Credit: Johannes Uhl
Cities are not all the same, or at least their evolution isn t, according to new research from the University of Colorado Boulder.
These findings, out this week in
Nature Communications Earth and Environment and
Earth System Science Data, buck the historical view that most cities in the United States developed in similar ways. Using a century s worth of urban spatial data, the researchers found a long history of urban size (how big a place is) decoupling from urban form (the shape and structure of a city), leading to cities not all evolving the same or even close.
The researchers hope that by providing this look at the past with this unique data set, they ll be able to glimpse the future, including the impact of population growth on cities or how cities might develop in response to environmental factors like sea level rise or wildfire risk.
Global carbon emissions from using fossil fuels fell by a record amount in 2020 as a result of Covid-19 lockdowns around the world, researchers have said.
They warned, however, that greener measures are needed as economies recover, including boosting cycling, walking and electric cars in the UK, to start delivering the annual emissions cuts required to to curb climate change.
The UK saw one of the biggest drops in emissions at 13%, the analysis suggests, as it saw major reductions in transport – the largest source of climate pollution for the country – and was hit by two waves of restrictions.
Worldwide, carbon emissions from burning coal, gas and oil for power and transport, from manufacturing cement and from industrial processes fell by a record 2.4 billion tonnes, a 7% drop on 2019 levels.
Global Carbon Project: Coronavirus causes record fall in fossil-fuel emissions in 2020 | News | Eco-Business eco-business.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from eco-business.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
The pandemic appears to have done what years of increasingly dire warnings about climate change couldn't. Global carbon dioxide emissions fell by an estimated 7% in 2020,.