Urban Design

The coming re-becoming

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Everywhere you turn in this nation, you see a society primed for implosion. We seem unaware how extraordinary the American experience has been, especially in the last hundred years. By this, I don’t mean that we are a better people than any other society — these days, ordinary people in the USA make an effort to appear thuggish and act surly, as though we were a nation of convicts — but for decade-upon-decade, we were very fortunate. Even the Great Depression of the 1930s may seem like a relatively peaceful and gentle “time out” from a frantic era of hypertrophic growth, compared to the storm we’re sailing into now.

The Vast Wastelands

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Undoubtedly you’ve been following, more or less, the economic crisis that energy scarcity and the mortgage debacle has largely precipitated. Depending on where you live, you’ve probably also noticed over the past few years the shopping centers, office, and industrial parks popping up continuing the urban sprawl toward the exurbs. While these new bright and shiny, luxuriously landscaped pods of energy waste are well lighted, manicured, and maintained now, all you have to do to see where they will be once they’ve been abandoned for the next wave of urban development is to reverse direction.

10 Steps in 10 Years to 100 Percent Renewable Power

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On July 17th, 2008, Vice President Al Gore challenged the nation to produce 100% of its electricity from renewable sources within 10 years. Post Carbon Institute has responded to Gore’s challenge by putting forward a new plan: “10 Steps in 10 Years for 100 Percent Renewable Power.” The plan shows how we can make Gore’s vision a reality, with a keen understanding of the roles that energy depletion, the vulnerabilities of the supply chain, and the limits of technology all play.