A 12-year plan to move hundreds of millions of rural residents into cities is intended to spur economic growth, but could have unintended consequences, skeptics warn.

Images of the Black Forest fire near Colorado Springs show how devastating a wildfire can be. Why are more homes being built in these kinds of areas?

What a great exploration of how our communities are built. Click through and press “listen” if you can. The answers are surprising, especially if you’re new to urban planning, disaster management, and land use development. 

On the one hand, Obamacare just got a boost. On the other, the U.S. tax base is about to implode (bad news for growth-economists). There are so many implications from this, like the suburbs will empty even further and the need for nursing homes will increase exponentially. There won’t be much new land development, which I suppose is good news for environmentalists.

Living to age 90 is a worthy goal Americans are increasingly meeting. The number of people age 90 and older almost tripled from 720,000 people in 1980 to 1.9 million in 2010, according to a new Census Bureau report. And the 90-plus population is expected to more than quadruple between 2010 and 2050. Here’s a look at what life is like in the United States after age 90.

More women. Between 2006 and 2008, about three-quarters (74 percent) of the 90-and-older population were women. In 2006, life expectancy at age 65 was 19.7 years for women and 17 years for men. Women also experienced more rapid improvements in life expectancy than men between 1929 and 2006. Over the past eight decades, older women have added almost seven years to their life expectancy, or a 54 percent extension, compared with 5.3 years for men, a 45 percent extension. Among the age 90-and-older population, there are just 35 men for every 100 women. After age 95, there is approximately one man for every four women.

Married men and single women. Most women who make it to age 90 (84 percent) are widows. Only 6.3 percent of women in this age group are married. On the other hand, 43 percent of 90-something men are married and about half are widowers. “Women tend to marry older men. Traditionally, there is a four- to five-year age difference,” says Wan He, a Census Bureau demographer and co-author of the report. “When they get to age 90-plus, older men are very difficult to find.”

Living alone. Just over a third (37 percent) of people in their 90s live alone. About the same number of people (37 percent) live in a household with family members or unrelated individuals.

Read the rest at USNews

The United Nations forecast Thursday that the world’s population will increase from 7.2 billion today to 8.1 billion in 2025.

Hundreds of heat related deaths since May. 

Recent extreme temperatures that are commonly followed by floods can largely be attributed to climatic warming. 

In 2010, the May temperature in Mohenjo-daro, a semi-ruined city in Sindh province, reached 53.5C (128F), the fourth highest temperature ever recorded in the world and the highest ever in Asia.

Globe and Mail claims it’s the largest spill in North America. It’s also the third major leak in Alberta, including one burst pipeline that spilled nearly one million gallons of oil in May 2012.

Also of interest, the company didn’t report the spill until a citizen reported it to a local TV station. 

Not enough. 

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) met with White House chief of staff Denis McDonough last week to coordinate climate strategy, the Rhode Island Democrat told reporters Tuesday.

Whitehouse said he and Waxman requested the sit down with McDonough. The pair of lawmakers lead a bicameral effort aimed at pushing executive action on climate change.

“We’re continuing to keep an open dialogue. I think it’s very important for the executive branch and the legislative branch to be working together on this and not have one set of White House strategies and one set of Democratic Senate and House strategies,” Whitehouse said after an energy and environment event he hosted in the Capitol.

McDonough took over as White House chief of staff in January. 

It’s the second such meeting between Whitehouse, Waxman — the top Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee — and administration officials regarding climate change. The first came in March.

McDonough is viewed as an advocate of addressing climate change, potentially giving Waxman and Whitehouse an open line of communication to relay their policy concerns to the Obama administration.

The liberal lawmakers have pressed President Obama to take more aggressive action on climate, noting partisan gridlock will likely close off the legislative route.