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Parking Lots To Parks: Designing Livable Cities

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Lester R. Brown

As I was being driven through Tel Aviv from my hotel to a conference center in 1998, I could not help but note the overwhelming presence of cars and parking lots. It was obvious that Tel Aviv, expanding from a small settlement a half-century ago to a city of some 3 million today, had evolved during the automobile era. It occurred to me that the ratio of parks to parking lots may be the best indicator of the livability of a city—an indication of whether the city is designed for people or for cars. Tel Aviv is not the world’s only fast-growing city.

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International Energy Outlook 2010 - Highlights

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World marketed energy consumption increases by 49 percent from 2007 to 2035 in the Reference case. Total energy demand in non-OECD countries increases by 84 percent, compared with an increase of 14 percent in OECD countries. In the IEO2010 Reference case, which does not include prospective legislation or policies, world marketed energy consumption grows by 49 percent from 2007 to 2035. Total world energy use rises from 495 quadrillion British thermal units (Btu) in 2007 to 590 quadrillion Btu in 2020 and 739 quadrillion Btu in 2035 (Figure 1). Figure 1.</body></html>

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New Strategy To Wipe Out Polio May Be Last Shot To Eradicate It Before Money Runs Out

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GENEVA (AP) - For years, the world has been on the brink of wiping out polio, the deadly disease that can paralyze and kill children. At the World Health Organization's annual meeting of health ministers this week, experts are unveiling what they describe as a new strategy to get rid of the feared disease. But others say there is little new and that if this effort fails, there are serious questions about whether to continue the campaign should be raised. Some experts say eradicating polio is impossible and should be abandoned.

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Climate Change Hits The Oceans

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By Michael D. Lemonick

When scientists say the planet is warming, they usually point to rising air temperatures as proof. That's reasonable enough, especially since the warmth of the air temperature affects us directly so we feel the change the scientists are measuring. But it's also misleading: while the lower atmosphere has been gradually warming over the past 50 years, it happens unevenly, rising sharply for a year or two or even ten, then flattening out.

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Oceans' Fish Could Disappear In 40 Years: UN

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By Sebastian Smith (AFP) NEW YORK — The world faces the nightmare possibility of fishless oceans by 2050 unless fishing fleets are slashed and stocks allowed to recover, UN experts warned Monday. "If the various estimates we have received... come true, then we are in the situation where 40 years down the line we, effectively, are out of fish," Pavan Sukhdev, head of the UN Environment Program's green economy initiative, told journalists in New York.

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