An Array of Utopian Flowers
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Big Noise from Big Band Drummer Gene Krupa
Posted on April 10, 2018 | No Comments -
Loose Nuts: Edison Reveals Huge Gap in Safety at San Onofre
Posted on April 9, 2018 | No Comments -
The US Shame of My Lai in Vietnam
Posted on March 17, 2018 | No Comments -
The Lucrative and Violent Curse of Coltan Mining in Congo
Posted on March 3, 2018 | No Comments -
Iannis Xenakis and the Notion of a Cosmic Utopia
Posted on February 21, 2018 | No Comments
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Upcoming Events
Sustainability Archive
Green Urbanism: Balancing Environmental Justice with Gentrification
Posted on August 9, 2014 | 2 CommentsIs it possible for urban planners to make places more attractive and healthy, without then making them more expensive? Rebecca Tuhus-Dubrow investigates recent research into the ongoing debate about environmental gentrification.
Greening Detroit: Positive Change Moves Slow and Fast
Posted on July 10, 2014 | 2 CommentsOn one hand, Detroit turns the water off for communities challenged by its legacy of disinvestment and neglect. Yet, with urban farming, electric streetcars, neighborhood reinvention, Mayor Mike Duggan’s pledges begin to manifest in the city’s North End, despite considerable financial and cultural impediments. John Eligon elaborates.
Chicago: Does Vertical Indoor Farming Matter?
Posted on June 26, 2014 | 2 CommentsUrban Farming and its vertical indoor application have become all the rage. We look at a project in Chicago and question whether the craze will matter for the future of agriculture.
Sprawl vs. Open Space: “Rio Santiago” Again Threatens Orange
Posted on May 13, 2014 | 1 CommentJack Eidt writes on the dangers of proposing mixed use development far from urban amenities and alternative transportation. The real estate industry in Orange County, California and beyond, has consistently violated engineering and planning wisdom by building in floodplains, paving over precious open space land and losing opportunities to preserve wildlife habitat and recreation opportunities amid the suburban sprawl at the edge of the wilderness.
Landscape Urbanism: Green Roofs, Community Farms in Japan
Posted on March 29, 2014 | 3 CommentsGardens and farms, green roofs and landscaped buildings are becoming more a part of the urban landscape in Japan. We look at projects in Osaka, and a Tokyo rail company has placed garden allotments on train station rooftops, greening the city while allowing commuters to connect to the land and grow their own vegetables.
Dogtown Redemption: Urban Poor Survive By Recycling
Posted on December 1, 2013 | No CommentsA documentary film, "Dogtown Redemption," delves inside the lives of West Oakland's poor and homeless recyclers. While California must deal with its urban poverty problem, and rogue recyclers steal from recycling funds, overall the state's Bottle Bill has significantly reduced waste.
Permaculture: Sustainable Antidote to Agribusiness and Consumer Culture
Posted on October 13, 2013 | 2 CommentsBill Mollison (born 1928 in Tasmania, Australia) is a researcher, author, scientist, teacher and naturalist, and one of the foremost advocates for permaculture, or permanent agriculture. Following is a documentary on Mollison and his ideas.
Copehangen’s Sustainability Vision: Carbon Neutral, Climate-Adapted
Posted on October 10, 2013 | 1 CommentGlobal warming poses a real threat to cities but planners in the Danish capital are taking visionary steps to ensure its resilience – and success – as far ahead as 2100. The city approved a plan for carbon neutrality, while a 10-person team focuses on how the city will adapt to a changing climate.
Communal Utopia: The Farm in Rural Tennessee
Posted on October 9, 2013 | 9 CommentsOnce the largest hippie commune in the US, the Farm persists as an intentional community in rural Tennessee, based on principles of nonviolence and respect for the Earth. It now advocates permaculture, sustainable and renewable energy, a vegetarian diet, and midwifery.
Songdo, South Korea: Utopian City of Big Data and Urban “Sustainability”
Posted on October 1, 2013 | 9 CommentsThe idea of the "utopian" community began in 1516 with Sir Thomas More's fictional perfected society to present-day attempts to build the most sustainable urban ecosystem. With the case of Songdo International Business District, South Korea, we begin a series of case studies in the success and failure of utopian experiments in living sustainably.
LA River: An Urban Ecosystem Makeover in Transition
Posted on September 16, 2013 | 1 CommentAfter seven years of study, federal officials have recommended a $453-million plan that would restore an 11-mile stretch of the Los Angeles River but leave much of its banks steep and hard to reach. Advocates will continue to press for a more ambitious alternative that would bring more people to the river, improving parks and recreation as well as ecosystems.
