Writer Jeff Giesea says we have 5 years to make tough decisions about the aging population. I have been writing about this subject for a while, and I said we have ten years- five years ago. Nothing has changed, and nobody is doing anything about it. lloydalter.substack.com/p/we-have-ma...

NY State will put speed limiters (5MPH over limit) in cars of drivers caught 6 times by red light or speed cameras. Meanwhile, in Ontario, go as fast as you like! empire.streetsblog.org/state-of-the...

I start teaching today again at @torontomet.bsky.social this year my class is in the George Vari building. He was a real estate developer who built the Tour Montparnasse in Paris, which has an observation deck on the roof famous for being the only place in town where you couldnt see the building

The EPA is no longer using the “value of a statistical life” to calculate the impact of PM2.5 emissions, in yet another give to the fossil fuel industries. Expect more asthma, more COPD, more deaths. lloydalter.substack.com/p/what-is-th...

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is upset that Heritage Toronto spent money on a plaque commemorating the death of Conrad the Raccoon 10 years ago. But as I wrote, Conrad touched the heart of this cold city. open.substack.com/pub/lloydalt...

PM2.5 regulations just got gutted, and many people will die because of it, just when we are finally getting a grip on how dangerous particulates are.

the NYTimes Wirecutter recently suggested that LED bulbs use so little electricity that there is no point in turning them off. I disagree, and not just because of the waste of electricity... lloydalter.substack.com/p/should-you...

@mdruker.app your old post inspired this, thanks! If you are eating hothouse tomatoes, you are eating natural gas. If you are eating imported tomatoes, you are dining on diesel.

Not a word in the entire article about the emissions from burning natural gas to mine useless bitcoins. This should be banned.

I recently turned down an invite to speak at a conference in Maine, which is full of people I know and admire, but I am sorry, I don’t know when if ever I will use my Nexus card again, this is so over.

Instagram influencer wants a powder room so they build an entire new house. The new one ““has five bedrooms and four bathrooms. He named it Powder Haus because it had a powder room off the living room. ” It really is time for a big honking carbon tax or wealth tax or I dont know what

A recently published study by Avery Hoffer and Shoshanna Saxe looks at "The embodied greenhouse gas impacts of adding height, slab thickness, building code and design tranches." The authors say, “Don’t fear height, fear bad design,” but I fear both. lloydalter.substack.com/p/new-study-...

A reminder that 50-70% of Ontario’s natural gas comes from the United States. It would be a very good time to get a heat pump running on Canadian electricity. Back when the tariffs were imposed, I had some other ideas that I still think the Canadian built environment industry should do:

Why heat the whole room when you can warm the layer of air next to your skin? Here’s a look at the value of clothing as insulation. lloydalter.substack.com/p/when-cloth...

I have been working through @parismarx.com ’s guide to getting off US tech, slowly because I am so deep into the Apple world, but today’s events just gave me a big kick in the butt to get it done. disconnect.blog/getting-off-...

How do we minimize upfront carbon and operating emissions while improving health and comfort with the least stuff for the most people? The answer may not be “fabric first.” It may be a heat pump and a solar panel. It may be a good pair of long underwear. In 2026, I will not be so doctrinaire.

This guy could convince me to visit the US again. Too bad they don't make bourbon or orange juice in NYC, I would buy it.

A new timber tower in Toronto pushes a lot of my buttons beyond just being made of wood. I wrote about it:

I went to Japan to look at modern architecture, and was a bit confused by “Chochikukyo,” a house built in 1928 near Kyoto. In fact, it is a remarkable bridge between traditional and modern. lloydalter.substack.com/p/chochikuky...

My late dad lived on Concord a few doors north of this store. He was big, and complained (about buying candy here 90 years ago) “this is the store that made me the man I am today.” Corner stores have been part of the fabric of Toronto forever, and it is about time they were made legal!

My site is called "carbon upfront," but none of my most popular posts have anything to do with the subject, likely because smarter people than me are doing real work on embodied carbon instead of just talking about it. In 2026, I am going to concentrate more on sufficiency vs abundance.

I have been writing about the 1926 Frankfurt Kitchen designed by Grete Lihotzky for years, but Ken Tadashi Oshima found a wonderful silent movie that shows it in action and compares it to the standard apartment kitchen of the time. Enjoy: lloydalter.substack.com/p/the-frankf...

