Housing & urban design – Jan 25

Click on the headline (link) for the full text.

Many more articles are available through the Energy Bulletin homepage

My Other Car is a Bright Green City
Alex Steffen, WorldChanging
Today’s cars are costly, dangerous and an ecological nightmare. What if the solution to the problems they create, though, has more to do with where we live than what we drive?

This is a rough draft of a long essay about why I believe building compact communities should be one of America’s highest environmental priorities, and why, in fact, our obsession with building greener cars may be obscuring some fundamental aspects of the problem and some of the benefits of using land-use change as a primary sustainability solution.

It’s very rough in some places. But I’d like to put it out there as an opportunity for discussion, and hopefully all you smart folks can help me make it better. So, what do you think about this issue and how can I improve this piece?

Thanks,
Alex
(23 January 2008)
The thinking at WorldChanging seems to be getting more systemic, and less focused on high tech. They’ve been running more pieces on food and agriculture too. -BA

Daniel Lerch on Post Carbon Cities
Bradford hosts, the Reality Report via Global Public Media
The Reality Report interviews Daniel Lerch, author of Post Carbon Cities: Planning for Energy and Climate Uncertainty, the first major local government guidebook on peak oil and global warming.

The interview opens with a discussion of the responsibilities and roles of local government, where important decisions are made regarding land use, transportation, water systems, schools and emergency services. It reviews how systems thinking can be used to understand the impacts that “energy uncertainty” will have on basic government services, and covers what some local governments in the U.S. and Canada are already doing in repsonse to peak oil.

Daniel has a Masters in Urban Studies, lives in Portland Oregon and is also a co-founder of The City Repair Project, an award-winning non-profit organization working on community public space issues.

Jason Bradford hosts The Reality Report, broadcast on KZYX&Z in Mendocino County, CA.
(22 January 2008)
A transcript of an earlier interview with Daniel has just been posted.

Colorful account on Daily Kos, written by Big E:
Peak oil event in Minneapolis. Daniel Lerch of Post Carbon Cities gets a good review and a recommendation to buy his new book.

Mayors Climate Protection Summit (video)
US Conference of Mayors, Energy Policy TV
Greg Nickels, Mayor of Seattle, Advisory Board Chair, US Conference of Mayors, describes what U.S. mayors are doing to combat climate change through the Mayors’ Climate Protection Agreement. Some 780 US cities have signed the Agreement. Nickels also talks about the emerging field of green jobs.
(23 January 2008)