B5. Resilience, Third Nature, and Transition

Urbanising cities in the Global South have a multitude of challenges—rapid demographic changes placing pressure on environmental resources, services, and infrastructure unable to keep pace with unplanned urbanisation, and urban sprawl creating a dystopian peri-urban landscape. Often, urbanisation is accompanied by loss of urban green and blue spaces, as built-up infrastructure replaces urban ecosystems. While […]

A century ago, businessmen, automobile clubs, and politicians came together to form the U.S. 66 Highway Association. Unlike the congestion-obsessed highway-builders of today, they wanted traffic, which they saw as synonymous with a burgeoning, mass-motoring public who would spend money in their towns. They even advertised Route 66 as “Main Street of America.”

Known as an “all-year-all-weather-road” and the “Mother Road,” Route 66 was 200 miles shorter than any other transcontinental railway or highway at the time, making it the speediest route between Chicago and Los Angeles, the Association bragged. It was also touted as an economic engine, generating new jobs for men to lay asphalt across the country. More importantly, though, it was an opportunity to mythologize an enduring new idea: America’s “open road.”

But as with all myths, many people are left out of frame.

“It wasn’t really the fun, happy place we think of when we look back at the ‘good ole days,'” wrote Barry Duncan in his pictorial book Route 66: A Trail of Tears, which compiles the work of car crash photographer and Carthage, Mo. mayor William Carl Taylor. “Many were maimed or killed during the existence of Route 66.”

Photo: William Carl Taylor via Route 66 A Trail of Tears

The title of Duncan’s book may be an insensitive reference to the forced displacement of American Indian tribes from the South and Southeast, but there’s no doubt that Route 66 has a long and violent history of its own. The author served in the Carthage, MO police force between 1977 and 2009, and claims to have witnessed over 2,000 wrecks personally, in addition to curating Taylor’s grisly collection in his book.

And that collection speaks to those tragedies stark terms. Fender benders stand next to piles of unrecognizable rubble. Cabs are literally flattened. Dozens stand around overturned vehicles. A service station entrance is smashed. Civilians help carry stretchers to ambulances. Police officers stare at cars from a distance and write on notepads. A girl cries.

One crash that particularly haunted Duncan involved a family called the Ruminers. In 1957, they were traveling Route 66 from Washington State to their relatives’ home in Mississippi for Christmas. On their way, they were crushed in a Ford sedan by an oncoming truck. The 28-year-old parents and their six-year-old twins were killed, leaving one child to survive with a fractured pelvis and foot. 

In the media circus for Route 66’s centennial celebration this year, though, these kinds of stories remain mostly hidden – and the road’s once well-known nickname, “Bloody 66,” is almost nowhere to be found.

Photo: Christian Frommelt. On display at the National Museum of Transportation

At the Missouri History Museum’s Route 66 festival, for instance, ten pristine vintage cars line the front drive. A rockabilly tune fills the main lobby. Neon signs make a dark room glow. Placards trace the origins of “the concrete ribbon to adventure,” its local landmarks, and the challenges it posed to Black, queer, and Jewish travelers. You learn about the first McDonald’s west of the Mississippi, the birth of the Phillips 66 gasoline brand, and motor cottages.

But you don’t learn nearly as much about Route 66’s bodycount. In 1941, for instance, a single short stretch of the Mother Road near the Army training installation of Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri claimed the lives of 54 people in just nine months, including 19 American soldiers.

The National Museum of Transportation in suburban St. Louis, too, highlights local landmarks associated with the highway while largely ignoring its bloodshed. On display is a replica of the silver steamer S.S. Admiral, which travelers may have seen bridging the Mississippi. Drive-in theaters are featured, as “they symbolized freedom of the open highway, mid-century American design, community gathering spaces, and the romance of the open road.”

In another building, an exterior wall of the Coral Court Motel, impressively reconstructed, stands in a corner. Ten cars, one for each decade, face viewers as they might have once in a dealer’s window.

Photo: William Carl Taylor via Route 66 A Trail of Tears

To some, the story of Highway 66 is the story of a lost America. Route 66 represents a simpler, slower time before the Interstate, nostalgia for cross-country motoring in proximity with tree canopy, town squares, rivers, and diners. It represents postwar prosperity and adventure too; as Missouri History Museum Curator Sharon Smith says, “It is about finding hope in the west for the early years and excitement of Midwesterners traveling to the coast of California.”

The images Duncan published, though, present a shadow narrative. Greyhound buses and youngsters with bikes, generally left out of Route 66’s frame, enter it. The Studebaker is dented. The ambulance looms underneath the Phillips 66 sign. The girl is crying.

Americans aren’t supposed to die on Main Street. But many did – and still do.

