An Array of Utopian Flowers
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Passive-Solar Greenhouse-Wrapped Nature House in Sweden
Posted on January 26, 2020 | No Comments -
Martin Luther King: Peace and Civil Rights Must Mix
Posted on January 22, 2020 | No Comments -
Wixárika/Huichol People: Protecting Sacred Lands of Mexico
Posted on December 10, 2019 | 1 Comment -
Samuel Beckett, Confessions and the Human Condition
Posted on December 5, 2019 | 1 Comment -
“Bleeding Kansas” and Stories of the Underground Railroad
Posted on December 3, 2019 | 2 Comments
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WilderUtopia in 102 Languages
‘Medicine Walk’ Featured in SBLitJo
Santa Barbara Literary Journal releases ‘Bellatrix: Volume 3’ this June, which among adventurous fiction, poetry, essays, and lyrics, features an excerpt of Jack Eidt’s psychic-animism fiction, Medicine Walk. Buy the book!
Sustainability Archive
Passive-Solar Greenhouse-Wrapped Nature House in Sweden
Posted on January 26, 2020 | No CommentsIn 1974, architect Bengt Warne designed the prototype for a greenhouse home to deal with the cold winters in Sweden. Rather than converting an existing structure and moving inside it, he built a normal house -- and then encasing it in glass -- a Nature House (or "Naturhus" ). Inspired by these designs, a family has created a home near Stockholm integrated with the elements of earth, water, air, and fire. The electricity bills have been cut in half, heated by an eco-friendly wood-burning oven and a hot water masonry heater. The greenhouse also shelters Mediterranean-style gardens that couldn't survive the Swedish seasons -- figs, kiwi, peaches, wine grapes, etc.
Regenerative Responses: Growing The Soil Carbon Sponge
Posted on November 2, 2019 | 1 CommentWeather extremes, soil degradation, and climate disruption have turned our attention to the potential of soil, carbon, and water cycling as a formidable and creative response to climate change. EcoJustice Radio talks with Linda Gibbs about building the soil carbon sponge for resilience to wildfires and climate change.
Pasture Based Carbon Farming with SonRise Ranch – EcoJustice Radio
Posted on July 30, 2019 | 1 CommentCarry Kim speaks with Doug Lindamood, from SonRise Ranch in San Diego County, California. He and his family own and operate this pasture based livestock operation dedicated to changing industrial, factory farming into a local, sustainable, integrity, food movement through education and outreach one family at a time.
Creating Resilient Ecosystems & Regenerating the Planet – EcoJustice Radio
Posted on December 26, 2018 | No CommentsErik Ohlsen is the director of the Permaculture Skills Center, a vocational training school that offers advanced education in ecological design, landscaping, farming, and land stewardship. Creator of the the Eco-Landscape Mastery School online training program, Erik is also founder of Permaculture Artisans which specializes in design and installation of ecological landscapes and farms throughout California. Carry Kim interviews him on EcoJustice Radio.
Defensible Space: My Wildfire-Appropriate Retrofit Journey – Part I
Posted on November 16, 2018 | 1 CommentAs the Western U.S. continues with massive wind-driven, high-intensity wildfires that often turn deadly, Naomi Pitcairn recommends retrofitting homes on the Wildland Urban Interface for fire-resistant resiliency. This is Part I of a three-part series.
Iannis Xenakis and the Notion of a Cosmic Utopia
Posted on February 21, 2018 | No CommentsIannis Xenakis, the Greek-French experimental composer and protege designer for the famous architect Le Corbusier, advanced theories of the vertical "Cosmic" city as the only sustainable way forward. Here, he wrote this essay in 1966, decrying decentralization (read: suburban sprawl) in favor of building up, up, up...5 million inhabitants to be housed in a single megastructure, a hyperbolic paraboloid of more than 3,000 meters high and 50 meters wide.
How Cities Can Build Affordable Housing
Posted on October 3, 2017 | No CommentsAlan Durning lays out how many cities have succeeded in building affordable housing with some lessons from unexpected places. Yet constrained housing markets come about from economics, environment, and geography, and sprawl remains a scourge that affordable cities have allowed. No silver bullet here, but ideas...
Autonomous Cars Will Drive Sustainable Cities Backward
Posted on March 26, 2017 | No CommentsUrban sustainability depends upon reducing energy from automobile usage and maximizing transportation efficiency through public trains, streetcars, electric buses, and people movers. The companies developing autonomous cars could not care less: they offer on-demand private transport for the masses, with specific intent to move people back to cars.
Shipping Containers as Sustainable, Affordable Housing?
Posted on September 27, 2016 | 2 CommentsCan re-purposed shipping containers become the next inexpensive, quick to construct, green building solution for affordable housing? Danish "starchitect" Bjarke Ingels, as well as a recent Orange County, California, project, assert yes to all of the above, but there are limitations.
Using Regenerative Design to Revitalize Newport Banning Ranch
Posted on September 6, 2016 | 1 CommentFacing a major Coastal Commission decision, Newport Banning Ranch developers should adopt staff's recommendation that all environmentally sensitive habitat should be protected and could be integrated in a vision for a small-scale visitor-serving development through Regenerative Design.
Pruitt Igoe Myth: The Death of 20th Century US City
Posted on September 5, 2016 | 3 CommentsDestroyed in a dramatic and highly-publicized implosion, the Pruitt-Igoe public housing complex has become a widespread symbol of failure among architects, politicians and policy makers. A 2012 documentary unveiled the many witting and unwitting villains, including urban poverty, public policy enforced racial segregation, and urban disinvestment in favor of the White Suburban Dream.
