Missing the slums for the cities
Cities in Asia are hubs of production, innovation and wealth, funnelling into themselves immense resources, water, energy, food, drawing in from nearby districts and far-off provinces families and entire communities.
Buildings
Asia’s epic urban sagas
South Asians are seeing more work on the ground and hearing more policy announcements about urban development than ever before. For many who live in and around towns and cities in Bangladesh, Pakistan and India (where South Asia’s biggest cities lie) this could be a good thing. The trouble is: national governments and planning authorities in Dhaka, Islamabad and New Delhi are tending more and more to follow a single ideology – economic growth will drive down poverty – and a primary route to that misplaced objective, which is greater urbanisation.
Totnes Energy Descent Action Plan website launched today!!
It gives me the greatest pleasure this morning to launch the Totnes Energy Descent Action Plan website. The site makes the full version of the UK’s first EDAP freely available, invites comments and discussion, and will act as a dynamic portal for people to discuss the Plan and reshape subsequent revisions.
Tiny yellow house – (the gypsy junker shack/cabin) (with updated followup from the author)
In this follow-up episode, Host Derek “Deek” Diedricksen gives a tour of his mini-cabin/house built out of recycled junk (from dumpster diving/repurposing) and curbside materials…
Deep thought – Apr 14
-Make Birth Control, Not War
-Resilience and Ruggedness: Why Faster, Bigger and More Complex May Be Better
-Building a Green Economy
-Ill Fares the Land
Asia-Pacific: food security, urban migration and women
This set of news reports from around the Asia-Pacific region discuss some persistent matters: the need for food security systems which also protect smallholder farming communities, stemming the tide of migration to towns and cities, recognising and encouraging womens’ participation in business and local administration, reforming land rights so that the marginalised (and particularly women) can use their ownership to advantage.
The End Of Suburbia — Really!
As Bill Bonner would say, 98% of everything you hear (about housing, retail spending, etc.) is merely noise. Only the underlying trends are important, if you can identify them. I believe we can spot one: It’s The End of Suburbia. I’ll return to this hypothesis at the end of this post.
Deep thought – Apr 6
-Alex Steffen’s Optimistic Environmentalism: The Bright Green City
-Looting Main Street
-Walled In
Peak asphalt: the return of gravel roads
Peak oil – arriving or already arrived – is placing a tremendous strain on the world’s economy. Because of this strain, the kind of money used for maintaining roads is quickly disappearing and the result is the return of unpaved roads. … in the coming years we’ll see more and more roads returning to gravel, as it was commonplace in the Western World up to about 50 years ago.
Innovation – April 4
– The salty taste of energy independence
– New ‘smart’ roof reads the thermometer, saves energy
– Dept of Energy: Give us your ideas
What works: 98.6 degrees
I invested a lot of time into finding our post-carbon landing pad. I tend to side with realtors on this one: location, location, location.
House Lust (review)
A testimonial to the heights to which our consumer culture can go when shelter becomes an investment vehicle. Bad for the planet, bad for communities, bad for the poor, and yet another way to fleece the middle class of wealth via investment bubble.