The year Highway 66 opened 23,400 US residents died in motor vehicle crashes, more than 20 deaths per 100,000 residents, according to the National Safety Council. In 1953, fatalities ballooned to 37,956, or 24 deaths per 100,000 in the U.S.

Photo: Christian Frommelt. On display at the National Museum of Transportation

So what responsibility do the stewards of public memory have to account for the scale of automobile violence on America’s most iconic highway? And how does that responsibility shift when motorists are still killing nearly 37,000 people per year on US roads today — and when the automakers and oil companies who continue to fuel that killing still have their advertisements reproduced in centennial retrospectives?

It’s true that the Missouri History Museum’s exhibit offers at least one anecdote of an “accident,” and Smith assures that the perils of the road were addressed in a fuller exhibit in 2016. But overall, these stories are footnotes amidst what otherwise seems like a glowing tribute to automobility.

But you don’t have to look far to find evidence of Route 66’s dark side — or the many human lives it’s claimed. One Sedalia news article reports that First Lieutenant George Orchard of Richmond, VA died in a head-on collision on Highway 66 in 1941; he was the 21st soldier to be killed by cars within a year in the vicinity of Fort Leonard Wood, which the highway serves. 

Photo: William Carl Taylor via Route 66 A Trail of Tears

Widening the frame of Route 66 matters, too, because of how deadly legacy highways remain to this day.

For instance, on Gravois Avenue in St. Louis — which includes a portion of Historic 66 — 22 people were killed and 1,000 injured in car crashes between 2020 and 2024 alone. Meanwhile, the US Department of Transportation has rescinded a memorandum outlining how to improve legacy highways through Complete Streets, a toolkit that can keep humans safe in and outside of cars.

As DOT Secretary Sean Duffy calls for a “Golden Era” of transportation that coalesces around the “Freedom to Drive,” public memory plays an even greater role in confronting the deadly costs of “freedom” on the open road. We owe it to the dead not to forget.

Photo: William Carl Taylor via Route 66 A Trail of Tears Photo: William Carl Taylor via Route 66 A Trail of Tears

The only thing standing between wastewater and its new life as a nutrient-rich fertilizer may be streams of tiny, tiny bubbles. 

This is the novel takeaway from a recent study which focuses on an emerging new approach: plasma bubble technology. This technology can purify water, while retaining its crop-benefiting nutrients. What’s more, when researchers tested the resulting purified and concentrated feed on hydroponic garlic crops, they noted that the plants had notably faster and healthier growth.

In general terms, plasma bubble technology works by pumping ionized gas into water, which creates millions of microscopic bubbles that course through the water, reacting in different ways with the ingredients within it. It’s this reaction that is key to its water-purifying qualities: the bubbles have the ability to degrade organic contaminants in the water. But, they’re also able to fix nitrogen, a key agricultural nutrient.

For their study, the University of Alberta researchers sourced wastewater from the malting industry, which produces spirits and beer. This byproduct is rich in organic elements, including nitrogen. But while one of these—nitrogen—accelerates crop growth, the researchers note that the remaining organic load could put growing plants under strain.

So, they tried their plasma bubbles, using a patented version of the technology that they have developed, which uses an electric pump and is fully automated. After pumping the malt wastewater full of tiny bubbles, the researchers found that the water’s organic load had been reduced by 90%, but the ionized bubbles increased the total levels of nitrogen in the water to 53.1 mg per litre through nitrogen fixation, almost double the amount in the control experiments.

 

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Then it was time to put their nutrient-enriched water to the test. In an experimental hydroponic set up, the researchers watered 36 garlic plants, germinated from bulbs. They found that compared to the control plants, the plasma-wastewater treated bulbs germinated sooner, and developed longer roots.

Tests on the plants revealed that the treated garlic bulbs had assimilated more nutrients than the others, confirming the nutrient-rich status of the bubbled water. This showed up in the garlics’ continued growth, with the biomass of treated plants almost doubling that of the others. 

The scientists think their automated system is a good fit for hydroponic crop production, and could work for a range of other plants grown in this setting, they believe.

Like many of the best solutions, theirs dovetails two in one. “The technology performs the dual function of treating the wastewater and converting it into a nutrient solution that supports hydroponic crop production,” the authors say. “In this way, the treated wastewater becomes a valuable agricultural resource instead of a disposal problem.”

Zhang et. al. “Microbubble-enhanced cold plasma activation of food-industry wastewater for valorization and hydroponic crop production.” Green Chemical Engineering. 2026.

Image: cottonbro studio via pexels

Good Food For All!, a European Citizens’ Initiative supported by a coalition of more than 300 civil society organisations across Europe, including ARC2020, is making important strides in amplifying the messages of the food sovereignty and agroecology movements. But the battle for hearts, minds and policies is still far from won.

