Two very different responses to climate change:
In London, England, local borough councils are utilizing land use regulations to stop Londoners from removing their front gardens. Nearly 6,000 miles away in Las Vegas, Nevada, in the United States, municipal authorities such as the Southern Nevada Water Authority are doing the exact opposite—offering monetary incentives for landowners to tear out their front lawns.
Fascinating look at urban landscape scale community responses when the risk is flooding or aridity: Christian D. Petrangelo in the Vermont Law Review (pdf)
The Brits also need to wrap all their residential building envelopes on the outside by…by…erm…x date. Austerity is changing the plan and the date, but they are – as of today – going to go forward with a complete re-do of their built environment to make their buildings efficient.
Best,
D
Given that the common practice in many parts of England has been to run water and sewage pipes outside the buildings. . .
Has Eli ever told you the story of the year he spent in Oxford pouring hot water down the drains to unfreeze them . . .:(
Isn’t there not exactly a shortage of water in London? Of the falling-from-the-sky variety?