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Submission + - Water Protectors Step Up Divestment Campaign to Stop Dakota Access Pipeline (citiesofthefuture.eu)

Submitted by dkatana
dkatana writes: Water protectors from Standing Rock have recently toured Europe to ask people to divest from banks supporting the DAPL.

Rachel Heaton, from Muckleshoot tribe, and Water Protector at Standing Rock says that "Divestment has become a means for indigenous people to continue this resistance. On February 7, 2017, a number of Water Protectors and allies pushed the first city in the United States to divest from a bank because of its involvement in DAPL and other shady banking practices." and "Divestment may not, in itself, prevent oil from flowing through DAPL or any other pipeline built without the consent of tribes, but it does give the 1%, the native American share of the US population, a way to tell these fossil fuel companies that we will no longer do things the way they have been done in the past."

Submission + - DDT is Appearing in the Arctic, as a result of Climate Change (citiesofthefuture.eu)

Submitted by dkatana
dkatana writes: Christin Kristoffersen, former mayor of Longyearbyen (Svalbard, Norway), shares her alarm about the increasing pollution in the Arctic: “We have incredible worries when we see suddenly the rise of DDT, and no one is using that anymore” she said, adding that they first wondered if the banned pesticide was being used again.

What they discovered was that the DDT being released into the atmosphere was coming from the melting ice. It had been trapped in the ice many years earlier, and was now being released back into the atmosphere. “So we kind of wonder what other kinds of hidden wonders we have in the ice as it is melting,” she said.

The islands of Svalbard, the northernmost permanently populated location in the world, is a Norwegian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean.

“When you live at 78N you become an expert in everything” Kristoffersen says.

Submission + - Our demise, our going underwater, is manmade. (citiesofthefuture.eu)

Submitted by dkatana
dkatana writes: Those are the words of Anote Tong, former President of Kiribati, during the Smart Islands World Congress in Majorca, Spain.

Mr. Tong, who is fighting for justice for climate migrants, authorized the purchase of 20 square kilometers of land on Fiji, a move that generated a political backlash at home, to move the Kirbati population in case the entire country goes underwater.

The purchase, Tong says, was as much to raise international awareness as to provide a refuge and peace of mind for his people. “Hopefully, it gives them some sense of comfort that whatever happens they do have a place,” he says.

Submission + - Europe looks to reduce its 50 million tons of plastic waste per year (citiesofthefuture.eu)

Submitted by dkatana
dkatana writes: Plastic waste is everywhere. And some European countries are better than other in recycling.

But the 50 million tons of plastic Europe discards every year are a big problem. The EU Commission is about to ban incinerating plastic or dumping it in landfills.

The Ellen MacArthur Foundation estimates that plastic worth from $80 to $120 billion a year, is lost after a single use.

What the industry needs to do is eco-conception, it means “we’re not thinking about recovery at the end of the process but at the beginning,” said Jean-Marc Boursier, chairman of the French federation of waste management services, during the first Circular Economy European Summit in Barcelona.

Other ideas are encourage people to sort better, factor in the price of carbon and the environmental impact, and reduce VAT on recycled material because it was paid the first time round.

One big problem, Boursier says, is the price of virgin plastic, which has dropped with the price of oil, down almost 40% in two years. That makes recycled plastic less attractive.

Submission + - Uber drivers are helping company kill their own jobs (citiesofthefuture.eu)

Submitted by dkatana
dkatana writes: Recent reports from the British parliament argue that Uber “treats its drivers as Victorian-style ‘sweated labour’.”

Uber is adding more drivers, raising fees, and lowering rates to create an ecosystem that will help them change mobility for good. They don't hide that their end game is to replace drivers with self-driving cars and trucks. And their drivers are feeding the company with money, data, and customers to achieve that goal.

As Uber CEO Travis Kalanick said two years ago: “The reason that Uber could be expensive is that you are not just paying for the car, you are paying for the other dude in the car [] who’s driving So, when there is no other dude in the car the cost of taking an Uber anywhere becomes cheaper than owning a vehicle.."

Submission + - Apple Pay arrives in Spain, But it isn't good news for everyone (medium.com)

Submitted by dkatana
dkatana writes: Spain is the fourth European country (after the UK, France and Switzerland), and the second in the Euro Zone, to get Apple Pay.

Apple has teamed up with Banco Santander and American Express to introduce their popular payment app, just in time for the holidays.

But not everyone is happy. Other banks will be under pressure to join the service, for which Apple charges a hefty setup fee, and then 15 basis points per transaction, which will have to come from merchants' processing fees.

That is why Apple Pay is not available everywhere in Europe. The European Central Bank (ECB) is pushing for lower interchange fees to boost electronic payments, and banks can't pay Apple without losing money.

Submission + - Facebook started trending false news stories on a regular basis (citiesofthefuture.eu)

Submitted by dkatana
dkatana writes: "Facebook started trending false news stories on a regular basis." that's the conclusion of Susan Etlinger. She is an industry analyst at the thinktank, Altimeter Group, where she focuses on data strategy, analytics and ethical data use.

“In the Facebook News feed, which is optimized for engagement, the consequence is that the most controversial and provocative stories tend to be shared more than real news reporting, and Facebook has not had a way to make verification and authenticity an important part of the algorithm and then Facebook started trending false news stories on a regular basis.” That, Etlinger told Cities of the Future, “is an example where a machine has too much responsibility.”

When asked about the possibility of people using data and AI to influence political decisions and distort information to the public, Etlinger is outspoken:

“We don’t even know the level of intentional misinformation that has been shared.” Etlinger says. “Obviously the US news media, as an example, is full of conspiracy theories right now. The reality is [AI] is an incredibly powerful technology, even more because it is very difficult, and in some cases impossible, to go back and understand exactly what happens in an algorithm, and AI.”