Despite three decades of COP climate talks and a boom in renewables, global emissions continue to rise, rooted in capitalism’s relentless drive to expand energy use. Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations helps explain why renewable energy has grown without pushing fossil fuels out.

Nearly 60 countries launch coalition to accelerate the energy transition against the backdrop of the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz.

• In the short term, U.S. fossil fuel companies are the biggest winners from President Trump’s war on Iran, thanks to higher and higher fuel prices. In the long run, though, more countries will pursue energy independence with help from China, spelling the end for American hegemony, much like the coal-driven British empire a century ago. (The Guardian)
• Mother Jones shows once again why suspending the federal gas tax wouldn’t help drivers much, but would blow a huge hole in transportation funding.
• The president of Amtrak, Roger Harris, is stepping down at the end of July. (Trains)
• How did 15-minute cities become the latest right-wing conspiracy theory? (Car Free America)
• As far as raw totals, California has the most pedestrian deaths in the country, mostly because of L.A. (Los Angeles Magazine)
• Drivers hit an astonishing 21 pedestrians on Knoxville’s North Broadway last year, but the city is planning changes. (News Sentinel)
• Transit ridership in Pittsburgh rose 50 percent for the NFL Draft, totaling more than 400,000 riders over three days. (Axios)
• Orlando is raising parking rates, which of course is freaking out business owners who don’t consider that if parking is too cheap, their customers won’t be able to find a space. (Click Orlando)
• A lot of disinformation is also going around about the Colfax Avenue bus rapid transit line in Denver and its supposedly “devastating” impact on businesses. (Westword)
• Dallas is considering expanding streetcar lines, but some council members have concerns about the cost. (KERA)
• Legal and political challenges continue to slow down Austin’s Project Connect transit plan, and meanwhile costs continue to rise. (Texas Tribune)
• The Texas DOT will not let Austin keep a Black Lives Matter mural or a rainbow crosswalk, not even a crosswalk honoring the University of Texas. (KUT)
• Portland’s $1 billion climate change fund — which has funded converting parking lots into community gardens, among other things — could serve as an example to the rest of the country. (Oregon Public Broadcasting)
• The Central City District in Philadelphia installed modular curbs to protect bike lanes on 13th Street. (Voice)
• Construction on Salt Lake City’s S-line streetcar extension will start this summer. (ABC 4)
• The Kansas City streetcar’s Riverfront extension will make it easier for soccer fans to get to Current games. (Star)
• The District of Columbia is a great place to go running. (Greater Greater Washington)

The shutdown of Spirit Airlines didn’t just ground flights. It exposed a deeper weakness in America’s transportation system: tens of millions of people rely on affordable travel, and we still don’t provide enough of it.

For students, workers, and families, low-cost travel isn’t a luxury. It is what keeps them connected to education, jobs, loved ones, and opportunity. When a carrier built around affordability disappears, the impact lands hardest on those with the fewest alternatives.

The lesson from the Spirit demise isn’t that affordable travel is fragile. It’s that we have not built a system designed to reliably support it.

Affordable travel is still too often treated as a compromise, rather than a core part of broader mobility.

Recommended Sustainable Transportation Can Ease the Affordability Crisis — And Help Climate Champions Win Streetsblog May 19, 2026

Maintaining affordability requires intentional design. Transportation modes must work together to increase competition and expand access. That means treating air travel, intercity buses, trains, and local transit as parts of a single mobility network rather than separate systems operating in parallel. When these intermodal connections are seamless for travelers, they expand options and protect freedom of choice. When they do not, the system effectively shrinks.

The gaps are most visible in how uneven and fragmented those connections are across the country. Outside major hubs, travelers often rely on whichever mode exists — not necessarily the one that best fits their needs. Some regions have limited air service. Others lack rail. And in too many places, moving between modes adds friction, cost, or uncertainty that discourages travel altogether.

This comes at a time when transportation costs are rising across the board, making low-cost options more essential, not less.

Recommended This Holiday Travel Season, It’s Time to End the Stigma Around Intercity Buses Kai Boysan December 23, 2025

Ground transportation is one of the most scalable ways to close that gap. Intercity buses already connect communities airlines have left behind, linking small towns to major cities year-round at prices that remain accessible even as airfares rise. But their impact is limited when they operate in isolation.

Improving affordability is not just about the availability of service. It’s about whether people are able to easily access it.

We need multimodal hubs where buses, trains, airports, and local transit connect in simple, intuitive ways. We need collaboration to create more stations that are safe, modern, and conveniently located. And we need transportation planning that treats intercity buses and other ground options as essential infrastructure and part of the transportation ecosystem, not an afterthought.

