People, Planet & Technology #3
Ahoy folks 👋
In short something on my own: I received a lot of feedback from you after the last issue! That’s great, because it helps me a lot to improve this project and to design it in a way that you can get the most out of it. Many said it was too much input, so I will try to keep the next editions more precise and shorter and keep the selection of links even more exclusive.
In the last issue I had already written about how technology can help with natural disasters. Unfortunately, the topic is very topical right now: In the USA, the hurricane season is currently underway and Florence is putting the population on alert. In order to provide better and more precise information, the dudes of developmentSeed and NASA have developed a Hurricane Intensity Estimator that uses machine learning to predict strength and behaviour. Slate reports on how a city like Housten should deal with floods and WNYC has published a guide on how media should report on natural disasters - and how not.
Impressive: Looking through Hurricane Florence eye (ESA/NASA–A. Gerst)
But there is also a lot of good news: In Cologne, Germany, a road surface will soon be tested that generates electricity from sunlight, absorbs noise, breaks down nitrogen oxides, provides valuable data and supplies electric vehicles with electricity.
A mixture of art and architecture now ensures that the aircraft noise caused during take-off and landing at Amsterdam Airport can be reduced by half.
Google has developed a tool (video) which provides environmental data from large cities and helps smaller cities to make more sustainable decisions in urban development. Google has also developed a new search engine for finding data sets.
Scientists from the University of Maryland have developed a navigation app that suggests routes that are better for the environment, for the user, and for all the other people trying to move around.
The BBC has sent a statement to its authors that climate deniers need not be involved in climate debates.
👉 Miscellaneous things
How Much Hotter Is Your Hometown Than When You Were Born? (NY Times)
How can we promote light mobility lanes and make it safer? (CityLab)
What happens to us when the cities heat up to 50 degrees? And how can we protect the cities from that? (both The Guardian)
A Guide for Employees: How To Make Your Tech Company Sustainable (ClimateAction.tech)
Why new technolgy and social media ensure that entire cities and countries suffer from too much tourism (NY Times)
An anti-poaching technology for elephants that is always listening (Mongobay)
Con X Tech Prize: These twenty projects are changing the future of conservation.
Drones can now detect clouds especially polluted by gas (New Atlas)
Citizen Scientists build a map of radioactive gas pulls data (New Atlas)
Toronto is coming to a “neighborhood of the future” (CityLab)
Tracking elephant movements reveals transboundary wildlife corridors (Mongobay)
I hope you enjoy this issue. I would like to encourage you to send me your feedback via mail, twitter, mastodon or carrier pigeons 🐦.
We’ll read again in two weeks. 🙌
Take care. -Niklas