This is outrageous, Doug Ford rips out Ontario’s speed cameras and then uses taxpayers money to run ads about nonexistent police, useless signs and speed bumps. He takes from us and then rubs it in our face.

Japan really is, as @shawnmicallef.bsky.social called it, "a public pee paradise." There are public toilets everywhere, mostly spotless and with toasty warm bidet toilet seats. Public toilets are as essential a need as streetlights, and in Japan are almost as common.

I am back from a wonderful @docomomous.bsky.social tour of modern buildings in Japan led by Ken Tadashi Oshima. I expected a lot of concrete, Kenzo Tange and Tadao Ando, but my favourite visits were to the houses, bridging traditional and western design.

After seeing a marvellous manhole cover in Tokyo's Ueno Park, I spent some time looking down- this is quite an art form.

I arrive home from vacation to the perfect Toronto headline: Police search hospital but don’t notice dead body in illegally parked car right in front of Emergency. What do you have to do to be noticed by Toronto Police?

Kyoto conference centre 1966 is a brutalist wonderland

Not exactly a plethora of Christmas trees here. I like the fancy wood base in our hotel in Hiroshima @shawnmicallef.bsky.social

Hey @shawnmicallef.bsky.social very nice mall trees in Tokyo, last night you couldn’t get near it, so many people were taking photos and selfies.

I want a woody wagon!

US Energy Secretary Wright has a plan to increase the electricity supply: Unleash 35 gigawatts of power from backup and emergency generators. He's apparently not concerned about the PM2.5, nitrogen oxides, or 28,000 tonnes of CO2 released every hour. lloydalter.substack.com/p/usa-might-...

Oh dear, my dental floss has passed its expiry date. What will happen if I use it? What possible reason could there be for an expiry date on a piece of string?

This is me

Many older people want to “age in place” and some think autonomous cars, delivery apps and smart tech will make it possible. I think we should be concentrating on building walkable communities, libraries, and good neighbours. lloydalter.substack.com/p/older-peop...

It's Black Friday, but I am waiting for Small Business Saturday, and supporting those businesses that keep our main streets alive and vibrant, that create jobs for our kids in our communities, and this year, keep our loonies in Canada instead of shipping them south.

Doug Ford has blood on his hands after only 13 days

Say what you will about the Conservatives, but at least they would have stabbed you in the front.

Wave of backlash indeed!

Mark Carney’s disgraceful sellout of every one of us who voted for a climate leader instead of an arsonist includes: “working with oil sands companies to strike a deal by April on implementing the Pathways project, which focuses on carbon capture and storage.” Pathways is a greenwashing scam

I lent him my vote for this? I have lender’s remorse and won’t be fooled again.

Doug Ford finally destroys one of the world’s best recovery and refill systems. Beer store commits to having a location within 10 km of the population- that’s the distance from the CN Tower to Yorkdale. Everything this man touches turns to shit.

US politicians wonder why Canadians aren't visiting as much, given how welcoming they are! "Grand Canyon Nat'l Park the cost of driving in a private vehicle is $35. Non-U. S. visitors now would have to pay an extra $100 per person on top of that, making admission for a family of four $435”

This Black Friday, help ensure your nation’s economic dynamism and competitiveness and buy that new phone. Your country depends on you! open.substack.com/pub/lloydalt...

Why am I not surprised. “Senate Republicans in January plan to criticize requirements for safety technology, arguing they are ineffective and will unnecessarily drive up the cost of cars, according to people familiar with the situation.” Pedestrian lives, on the other hand, are cheap

I would have saved myself a lot of grief had I just said this

It used to be that if you were trying to reduce carbon emissions, you insulated and sealed, what's called "fabric first." Now that we have heat pumps, many are questioning whether fabric-first was the right approach. It's complicated... lloydalter.substack.com/p/what-the-h...

Who is responsible here? The engineer who designed the road? The construction industry that uses these killer trucks? The government for refusing even to make sideguards mandatory, let alone regulate truck design as they do in Europe, where the rate of killing and injury has been cut in half?

It's World Toilet Day, a United Nations reminder that toilets should be accessible to all. In honour of the day, here's a roundup of some of my recent posts on toilets: lloydalter.substack.com/p/bonus-post...