Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.
- David Roberts points out that the coronavirus has rendered it imperative to provide supports for people faced with circumstances beyond their control. And Tess Kalinowski and Laurie Monsebraaten report on the community service providers trying to ensure people's basic needs are met in the midst of a pandemic.
- Duncan Cameron discusses how COVID-19 is exposing fissures within Canada, while Doug Cuthand notes that First Nations will be particularly vulnerable to its effects.
- Eric Klinenberg writes that our response to the coronavirus needs to include social solidarity, not merely physical distancing. And Kirstie Brewer assembles some mental health tips to help through a period of social isolation.
- Stephanie Wood reports on the ten-figure liabilities facing B.C.'s public for mine cleanup and reclamation. And Wallis Snowdon reports that future loans won't make up for the damage done to Alberta landowners by the operators of derelict oil wells.
- Finally, Roger Harrabin reports on research which (not surprisingly) concludes that the richest people bear the most responsibility for contributing to climate change.
I have a longer term stimulus idea regarding condos and new building construction in general. For airborne diseases, a bad strategy is existing Natural Ventilation paradigms. But a very good modification is to give each tenant within a building their own compartmentalized natural ventilation airflow. The idea is that each unit faces both the prevailing windward and leeward sides of the building. A condo so contructed would offer tenants rail boxcar-shaped units. Internal airflow from surrounding tenants would be lessened and the balconies would be located leeward. Property should be zoned based on windspeed of the site's volume as well the surface roughness footprint it has on other such properties. This model might not work for the bottom few floors near busy areas. Airflow dries out most microbes. The hope is dilute microbes downwind aren't very infectious as well as weather and cleaning crew processes dilute the downwind infectious effect, but a high density of buildings may ruin this safeguard. Other aerodynamic building surface features can be incorporated and heating and AC are needed if airflow is to be maximized.
ReplyDeleteSubsidizing the construction and planning here would have a powerful stimulus effect on the economy and newer building aren't as leaky to other tenants.