Recommended Trump Is Holding Affordable Transportation Projects Hostage, and Congress Could Call His Bluff Kea Wilson May 7, 2026

The economic stakes are real. Transportation costs have risen sharply, and many households no longer have room to absorb higher prices.

For millions of Americans, the choice is not between a cheaper seat and a more comfortable one; it is between traveling and not traveling at all. When lower-cost options disappear, participation in work, education, and family life becomes harder to sustain.

A resilient mobility system does not depend on any single mode. It depends on multiple affordable options that reinforce one another. That is how access to opportunity becomes less dependent on income or geography.

The shutdown of Spirit Airlines is a reminder that affordability is not a niche concern. It is central to how Americans move through their lives, and it underscores the need for a transportation system built as a connected intermodal network rather than a set of isolated parts. Affordable travel is not a fallback. It is what makes broad mobility possible.

This week on the Talking Headways podcast, we’re joined by Dabney Sanders, the project manager of the Downtown Greenway in Greensboro, North Carolina. We chat about opening the greenway’s final section after 25 years of work, the remarkable art installations along the route, and lessons for other cities that want to build greenways.

There are three ways of following the conversation: The audio player embedded below; a full transcript generated by artificial intelligence; and further down this page, a partial, human-edited transcript.

Jeff Wood: How hard was it to make sure that the whole greenway was connected? Obviously, some of it is in a trail section where it’s off on its own, but then other parts seem to be next to the road, and then others seem to be part of the sidewalk.

Dabney Sanders: We had two opportunities in Greensboro that made us think this was possible to do in a way that maybe some cities wouldn’t be able to do. If you had to purchase all of the right-of-way for this, in your center city, the cost would be prohibitive. But in our case, we had a six-lane divided highway, Morrow Boulevard, which did not carry a lot of traffic on it.

We knew we could take at least a full lane of traffic out of that to convert, so we did not have to do right-of-way purchasing for that because the city owned it. That’s on our east side. On the west side, we had a railroad corridor that had one commercial user, and we had the sense that maybe we could convince that user not to use it any longer, and we could do a rail-to-trail conversion on that line.

We were successful with that. We did have to pay for that. We were naive in the beginning, thinking that the railroad might just abandon it. That’s not how it works.

Wood: They never give it up for free.

Sanders: Exactly. I will say that we did not have to do as much right-of-way acquisition as you might imagine. It was more kind of little bits and pieces that we might need here and there. There were a few properties. One of the properties had been a gas station and a convenience store — and we just knew, being right there in the corner where it was, that we wanted that property, and we were lucky enough to be able to purchase it.

We had a lot of cooperation, even from some private property owners. On the northern section, we had a very tight right-of-way, and we had a property owner who really believed in the project. And when we approached them about needing additional right-of-way from their property, they actually donated the right-of-way instead of asking for that compensation because they knew what this project could do for our community, and they also knew that ultimately this project would increase their own property values.

I feel very fortunate that we were able to acquire most of the right-of-way that we needed in a way that, outside of the railroad negotiations, wasn’t particularly painful.

Wood: Was there anybody that pushed back on it? Was there anybody that was like, “I don’t know about this, having a trail that goes through my property or near my property” or anything along those lines?

Sanders: The final section, the western branch, was the first section in which the greenway is directly adjacent to residential backyards. And we did have a lot of meetings with those residents to talk about the vision and discuss their concerns. Of course, this had been an abandoned railroad corridor, so what we were talking about doing was an incredible improvement to what had been there.

But people did have concerns. Are we gonna have people walking up into our backyards? That sort of thing. And we did work with those residents. We offered to build a fence along all of those backyards, and we offered to put gates in those fences at our expense that the property owners would control so that they would have access, because people were very excited about the greenway happening.

They just wanted to make sure that they had some protections of their property. And of the 16 or so residents, all but one of them requested that gate, and we took that as a real sign of people appreciating the project.

We are currently accepting applications for our Indigenous Youth Farmers Program.

Completing this application should take about 20-30 minutes. Applications are due by 11:59 PM on Friday, June 19, 2026. No farming experience required.

What is the Indigenous Youth Farmers Program?

• A unique opportunity for Indigenous youth to learn both urban and rural farming practices, meet and build community, and practice traditional lifeways centering Indigenous knowledge and values.
• Learn from local Indigenous teachers, Imagine Water Works staff, and each other.
• Attend 6 workshops, including two educational field trips.
• Co-steward The Imagination Farm with support from peers and mentors.

Who is eligible to apply?

• Louisiana youth, ages 16-24 with North, Central, or South American Indigenous ancestry. If you are unclear on this qualification please contact deja@imaginewaterworks.org
• No farming experience is required.
• If you are younger than 16 or are unable to fully participate, we welcome you to attend our field trips! To receive more details and an invitation to our two field trips, share your contact information with us here: https://forms.gle/TVnhvBeZfscnmu4M8.

