Alex Aylett
Quebec’s New Electric Car Network: Therapy for Range Anxiety
Electric cars have always seemed like a natural for Quebec. Nearly all of the province’s electricity comes from hydro, and 40% of its GHG emissions come from transportation. In a…
Republicans and Democrats Together on Climate Change…in Florida
It’s easy to forget that climate change hasn’t always been such a partisan issue. This is Mitt Romney, current Republican front-runner, in 2003: “I think the global warming debate is…
New Sustainable Cities Research Program – New Job, Exciting Prospects
Vancouver-based NGO Sustainable Cities International is an excellent outfit that runs a network of cities focused on green urbanism that spans the globe. The research that I’ve been able to…
Montreal’s Collective Push for Urban Agriculture
We are all still trying to figure out what a sustainable city is. Yes, we’ve got some good ideas. But to go beyond marginal changes and begin retrofitting, or building,…
Is Toronto Lost?
Has Toronto lost its way? That's been the word on the street, and pretty much everywhere else, since Mayor Ford took office a little less than a year ago.But as…
Open Access Research: Cities and Climate Change
It may be an urban legend, by they say that the average academic article is read by a grand total of 6 people. That's not an inspiring thought, especially for…
Climate Reality
I should confess that when it first came out, I dozed off during the Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth. That's not the kind of admission you'd expect from someone who…
EcoCity 2011 – Networked Urban Sustainability: Breaking the Integration Barrier
September hit with the usually flurry of activity, which means that I'm only now putting up this version of one of the two talks that I gave at the 2011…
Pop-Up Planning: Toronto, New York, & Vancouver
"Pop-Up Planning", temporary experimental transformations of urban space, gets a good profile in today's Globe and Mail."Pop-up" projects let cities try out new ideas without the expense - or the…
Montreal discovers it’s not easy going green: New Economist Green Cities Index
An article that I wrote on the new Green Cities Index (.pdf) released last week by yhe Economist Intelligence Unit is out in today's Montreal Gazette. It was an interesting…
Kunstler on The City of the Future and "Yesterday’s Tomorrows"
I'm no apocalypse junkie; visions of the end of days don't do much for me. But I am going to recommend James Kunstler's most recent article anyway. Kunstler is a…
Solar Map of New York City
New York City's new Solar Map has gone live, and it's a beauty. With a googlemap style interface, you can zoom into any building in the greater NYC area. Click…
Montreal Guerrilla Gardening: "Tour de Guerrilla" Silent Film
OuVert is an open urban sustainability lab that I'm helping to start here in Montreal. Below is an occasionally Chaplin-esque video of our first event - a seedbomb workshop and…
Post C40 Summit Cities Need to "Go Big or Go Home" on Climate Policy
[I've got a new piece running over at The Mark News. The latest Clinton C40 urban climate summit just wrapped up in Brazil, and as always there's been a flood…
48Hour Green Film Contest @ Cannes
Cannes wrapped up last weekend with the Palme d'Or going to Terrence Malick's apparently slightly sprawling epic The Tree of Life. From what I've read, the movie looks to be…
Bixi Responds to Flurry of Financial Coverage
Montreal news has been awash with coverage of BIXI's financial situation. After some delay, the city has approved $108million in loans and loan guarantees for the non-profit that operates BIXI.…
The Urban Diabetes Epidemic: Green Cities & Health
I've written before about the fact that overall New Yorkers have the highest life expectancy in the United States. Sounds odd, but research has traced those added months to the…
Climate Change Slams Food Production: Agricultural Investors To Rake It In
Sometimes you've just got to laugh. Tuesday's Globe and Mail led it's investment section with an article titled “Warming Trend May be Boon to Canada.” The piece focused on a…
Jane’s Walk 2011: This Weekend Biggest Ever now in 15 Countries
This weekend is the fifth year of Jane's Walk, and it is the biggest ever. Volunteers will lead 491 walks spread across 72 cities and 15 countries. What I love…