Transport – Apr 21
A lesson from the trains in Spain
Transformers: Protecting Pedestrians From Killer Cars
China Influence Grows With Car Sales
Society
Blessing or a burden: population, reproduction and the demographic imagination
Whatever methods of restraint we eventually enact – and I think we will enact them, so let them be good ones, that lead to a justice and honorable society – we must begin from this – every child that we have, every birth is a gift, and if our gifts are fewer than in past years, we must only treasure them the more.
Web & persuasion – April 19
Persuasive design for sustainability
Virtually virtuous (sustainable “Second Life”)
Spam’s noxious carbon footprint
The Ecologist magazine drops print
Reflections on Herbert Schiller’s The Mind Managers (1973)
Housing & urban design – April 19
A shopping mall becomes a city
Australia: Urban sprawl is killing us, but there’s another way
20-minute neighborhoods
Ecocities Emerging newsletter
Future proofing our homes and buildings
Does Rick Perry see the future?
As it becomes impractical or impossible to provide massive federal aid to states on a continuous basis, the necessity to find local solutions to a persistent crisis may become more acute. For this reason an ongoing economic slump may end up feeding continued calls for secession as well as create receptivity to genuinely useful relocalization efforts.
Nobler instincts take time
Emotions linked to our moral sense awaken slowly in the mind, according to a new study from a USC neuroscience group. Fast-paced digital media tools may direct some heavy users away from traditional avenues for learning about humanity, such as engagement with literature or face-to-face social interactions.
Peak oil – April 18
Charles Hall in American Scientist: Revisiting the Limits to Growth after peak oil
Matt Simmons video
The “peak oil disruptor” – 4 rules to address the “global energy transition”
North Sea protection: U.K. oil industry seeks aid
Pathways to community collapse: can we intervene?
In the early stages of distress, appeals to the “common good” or “cooperative engagement” may be met warmly and enthusiastically by townspeople. However, there are predictable changes as hardship, deprivation and even violence escalates, which impacts on this spirit of altruism.
Suffer the little children – April 11
Commodifying kids: the forgotten crisis
Research links poor kids’ stress, brain impairment
Pollution link with birth weight
Solutions & sustainability – April 11
Democracy Now: North Carolina town prints own currency
Boulder’s Transition movement
An urgent call to ‘buy local’
Entrepreneurs building living economies – Colorado conference in May
Peak Oil Advice from German Poets
One question commonly raised among people who are beginning to face the crisis of industrial civilization is what they can do about it. With the help of two German Romantic poets, the Archdruid suggests some options.
Housing & urban design – Apr 8
Straw + Simplicity = Quake Resistance
Dutch Have Safest Cycling Streets
Distance from grocery store determines weight: Study
James Howard Kunstler: Investing In Infrastructure For An Age Of Scarcity
