#climate action

[bobby-luv]

[reasonsforhope]

Arizona Suburb Turned into Mediterranean-style Walking Town Where Temperatures Stay Low - Good News Network

A planned community in Arizona has used time-honored Mediterranean strategies to keep temperatures down and attitudes high. Western civiliza

"A planned community in Arizona has used time-honored Mediterranean strategies to keep temperatures down and attitudes high.

Western civilization has grown remarkably climate conscious over the last 20 years, but not when it comes to building, civic planning, and especially zoning. Perhaps the interiors of buildings are becoming more climate adapted, and in some cases the facades as well, but in a way that’s a little like inventing a freezer designed to keep ice cream frozen while sitting next to a fire.

Wooden or concrete boxes arranged side-by-side across leveled ground with sprawling, largely treeless gardens and concrete sidewalks alongside wide, blacktop roads is simply a culture of construction that has to be abandoned if living in a world of 2°C or higher annual temperatures [or, hopefully, less than that, but nonetheless likely over 1.5°C] is to be tolerable.

Fortunately for Arizonans, change may have finally arrived in the form of a carless, planned community that looks and feels like a Greek island village.

In the Phoenix suburb of Tempe, Culdesac has arisen as a 17-acre mixed-use neighborhood from the ground up to stay cool and local, taking the concept of the 15-minute city, where anything a resident might need is only 15 minutes away, and putting a Mediterranean spin on it.

Buildings are tall, thick, and totally white. The residential areas look like they were built atop of the ashes of the Phoenix zoning code burnt in effigy. Crammed together, they create narrow streets and alleys that are almost constantly shaded, through which wind is channeled and accelerated in passing.

Windows open towards each other, allowing wind that enters one building to exit into another, while the total lack of asphalt means that the ground temperatures are a staggering 50-60°F lower than pavements beyond the limits of Culdesac.

No privately-owned cars are allowed to enter the neighborhood, in which electric bikes, robotic mini taxis, and light rail shuttle people around town, to downtown Phoenix, or out to the airport.

The street life is lively—there are no cars to bisect movement between the 21 different businesses and eateries, among which is a James Beard Award-winning Mexican restaurant, DIY ceramic business, and some stores run out of apartments—a big no-no under Phoenix zoning laws.

“Once you pull the cars out,” Architect Daniel Parolek who designed Culdesac, told BBC, “there’s so much more opportunity to make a vibrant, thriving community.”

His inspiration was sun-soaked locales like Italy, Greece, and Croatia, where town centers were designed before the automobile and before air conditioning.

Technically speaking, the entire Culdesac neighborhood is one apartment complex, but the paseos, or little alleyways, open up into plazas of open space exactly liked one would expect in a little village in the Cyclades.

Because no one has to jump in a car to get from place to place, people run into each other, sparking conversations, relations, and breaking through the counterintuitive phenomenon of big city loneliness, which in Phoenix hits particularly hard.

“Culdesac Tempe has shown that people do want to live car-free in the US, even in a metro area like Phoenix that’s often seen as the poster child for car dependency,” says Erin Boyd, Culdesac’s government relations and external affairs lead. “This success has shifted the conversation around what’s possible in American development.”

-via Good News Network, August 25, 2025

[ecoamerica]

Watch @ecoamerica's 2026 American Climate Leadership Awards now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdF0SDmn1xE

The 2026 American Climate Leadership Awards broadcast recording is now available on ecoAmerica's YouTube channel! Tune in to be inspired by leaders and organizations advancing local climate solutions nationwide. Join us in celebrating the impactful work of the finalists and young leaders. Hosted by Vanessa Hauc and Jerome Foster II, and with a special appearance by Bill McKibben!

[onlytiktoks]

[isabellascarlett1]

Gender affirming care is suicide prevention.

Using folks’ correct name and pronouns is suicide prevention

Abortion care is suicide prevention.

Accessibility is suicide prevention.

Birth control is suicide prevention.

Mutual aid is suicide prevention.

Housing is suicide prevention.

Healthcare is suicide prevention.

Climate action is suicide prevention.

Food security is suicide prevention.

Ending imperialism is suicide prevention.

Land back is suicide prevention.

Abolishing borders is suicide prevention.

Police and prison abolition is suicide prevention.

[clotheshorsepodcast]

This weekend I thrifted the cutest book ever....like I literally gasped when I pulled it off the shelf in the craft book section of Freedom Thrift near Blue Ball (real town name, I promise).  

The book is called "Soft Toys to Stitch and Stuff," a Farm Journal Craft Book, published in 1983.  Sometimes I think I've seen all the cool weird vintage books...and then I encounter a new one.   As soon as I opened this one, I knew the images had to be used for some Clotheshorse-isms about fast fashion, consumerism, and wealth inequality.  Also, I definitely need to make some of these animals because they are all amazing!

Which one is your favorite?

ETA: A lot of you are asking me to scan patterns from this book for you. Unfortunately my scanner is too small for that. But the good news? Is that you can find the whole book here: https://archive.org/details/softtoystostitch0000bens

[faithfromanewperspective]

feeling like maybe the americans need to hear this for once (and let me know if i'm saying it nicely) america isn't the whole world.

thailand legalised same sex marriage. most of the world is doing an excellent job of acting on climate change, and we're projected to warm no more than 2.9 degrees (reblogs are off because I made a mistake, corrected it, but the wrong version has gotten too far) now. the EU has been working hard to halt and reverse biodiversity loss, and is doing a great job. bhutan continues to absorb more carbon dioxide than it emits, and so does tasmania. here in brisbane, queer people of faith have been coming together in queer worship nights, meeting similar people, and accepting themselves, ready to reconcile it with their faith and question the crumbs of christian nationalism that permeate from the US. they're planning to build high speed rail between sydney and newcastle too, and a new inland link between brisbane and melbourne. kakapo have been saved from extinction over in aotearoa (new zealand). solar and wind energy generation are at an all time high. vegan meat alternatives taste the best they ever have. autism speaks shut down in canada, and awareness is rising very quickly about adhd in women, the pda profile, and neurodiversity and disability in general. they've invented a blood test for endometriosis. it's not all bad news

[leebrontide]

Hey

Hey Americans.

The federal government is about to get useless for at least a bit. This is a GREAT time to get involved in state level environmental orgs. That's where you're gonna be able to do the most for the next few years. Even a bit of casual volunteering can make a big difference.

I've done this off and on for years and when we go local we WIN. And friends winning feels good. This is how a lot of progressive agendas have won in this country. The whole US isn't out of this. People ARE still fighting climate change all around you.

You could be one of those people, in community with other people who are doing something.

doom and gloom "oooh everything is pointless oooh I'm so deep and edgy because I love trying to be the death of hope" people will just get blocked. I'm not talking to your crab-bucket ass.