Housing - YIMBYs, NIMBYs and mass evictions at gunpoint
Lily Sánchez, You’re Not Angry Enough About Homelessness in America
https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/youre-not-angry-enough-about-homelessness-in-america
"We need to ensure we’re building homes, not investment portfolios."
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-07-13/yimby-nimby-housing-crisis-battle-for-your-backyard/105510984
Great job, good education, no home: is Australia’s bloated property market destroying the middle class?
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/jul/13/great-job-good-education-no-home-is-australias-bloated-property-market-destroying-the-middle-class
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#housing #unhoused #sprawl #affordability #AffordableHousing #wages #speculation #rentierism #mobility #relocation #cars #Carparks #warehousing #camp #nomos #biopolitics #NIMBY #YIMBY #SettlerSociety
Koalas spend just 10 minutes a day risking their lives on the ground
"Roughly two-thirds of koala deaths occur when they're on the ground — mostly from dog attacks and vehicle collisions. Cleared areas and roadsides are more dangerous locations for koalas to live. Koalas have to move a lot because of their quite specialised diets...Landscapes should be arranged so koalas don't have to spend much time on the ground."
https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2025-07-10/most-koala-deaths-happen-ground-habitat-destruction/105507980
#koalas #wildlife #biodiversity #conservation #habitat #MobilityDesign #roads #cars #dogs #pets #sprawl
Eye contact, cat
The more we can deliver, the more resources we consume.
Animals "use efficiency to catalyze sprawl. […] The road to degrowth will require drastic social change."
@blair_fix wrote: https://economicsfromthetopdown.com/2024/05/18/a-tour-of-the-jevons-paradox-how-energy-efficiency-backfires/
“The largest organised vandalism in our nation’s history”.
"Why Sydney’s beaches remain inaccessible is explained by how the city expanded, as well as a mid-20th-century decision described as “organised vandalism” and persistent efforts by beachside locals to limit public transport and a perceived influx of “outsiders”."
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https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/jun/21/why-cant-you-catch-train-tram-to-sydney-beaches
#beaches #accessibility #cars #PublicTransport #Sydney #vandalism #MobilityDesign #sprawl #TheAmericanDream
Queensland snake catcher warns public that killing snakes risks huge fines
"As urban sprawl continues...interactions between snakes and humans were becoming increasingly common in south-east Queensland"
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https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-06-01/red-bellied-black-snake-death-sunshine-coast-sparks-catcher-plea/105344622
#Sprawl #biodiversity #reptiles #WildlifeCrime
Can we build more of this please?
“The distinctive feature of the skyscrapers, both inaugurated in 2014, is the presence of over ninety plant species, including tall shrubs and trees, distributed on the facades. It is an ambitious project of metropolitan #reforestation that aims to increase the #biodiversity of plant and animal species in the Lombard capital through vertical greening, reducing #urban #sprawl and contributing to the mitigation of the #microclimate.”
When the 'Australians dream of home ownership' becomes a nightmare for Australian biodiversity.
Put new mass housing on completely degraded land with no biodiversity values or in the middle of a last biodiversity hotspot? South-east Queensland sprawl, Ipswich, Woogaroo Forest, Lot 9999
There are "plans to sculpt and flatten this land to make way for about 1,800 houses for south-east Queensland’s booming population."
“There is plenty of completely degraded land with no biodiversity values at all to put those houses on...here’s degraded agricultural land, there’s abandoned land, there’s abandoned mines … south-east Queensland is 6m hectares."
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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/may/25/woogaroo-forest-ipswich-queensland-housing-development-wildlife-ntwnfb
#biodiversity #degradation #sprawl #housing #EndangeredHabitats #WoogarooForest #LandTenure #wildlife #koalas #birds #extinction #Australia #SEQ
Wildlife-unfriendly suburbia
The 70-kilometre-long agricultural irrigation channel is a wildlife graveyard.
"Birds, kangaroos, wallabies, possums, you name it. Various animals [are] getting trapped in the channel... More and more native animals are being hit on our roads...It's because our areas are growing and our government hasn't considered how we can build the infrastructure that we need while also considering the needs of native animals and how we can protect them."
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https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-05-14/drowning-kangaroos-open-water-channel-wildlife-rescue-coliban/105289548
#housing #sprawl #wildlife #habitat #irrigation #infrastructure #cars #traps #biodiversity #WildlifeUnfriendly #Australia
Cassowary banishment from tropical forests
Urban sprawl and wildlife translocation
"Only around 4,000 southern cassowaries are thought to remain in Australia, and the species is threatened by habitat destruction, vehicle strikes, dog attacks and climate change."
An "endangered southern cassowary was discovered underweight and with a belly full of tomato seeds and fruits scavenged from compost bins. Several reports indicated the bird had been wandering along roads close to cane fields and was in danger of being hit by a car or truck."
