“The C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group (C40) is a network of large and engaged cities from around the world committed to implementing meaningful and sustainable climate-related actions locally that will help address climate change globally. Our organization’s global field staff works with city governments, supported by our technical experts across a range of program areas.

The C40 was created in 2005 by former Mayor of London Ken Livingstone, and forged a partnership in 2006 with the Cities program of President Clinton’s Climate Initiative (CCI) to reduce carbon emissions and increase energy efficiency in large cities across the world.  Under the leadership of then Mayor of Toronto David Miller, who served after Mayor Livingstone as C40 Chair, the organization advanced programs and partnerships that drew international recognition for the role of cities as leaders in climate action. C40 was further strengthened in 2011 via a grant from Bloomberg Philanthropies and the full integration of the CCI Cities Program.

The current chair of the C40 is New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who – with the support the C40 executive leadership team — guides the work of the C40, along with the members of the C40 Steering Committee: Berlin, Hong Kong, Jakarta, Johannesburg, Los Angeles, London, New York City, Sao Paulo, Seoul and Tokyo.”

Read more at the C40 website.

Above: Flooding at the 23rd-Ely subway station.

“Imagine a scenario in which a 100-year-storm flooded all of the parts of the system that are most susceptible—the tunnels that carry trains under the East River to and from Manhattan, and the major connection points in Lower Manhattan. Then Brooklyn, Queens and Long Island would essentially be cut off from the mainland for the millions of commuters who pass through those links every day. And not for a short time.

“Essentially the subway system will be shut down and the restoring time will be at least a month,” Jacob said. “And probably many months.”

In the same way that many people, during Irene, didn’t understand why it took so long to shut the system down and so long to start it back up, if there is that kind of flooding, they will have to pump all the water out of the tunnels, take out the signal systems, wash them off (because they will have been in touch with brackish water), dry them, put them back together, test them, and reinstall them. And since much of the subway system is as old as 100 years, new parts cannot exactly be ordered up immediately; new ones would probably require starting from scratch.”

Read the rest at Capital New York

nycdigital:

Mayor Bloomberg, Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Gibbs and Health Commissioner Dr. Farley announced yesterday that, surpassing national figures, New Yorkers are living longer than ever before.

Did you know that about 30% of NYC’s gain in average life span is due to a big drop in HIV-related deaths. For more info, visit http://on.nyc.gov/uAKegi.

Population growth and the climate connection here.

Industry written bill protects farmers who illegally logged rainforest prior to 2008. Rouseff claims she will veto…

Along with staff from Michael Mayor Bloomberg’s office, I spoke at the American Planning Association’s Annual National conference on the topic of climate adaptation and cities. My panel was so successful that the Q&A spilled out into the hallway. Here’s my ppt and an abstract:

“Adapting to Climate Change - Folding the Science into Planning (PPT)
Where: National Planning Conference, 2009 Minneapolis, Minnesota, American Planning Association - Planning and Law Division. Sponsored by MassAPA
When: 28th April 2009

Co-presented with:
Dr. Paul Kirshen, Tufts University;
Amy Malick, ICLEI - Midwest Regional Director;
Gary Heath, Director of Operations/Bureau of Environmental Planning & Analysis New York City Department of Environmental Protection

See also: NYC’s Adaptation Plan

“Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York announced on Thursday that his main charitable organization would donate $50 million over four years to the Sierra Club’s campaign to shut down coal plants and move the United States toward cleaner sources of energy.”

Source: NYTimes

Speaking of Bloomberg unicorn magic:

”The Bloomberg administration has put city agencies on alert that they must slash another two percent from their budgets this year, and a whopping six percent in 2013, to cope with a “dire financial situation.”

Agencies including the NYPD, FDNY and the Department of Education have two weeks to submit their suggestions to the city’s budget office, according to a letter sent to city agencies on Tuesday.” 

Note the NYC Department of Education has had 3 straight years of budget cuts, and classrooms are bursting at the seams. The article is worth a read.

Source: DNAinfo, via joshsternberg

Update: Correction Bloomberg investigates, not Reuters.

Restoring and preserving dry-land forests can help provide food and fertilizer on small farms and prevent the recurrence of famine in Kenya and other African countries, a research group said.

The destruction of forests and other forms of human-caused land degradation have caused more damage than drought, turning vast areas of once-grazeable and farmable land into near-desert, forestry experts from the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research said in an e-mailed statement yesterday.

“Deforestation and land degradation have hindered capacities to cope with disasters and adapt to climate variability and change in the long-term,” said Frances Seymour, director general of the group’s Center for International Forestry Research. Research carried out by the center in 25 countries shows that forests serve as an important defense against poverty, providing about a quarter of household income for the people living in and around forest areas.

Famine in the Horn of Africa has put millions of people at risk in Somalia, Kenya and other countries. The United Nations estimates that hundreds of people are dying every day, more than 13 million are at risk, and a third of Somalia’s population has been displaced.

Seymour said that dry-land areas are likely to suffer more frequent and severe droughts as the climate changes, and that protecting and restoring forests in such areas should have a more prominent place in the debate about global warming.