Climate Point: How does your neighborhood stack up on greenhouse gas emissions?

Welcome to Climate Point, your weekly guide to climate, energy and the environment. I’m Erin Rode from Palm Springs, California. Here in the Golden State, we’re familiar with the idea that urban sprawl is connected to climate change — living further from job centers, public transportation, and other services means more miles logged in cars — but a new report from the New York Times goes further at quantifying the climate impacts on different neighborhoods. 

The Times used research from the University of California, Berkeley, and data produced by EcoDataLab, a consulting firm, to map out the stark disparities in how different U.S. households contribute to climate change. The data shows that households close to city centers tend to be responsible for fewer planet-warming greenhouse gases than households in the rest of the country. Residents in these denser city centers typically drive less because they live near jobs and stores, and they can walk, bike, or take public transit more easily than residents living in suburbs and exurbs. In more distant suburbs and exurbs surrounding New York City, average emissions per household can be two to three times as high as the denser neighborhoods near the city center. 

But in addition to neighborhood density, wealth also plays a role in greenhouse gas emissions, the New York Times analysis found. In Manhattan, for example, wealthier households on the Upper East Side have a bigger climate impact than other residents living just a few blocks away because they fly more often, have larger apartments and buy more things. 

To see how your neighborhood stacks up, check out the map here. 

Some big news for big cats this week: The environmental group the Center for Biological Diversity filed a petition with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Monday to help reintroduce the jaguar to the Southwest, Anita Snow reports for the Associated Press. Jaguars roamed the region for hundreds of thousands of years, but now just one jaguar — named Somba — is known to be there. The Center for Biological Diversity wants the federal agency to expand critical habitat for jaguars and launch an experimental population in New Mexico’s Gila National Forest along the border with Arizona. 

In Los Angeles, the beloved P-22 — a mountain lion that has improbably survived in the city’s Griffith Park for over a decade — was captured in a backyard on Monday after wandering into residential areas and attacking small pets. The big cat is suffering from serious health issues and will not be released back into the park, officials announced this week. Instead, they’re considering transporting him to a sanctuary or possibly euthanasia, if his health deteriorates further. P-22 has served as the face of a conservation campaign to “Save L.A. Cougars,” which recently resulted in the groundbreaking of the world’s largest wildlife crossing. 

Musical tree rings: Listen along to this 13-minute composition “of trees, by trees and for trees” as you read this story about researchers finding music in forest climate data by Joan Meiners for the Arizona Republic. 

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