How to Legalize Building and Living in Tiny Houses
Posted on August 23, 2016 | 2 CommentsTiny Houses, although lauded as a green way forward in a world covered in wasteful McMansions and debt enslaving rent payments, must overcome health, safety, and building standard regulations that still consider this form of housing either illegal or difficult to approve. Alyse Nelson charts a way through the red tape.
Geo-Fauvism and Anthropocene: Altered Planet, Wild Literature
Posted on June 4, 2016 | 2 CommentsWelcome to the Anthropocene age, where humans have transmogrified the planet, its oceans and atmosphere, caused mass extinctions and wholesale contamination that will remain for millennia. Beyond the politicians and scientists, the way forward remains in the hands of writers, artists, and designers taking inspiration from wild earth in a movement called Geo-Fauvism.
Preserve Newport Banning Ranch as Sacred Archaeological Site Genga
Posted on May 12, 2016 | 4 CommentsNewport Beach's Banning Ranch, the site of a proposed mega commercial and residential development, is an extraordinary archaeological site. Once the site where an ancient Native American coastal village called Genga, a ritual and trading hub for both the Tongva and Acjachemen Native American Nations, existed for over a thousand years.
Jerry Brown’s Regulatory Capture at the CA Coastal Commission
Posted on May 4, 2016 | 4 CommentsJerry Brown, once known as governor Moonbeam who signed into law the California Coastal Commission, now can be seen as the man behind handing it over to developers. Governor Brown must fire his four at-will commissioners with significant lapses of judgement and ethics, as well as his powerful backroom dealer from the Resources Agency.
Reform California’s Environmental Quality Act? Not Now.
Posted on April 27, 2016 | 2 CommentsThe California Environmental Quality Act, protector of resources and communities through consideration of implications of proposed projects, is under attack. Representatives from industry and real estate development, and sometimes even Governor Jerry Brown, seek ways to weaken it, or to exempt their pet projects. While the law is far from perfect, it remains the gold standard of environmental protection in the US.
Power, Influence, and Obfuscation: A Plan to Game the California Coastal Act
Posted on March 11, 2016 | 8 CommentsWhy did Coastal Commissioners dump popular Executive Director Charles Lester in a closed session at their February meeting in Morro Bay? It is part of a plan by well connected lobbyists and lawyers pushing environmentally damaging projects for their wealthy clients.
Kogi People’s Lesson From the Heart of the Mountain
Posted on January 22, 2016 | 1 CommentThe Kogi People of Colombia, through two separate documentaries, delivered a message of a sustainable interconnection with nature and community as a way to avert climate and ecological destruction.
Walking Water: Eastern Sierra Pilgrimage of Healing the Drought
Posted on October 30, 2015 | 1 CommentAlexis Slutzky tells the story of a September 2015 pilgrimage through California's Owens Valley, called Walking Water. This first phase of a much longer journey began at Mono Lake and ended 180 miles south at Owens Dry Lake. For 100 years, Los Angeles has piped water from there over 300 miles further south to sustain the city, draining ancient lakes and groundwater, destroying natural water systems. In the fourth year of an historic drought, Walking Water seeks to create a new narrative regarding this life-giving resource, investigating our common and often conflicting needs, and learning how to live within our means.
L.A. River Must Transform as Watershed, Transportation Corridor
Posted on September 29, 2015 | 2 CommentsTakeaways from a recent Green Festival Expo discussion on the Los Angeles River Revitalization include that the job of planning for water resiliency belongs to all of us, not Frank Gehry regardless of his recent charge, and we must also consider how public access, parkland, ecosystem restoration, cargo and passenger rail, bicycle greenways, and anti-gentrification environmental justice will fit into the mix. Collaboration is the key.
Geo-Fauvism: Waking to the Wild Earth Through Visual Art
Posted on June 5, 2015 | 7 CommentsThis is the first post in a series where I present the case for Geo-Fauvism, a growing movement of wild earth inspiration in art, literature, music and design. Taking off from the early 20th Century French art "Fauvists" or "Wild Beasts," these cross-disciplinary creations respond to and react against the collapse of global environmental systems, the destruction of indigenous earth-based societies, and a narrowing of cultural opportunities in the mainstream corporatized media. Geo-Fauvists create to reconnect with the wild and heal humanity's rift with the landscape, building a new community based on integration with the ecosystem.
German Prefab House Generates Twice its Own Energy
Posted on May 9, 2015 | 1 CommentThe prefab Active House B10 prototype in Stuttgart can be built in a day, but its implications will be felt for years. Taking the passive house net zero concept one step further, this fully recyclable tiny house actively generates enough power for multiple properties through its rooftop photovoltaics.
Starchitects and Spectacle: Sustainability Solutions Needed
Posted on April 8, 2015 | 1 CommentArchitecture must move on from an addiction to spectacle and fad, adrift in a sea of meaningless forms, leaving serious design and sustainability problems unresolved, says Peter Buchanan. But to do this will require a more critical perspective from architectural academe and the media.
Pod Cars: Autonomous Vehicles vs. Personal Rapid Transit
Posted on February 17, 2015 | 6 CommentsThe age of the pod car might be upon us, but not necessarily as the long-envisioned Personal Rapid Transit. Good for amusement parks and Google's main campus, as well as small newly-built cities or airport shuttles, PRT systems have too many limitations in dense urban areas. The real future for the pod car, like it or not: Autonomous (Self-Driving) Vehicles.
Laguna Beach “Ranch” Hotel Renovation Violates Coastal Rules
Posted on January 8, 2015 | 22 CommentsThe California Coastal Commission failed to enforce the Coastal Act and did not require a Laguna hotel renovation to address destruction of affordable rooms and environmental habitat as well as finish the long-awaited Trail to the Sea.
