Geo 230 blog

  As humans, we have agency over our actions and the possible choices one makes on a day to day basis are almost incalculable. As such one would imagine that our day-to-day routines would be difficult to predict, this does not seem to be the case as humans fall into predictable patterns of commuting, as our locations now can be tracked via the smart phones in our pocket, different patterns are emerging of human movement.   A 2021 study using cell-phone data was published in the Journal Nature concluded that the micro-structure of Central Place Theorem was largely correct and that most people had a limit to how far they were willing to travel to purchase goods. (Schlapfer 2021). This results in people making trips to nearby destinations rather than making trips to further destinations all things equal. One would not pass a grocery store to go to a grocery store further away if both stores were comparable. I conform to the above pattern and take a daily trip arou...

 London Calling London, England has in recent history, been a leader in efforts to reduce anthropogenic climate change. An earlier example is the construction of the Thames Barrier. In 1984 the Thames Barrier became fully operational. This massive structure "... spans 520 metres across the River Thames near Woolwich and  protects 125 square kilometres of central London from flooding caused by tidal surges" (Kelly 2018). In today's currency the Barrier cost ~1.5 billion pounds.  This is to illustrate that the local city government in London has been aware of climate issues for some time.  Today they are using both top-down and bottom-up approaches to combat climate change. London has established the goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2030. To achieve this goal they have drafted a report on the best practices and possible policy solutions to achieve the goal of being carbon neutral in 2030.  One example of a top down policy that would reduce co2 emissions wou...