Japan: “Office Farming” Greens Tokyo’s Urban Jungle
Posted on August 29, 2013 | 6 CommentsSophie Feng writes on one answer to disaster-prone Tokyo's interest in food health and security. Corporate Ecology is mixed with the move toward Agricultural Urbanism, greening the sterile downtown office world for workers and visitors.
Detroit Future: Landscape Urbanism, Antidote to Industrial Blight
Posted on August 17, 2013 | 2 CommentsFor the last 40 years, Detroiters have fled the once-majestic downtown core for the bucolic image of sprawling suburbia. Now an urban revival in the name of "Detroit Future City," complete with forests, parks, farms and waterways, is planned to overcome the financial mismanagement and industrial blight that have plagued the city for far too long.
Austria: Energy-Efficient Office Tower Rises Over the Danube
Posted on July 22, 2013 | 4 CommentsTall buildings tend to use massive amounts of energy with big carbon footprints. One new Viennese project featured in Passive House Plus shows that high rise doesn’t have to mean high environmental impact.
Plastic Ocean: Deep Sea Garbage Endangers Marine Ecosystem
Posted on July 8, 2013 | 2 CommentsWhile the Great Pacific Garbage Patch continues to grow, a paper by researchers at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute shows that trash is accumulating in the deep sea, particularly in Monterey Canyon, off the coast of California. This causes dire impacts to the marine ecosystem and humans who thrive from it.
Biofuels from Seaweed: A More Sustainable Energy Source?
Posted on July 1, 2013 | No CommentsMany millions are being invested in seaweed research from Vietnam to Israel to Chile because producing biofuels in the sea overcomes many of the serious problems with conventional biofuels.
Urban Farming: Nature, Art, and Society Converge
Posted on June 30, 2013 | 5 CommentsUrban farmers and gardeners around the world transform abandoned lots into edible landscapes, improving human and ecological health as well as creating beautiful places. Richard Ingersoll surveys a myriad of concepts and projects from around Europe and the United States.
Orange County Toll Road to Nowhere Denied Permits
Posted on June 19, 2013 | 3 CommentsOrange County's Toll Road Agency is pushing the first segment of a previously rejected road extension that will have significant and irreversible environmental and economic impacts. According to the Save San Onofre Coalition and the State Attorney General, the project had failed to undertake sufficient environmental studies. As a result, the Regional Water Board in San Diego decided to deny the project a waste discharge permit.
Win:Win Journal – Re-Imagining Los Angeles
Posted on May 31, 2013 | 2 CommentsWIN:WIN “The Future, a Sustainable Los Angeles” - How does Los Angeles - its people, buildings and infrastructure establish a restorative, long-term relationship with the environment that hosts it and the financial systems that supports it? Read Jack Eidt's Essay on Poly-Human Los Angeles
Wildlife Crossings: Animals Survive with Bridges and Tunnels
Posted on May 19, 2013 | 5 CommentsProviding crossing infrastructure at key points along transportation corridors is known to improve safety, reconnect habitats and restore wildlife movement. Throughout Europe, Asia, Australia and North American, wildlife crossing structures have been implemented with demonstrable success.
Earth Day: Sustainability Movement Heals Humanity in the Wild
Posted on April 20, 2013 | 2 CommentsThis Earth Day 2013, world ecosystems face imminent danger from humanity's ecological overreach and climate change. Following the original 1970 theme of a national teach-in, promoting awareness of the acute problems, we must pose solutions to advance environmental sustainability, building a movement to work toward its implementation.
Los Angeles River Revitalization: A City Rediscovers its Flow
Posted on April 9, 2013 | 8 CommentsThe LA River, an over-engineered concrete "water-freeway," is undergoing a long-term greening and revitalization. A 32-mile greenbelt, developed through numerous projects, promises to improve the health of the ecosystem and the value of the river as a regional public amenity, while managing flows and protecting properties.
Arcosanti: Paolo Soleri’s Visionary Eco-City Prototype in Arizona
Posted on January 18, 2013 | 6 CommentsA visionary eco-city in the Arizona desert, Arcosanti is an urban laboratory created by Paolo Soleri. Based on the concept of Arcology, or ecological architecture, it presents a compact, sustainable, energy-efficient urban form that confronts environmental destruction, economic collapse, and social dislocation.
BioMilano: Italian Eco-Vision Grows 26-Storey Vertical Forest
Posted on January 15, 2013 | 2 CommentsBosco Verticale or Vertical Forest, the first phase of BioMilano, a re-envisioning of Milan, Italy, with an eye toward ecological urbanism, integrating tree and skyscraper, city and wild.
Affordable and Green: Net-Zero House in Washington DC
Posted on December 27, 2012 | 1 CommentEMPOWERHOUSE is a community-based approach to sustainable urban development showcasing the design of two affordable, energy-efficient solar powered homes and a neighborhood learning garden for inner-city Washington DC and beyond.
