Moving to the suburbs for your kids? Think again | Grist
if you live in a sprawling, autocentric community that requires you to drive your kids to the supermarket to buy their organic produce and to the local playfield to get their exercise, you're not doing them -- or the planet -- any favors.HARC - Houston Urban Heat Island Effect - PI: David Hitchcock
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If you're having a hard time accepting the idea that a whole bunch of people living in close proximity is good for families, consider that living in a dense, urban neighborhood can provide some of the same benefits for children as riding public transportation: exposure to a variety of people, sensory stimulation, and self-reliance, to name a few. Urban environments also provide innumerable cultural and social opportunities, those which suburban parents usually drive their children to cities to enjoy. Dense communities are arguably better for kids' health than suburbs, because the built environment in urban environments is more likely to encourage walking and other forms of active transportation.
Like other cities, Houston's urbanized areas are hotter than surrounding rural areas by 6 to 8 degrees F – a phenomenon called the urban heat island effect.
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1 comment:
Same with air conditioning: if we use it we can keep cool in the summer, but the electriciy, assumed to be produced with carbon emissions, makes the planet hotter.
The plan is to get us out of our cars, to squeeze us into trains, buses like sardines and into small boxes inside "stack em and pack em" high rise buildings.
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