What are the additional benefits?

• A $300 stipend at the end of the program
• A Certificate of Completion
• Food, snacks, and sport drinks while on site
• A sense of belonging and a “home base” at the farm, now and in the future, with continued mentorship from all who are connected to the farm
• Completion of the program qualifies each farmer for IWW’s Imagination Farmers Program, an ongoing paid opportunity to continue stewarding the Imagination Farm, and/or IWW’s Imagination Responder Program which activates during and after major hurricanes and floods.

What is The Imagination Farm?

The Imagination Farm (TIF) is a Two-Spirit, Creole Indigenous farm and sacred intergenerational space where those most impacted by climate change can explore, imagine, and share solutions for our future. TIF feeds both our stomachs and our spirits. We encourage experimentation, collaboration, education, imperfection, and creativity, as we collectively build in the midst of ongoing climate catastrophe. More about the farm can be found HERE.

Where do we meet? The Farm is located at 2718 Painters St., New Orleans. We will be going on site visits and will provide transportation between the farm and field trip sites within New Orleans and Terrebonne Parish, LA. Funds for transportation support are limited. We will do our best to meet everyone’s needs via ride shares and carpooling. Ride share support will be available for the following parishes: Orleans, Jefferson, St. Bernard. When is the program?

August-November 2026, plus graduation, with the opportunity to stay connected to volunteering and other paid opportunities through the Imagination Farmers Program and Imagination Responders Program.

What is the application timeline?

• Friday, June 19th @ 11:59pm: Applications are due.
• Early July: All applicants will hear back on the status of their application, and select applicants will be invited to the 2nd round.
• Late July: All 2nd round applicants will be notified, and select applicants will be invited into the program. All applicants will receive an invitation to our two field trips.

Use the form below to apply by June 19th. Loading…

This program is made possible by many Imagine Water Works friends, with leadership from Ida Aronson, Déja Jones, and Chenier “Klie” Kliebert.

Issues with the application? Try the direct link here: https://forms.gle/k4AHaVx4FZx85z2c7. How can I support this program?

Your support will help us pay for meaningful workshops, transportation, first aid, and farm tools, and will ensure that the program can thrive for years to come. To donate, use our donation link here and specify that your donation is for the Indigenous Youth Program. If you are a philanthropic organization and would like to partner with us to help support this program, please email klie@imaginewaterworks.org. 

Donate to support our work

The post Apply Now! Indigenous Youth Farmers Program appeared first on Imagine Water Works.

Solar power is on the rise around the world as the cost of solar panels goes down and societal acceptance of the technology rises. The world added record-breaking solar power installations in 2025, and capacity is expected to more than double in the next five years, according to the International Energy Agency.

But there’s one inescapable issue darkening the skies for the transition to clean solar energy: dirty coal plants. Researchers in the UK have found that pollution from coal is significantly reducing the amount of power we could be getting from solar panels.

From 2017 to 2023, annual solar energy losses “from existing systems were, on average, equivalent to one-third of the energy added by new PV installations,” the researchers write in a paper published in the journal Nature Sustainability.

When power plant furnaces burn coal, it releases not just carbon dioxide but also sulfur dioxide. This gas reacts with other molecules to become small particles called sulfates. Called aerosols, these tiny particles get suspended in the air and reflect sunlight.

 

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For their new study, the researchers used satellite data to map and assess more than 140,000 solar installations worldwide. They combined this data with air pollution data to calculate how much sunlight dims and how this reduces electricity generation. The researchers traced the origins of the aerosols and found that they came mainly from coal-fired power plants.

They found that in 2023 aerosols reduced global solar electricity output by 5.8%, or 111 terawatt-hours of energy; that is equal to the amount generated by 18 medium-sized coal-fired power plants. The losses were highest in China, where solar and coal are expanding and are often located close to each other. China had the largest aerosol-related solar energy losses worldwide, reducing national solar power generation by 7.7% in 2023.

The phase-out of coal power around the world has been slow, the researchers write, and this study presents yet another way that coal could interfere with the world’s clean-energy transition. “Looking forward, the physical interaction between coal-based aerosols and solar PV performance is likely to become an increasingly critical constraint on the global energy transition,” they say.

Source: Rui Song et al. Coal plants persist as a large barrier to the global solar energy transition. Nature Sustainability, 2026.

Image: ©Anthropocene magazine/AI-generated

As wars escalate, ecological systems collapse, and inequality deepens, traditional, nation-centered ideas of security and peace are no longer sufficient. “Planetary peace” links peace with ecological balance, regenerative economics, social justice, and planetary cooperation in this new human era.

Gas turbine manufacturers are confident they will win the battle over whether Europe’s AI boom will be powered by fossil fuels.

