NSW live music report shows battles over noise are a symptom of culture versus overpopulation Analysis Posted Sat at 7:00pmSat 17 Nov 2018, 7:00pm One night in the early 1990s, in a pub in Tamworth, things got a bit loud. A man living near the West Tamworth Leagues Club, which has been putting on live music in Australia's country music capital for more than 50 years, thought the racket was a bit much and called in the authorities. The NSW Licensing Court took up the charge, with a magistrate eventually forcing the club install a monitor that automatically cut power to the stage if the band pushed above a certain decibel level. The device has been there ever since, even as the venue, which has hosted acts such as INXS and Jimmy Barnes over the years, has spent a significant amount of money on sound-proofing. The club's CEO, Rod Laing, said if they wanted to get rid of it, they would need a court order and the consent of the original complainant. That would be hard, as we learned at a recent hearing in Tamworth as part of a parliamentary inquiry.
PNW Resilience Challenge The PNW Resilience Challenge addresses the key issues presented by increasing urbanization and the risks due to major disruptive events. Business leaders, government experts, insurers, urban planners, engineers, scientists, and others address policy issues, climate change forecasts and other threats to our communities, environment and economy. This is an opportunity to mobilize in support of a shared agenda and shared priorities. Goals Increase systems awareness, thinking and action. Principles To be non-partisan.To be collaborative – we’re all in it together, no one can do it alone.To be systems-focused: cross-disciplined.To take real world action and be solutions oriented.To be focused on opportunity and alignment (acknowledge challenges, focus on solutions).To be based on science/fact and to educate rather than advocate.
54% of the World's Population Now Lives in Cities [CHART] The worldwide movement of people from rural areas to cities continues, according to a new report from the United Nations. The World Urbanization Prospects report [PDF], the UN's annual update on urbanization, shows that 54% of the world's population now lives in cities. In 1950, only 30% of the world lived in urban areas; that figure is expected to reach 66% by 2050. Northern America (which includes Bermuda, Canada, Greenland, Saint-Pierre and Miquelon, and the United States) is the most urbanized region, with 81% of people currently living in cities. Nearly half of all urban dwellers live in cities with populations of less than 500,000. While cities are often associated with economic progress and longer life expectancy, urbanization brings sustainable challenges as well, including pollution, rapid sprawl and environmental degradation. Cities also contain more inequality than rural areas, the report states, and unplanned urbanization often leaves people without basic needs.
The Shore Line There has never been a better time to rethink our relationship to our shorelines. We are seeing one of the greatest migrations of all times towards coastal cities at precisely the moment we should consider retreat. 70% of the world’s coastlines are vulnerable to sea level rise. The surge of coastal tourism, the increased dumping of industrial waste, and development projects in wetlands are threatening the very ecosystems that protect us from flooding. The Shore Line profiles the efforts of educators, artists, architects, scientists, city planners, and youth organizations from nine countries who are confronting coastal challenges with persistence and imagination. Find inspiration in The Shore Line videos about people from nine countries who are addressing environmental, economic and social problems. There are three ways to navigate our Shore Line storybook: Chapters, Atlas, or Database. Writer, Producer and Director Liz Miller Story and Creative Development Interactive Design Jaelle D. Norway
Resilient America Roundtable The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine has tremendous convening power to bring together the world’s experts on a given topic or complex question. The Resilient America Roundtable uses this resource to organize expert meetings and workshops that explore cross-cutting issues that advance and inform discussions about resilience and incubate new ideas and projects for future research and activities to build community and national resilience to disasters and extreme events. The Resilient America Roundtable partners with its pilot communities to help community decision makers and stakeholders build approaches for deciding how and where to invest resources to mitigate risk and build resilience in ways that allow them to explain and communicate those investment decisions. The Roundtable also engages with a network of communities that participate alongside the pilot communities in Roundtable events and activities. Access to knowledge.
