WFPL's Erica Peterson has been reporting on pollution and energy in Louisville since 2011.
These issues are more important than ever as the city, state and region continue to grapple with the ramifications of fossil fuel use, rising temperatures and urban sprawl.
Here's the draft of Mayor Greg Fischer's Sustainability Plan for Louisville. The city is accepting comments on the plan until the end of February. WFPL will have more coverage of the plan later this afternoon.
Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer is releasing the 19 goals of the city's draft sustainability plan on Twitter this afternoon. Here's a list of the goals, as they're released:
Goal #1: Decrease energy use citywide per capita by 25% by 2025.
Goal #2: Decrease energy use in city-owned buildings by 30% by 2025.
Goal #3: Mitigate the risk of climate change impacts by implementing city adaption and resilience strategies by 2018.
Two related stories about coal in Asia broke earlier this week: that India just doesn’t have enough coal to meet the country’s demands, and that China burns nearly as much coal as the whole rest of the world.
Updated: Mayor Greg Fischer says he'll release a draft version of the city's sustainability plan this afternoon. But before the whole report is sent out, he'll be teasing the plan's highlights on his Twitter account. Citizens will have the month of February to read the plan and provide comments.
Louisville’s Waterfront Park is up for a major urban development award. The park is one of five finalists for the Rudy Bruner Award, which describes itself as a “search for examples of the often overlooked excellence [in urban areas].”
Waterfront Development Corporation President David Karem says just being a finalist is great news for the park and for Louisville.
A new study says that Louisville businesses, food distributors and residents are going out of their way to eat local food, and would eat more if they could.
The study was commissioned by non-profit Seed Capital Kentucky and conducted by a consultant in New York. It use both quantitative and qualitative methods to survey residents, restaurants, grocery stores and food distributors.
A new study says the heat that’s released from buildings and transportation in major urban areas can affect the temperature in cities far away.
The study was published Sunday in Nature Climate Change, and is the first to look at the effects of waste heat on temperature changes. The researchers found that the heat that’s released from buildings and cars in urban areas in the northern hemisphere can raise the temperature by about one degree Celsius.
A few months ago, I reported that a new Metro Government app to encourage citizens to participate in cataloging the city’s tree canopy was available on iTunes. Now, the city’s tree commission has revamped the app, and changed its focus to ash trees.
A Louisville non-profit has filed to amend its pending lawsuit against the Ohio River Bridges Project, arguing the federal government should have taken greenhouse gases into consideration.