lightblueline

In today's WIRED website (April 24, 2007) you will find an article on a proposed new city on the outskirts of Shanghai, China. This city is built on the tip of a nearby island at the mouth of the Yangtze River. What the authors don't say is that building an entire city on land less than two meters in elevation makes no allowance for future sea-level rise. In fact, they chose to build very close to the ocean.
In an email response to this blog, the article's author, Douglas McGray, added that the architects are mindful of the potential for sea-level issues, but felt that Shanghai is going to expand, and that the Dongtan project provides an opportunity to try out solutions to building near the ocean; solutions that might be of value to other coastal cities that might not be able to move their infrastructure out of the zone of vulnerability.
You can read the whole article here: Pop-Up Cities: China Builds a Bright Green Metropolis.
Rejecting previous plans that pulled the built environment back from the sea coast, the architects decided to create a new Venice: "Arup had to figure out how to keep Dongtan above water. Chongming Island is flat and barely higher than sea level. The previous planners, thinking defensively, had pulled development back to the middle of the site, imagining Dongtan as an island city with no harbor, no waterfront caf s, no ocean-view condos. Gutierrez thought that was kind of a waste.

Prof. Steve Schneider at Stanford has a website that provides an excellent overview of climate change, science, policy, and other topics and links: Climate Change
Here is an excerpt:

The United Nation's Environment Programme reported an article from Le monde in its THE ENVIRONMENT IN THE NEWS: Thursday, 12 October 2006.

The article is in French, and reports on the Mayors' conference where Santa Barbara Mayor Marty Blum announced plans for the lightblueline action:

"Le Monde: La révolte des maires américains
Guillaume Serina
11.10.06

While lightblueline focuses on generating public awareness and commitment to action against human induced climate change, we look to other partner groups to guide the way to a carbon-neutral lifestyle. Here are some links to organizations that are proposing measures you can do to help:
The Community Environmental Council has a "Fossil Free by '33" campaign with advice for companies and individuals:
Fossil Free by '33
The Union of Concerned Scientists have 10 personal solutions to global warming:
Ten Personal Solutions
The David Suzuki Foundation offers a range of actions you can take at home, at work, or to influence policy decisions:
Climate Change: What you can do
You company can become "climate neutral":
Improving the climate of doing business
L.A. Magazine has 25 ways to go Green:
Twenty-five ways to go green without going insane
General policy recommendations:
USA Today: 6 ways to Combat Global Warming
Wikipedia has a whole site on mitigation of global warming: from the planetary to the personal--
Mitigation of global warming
The National Geographic has a list of 10 things you can do:
Top Ten Tips to Fight Global Warming
The US EPA has a page on "What you can do" at home, at work, on the road, and at School:
What You Can Do

MORE SOON!

Here is a list of other groups that are responding to climate change. NOTE this is for information only. lightblueline is not endorsing these directly, but only pointing to them to illustrate the range of solutions available. Some of these solutions may contradict each other. Read wisely. Send in your suggestions to new links for this list to bruce@lbline.org.

A group in Britain is advocating global carbon rationing;

Ration the Future: to Stop Catastropbic Climate Change

The line segments are 6 inches wide and 34.5 inches long.

A 5-segment line would be 14' 4.5" long (2 lane street)

A 10-segment line would be 28' 9" long (4 lane street)

A quick survey of Santa Barbara streets shows these have varying widths:

Milpas St. is about 69 feet wide at de la Guerra...

Ortega is about 39 feet wide near Milpas...

de la Guerra is about 35 feet wide near Milpas...

Spring Street is about 29 feet wide near de la Guerra...

SO... centering the lines in the middle of the street allows us to standardize their look.

The lightblueline action in New York City has just begun! Stay tuned to more information here!

Many of you come from nations that have coastlines and cities built beside our planet's wide oceans. lightblueline welcomes you to join in and make this action a global action. Please let us know if you are interested in extending the lightblueline to your locale! Feel free to contact lightblueline with your questions and your input.