Environment & Sustainability

An Urbanist Case for Small Nuclear Power Reactors

Nuclear power accounts for nearly 20% of American electricity generation, which still outpaces renewable power generation by a few points. That output is done...
The Capitol building in Olympia is marble colored and include pillars and a dome in the classic style.

2022 Legislative Session Preview: Next Steps Forward on Greenhouse Gas Reduction

Top goals include passing a transit-focused transportation package and reforming growth management. The impacts of climate change are upon us. Just this year, we’ve seen wildfire...

Industrial [Parks]: Seattle’s Green Edges

For most folks, their mental image of a city park is somewhat focused, and kinda Victorian. It’s an Olmsted designed rolling green of trees...

Sunday Video: How Native Hawaiians Fought The US Navy and Won

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nWZ15JeZnc An island in Hawaiʻi had long been occupied and used by the United States military. But native Hawaiians fought to restore it to the...

City Nature Challenge Kicks Off April 30

Participate in an annual international effort to document the biodiversity found in cities.  We tend to think of cities as the domain of homo sapiens,...
A parking lot on a hot day in Northgate, with Thornton Place behind

Why Climate Advocates Should Be Urbanists, Part 2

Part 2 of this four-part series examines arguments against focusing on land use in climate policy and provides counter arguments. Ignoring land use changes and relying on electrification alone is a slower and riskier path to decarbonization.

Seattle Can Take Its New Tree Ordinance and Apply It to Itself

Unpave paradise and take down that parking lot. Trees in Seattle are facing a new threat, not from beetles or the axe, but from...

Mayor Durkan ‘Pivots’ from Road Pricing to Electrification Blueprint

In 2018, Mayor Jenny Durkan made a splash by embracing the idea of enacting downtown cordon tolling to reduce car congestion, pledging to realize...