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3 days ago | 
yaleclimateconnections.org | Sarah Wesseler
In its first few months in office, the Trump administration has rolled out more than 100 actions aimed at halting federal climate initiatives. With new examples being announced almost every day, many people looking for climate policy wins are turning their attention to states and cities. Although the volatility of the political environment makes it impossible to predict how state and local climate efforts will play out in the coming years, their potential is enormous.
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2 months ago | 
whowhatwhy.org | Sarah Wesseler
Science According to the founder of the Environmental Voter Project, the best way to move beyond despair is to take action. Goodbye, Paris Agreement; hello, National Energy Dominance Council, the body tasked with carrying out the Trump administration’s fossil-fuel-forward agenda.
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2 months ago | 
yaleclimateconnections.org | Sarah Wesseler
Goodbye, Paris Agreement; hello, National Energy Dominance Council, the body tasked with carrying out the Trump administration’s fossil-fuel-forward agenda. The executive order establishing the council, announced on Valentine’s Day, is only one of a dizzying variety of actions the new administration has taken to halt the nation’s progress on climate change. For many people concerned about rising temperatures, the mood is grim.
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Feb 6, 2025 | 
whowhatwhy.org | Sarah Wesseler
Although car-dependent suburbs continue to spread across the nation, they’re not as popular as you might assume. Growing up in suburban Ohio, I was used to seeing farmland and woods disappear to make room for new subdivisions, strip malls, and big box stores. I didn’t usually welcome the changes, but I assumed others did. If people didn’t want to live in sprawling suburbs, why did I see this kind of development everywhere I went?
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Jan 30, 2025 | 
yaleclimateconnections.org | Sarah Wesseler
As a designer concerned about climate change, Asa Highsmith is passionate about providing alternatives to car-dependent suburbia in Oklahoma City, where his firm, Common Works Architects, is based. The links between global warming and car-centric urban sprawl are well established. In a 2013 study, researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, found that households in U.S. suburbs have significantly higher levels of planet-warming emissions than those in city centers.
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Jan 29, 2025 | 
teenvogue.com | Sarah Wesseler
Born with a neurological condition that causes low vision, Zivarts can’t drive. Frustrated with her experiences of traveling around Seattle on public transportation with her young child, she created a mobility-focused group at the organization where she works, Disability Rights Washington, to raise awareness about the needs of local non-drivers. This grew into a larger project considering how these issues play out across the nation. Yale Climate Connections spoke with Zivarts about her research.
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Jan 29, 2025 | 
yaleclimateconnections.org | Sarah Wesseler
Growing up in suburban Ohio, I was used to seeing farmland and woods disappear to make room for new subdivisions, strip malls, and big box stores. I didn’t usually welcome the changes, but I assumed others did. If people didn’t want to live in sprawling suburbs, why did I see this kind of development everywhere I went? But the situation is more complicated than it seems.
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Jan 22, 2025 | 
theenergymix.com | Mitchell Beer |Sarah Wesseler
According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, approximately one-third of the nation’s residents don’t have driver’s licences. In her 2024 book “When Driving is Not an Option: Steering Away from Car Dependency,” disability advocate Anna Zivarts argues that not only is a car-centric infrastructure harmful to the climate, it also fails to meet the everyday needs of many Americans. Born with a neurological condition that causes low vision, Zivarts can’t drive.
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Oct 22, 2024 | 
route-fifty.com | Sarah Wesseler
This story was originally published by Yale Climate Connections. California prides itself on its climate leadership. And the state’s work on transportation—its largest source of emissions—is no exception; its electric vehicle policies have been adopted by other states across the country. Sacramento lawmakers have also taken ambitious steps to reduce car use altogether, developing regulations aimed at reshaping communities to encourage walking, biking, and taking public transportation.
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Oct 17, 2024 | 
yaleclimateconnections.org | Sarah Wesseler
California prides itself on its climate leadership. And the state’s work on transportation – its largest source of emissions – is no exception; its electric vehicle policies have been adopted by other states across the country. Sacramento lawmakers have also taken ambitious steps to reduce car use altogether, developing regulations aimed at reshaping communities to encourage walking, biking, and taking public transportation. But on-the-ground reality often doesn’t live up to this vision.