For Mumbai's slum-dwellers, climate change is slicing away the haves from the have-nots Updated about 6 hours agoSat 21 Mar 2020, 9:50pm In the dry season, Usha's tin roof traps the heat inside her shack until she feels like she is baking. There is no ventilation and until recently, she didn't even have a fan. When it rains, her house fills with water that drags black mould down her walls and seeps under her door, bringing with it the festering sludge of outside Mumbai. Before she had a bed, she would lie in the sludge until morning. There are millions of people like Usha in cities all around the world living without proper infrastructure, housing or employment opportunities. As the world heats up and the weather becomes ever more extreme, the challenges they already face are intensifying. Without the resources to empower themselves, most of them have little choice but to stay where they are and brace for what is to come. Haves and have nots According to fiction novelist Suyash Shreekant, even his upper-class community experienced water shortages. Adversity is escalating
National Disaster Resilience Competition The competition promotes risk assessment, stakeholder engagement, and planning. Awards will fund the implementation of innovative resilience projects to better prepare communities for storms and other extreme events. The NDRC Notice of Federal Award provides specific information on eligibility requirements. The State of Washington has been invited to participate in the Phase 2 of US Department of Housing and Urban Development’s National Disaster Resilience Competition (NDRC). In Phase 1, HUD approved the Puyallup River Watershed as the target area for funding and the Summit to Sea concept to address unmet recovery needs from the qualifying 2011 disaster while building additional resilience.In Phase 2, each finalist is invited to propose specific projects that advance their community’s comprehensive resilience plans, as envisioned in Phase 1.
Forced car ownership an essential ticket to freedom in outer suburbs that's putting financial stress on households Posted about 2 hours agoFri 17 Apr 2020, 11:02pm Melbourne is a city defined by its soundtrack of dinging trams and the bells of boom gates lowering for train level crossings. Key points: About 100,000 Melbourne households are affected by "forced car ownership"Residents in the outer suburbs are disadvantaged by a lack of public transportCar expenses can reach about $600 per week, leading to financial stress for many families But that chorus dulls the further you travel from the city centre. The outer suburbs are the domain of cars. Professor Graham Currie, an expert on transport policy from Monash University, said residents were left with few alternatives. "There's no choice for them to have a car, there's very little public transport on the fringe," Professor Currie said. Cars double-parked in driveways and blocking narrow residential street are a common sight, especially now that Australians are isolating and working from home. There's also a trailer squeezed into the driveway.
In Landmark Class Action, Farmers Insurance Sues Local Governments For Ignoring Climate Change Last month, Farmers Insurance Co. filed nine class-action lawsuits arguing that local governments in the Chicago area are aware that climate change is leading to heavier rainfall but are failing to prepare accordingly. The suits allege that the localities did not do enough to prepare sewers and stormwater drains in the area during a two-day downpour last April. In what could foreshadow a legal reckoning of who is liable for the costs of climate change, the class actions against nearly 200 Chicago-area communities look to place responsibility on municipalities, perhaps spurring them to take a more forward-looking approach in designing and engineering for a future made different by climate change. “Farmers is asking to be reimbursed for the claims it paid to homeowners who sometimes saw geysers of sewage ruin basement walls, floors and furniture,” reported E&E News. Insurance companies are becoming increasingly concerned, and more vocal, about the rising costs of climate change.
In Tarneit on Melbourne's fringe, the Australian dream has become a suburban nightmare When the Bahadur family moved into their new home in Melbourne's booming outer west four months ago, they dreamed of suburban bliss. But it turned out to be a nightmare. "We feel cheated," Binod Bahadur said. "We bought this land on the promise that we will have a dedicated train station, and a bus stop within 300 metres of this development. But it looks like that was all a false promise." Their home is in Tarneit, one of Melbourne's fastest-growing fringe suburbs. Getting to and from the city, where one in five Tarneit residents work, can take up to two hours each way by car or train. Tarneit Station opened just over four years ago and quickly became the second-busiest V/Line station in Victoria, with a car park that overflows by 7:00am each weekday. Wyndham City Council collects tens of thousands of dollars in fines for those who have no option but to leave their cars wherever they can. Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Loading