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Ecocity World Summit: April 22-26 San Francisco
Conference website
Throughout Earth Day Week, April 22-26, 2008 in San Francisco, California, the Ecocity World Summit (7th International Ecocity Conference) will be convening an international community of inspired change-makers; courageous individuals who are addressing problems of the world’s environment with thoughtful long-range solutions that are truly sustainable, ecologically healthy and socially just.
… Whether you’re a student, academic, non-profit organization representative, planner, developer, local government official, architect, landscape architect, designer, economist, builder, transportation advocate, or just an interested member of the planetary public – if you care about ecology and cities, this conference has much to offer you.
Speakers include:
Jaimer Lerner, Diana Mendes, Tony Wong, Claire Bonham-Carter, Dominkia Zareba, Kemba Shakur, Mathis Wackernagel, Peter Head and Richard Register.
Greg Koch, Brent Toderian, Pete Droege, Shanta Lal Mulmi, Vicki Wojick, Tim Beatley, Serigne Mbaye Diene, Debra Efroymson and Jan Lundberg
Program
Speakers
(April 2008)
Looks big. Paolo Soleri, Richard Register and Mathis Wackernagel are some of the many speakers. -BA
Masdar City: Not a showcase, but an ‘Entrepreneurial Eco-system
Bilal Zuberi, DinarStandard
The world today runs on fossil fuel. Our food, water, transportation, and quality of life are all dependent on fuel that is primarily concentrated in a few geographic regions. Middle East has been endowed with vast reserves of oil and gas which have been the primary source of the economy of the region for the past few decades.
… But here’s a problem that all smart policy-makers in the oil producing countries are faced with: not only are their oil reserves expected to eventually run out (EIA estimates peak oil to be reached in year 2037), but they face also a mounting awareness around the world of the negative impact of continued dependence on fossil fuel.
… So what is a country that is dependant on extracting value from oil and gas to do? Abu Dhabi, it seems, has found a path towards a sustainable and profitable future. The Masdar Initiative is Abu Dhabi’s way of investing in their future, experimenting with technology and business innovations that can lend to a sustainable way of living for its residents, and for the rest of the world.
The word ‘Masdar’ means ‘Source’ in Arabic. Masdar City is an impressively planned and funded ‘green’ city, to be constructed near the airport in Abu Dhabi.
Dr. Bilal Zuberi is a co-founder and VP Product development at GEO2 Technologies, a Boston-area materials science clean tech company …
(8 April 2008)
Emphasis added. DinarStandard bills itself as supplying “Business Strategies for the Muslim World”
Energy Bulletin is always on the lookout for peak oil and green stories from Muslim sources. -BA
KunstlerCast #8: The Glossary of Nowhere
James Howard Kunstler, Global Public Media
When James Howard Kunstler wrote The Geography of Nowhere, it was to give people “the vocabulary to understand what’s wrong with the places they ought to know best.” In this installment we run down a few choice Kunstlerisms, like “parking lagoons”, “nature Band-Aids” and “patriotic totems.” Kunstler also tells us why the depressing topic of suburban sprawl is also really funny.
(7 April 2008)
A transcript of KunstlerCast #6 on zoning has also just been posted.
Foreclosures come to McMansion country
Andy Sullivan, Reuters
Million-dollar fixer-upper for sale: five bedrooms, four baths, three-car garage, cavernous living room. Big holes above fireplace where flat-screen TV used to hang.
The U.S. housing crisis has come to McMansion country.
Just as the foreclosure crisis has hollowed out poorer neighborhoods, “for sale” signs are sprouting in upscale developments so new they don’t show up on GPS navigation screens.
Poor people weren’t the only ones who took out risky, high-interest loans during the housing boom. The sharp increase in housing costs — and the desire to live in brand-new, spacious houses with modern features — led many affluent buyers to take out loans they couldn’t afford.
(7 April 2008)