Nate invites listeners to view the constant churn of headlines through a wider-boundary lens. He begins with the misleading framing of recent oil production statistics by the United States, which blurs distinctions between crude oil and broader petroleum products.

As President Trump’s Department of Transportation encourages American motorists to get in their cars and drive away from their communities to celebrate the nation’s birthday, one advocate is calling on would-be holiday drivers to stay put and deepen their connections to their neighbors — by closing their street to cars and throwing a party.

Nonprofit Block Party USA recently launched its “American Summer” campaign to inspire communities across the country to organize at least 250 block parties between Memorial Day and Labor Day, with an emphasis on the Fourth of July.

Timed to honor the 250th anniversary of America’s founding in 1776, this push could catalyze not only interpersonal connections, but an overdue conversation about our country’s divisions — and the role that neighborhoods can play in bringing us back together.

“With America 250 coming, there’s so much polarization, and people are really suffering,” said Vanessa Elias, the group’s founder. “It is affecting our mental health; we’re feeling divided and disappointed. And when we look at our history, we have become so independent and individualistic that we’ve lost this sense of community.”

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A self-described “mental health activist, parent coach, and block party expert,” Elias launched the campaign out of a deep belief that in-person interaction among neighbors is an essential ingredient for a healthy life, healthy kids and even a healthy democracy.

She founded her organization after one of her local legislators spoke out about the experience of being harassed by a constituent online, only to have a far more positive experience with the same constituent in person.

“That was just a light bulb moment for me,” Elias says. “We need block parties; we need face-to-face connection with random people in our immediate proximity.”

Recommended Car Harms Monday: Cars Make Us More Lonely Mike Lydon June 9, 2025

In human-centered communities, of course, block parties can be a naturally occurring phenomenon.

When we design our roads to treat motorists as simply members of a broader transportation ecosystem — rather than those roads’ exclusive users — we open up space for spontaneous barbecues and pop-up porch concerts, whether or not anyone has organized a formal gathering. This choice also encourages more casual social interactions between neighbors, which studies show are statistically more likely to happen in walkable neighborhoods, too.

Elias says her block party proposal can adapt to more car-dependent places, with gatherings in rural driveways or meetups in parks. But in an ideal world, she thinks everyone who wants to should be able to step right outside their door and into a true community, rather than getting in a car to go find it.

“Part of the work that I do, is to help people understand how they don’t need a perfect cul-de-sac where they can close the road … That said, I would prefer it be rooted in place, and rooted in the area that people are living,” she added. “Rather than finding a pretty park eight miles from where everybody lives, [the ideal block party would] bring people together as close as possible to where they’re living — and I think some communities make it really easy for that to happen.”

Recommended Five Things Missing In The Built Environment For Families With Young Children Barry Greene Jr. June 16, 2023

Elias acknowledged that only 6.8 percent of the U.S. population live in walkable neighborhoods, which means ideal block party sites can be hard to find.

And even within those neighborhoods, some will still find it difficult to secure permits to close streets to cars, or to rally neighbors who barely say hello to one another on the way to check the mail. She stressed that, in an era of social media isolation and deep political division, the built environment is far from the only reason why we don’t always connect.

Despite those steep odds, though, Elias argued the humble block party can be a critical first “drop” that ripples out across a whole community, building social connections that grow and deepen over time — particularly for people who are too young to drive. She emphasized that block parties encourage “free play” for children, which “can make children happier, better problem-solvers, and more energized to pursue learning and develop deep interests.”

No matter why communities gather, though, Elias said the best way to celebrate our country this summer may not be traveling to visit our national treasures, but to make treasured memories in our own neighborhoods — and maybe, to forge the coalitions we need to make livable streets and social cohesion the neighborhood norm.

“Whether you’re six or 106, it’s something that is accessible to you — to meet other people, where you belong,” she added.

Visit BlockPartyUSA.org for more tools and resources to throw a block party in your community.

