Don Hogan Charles/The New York Times Der Scutt was not a famous name among architects, and his work does not pop out and inspire. Even his son is quoted in the New York Times as saying "My father was absolutely a developer's architect, and he prided himself on respecting the wishes and goals of the owner while injecting his own style and design expertise," and when that client is often Donald Trump, you are going to get a lot of garish gold buildings. But he did have an expertise that more architects are going to need: He was the master of the reclad, the removal of ...Read the full story on TreeHugger

Expect a hundred comments about how climate change is a hoax, reminding us of how much snow fell this month, the non-shrinking glaciers or hacked emails. They will probably be from people who will not even bother reading Al Gore's long op-ed in the Sunday New York Times. If they did, they would find that he addresses all of these issues. To summarize it, he writes:

• If only it were true, it would be a great relief;
• The errors in the reports and the emails are embarrassing, but do not change the overall picture;
• Global warming puts more moistu...Read the full story on TreeHugger
  
  
  

Istanbul sidewalks aren't the sole province of pedestrians. Photo by Jennifer Hattam. Sidewalks in Istanbul, when they do exist, are often narrow, uneven, rutted, and frequently torn up entirely, forcing pedestrians into the street to dodge fast, erratically moving cars. So it doesn't seem all that hyperbolic to me when New York Times writer Michael Slackman describes Amman's "new, flat sidewalks that do not end suddenly, for no apparent reaso...Read the full story on TreeHugger

Treehugger leader Graham Hill uses a standup desk. TreeHugger founder Graham Hill uses a standup desk, a very simple board on two cabinets; I stayed in his apartment a few years ago and just loved it, and have wanted to convert to one ever since. I thought it would keep me more alert; now Olivia Judson of the New York Times writes that it is better for your health. She first describes the problems of sitting:

If you consider only healthy people who exercise regularly, those who sit the most during the rest of the day have larger waists and worse profiles of blood pressure and blood sugar than those who sit less.

...Read the full story on TreeHugger

photo: Farm Sanctuary Last week the New York Times ran an op-ed piece by PhD-to-be philosopher-neuroscientist-psychologist Adam Shriver, from Washington University in St Louis, that really cuts to the heart of one of the deepest issues in the green movement: How does humanity best relate to the other animals on the planet? Shriver starts the assumption that, like it or not facto...Read the full story on TreeHugger