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THE BOLD MORAL leadership of newly elected members of Congress like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has me feeling more optimistic about our collective chances of averting climate breakdown than I have in years.

Source: Video: Naomi Klein Interviews Bernie Sanders on Climate Change

Worthwhile video – we have 12 years…

The Insect Apocalypse

When his parents took him driving, he remembered, the car’s windshield was frequently so smeared with insect carcasses that you almost couldn’t see through it. But all that seemed distant now. He couldn’t recall the last time he needed to wash bugs from his windshield.

nyti.ms/2DMT70v

Hat tip to my uncle for this great article about cargo bikes for urban transport of goods. We’ve had our cargo bike for a number of years now, and as our kids have grown older, the cargo is less kid and more groceries and other household items. I can get to our local grocery or Target and back again far faster on my bike than in our car.

There are a number of interesting tidbits in the article like this:

cities are being strangled by trucks and vans: a great deal of freight traffic in urban areas is now comprised of delivery vans (in the UK, van traffic has grown by 71% over the last 20 years, compared to growth of 13% for cars.)

71% ! Can you believe it? I guess when you think of all those Prime Now vans running around…

Source: Cargobikes Not Drones Are The Future For Urban Deliveries

Good article today in the NYT about screen time and kids. No hard research, but the gut feeling of a number of people in tech that we all need to dial it back when it come to screen time.

This idea that Silicon Valley parents are wary about tech is not new. The godfathers of tech expressed these concerns years ago, and concern has been loudest from the top.

A Dark Consensus About Screens and Kids Begins to Emerge in Silicon Valley

Did you see the headline that stated GM was calling for a national electric vehicle program. Sounds great, right? Unfortunately, when the details are reviewed, it’s not as forward thinking as you might hope. Proposing what you already expect to happen as binding policy is not visionary.

Several other countries, including major markets in Europe and China, have much more aggressive targets on shorter timespans.

Elektrek https://electrek.co/2018/10/26/gm-weak-national-zero-emissions-vehicle-nzev-program-china-electric-vehicle/

As Donald Trump says… sad.

Was just discussing with Doug how if you’ve lived in Minneapolis for the past 40 years, you believe climate change is happening.

Saint Paul’s lakes will never freeze thickly and quickly again. People will never harvest blocks of ice, never again build a fantastic palace of frozen water. A tradition that’s as old as anything in this city is dead forever.

Source: twin city sidewalks: The Last Ice Palace of Saint Paul

This land is your land, this land is my land…

President Donald Trump sharply reduced the size of two national monuments in Utah on Monday by some two million acres, the largest rollback of federal land protection in the nation’s history.

Source: Trump Slashes Size of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase Monuments – The New York Times