• The House version of a new infrastructure funding bill, dubbed BUILD America 250, is getting mixed-to-negative reviews (Streetsblog USA).
  • The Eno Center for Transportation has a detailed breakdown of the bill’s language.
  • The Natural Resources Defense Council doesn’t like a new $130 fee on electric vehicles or the elimination of funding for chargers.
  • Democratic senators are also opposed to the EV fee. (E&E News)
  • The bill maintains the car-dominated status quo by raising funding for highways and cutting funding for rail and transit, compared to the Biden administration’s bipartisan infrastructure act, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists. (The Equation)
  • The Rail Passengers Association notes that it provides more funding for transit than such bills usually do, but zeroes out funding specifically for rail.
  • In addition, the bill would require congressional approval for any Amtrak restructuring. (Trains)
  • It also requires the federal government to write regulations for driverless commercial trucks. (Freight Waves)
• The EPA announced plans to delay the Biden administration’s stronger vehicle emissions standards, and possibly reconsider them entirely. (Inside Climate News)
• The Austin Transit Partnership has started pre-construction work on the city’s first light rail line. (KXAN)
• Oregon voters rejected a proposal to raise the state gas tax, probably because the price of gas is so high already. (Associated Press)
• New Jersey will not require insurance for lower-speed e-bikes that don’t have a throttle, just the ones that function more like motorcycles. (NJ.com)
• SEPTA will boost service on several Philadelphia transit lines for the World Cup. (Philly Voice)
• A new branch of Montreal’s REM train is bringing transit to an underserved area. (CBC)
• A candidate for Seoul mayor has plans to build seven new rail lines by 2037. (Moovit)
• Transport for London hired three contractors to modernize the city’s tram network. (Safer Highways)

Last summer, I  traveled to Berlin for a study abroad program. I intended to learn about the city’s communication efforts to continue cultural memory. Little did I know I was about to get a crash course in public transit, a lesson that didn’t fully set in until I got back home. Upon my return to California, I was initially overjoyed to be out and about, but that was until I realized that to go anywhere in my city, I would need to take my car. By contrast, the tram in Germany, not even a minute away from my hostel, could take me to a nearby coffee shop, a park, and a nearby grocery store.

My car now seemed more like an obstacle than an asset. The studies are clear: public transit benefits a city’s economy, creates community space, and cuts down on millions of metric tons of carbon dioxide. In addition, it offers a mode of transit that is broadly accessible, regardless of socioeconomic status and able-bodiedness, creating an equitable solution to a manufactured issue. We need an attitude shift in America, one that goes against the individualism perpetuated in our society, and understands that protecting the environment is an investment in people and not a financial strain. United States residents need to realize that a car is as much a burden as a convenience. 

A common argument against public transit is that it is expensive to install and maintain. This apprehension towards rail in California is compounded by the fact that our high-speed rail project is nowhere close to completion and has cost way more than previously promised. However, though high-speed rail may not have fulfilled its initial promise, this does not mean public transit is a lost cause in California. In the Bay, especially, the benefit of railroads has been a good case study for the rest of the state and country. And we do not necessarily need to build new rails, but can often just restore and improve old ones. 

Certainly, we don’t need driverless vehicles pushed onto us by billionaires and their corporations; we can’t just “tech” our way out of global warming. In building a renewable future, we need to look towards the past. UC Berkeley News found that the now-electrified Caltrain has already cut 89 percent of carcinogenic black carbon, as well as producing less noise than its diesel counterparts. Next time the Super Bowl brings a great halftime show to San Jose, even fewer people will choose to drive.  

Another real concern that drives people away from public transit is safety and cleanliness. Why expose yourself to the perceived risks of public transit when your sedan has a steel safety bubble? However, investing in public transit decreases this perception. Taking the S-Bahn in Berlin, I felt entirely safe; it was regularly cleaned and always full. Shared commitment and responsibility have the ability to transform our attitude of public transit as a less luxurious option, to a shared community place. If driving in a car severely increases the chances of getting hurt or killed in a crash, and pollution increases our chances of getting killed too, how is the car a more convenient or safe option?

As fuel prices rise, the clear inconveniences of cars may become more apparent. The day when people can once again take a train from Saratoga or Santa Cruz to San Francisco would be the day that I would sell my car. As global temperatures rise, we should look to Germany and draw on past solutions to address modern issues.

***

Kyle Kayhan is a sociology and communication studies student at San Jose State University

What does a bat-killing fungus have to do with the municipal bond market?

More than you might think. And the link points to the possibility of harnessing investors’ pursuit of profits to help biodiversity.

“This isn’t about conserving bats for bats’ sake,” said Yale University economist Eli Fenichel. “It’s about conserving bats to help communities reduce the cost of borrowing money for all manner of things.”

Conservationists are constantly looking for ways to entice people to invest in protecting wildlife. While “it’s good for the planet” is a common argument, appeals to altruism often fail to unlock the money researchers say is needed. Proponents of biodiversity instead appeal to people’s self-interest, whether it’s touting the role biodiversity protections can play in preventing human diseases, capturing carbon, controlling pests or various other human-centered benefits.  

 But what if wildlife conservation efforts could tap directly into financial markets, without needing to create a novel investment tool like biodiversity credits? Bats’ appetite for crop-eating insects and the connection between local farm income and government bond prices illustrates how that might work, Fenichel and colleagues at Yale and the University of Tennessee argue in a recent paper in Science.

“This approach reframes biodiversity protection not just as the ‘right thing to do’ from the perspective of conserving nature, but as a strategic risk-management strategy with a positive return for local government and investors alike,” said lead author Anya Nakhmurina, a professor of accounting at Yale.

