Mastodawn

Amanda Smith Mar 2, 2024

Job alert for part-time #BuiltEnvironment #STEM #ClimateSolutions work!

Work with our interdisciplinary, all-virtual team of scientists studying climate solutions.

Do you have scientific research experience in #climate +
#GreenElectricity #ElectricitySystems
#industry
#transportation #ElectricVehicles
#urbanecology #UrbanDevelopment
#construction emissions
engineered #carbonsink
or reducing emissions from fossil fuel sector?

Read this and consider applying by March 15: https://drawdown.org/careers/research-fellow

Research Fellow | Project Drawdown

Our mission is to help stop climate change as quickly, safely, and equitably as possible.

Project Drawdown

Amanda Smith Feb 5, 2024

This Wednesday I'm talking buildings, emissions, and climate solutions (10am Pacific/1pm Eastern).

I want to give some examples of a climate paradox: Each problem contains the kernel of a possible solution, and each solution contains the kernel of another environmental problem.

This event is for everyone—no special knowledge of buildings required, although I hope you will leave with a new interest in learning more!

#BuiltEnvironment #ClimateSolutions

Welcome! You are invited to join a webinar: Built This Way: Why residential and commercial buildings are key to addressing climate change. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the webinar.

How much do residential and commercial buildings contribute to climate change? And what can we do to reduce their impact? We know buildings must reduce fossil fuel use to move toward a healthier planetary future. However, until now we’ve lacked clarity on how we need to transform our buildings to alleviate environmental problems. In our first Drawdown Ignite presentation of 2024, Amanda D. Smith, Project Drawdown senior scientist for the built environment, will explore how buildings contribute to climate change – including processes you may not have connected to the buildings around you. Smith will explain why climate solutions and climate problems are tricky to untangle in this sector. And she’ll offer suggestions for choosing and implementing solutions that can help dramatically reduce emissions while also keeping us healthier, more connected to each other, and more connected to the earth. Whether you are an architect, construction professional, building manager, homeowner, or renter, you’ll come away with a better ability to judge how your actions will reduce buildings’ greenhouse gas emissions. And if you live, work, eat, sleep, or recreate indoors, you’ll come away with a new understanding of how buildings came to be the way they are, why they’re driving our climate crisis, and what we can change. ----- This webinar is part of Project Drawdown’s monthly Drawdown Ignite webinar series. Drawdown Ignite provides information and inspiration to guide your climate solutions journey. Visit drawdown.org/events for updates on future webinars.

Zoom

Amanda Smith Sep 21, 2023

This Saturday I'll be in conversation with Iana Aranda of ASME (The American Society of Mechanical Engineers) and Steve Chisholm of Boeing about the intersection of engineering and sustainability.

Will cover emissions basics--what are we emitting now? what needs to change? -- and talk about what it means for our profession.

This is part of ASME's #EFestCareers w/ lots of activities taking place all day.

Find the schedule and register FREE at https://bit.ly/EFC-2023

#ClimateJobs #engineering

PheedLoop

PheedLoop: Hybrid, In-Person & Virtual Event Software

Amanda Smith Jun 30, 2023

"It’s not yet clear whether vertical farming is an overhyped, premature, expensive business model that can still help change the world someday, or whether it’s just a dumb and impractical idea."

– Michael Grunwald
https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/food-and-farms/why-vertical-farming-just-doesnt-work

Isn't the problem that dumb and impractical ideas are the feedstock for overhyped, premature, expensive business models in the American economy?

We don't need the world changed "someday." We need to do what we know how to do that will protect the planet now.

Why vertical farming just doesn't work

Vertical farms save water, prevent pesticide pollution and avoid extreme weather — but their Achilles' heel is their massive electricity use.

Canary Media

Amanda Smith Jun 29, 2023

Pedestrian deaths in the US are higher than they have been in my lifetime.

We don't seem to care.

This line rings true for so many of the crises we face right now:

"We have all the answers – we just don’t have the political will to implement them."

– @arwam

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jun/27/car-road-deaths-rising-pedestrians-cyclists

#transportation #cars #cycling

The car is king in the US – and pedestrian deaths are rising. Where is the outrage?

Pedestrian deaths are at a 40-year high and the number of cyclists hit by cars has increased since the pandemic. The most astounding part? These are preventable tragedies, says Arwa Mahdawi

The Guardian

Amanda Smith Jun 28, 2023

The War on Cars Jun 28, 2023

"It’s not hard to discover why American roads are so deadly, particularly for pedestrians. There are too many cars and trucks that are too heavy and tall, driving too fast on streets that are too wide, with too many points of conflict."

Via @ryanlcooper

https://prospect.org/infrastructure/transportation/2023-06-28-death-cult-american-car/

The Death Cult of the American Car

It’s obvious how to make the roads safer for cyclists, pedestrians, and drivers alike. We just don’t do it.

The American Prospect

Amanda Smith Jun 28, 2023

Kaylynne Jun 18, 2023

You know what’s wild?
If a foreign country were purposefully doing to our countries, what #ClimateChange is causing - we would be at war.

Starting massive fires to make the air unbreathable, mass destruction of food systems to cause starvation, the destruction of habitats leading to new deadly viruses, creating catastrophic weather events, etc.

That’s basically what corporations (especially the oil & gas industry) are doing - and yet, we subsidize them instead of fighting them.

Amanda Smith Jun 28, 2023

IEEE, the largest professional org for electrical engineers, makes the case that power systems modeling should be #OpenSource and calls out the US for relying on proprietary codes for decision making.

Otherwise we will miss opportunities to integrate #renewables and prepare our grid for a changing #climate

The “traditionally closed and proprietary nature of energy system planning … is no longer fit for purpose.”
– European Scientific Advisory Board on Climate Change

https://spectrum.ieee.org/power-grid-transparency-eu-us

E.U.: Climate-Proof Grids Require Open Standards

‘Black-box’ U.S. energy planning hinders renewable energy development

IEEE Spectrum

Amanda Smith Jun 19, 2023

Anyone else out picking berries lately?

I can confirm that this method of removing strawberry stains works:
https://www.anitashousekeeping.com/blog/how-to-get-strawberry-stain-out/

(I used a non-brand name dish soap and it's fine.)

And this is a pretty easy thing to make if you have more super-ripe berries than you can eat or give away:
https://www.fifteenspatulas.com/homemade-strawberry-fruit-rollups/

(I needed to cook it for longer though--both in the pan and in the oven--so make sure to start well before your bedtime!)

How To Get Strawberry Stain Out The Easy Way - Anita's Housekeeping

Learn how to get strawberry stain out easily, quickly, and safely even from your whites. Enjoy your summer fearlessly–our guide has you covered!

Anita's Housekeeping

Amanda Smith Jun 18, 2023

Meg Jun 17, 2023

God it's depressing that people believe this is the true nature of downtowns:

"Without commuting office workers, the office buildings go empty, they become worth a fraction of their cost, and retail cannot survive."

From https://innovationnation.blog/p/its-companies-fault-we-dont-want

Cities predate commutes. The hollowed out core that triples in population, swelled to bursting with bored and unhappy suburbanites during work hours, is a modern abomination made possible by cars and structural racism.

What's killing downtowns is that we spent so long on this awful vision of work and spent half a century strangling inner city infrastructure to subsidize incredibly expensive suburban lifestyles.

Want to make downtowns viable again? Convert dead office space to apartments and schools and colleges and other spaces people can work *and* live in.

Good luck with your rezoning applications though.

It's Companies' Fault we don't want to Return to the Office

It wasn't appealing to begin with

Innovation Nation

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