Copy

The Climate Activist is brought to you by the Climate Emergency Mobilization Team. For more information about the team, please click here.


This newsletter supports local climate activists in their efforts to reduce climate warming emissions and increase carbon sequestration. It also features actions taken by climate activists across the country who are making the transformational changes needed to restore a safe and stable climate.

Ending minimum parking requirements in our cities



In recent years, cities have been exercising their powers over local land use by abolishing or limiting the requirement that new and remodeled buildings include a certain number of off-street parking spaces  based on the number of units or square feet in the building.  These cities include Anchorage, AK, Buffalo, NY, Raleigh, NC, and Lexington, KY. By taking one more step away from automobile-centric development, these local initiatives enhance urban livability, while supporting climate action by:

  • Increasing the feasibility of converting old buildings into residences.

  • Enabling more housing to be built in the same space.

  • Minimizing urban sprawl (and vehicle miles traveled).

Thanks to the work of the Parking Reform Network (PRN), it’s easy to see the distortion in urban land use caused by requiring off-street parking minimums. Land dedicated to the storage of cars is unavailable for parks, easy walking and biking, and other beneficial uses.


Using Google Maps, the PRN has mapped parking in more than 50 U.S. cities, from Atlanta to Dallas to Seattle. Whether or not parking reforms have been implemented is included in each city’s summary. The parking in Kansas City, MO is shown below.

The areas shaded in red indicate dedicated surface parking, not including street parking, and amount to some 29% of the land in Kansas City’s central city. This is a high percentage relative to other cities surveyed, though it is exceeded by such cities as Detroit and Arlington, TX. Cities devoting much less land to parking include Pittsburgh and San Francisco. Has your city scrapped its minimum parking requirements?

Take aim at off-street parking

The climate-friendly city has good public transit and plenty of residential housing in the city center to make it a thriving, walkable area. 


Both goals can be stymied by excessive parking requirements set by local government for both office and residential buildings. According to the Parking Reform Network, “On average, 20% of all land in the city centers we analyzed was dedicated solely to parking.” Parking minimums limit the amount of new housing that can be built and spread the city out, making public transit more inefficient and expensive.


Buffalo, NY, eliminated parking minimums in 2017 and has been followed by small and large cities in many states. For information about the codes adopted by Buffalo and San Francisco, see this Local Climate Actions Toolbox article.

Photomontage: Neil Auwarter; Original images: Fearless Girl and Coal Plant; Sculpture: Kristen Visbal

Young activists trade backpacks for briefcases

to litigate against climate change


Young climate activists have been heading to court to litigate for their futures and against fossil fuel consumption and its climate-altering effects.  Taking inspiration from young icons like Pakistani women’s rights activist Malala Yousafzai and Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, young Americans have commenced groundbreaking climate litigation against the United States and individual states, alleging government action and inaction is causing climate change.  Three such cases are Juliana v. United States, Natalie R. v. Utah, and Held v. Montana.


Continue reading>> 

Photo: Lauren Dixon


Caring for the environment also means

caring for fellow humans


Low-income people, often in communities of color and developing countries, not only suffer the most damage from extreme weather but are offered the least amount of recovery support. Moreover, countries that are most vulnerable to the effects of climate change have contributed the least to the problem, yet they are facing extreme weather events such as heat waves, floods and other climate-related disasters. 


Those of us who do not have to fight day in and day out to stay alive and don’t have to worry about basic needs, can take personal actions against climate change to lessen its impact on low-income and disadvantaged communities. 


Continue reading>>

Agrivoltaics combines production of

agriculture and solar power


Agrivoltaics, which pairs solar panels (photovoltaics) with agriculture, is a double-duty climate solution that yields benefits to farmers while minimizing the country’s need to use undeveloped natural lands for solar energy development. By putting aside the historical practice of devoting land to a single purpose, this approach could make it easier to achieve the goal of decarbonizing the economy by 2050.


There are numerous benefits to be gained from this dual-use of agricultural lands. They include addressing the problem of where to place new renewable energy projects, and reducing the demand for new land development, furthering the goal of leaving undeveloped natural lands undisturbed.


By working collaboratively, solar developers and planning agencies can mitigate potential concerns. In addition, project proponents or landowners should consider the important factors that contribute to the overall success of agrivoltaics.


Continue reading>>

Extreme heat also makes people poorer


The month of May 2023 is now in the record books as the warmest May ever for North America. The planet has since seen its hottest day ever on July 4th.


According to the World Meteorology Organization, there is a very high likelihood that over the next five years as a whole, the Earth will continue to warm to record highs. This prediction means that we will see a temperature level that temporarily, though with increasing frequency, exceeds 1.5 degrees C (2.7 degrees F), a threshold established in the 2015 Paris Agreement. As warming climbs, it brings major impacts to the environment and human activities, not the least of which is the health and safety of  people who work outdoors.


Many outdoor workers are migrants and undocumented workers, employed in agriculture, construction, or other occupations where heat can be deadly. Heat can also impact these workers in other ways, including a loss of pay when the weather simply becomes too hot in which to labor. These days will increase as the climate warms. 

The extent to which extreme heat is a risk to worker health or income depends on how aggressively action is taken to reduce greenhouse gasses. You can set future conditions on a series of  interactive maps developed by the Union of Concerned Scientists to see the estimated average number of workdays lost (and estimated earnings lost as a result) for each county in the continental United States when the temperature and the humidity exceed 100 degrees F. For example, clicking on Pulaski County, Arkansas shows 22 days (contrasting with the historical number of 6 days) possibly at risk if reduction of GHGs takes place slowly, only starting to see a decline by mid-century. That would mean a loss in earnings to workers of $82,709,348. Other scenarios allow additional “what ifs.” Try it out for your county.