Dubai is du by a body of water with a breeze. So between that and the way they designed their homes it was manageable. Some people call them mud huts, others call them stucco interiors. I probably went on thirty Mediterranean vacations as young man and I don't remember a single hotel having a/c.
i travelled round Asia in some hot weather and almost never had AC. Sometimes a ceiling fan. You just adapt to it.
This is an interesting piece about adoption rates of new technology and how the pace of change has increased. Apparently the rate has gone up and this is relevant for the growth of solar power. In my own little neck of the woods, of the 7 seven houses in the road, one house got solar panels about 4 years back. Then another about 2 years ago. Then another 1 last year and one more this year. The hold-outs are people whose homes have roofs on which the layout makes it hard to put up a sensible number of panels up, including me unfortunately... which is why we're intending to move next year. Nevertheless that's 4 out of 7 and if the precise particulars of the houses were different I dare say it would be 7 out of 7. Interestingly, of the 4 houses with solar panels 3 of them now have electric cars. Of course, as the cost of energy goes up and the price of new solar installations comes down the economics of even houses like mine will alter and make it worthwhile.
The hurricane that's in the Pacific now had the most rapid intensification from cat 1 to cat 5 ever recorded. 18 hours. But her emails....
Not surprisingly, according to this article the world is not on track to cut pollution enough since Paris accord. We hit 1.5C in warming this summer.
If by "ole college try" you mean waking up hungover after the deadline, pleading with the professor for an extension, half-assing the paper, and then complaining about the grade, then yes...we gave it the ole college try. Other than that...I will admit I missed the collective effort on curbing emissions. It was all suggestions that largely went ignored
Warmer-than-usual temps in the Mediterranean Sea (1.5-2 °C above average) are also being blamed for the rapid intensification of Storm Daniel that killed thousands of people in Libya.
https://www.theguardian.com/environ...rbon-credit-reduce-emissions-greenhouse-gases In unsurprising news, the voluntary carbon market is fraudulently laundering industry carbon output with fake offsets.
Since Paris the whole offset market is pointless. For example, each country has net zero targets and claim progress towards it. So if a country like Brazil claims a reduction, e.g by tree planting, the same saving cannot then also be claimed by a wealth corporation in america via buying an offset, unless Brazil does not count it. But if Brazil does sell it's carbon savings, it still has to make the same target as before, meaning it will have to invest all over again to find the savings after the cheaper wins are gone. So therefore offsets would have to be sold at very high prices to allow for that. So basically there is no point to sell them.
From what I have seen, there is zero chance I would cycle in most of the U.S. There is either next to no good cycling infrastructure or very poorly designed cycling infrastructure. You have to have a semi death wish to cycle with any regularity in such conditions. Not to mention, so many car drivers seem to see red mist at the sight of you.
There are some safe and enjoyable bike paths if you are just cycling for the sake of exercise, stress relief, etc. But if you want to use your bicycle to get from points A to B (i.e. commute to work, meet-up with friends, etc.) then yeah, its a bit deadly. Unfortunately, I am more in the latter category so if you don't see me posting on here anymore, you'll know roughly what happened....
Thurston County in Washington state where I live has bicycle paths that connect every community and run through Olympia. The paths are often old railroad tracks that have been paved over. No motorized vehicles are allowed on them. There are some beautiful stretches too, as the part I often ride goes through woods along a river before opening up into farmland. The main roads in the main cities also have designated bike lines, so it's not too bad.
Yeah, that's similar to around here which is generally quite good for cycle ways because the local councils have made an effort to build them over the past 20-30 years. You can travel between major towns as well although that usually means travelling along cycle paths which sometimes aren't that far from a road... That was built last year. Of course, this is in a rural area and the situation in towns can vary considerably from excellent to poor.
So has the San Diego area. Former 4 lane roads now 2 lanes and 2 lanes now with no parking on streets. Makes for a more fun rush hour.
Does that include 2-wheel motorized bikes, scooters, and other such magnets for D-bags? Because that's what ruined cycling in Amsterdam.
Nothing motorized is supposed to be on them. But couples with prams and even horses are allowed, so there are still obstacles to get around.
Wow. This is weird. There are these last two posts... and today I read an article in the conservative City Journal that I actually agreed with. https://www.city-journal.org/articl...afer-for-pedestrians-and-traditional-cyclists EDIT: Paywalled on my return! https://archive.ph/inrVH Early this month, after more than ten years of operation, New York’s Citi Bike bicycle-share program marked a grim milestone: the first-ever death of a pedestrian hit by a Citi Bike rider. The cyclist wasn’t riding one of Citi Bike’s traditional blue-pedal bikes when he allegedly hit and killed 69-year-old Priscilla Loke, but rather an electric bike. Loke’s death is yet another reminder that battery-powered electric bikes, and their new cousins, gas-powered mopeds, are not bicycles but fast-moving motorized vehicles. Those vehicles’ proliferation on New York’s dense streets, encouraged by supposed safe-streets advocates and city government, is reversing more than a decade’s progress in making New York’s streets more hospitable to pedestrians and traditional pedal cyclists. . . . . E-bike advocates will argue that the bikes have benefits, such as allowing older cyclists and people with weak knees to ride. That is true but irrelevant in the real-world New York City context, where the costs far outweigh the benefits. There’s no evidence, for example, that the proliferation of e-bikes has lured people out of cars, thus reducing traffic. And with gas-powered mopeds now supplementing delivery e-bikes, the already-tenuous argument that these vehicles are environmentally friendly has become laughable. Nor is there evidence that e-bikes have calmed traffic, making streets safer and more pleasant. As livable-streets advocates have long argued, the presence of pedestrians and traditional cyclists helps to slow car and truck traffic, making streets safer for everyone. But car and truck drivers who must look in all directions for fast-moving e-cyclists and moped drivers aren’t made calmer and more attentive. They are made more anxious, frustrated, and angry—and so are the rest of us as we attempt to walk or pedal around town.
The DMV area is pretty good in terms of walking trails. A lot of the trails are interconnected. The people on the trails are hit/miss. The lack of awareness for others is pretty impressive. I have seen one person (no stroller, child or bike...just themselves) take up an entire trail which can be 6-8 ft wide. I have seen a quad bike on the trail a few times in the past decade. But I heard from a neighbor that some retired USAF Colonel gave the teens the Ferguson hairdryer treatment