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https://au.news.yahoo.com/tense-moment-rare-35kg-creature-lowered-into-remote-aussie-forest-022020386.html
#Birds #SouthernCassowary #wildlife #biodiversity #conservation #tropics #ecosystems #Wildlife #habitat #translocation #Banishment #Sprawl #cars #dogs #DogsAttacks #roads #plantations #monocultures
"We're a biodiversity hotspot, but we won't be if we cover the whole of it in suburbia."
"If you're putting roads through koala habitat, you see more car strikes.
If you're building houses in there, you get more dog attacks,
and ultimately also the more koalas are compressed, you see higher stress in the population, and that results in less resilience and greater disease."
"The science is clear. We need to [be building] up, not out. The most important thing councils can do is protect the habitat that's there and be involved in restoring areas."
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https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-05-12/drone-survey-researching-koala-populations-endangered-animals/105279284
#biodiversity #koalas #EndangeredSpecies #RemnantVegetation #NativeForests #sprawl #roads #cars #dogs #BellingenShire #suburbia #SettlerSociety
Groundwater Pumping Is Contributing To The Subsidence Of Major U.S. Cities
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https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/05/08/climate/sinking-cities-us-causes-groundwater.html <-- shared media article
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https://doi.org/10.1038/s44284-025-00240-y <-- shared paper
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#water #groundwater #subsidence #city #cities #spatialanalysis #spatiotemporal #engineeringgeology #engineering #risk #hazard #pumping #overpumping #waterresources #USA #America #sinking #infrastructure #damage #cost #economics #repais #mitigation #sealevelrise #flood #flooding #foundations #urban #remotesensing #earthobservation #satellite #elevation #measurement #change #vertical #movement #geology #soils #model #modeling #prediction #waterresources #farming #agriculture #watersupply #industry #well #riskassessment #landuse #monitoring #management #utilities #growth #population #demographics #construction #sprawl
Coastal erosion and human intervention
A rapidly escalating volume of traffic on ocean beaches
"In the absence of the Bribie buffer and without the dune system on the surf coast, they would suddenly be exposed to storm surge and inundation."
"Morton says the previous government long ignored the erosion under the assumption this was “mother nature” at work. But the new MP says the review will consider the impacts of human intervention, from dredging and wake from the offshore shipping channel to widespread coastal development."
"Bribie Island resident, retired engineer and environmental volunteer John Oxenford agrees human intervention has fuelled the erosion – but he points to the 2007 opening of the beach to four-wheel drives as “opening a real Pandora’s box”."
"The pressure of tens of thousands of vehicles and associated foot traffic since had prevented the natural regrowth of dunes during the winter period, and further exposed them to erosion during the summer months, he says.“Year over year over year, we’ve seen rapidly escalating volume of traffic on the ocean beach,” he says. “The end result of that is erosion.” "
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https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/may/07/sunshine-coast-residents-fear-storm-surges-bribie-island-buffer
#erosion #coast #beach #coastaldevelopment #traffic #DIY #Gold Coast #wildlife #SUVs #cars #FossilFuels #CarsOnBeaches #sprawl #Caloundra #BribieIsland
The NSW coast - Bird-free concrete blocks surrounded by lawns
"A track takes us into a small area of regenerating coastal rainforest, where lilly pillies are growing, and the air is filled with the sounds of birds, frogs and insects. Flannery says this is an example of coastal protection done right. The forest was saved from development after a long-running campaign by traditional owners, the Dharawal people."
"We exit the beach via stairs that lead to a manicured grass area, bike path and a row of large houses. Flannery is unimpressed. Unlike at his home, there is no bird habitat and, unsurprisingly, no birds. "This is not my thing. This is just concrete blocks surrounded by grass. To my mind, it’s as boring as batshit.”
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https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2025/apr/26/tim-flannery-what-were-seeing-is-the-last-gasp-of-the-patriarchy
#NSW #coast #sprawl #McMansion #lawns #suburbia #MidNorthCoast #beaches #Birds #catbird #biodiversity #conservation #ClimateBreakdown
More wildlife hospitals and care
for native animals having to exist in fragmented marginal habitats
More native animals are being brought into vet clinics and wildlife shelters than ever before.,, Wildlife carers and volunteers "do incredible work in helping to respond, rehabilitate and care for our sick, injured and orphaned wildlife".
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-04-22/wildlife-carers-funding-needed-increasing-injured-animals/104881812
#wildlife #care #AnimalWelfare #WildlifeCarers #volunteers #biodiversity #sprawl #cars #pets
Hey, don't believe everything you read in the NYT!
More #sprawl isn't the key to fixing America's housing crisis. Here's why:
Prince George’s County has the chance to take the lead in transit-oriented #revitalization—ditching #sprawl for a lively, connected future. Dive into the details here:
My jaw nearly dropped to the floor after reading @ConorDougherty's full-throated defense of MORE suburban #sprawl #development as a solution to the nation's housing crisis. It screamed out for an equally full-throated rebuttal: https://www.gchic.org/post/more-sprawl-not-the-solution
#urbanism #smartgrowth