Submission + - Big Data and Surveillance in Trump's era: Big Questions (citiesofthefuture.eu)

Submitted by dkatana
dkatana writes: Susan Etlinger, an analyst for the Altimeter group, TED speaker and Big Data guru, gave a darker view of AI and Big Data during the Smart Cities World Congress in Barcelona.

During an interview during the conference she talked about recent US presidential elections, and the use of Big Data and surveillance:

"[...]suddenly we’ve gone from a government where we had an understanding, a general understanding, particularly after Snowden, of how data was used, to big questions,” she said. “Fundamentally, we are at a critical turning point in terms of how we think about data, and how we use data both for governments and cities, and also for businesses and other institutions.”

"There is this sort of assumption that mathematics is inherently neutral. And, in the world of data science, nothing can be further from the truth.", she says.

Because of that: “Obviously the US news media, as an example, is full of conspiracy theories right now. The reality is [AI] is an incredibly powerful technology, even more because it is very difficult, and in some cases impossible, to go back and understand exactly what happens in an algorithm, and AI.[...] It could be potentially a very scary time. Some people in the US are talking about ‘living in a post-facts society.’ That is a real danger.”

Submission + - Susan Etlinger: we may be "'living in a post-facts society." (citiesofthefuture.eu)

Submitted by dkatana
dkatana writes: Susan Etlinger, an analyst for the Altimeter group, TED speaker and Big Data guru, gave a much darker view of AI and Big Data on an interview to Cities of the Future, during the Smart Cities World Congress in Barcelona.

She talked about recent US presidential elections, and the use of Big Data and surveillance:

"[...]suddenly we’ve gone from a government where we had an understanding, a general understanding, particularly after Snowden, of how data was used, to big questions,” she said. “Fundamentally, we are at a critical turning point in terms of how we think about data, and how we use data both for governments and cities, and also for businesses and other institutions.”

"There is this sort of assumption that mathematics is inherently neutral. And, in the world of data science, nothing can be further from the truth.", she says.

Because of that: “Obviously the US news media, as an example, is full of conspiracy theories right now. The reality is [AI] is an incredibly powerful technology, even more because it is very difficult, and in some cases impossible, to go back and understand exactly what happens in an algorithm, and AI.[...] It could be potentially a very scary time. Some people in the US are talking about ‘living in a post-facts society.’ That is a real danger.”

Submission + - London's Mayor wants VW to pay $3 million in lost congestion charge revenue (citiesofthefuture.eu)

Submitted by dkatana
dkatana writes: Since the UK government has done nothing to make Volkswagen pay for Dieselgate, Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, is asking VW to come with £2.5 million ($3 million) to compensate the city and its residents for the 80,000 diesel cars fitted with cheat devices.

“I want to see a proper commitment from them [VW] to fully compensate the thousands of Londoners who bought VW cars in good faith, but whose diesel engines are now contributing to London’s killer air,”

Submission + - Superblocks, Barcelona's Solution to Reclaim Public Space

Submitted by dkatana
dkatana writes: Currently, Barcelona has 912 km (567 mi) of roads and streets dedicated to motorized traffic.

The Catalan capital has a plan to reduce that number to just 355 km, reclaiming over 60% of the asphalt to other uses for residents, like games, sport and cultural activities, such as outdoor cinema, concerts and outdoor fairs.

The plan is inspired on the original design of the city in the 1850s, when Ildelfons Cerda, the Catalan urban designer, convinced the city to expand using a futuristic design unknown at the time. Cerdà designed the modern city block, now Barcelona is creating the Superblock.

Submission + - Privacy Shield is Finally Here. Is Forged of Iron or Glass? (theictscoop.com)

Submitted by dkatana
dkatana writes: Istvan Lam, CEO of Tresorit, a passionate cryptographer since the age of 12 and one of the inventors of its encryption technology, takes a view of the implications of Privacy Shield, the sucesor of Safe Harbor.

Privacy Shield was finally approved today by the European Union, but critics say it will not withstand the new European Privacy Directiva and the General Data Protection Regulation.

"As people are more privacy aware, data protection is becoming essential for competitiveness. We can already see a trend: large corporations like Apple, Google or even Facebook are slowly moving towards more transparent privacy terms and adding encryption into their services." Lam argues.

Submission + - London's Foggy Future as Fintech Hub

Submitted by dkatana
dkatana writes: London holds at least fifty percent of Europe’s financial technology companies, such as TransferWise and GoCardless.

Now that the UK has made the decision to quit the 28-country bloc those lucrative fintech companies and startups can lose their banking "passport" to trade in the EU. François Villeroy de Galhau, governor of the France’s central bank, said that keeping the so-called “passport” would not be an option if the UK leaves the single market of trade in goods and services.

Many people in fintech jobs are already looking for opportunities in the continent, and cities such as Paris, Frankfurt and Amsterdam are sending messages such as "[we are] prepared to receive all of those that want to come back to Europe"

Submission + - Brexit Will Have a Disastrous Effect: Tech Companies Will Feel the Pain (informationweek.com)

Submitted by dkatana
dkatana writes: Most of the business and tech communities in the UK supported the "Remain" campaign, as did well-respected academics, artists, politicians, and scientists. Still, many voters saw the EU as a source of unwanted immigration, burdensome regulations, and a costly club.

UK tech firms will no longer be able to bid on European public works projects. They will face more dofficulties hiring foreign workers. And new trade agreements and data protection laws woill have to be enacted.

London will suffer the most as the de facto startup and financial capital of Europe. Many fintech and startup firms will look elsewhere to secure their place in Europe and access both the market and EU public funds.

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