GreenCityBlueLake Institute

06/09/2020

"We need to start focusing on regenerative economies, creating community cooperatives and different kinds of economic systems that make it possible for people to thrive economically while at the same time taking us off the grid."

Activist Elizabeth Yeampierre has long focused on the connections between racial injustice and the environment and climate change. In the wake of George Floyd’s killing and the outsized impact of Covid-19 on communities of color, she hopes people may finally be ready to listen.

05/28/2020

News start up The Land investigates why recycling failed in Cleveland and what to do next.

05/27/2020

Toronto gets it. Taking the opportunity to help record numbers of people biking by adding bike lanes all over the city.

Toronto could soon begin work on 25 kilometres of new bike lanes, much of it coming as part of the city’s efforts to open up roads to cyclists amid the coronavirus pandemic.

05/26/2020

Sunflowers help bees reproduce, some good news for a change!

Flowering strip plants generally benefit bee colony reproduction but may bring disease risks

05/19/2020

NPR studied air pollution as traffic dropped by half during the pandemic and found only modest drops in smog. What gives? Turns out trucks and industry far outweigh cars in what goes into our air. Northeast Ohio posted only a slight 3% improvement in air quality. California is making electric trucks and buses a priority.
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/05/19/854760999/traffic-is-way-down-due-to-lockdowns-but-air-pollution-not-so-much

05/01/2020

Blue skies, less traffic, more wildlife, biking is up and people are flocking to parks. What silver linings do you see in ?

In this recent Freshwater article, I write about how we can reasonably expect to make air quality improvements permanent and how it will benefit us all. As a recent cleveland.com opinion piece put it, “we’ve destroyed the myth that telework cannot happen.” For this reason, I’m interested in ...

04/30/2020

The future is plastic-less.

Mayor Frank Jackson admitted Tuesday that all the recyclable material gathered each week as part of the city's curbside waste collection program is going to...

04/29/2020

Cleveland is part of an international study on green redevelopment strategies. The author looks at how green can be more inclusive, and compares progress to date in the Gordon Square and Cleveland EcoVillage developments in the Detroit-Shoreway neighborhood.

If equity is not a priority, Cleveland’s vision of becoming a “green city on a blue lake” risks falling victim to the injustices of green gentrification.

04/28/2020

Researchers on climate change are looking at the impact of when leaves open in the forest, and have earlier times like Thoreau's to compare.

As Thoreau counseled, “Shall I not have intelligence with the earth? Am I not partly leaves and vegetable mould myself?”

Image: Ann Rosenthal "A Quarantine Art and Science Collaboration," Carnegie Museum of Natural History

https://carnegiemnh.org/art-and-science-ann-rosenthal/

04/27/2020

Today is a perfect day for a nature walk around the neighborhood. It's the final day of CityNatureChallenge so snap some pictures of plants and animals and upload them using the iNaturalist.org mobile app. Show off Cleveland's . Here are two native, spring ephemerals and one invasive species that I spotted on a hike around the on Saturday.

04/24/2020

Happy ! We appreciate all the Ohioans planting native trees this April.

Flowers of the Eastern Redbud (Cercis canadensis) and white flower form of the Eastern Redbud (Cercis canadensis ‘Alba’)