Since the 1980s, the Sahara has shrunk by roughly 8%. Satellite data show widespread greening, a pattern that is playing out across the planet. Around 50% of Earth's vegetated land has become significantly greener, an area roughly three times the size of the United States. The dominant driver is not rainfall or land use change, it is rising atmospheric CO2. Higher CO2 lets plants photosynthesize more efficiently, they lose less water, they tolerate heat and dryness better. The effect is strongest along desert margins - across the Sahel, the Middle East, Australia's interior and the southern edge of the Sahara. Rising CO2 is making the deserts, and the planet as a whole, greener.

It’s 11:45 PM in NYC and the subway platforms are packed. While the rest of the continent’s transit shuts down for the night, New York proves the golden rule of public transit: build reliable, 24/7 service and riders will come.

We’re buying a condo in NYC and I just learned about their mortgage-recording tax. Yup, it’s 1.925% of your mortgage amount, due at closing. And that’s on top of the 1% to 3.9% mansion tax. Awesome.

My list of the five most evil people ever to have lived, from least to most evil: 5. Adolf Hitler 4. JK Rowlling 3. Margaret Thatcher 2. Sidney Sweeney 1. Ed Sheeran

9/11 was bad, but we as a country choose to undergo twelve 9/11’s a year in the form of 36,000 car deaths. (Fun fact - 1 out of every 100 people reading this will die in a car accident)

"The average household with a car spends about $8,000 more a year on transportation than a household that relies on transit, walking, and biking," said DOT Commissioner Mike Flynn on Thursday. buff.ly/o5TKRSB

It’s a new era for Vision Zero.   Today we released our new action plan Vision Zero Reimagined.    Every New Yorker should be safe on our city’s streets, and this plan is a 10-year blueprint to advance more than 100 policies designed to prevent traffic deaths & serious injuries.

Tell me again that climate change is a hoax.

Sometimes the WAR ON WALKING results in no sidewalks at all. Sometimes they put “something” in — but does that really make things walkable for anyone except those without any other choices? The #WARonWALKING takes many forms, but it’s always about making things comfortable for vehicles, not people. Via the Urban Truth Collective! Check us out. urbantruthcollective.com/ #UrbanTruth

The automobile got its first taste of blood 127 years ago — and it's never been able to kick the habit. buff.ly/2orTzJG

So many Americans have no idea the gas tax doesn't come anywhere near covering the cost of expanding car infrastructure. Agencies can't afford to maintain what's already built, let alone build more car infrastructure.

China has built the world's largest train station. The vast Chongqing East covers an area of 1.22M square metres and was constructed in just 38 months. To give you a sense of scale, this place is: ➡️ 2 times bigger than Vatican City ➡️ 3 times bigger than Japan's Nagoya Central ➡️ 6 times bigger than New York's Grand Central ➡️ 15 times bigger than Leipzig Hauptbahnhof ➡️ 27 times bigger than Sydney Opera House ➡️ 170 times bigger than a football pitch This is why it was built 👉 bit.ly/49akRdi

JUST IN: For the first time since satellite records began in 1966, no Atlantic hurricane has formed by Sept. 12.

🇨🇦 A fire ripped through the playground at Tot Spot Academy in St. Albert yesterday morning. Black smoke was everywhere, the play yard got cooked, and firefighters came rolling up. Anyway can we address the elephant in the room? 👀 Writer: Daniyal

Seriously, what purpose is this line supposed to serve? It's a leftover freight line in a leftover industrial corridor with mile-long stop spacing in places where it's "needed" the most. It will have only four stops in places without other trains, and this train won't even go to Manhattan. It will allow rail trips (with multiple transfers) between, say, Bay Ridge and Woodhaven on three trains that will replace the existing route that consists of...three existing trains. Maybe it would save a transfer here and there, and provide direct service between places of dubious trip demand like from Canarsie to Borough Park, and from Maspeth to Brownsville, and but what's the enormous benefit that will offset the $5.5B expense (ballooning to $10B? $20B?), and with operating subsidies incurred in perpetuity?

It looks just like a subway station, but it's actually a bus stop! This is the BRT station in 🇨🇳Xiamen, China!