Reuters recently published an extraordinary set of diagrams (here in this article) that help to explain the energy dynamics at play right now across Europe. Above are two examples. Among other things, the graphics show the various gas pipelines in use (or planned), which countries they flow through, their vintages, and ultimately who depends on who. It's worth a read or, at the very least, a scroll through.
I have never been to the Canadian Arctic, but it's something that is on my list and that I plan to do. And because of some random dinner conversation over the weekend, I have just added Eureka, Nunavut to my weather app so that I can keep tabs on what is the coldest place in Canada.
This recent article by Brookings is a good reminder of the all too important link between land use policies/patterns and GHG emissions. Because electric vehicles are cool and all, but they're still not as efficient as just walking around and/or taking transit.
As has been argued before on this blog, we need to not only electrify our transport network, but we also need to change how we get around. And probably the best way to encourage a modal shift, is to plan and build our cities differently. Something that is simple, but not easy.
It also turns out that people who live in multi-family buildings tend to consume less energy (on a per capita basis) than those in single-family houses. So there are numerous benefits to encouraging denser housing on top of transit and within mixed-used communities.
With all of this in mind, here are some interesting charts from the above Brookings article.
The average annual temperature is close to -20 degrees celsius, but as you can see from the above screenshot, it's a bit colder than that right now. I have it placed next to Rio de Janeiro in my app for dramatic effect.
First established in 1947, Eureka is a research community / weather station at 80°N with apparently no permanent population. Staff rotate through it with more people coming in the summer months. There is no sunlight between October and February.
It is the third northernmost settlement in the world after Alert (which is also in Nunavut on Ellesmere Island) and Nord in Greenland. But again, Eureka is on average the coldest.
The weather station was established in partnership with the United States. Prior to this, we had very little data from the north. But there was a general understanding that having it would be valuable for improving forecasting across the continent.
So on April 7, 1947, six people showed up on the shorelines of Eureka, built some temporary structures (apparently they were done in time for dinner), and started reporting weather data. Now that data is available on my phone whenever I want it.
This first one shows new housing permits in the metro areas of Atlanta, Chicago, and Washington DC, according to their urban, suburban, or exurban status. Here, Chicago is an outlier, with the "urban core" (defined as Cook County) now making up about half of all new housing.
If you look at the entire study period, the number is less. The urban core accounted for about one-third of new housing permits in Chicago, and only 15% of permits in Atlanta and DC. But in all cases, housing permits in the urban core have been increasing since the 2008 financial crisis.
But here's the other thing. Looking at these next two charts, there appears to be a clear trendline toward more urban housing typologies. The first of these next two is showing single-family housing permits as a percentage of all new housing. And the second is structure type over time.
Atlanta is still building mostly single-family housing, but less of it. And based on these charts, Chicago has already passed its inflection point. DC is not far off. Every city region is of course going to be different, but it does look like there is some kind of broader housing shift underway.
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