Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
The top ten sustainability stories of the past decade was my last post. What trends are likely the next ten years? One thing for sure, 2010 through 2019 will be one day looked at as 1.) the turning point for addressing climate change by using effective urban management strategies, or it will be remembered as 2.) the time when we collectively fumbled the Big Blue Ball.
It’s the end of the decade 2000-2009, and there has been progress as well as potential disaster for sustainability. In chronological order, I’ve chosen these ten stories to show a range of relevant global and national issues and events on climate, business, government, media, design, technology, language and demographics.
A few years ago, when the Local Agenda-21 group for Copenhagen (Agenda 21 was the name of the sustainable development plan the UN launched at the Earth Summit in Rio) started to look at what kind of changes might be needed to place the city on a more sustainable path through the challenges of the coming century, they requested a guided tour of Christiania.
“as mankind proceeded to get bigger and bigger we silently crossed a threshold”
It’s all about community. The age of cheap fossil fuels allowed us to forget that. But communities are making a comeback, and we’ll need strong ones if we’re to get through the years ahead with minimal human suffering. We’ll also need tremendous doses of compassion, creativity, and courage.
John Michael Greer has officially established himself as an institution within the peak oil community. Truly one of the finest minds working on the predicament of modern-day industrial civilization, he is so well-read in so many fields that he regularly gains access to insights that utterly elude his contemporaries. For this he is treasured by a growing number of loyal readers—and, I suspect, hated by equally many fellow bloggers who wish that they could be half as good.
-Building With Whole Trees
-From TED: Edward Burtynsky photographs the landscape of oil
-Straight Talk for the Planetary Era: A Trio of Book Reviews
-Eric Sanderson pictures New York — before the City
-Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth sequel stresses spiritual argument on climate
-Odense: Masterplan for sustainable mobility
-Empty homes: Properties with potential
-Metropolitan Glory
-Greenest Place in the U.S.? It’s Not Where You Think
-Permaculture Principles: Nature’s Design for our Living World
-Dan Douglas’ European vision for our capital city
-Investigating The Potential For The Expansion Of Urban Agriculture In The City Of Edinburgh
-Boom Towns
-Bloomberg’s “PlaNYC” Continues Forward Moves
-Review: My Kind of Transit: Rethinking Public Transportation in America
-The First Review of ‘Local Food’
-Eat Locally Grown Food All Year
-Rethinking the Front Yard: Cities Make Room For Urban Farms
-Growing a Revolution
-Smaller cities seen leading the way in urban agriculture
-Planting The Seeds For Sustainability
-What Have We Done to Democracy
-Planetary Boundaries and The Failure of Environmentalism
-Will modern-day flaneurs help rebuild fragmented communities?
