They came to talk environment and exchange program ideas.

Mr. Bloomberg used the appearance, part of a two-day trip to California, to announce a plan to make New York City a “national leader” in environmental planning. He announced that the city government had begun a comprehensive inventory of all its carbon emissions — from electricity consumption in buildings to tailpipe exhaust from vehicles — and would release the results in the fall.

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (left) and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg (right)[Bloomberg and Schwarzenegger] held a news conference at Bloom Energy Corporation, a start-up company here in Silicon Valley that works on fuel cells. (It has no connection to the mayor, though its name drew several corny jokes.) The two politicians embraced their nontraditional backgrounds, describing each other as independent leaders who rise above partisan politics.

Along with an analysis of the city government’s energy use, Mr. Bloomberg also promised an “unprecedented effort” over the next six months to measure carbon emissions throughout the city.

Mr. Bloomberg also announced the creation of an Office of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability. Rohit T. Aggarwala, a former McKinsey & Company consultant with a Ph.D. in history, will lead the office, which will be part of the mayor’s Office of Operations.

A 17-member Sustainability Advisory Board, comprising scholars, environmental advocates, business leaders and two City Council members, will advise the new office. The mayor also said that Douglas I. Foy, a former secretary of commonwealth development for Massachusetts, and the Earth Institute at Columbia University, led by the economist Jeffrey D. Sachs, had both agreed to advise the city on its environmental agenda.

[Full story here.]

Richard Branson, Famed British billionaire and Virgin Group chairman Richard Branson announced Thursday he would earmark an estimated $3 billion over the next 10 years toward fighting global warming.

Making his announcement at a news conference at the Clinton Global Initiative in New York, Branson said all future proceeds from Virgin Group’s train and airline businesses would go toward tackling the problem.

“We must not be the generation responsible for irreversibly damaging the environment,” said Branson. “We must hand it over to our children in as near pristine condition as we were lent it from our parents.”

Branson, who has transformed Virgin from a fledgling record label he created in the 1970s into a worldwide brand and company that dabbles in everything from the airline business to cell phones to record stores, stressed the need for consumers to eliminate their addiction to coal and fossil fuels to achieve this goal.

“Our generation has the knowledge, it has the financial resources and as importantly it has the willpower to do so,” he said.

Global warming, defined by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration as an increase in atmospheric temperature near the Earth’s surface, has been blamed on a increase in concentration of greenhouse gases by many scientists. Carbon dioxide, one of the most prominent greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, comes from the combustion of coal, oil and gas, according to the U.S. government agency.

Branson’s $3 billion pledge became the highlight of the second day of the Clinton Global Initiative meeting, which brings together some of the world biggest leaders to discuss global problems. The staggering financial commitment by Branson and the Virgin Group does not come as a complete surprise. In an interview conducted in July with Business 2.0, Branson emphasized the need to take action against global warming.

“I used to be skeptical of global warming, but now I’m absolutely convinced that the world is spiraling out of control,” Branson told the magazine. “CO2 is like a bushfire that gets bigger and bigger every year.”

Branson said the privately owned Virgin Group, which generated an estimated $8.1 billion in sales in 2004, according to research firm Dun & Bradstreet, was planning on investing $1 billion in alternative fuels over the next four years.

Branson said the company was also attempting to create its own Virgin fuel, a clean fuel that would work in cars, trucks and trains within a year, possibly even in Virgin aircraft.

“It’s not just that we thought we should do this to try to save the world and the thousands of species that could die if we don’t do it,” Branson said in the July interview, “… people want to save on the cost of fuel, and so alternative fuels suddenly make business sense.”

[Source: CNN Money]

The Nurture Nature Foundation (NNF) is allocating $1,000,000 over the next year in a joint campaign with Earth Pledge and the CUNY Institute for Sustainable Cities to combat global warming.

This commitment is in response to the call of the Clinton Global Initiative beginning on September 20 for commitments curbing global warming.

“I am pleased to be named executive director of NNF, as well as appreciative of the generous contribution to support Earth Pledge,” said Leslie Hoffman. “We are well equipped to fulfill our mission to facilitate the transition to sustainability and reduce greenhouse gas emissions through development and promotion of innovative technologies.”

Cities are uniquely positioned to assist in developing environmental solutions as an antidote to global warming. For example, Earth Pledge’s Green Roofs Initiative aims to lower ambient air temperatures and prevent pollution of waterways by creating green roof infrastructure in urban centers.

The CUNY Institute for Sustainable Cities will join with Earth Pledge in this initiative,” said William Solecki, CISC Interim Director. “To address global warming meaningfully is a central environmental concern of the 21st century. We feel that the Institute, coupled with Earth Pledge, will significantly contribute to this dialogue and progress.”

“The overall mission of the Institute,” Solecki continued, “is to enable urban residents, particularly those in New York City, to better understand the relationship between themselves and the physical environment of their cities in order to identify pathways for environmentally sustainable practices. The Institute’s mission is articulated through a series of outreach activities, educational programs, and scientific projects.”

Sixteen major cities from around the globe are represented at the 10th International Architecture Exhibition at the Venice Biennale, dedicated to city dwellers and their landscapes.

Sunday saw the opening of the 2006 Architecture Biennale, and many are saying it’s more about sociology than urban planning. Entitled “Cities, Architecture and Society,” it looks at the changing face of today’s urban environments and showcases work from fifty countries. “One of the biggest global problems of today and in the years to come is that of urban progress and population growth,” said Davide Croff, chairman of the Venice Biennale.

“In 2005, for the first time, the number of the planet’s inhabitants living in cities surpassed 50 percent.”

“The city is the main place where architecture is practiced, and it’s also the place where one measures the ability to live together, where one measures the strong links which exist between architecture and society,” Croff said.

“We needed to go and look and see what has happened in the big cities, understand their effects on man and on his quality of life, to give a world view of big cities,” said British architect Richard Burdett, director of the festival.

[Read the full story here.]

PS122 Gallery and artwurl.org are pleased to present MAPQUEST, an exhibition that brings together work by artists, activists, writers and organizers, involved in experimentation with critical and dissident cartography.

The exhibition examines various mapping strategies employed as response to specific social and political issues. Working not unlike investigative journalists, some participants conduct and map in-depth research of themes such as the functioning of private military contractors or recruitment centers. Others design maps as tools, featuring information that can be used to support for social action. In a similar vein they employ mapping strategies to produce alternative knowledge about networks of power and control in urban spaces.

PS 122 is presenting the work of Lize Mogel and Dario Azzellini, Daniel Blochwitz, Cartographic Perspectives: Map Art, Center for Urban Pedagogy, Ewen Chardronnet, The Friends of William Blake, Elise Gardella, Ryan Griffis/Temporary Travel Office, Ashley Hunt, Lasse Lau, Nadxieli Mannello, Sarah Ross, and Gregory Sholette organized by guest curator Elena Sorokina. The exhibition will run from September 16 through October 9, 2006.

PS122 Gallery is located at 150 1st Avenue (entrance on 9th Street between Ave A & 1st Ave.), New York. Gallery hours are: Thursday through Sunday 11 to 6pm. Subways: 6 to Astor Place, L to 1st Avenue, N/R to 8th Street.