-world]

Repost from @sim_bookstagrams_badly:

HOW TO SAVE THE WORLD!!! Liberals, suspend your disbelief for just a mo, challenge.

Support the Refaat Alareer camp organized by @thesameerproject, more info in bio

[bitchesgetriches]

You Have the Frugal Right to Repair Your Shit. Or Do You? 

Did we just help you out? Tip us!

[justalittlesolarpunk]

Solarpunk Sunday Suggestion:

Ride on public transport

[takingtheacademicscenicroute]

I am not a fish: Introduction

"Looking at their work I would be expecting 8s or 9s"

My biology teacher said that when I was in year nine. It was not the first time someone had said something to that effect, and it was not the last.

The fact of the matter is that I spent most of my time, up until year 11, being told how far I would go, how high my grades were expected to be and how I could do anything that I wanted. People have said that, I just about nudged into the gifted category(though that is a nuanced discussion for another time), not like some of my friends who passed everything with their eyes closed, I definitely had to work, but I was honestly doing well.

My first set of mock GCSEs in year eleven came back and I was broken. Not one of my grades was above a six. This continued through year 11, I was not living up to the expectations that were set. This all came to a head on results day when I discovered that I had only just scraped a 6 which was not enough to do maths A-level, and without maths, I couldn't do physics. This was an issue. I want to be an astrophysicist, however, I have always been in a complex "situationship" with maths, and honestly, I think we might need couple's counselling, but I'm stretching this metaphor too far so suffice to say, I was not too proud of my performance.

So here I am, the day before my first day of college and getting set to do Biology, Environmental science, and Geology. And I will be the first to admit, I am still bitter, I am still upset, I am not over it, but if I could do all the subjects I wanted too, they would be next on my list after physics and maths. The idea is that I will retake my maths GCSE and then go back after college to do physics and maths, so really, in essence I am just taking the scenic route, and maybe, I will end up somewhere wonderful that I could never have dreamed of.

take it easy and good luck to everyone starting this new year

written: 03/09/2024

posted: 03/09/2024

[lavampira]

I don’t actually have a modern au but I’ve been having so many thoughts about modern d’alia lately lmao

[useless-catalanfacts]

Túria Gardens in València (capital city of the Valencian Country). In the 1st and 2nd photos, you can see the València Fine Arts Museum from the back. The museum is located in a Baroque building from the 17th century.

The Túria Gardens are a 10-kilometre long park that crosses the city of València following the Túria river. Originally, in the 1960s and 1970s, the plan for this area was to be turned into a highway, but the city's population organized to protest to turn it into a park instead. They chanted "el llit del Túria és nostre i el volem verd" (meaning "the Túria banks are ours and we want them green" in the Valencian/Catalan language) and fought until they won. Since 1986, it's open as a public park. Thanks to the neighbours' fight, nowadays it's a beautiful green lung for the city, and the biggest urban park in the state of Spain.

Photos: Experia and Sergio Formoso.

[nando161mando]

police are now arresting people for planning to protest, before even protesting. acab and free palestine

[caer-gai]

wait how many archeology/anthropology/paleontology people am i muturals with????

[the-one-who-lambs]

Was in a flow writing my narilamb 5+1 when I thought hm maybe I should get a lil snack but then I realized it was almost dinnertime so I immediately became possessed by my Italian Nana and all her ancestors and took the next 2 hours to make eggplant parmesan. It's not even out of the oven yet