To understand how this might work, we need to take a brief (I promise) journey into the arcane world of municipal bonds. Buckle up. We’ll get back to saving bats in a few paragraphs.

When local governments in the U.S. need to pay for big projects such as new roads or a sewage treatment plant, they usually borrow money and promise to pay back the loans, with interest. Those loans come in the form of bonds, which governments such as counties sell to investors.

The government uses future tax revenues to repay the bonds along with whatever interest rate they promised in order to lure investors. The lower the interest rate, the cheaper it is for the government to take on debt. The higher it is, the more attractive it can be to investors.

A key variable driving the interest rate is how much risk investors see that the government might not have the money to pay off the bond and instead default on the loan. Think of it like the mortgage market for home buyers. If someone has shaky finances, a bank might only provide a loan with a higher interest rate.

 

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So how does this come back to nocturnal flying mammals? Because it turns out that the fate of bats in the U.S. is linked to the financial fortunes of farms, which in turn affects local property tax revenues collected from those farms, which can influence interest rates for municipal bonds. It’s like the kid’s song about the old woman who swallowed a fly, then swallows a spider to catch the fly, in a cascading set of interlinked actions that eventually lead to her swallowing a horse. Only in this case, it’s a story of bats swallowing a whole lot of flies.     

Insect-eating bats are remarkably effective pest-control machines. The paper’s authors calculated that a single colony of 150 big brown bats could eat 600,000 cucumber beetles in a single year, translating into demolishing as many as 33 million larvae the beetles might have produced. Those larvae, known as rootworms, are a major pest for corn growers.

More pests mean less productive crops or more spending on pesticides. That can dent local tax collections which, for farmland, are pegged to farm revenue.

“Not managing bat populations is like letting roads become full of potholes,” said co-author Dale Manning, an economist at the University of Tennessee. “They’re part of the agricultural infrastructure, and when that gets degraded, the effects are felt broadly.”

This isn’t just hypothetical. The spread of the devastating fungus that causes the lethal white-nose syndrome in U.S. bats provided a kind of gruesome experiment, enabling the researchers to see links between bat health and local government health as the infection spread across the country.

First discovered in 2006 among bats hibernating in caves in upstate New York, the illness, caused by the fungus Pseudogymnoascus destructans, has now been found in 47 states and has killed millions of bats. Depending on the species, it can virtually wipe out a colony.

The damage showed up not just in bat caves but in county government coffers. When researchers compared counties’ financial condition before and after white nose syndrome arrived, they found a clear sign that a county’s tax revenue fell the longer the disease was around. Property tax revenue in infected rural counties fell by 16% per capita, compared with the average performance among rural counties. The effect also turned up in the interest rates for bonds, with fungus-affected counties facing higher interest rates. The link was particularly evident in places with a bigger variety in species of bats, probably because that increased the likelihood that some bats would be vulnerable to the disease.

While the disease creates a headache for bats, farmers and government officials, it could also create an opportunity for investors. That’s because if the damaged caused by the disease is diminished by conservation measures, such as protecting bat habitat, a bond issued by the local government would become less risky.

A savvy investor could, in theory, buy municipal bonds, then announce plans to help boost the local bat population. If the market thinks those plans will help bats and local tax revenues, the bonds suddenly seem less risky and more valuable.

The investor should be able to resell those bonds at a higher price and pocket the difference. Based on a hypothetical scenario, an investor could potentially buy a $1 million bonds and resell it for $1,013,855, the researchers calculated based on how the disease has affected bond values in the past.

“No one is going to become a billionaire with this strategy,” said Fenichel. “But if we can build these broader portfolios in the bond market, we can empower local communities to do things like finance conservation and even adapt to climate change.”

A similar strategy could work for species besides bats as well, assuming there’s a strong link to investment tools such as bonds.

But this all hinges on investors being able to finance things that are proven to counter the damage of white-nose syndrome. So far, there is little good news in that regard. Scientists are working on a vaccine, and there is some evidence that modifying caves to make them colder can help ward off the disease. But all of these remain in the experimental phase. Until one of them goes mainstream, bond investors are unlikely to be aiding in the campaign to rescue bats.

Nakhmurina, et. al. “The fiscal impact of biodiversity loss and a pathway for conservation finance.” Science. March 12, 2026.

Image: ©Anthropocene Magazine

A new volume in the r3.0 “Seeds Series” brings together thinkers, activists and systems scholars exploring how societies might move through ecological and institutional breakdown toward more regenerative, place-based and cooperative forms of life.

Among a flurry of posts on social media last weekend, US president Donald Trump declared “good riddance” to a specific emissions scenario used in global climate projections.