An Array of Utopian Flowers
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The Winnemem Wintu: Bringing the Salmon Home
Posted on February 13, 2020 | No Comments -
Why Fish Farming is Not Sustainable Nor Healthy
Posted on February 1, 2020 | No Comments -
Wet’suwet’en Chiefs Battle Coastal GasLink ‘Invasion’ in B.C.
Posted on January 28, 2020 | No Comments -
Passive-Solar Greenhouse-Wrapped Nature House in Sweden
Posted on January 26, 2020 | No Comments -
Palm Oil and Orangutans – The Oily Truth & What We Can Do
Posted on January 23, 2020 | No 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
Sustainable Vertical Urbanism: The Future of Cities?
Posted on December 17, 2014 | No Comments"Vertical City," a complete ecosystem in the sky that you never have to leave, accommodates population growth and protects the planet, but may have significant drawbacks for the people who call it home and their connection to the earth. Projects in China and Dubai illustrate the concept and its limitations.
Convivial Degrowth: An Ecologic Reckoning for an Ailing Planet
Posted on December 6, 2014 | No CommentsThe model planners and economists touted as "sustainable development" has only exacerbated ecologic distress and community dislocation through its focus on wealth-creation. The needs of our ailing planet facing an impending 11 billion population calls for ecology and human welfare to dominate economy, but how to achieve this in a world bought and paid for by finance capitalism?
Starhawk: Hope in the Time of Climate Change
Posted on December 3, 2014 | 1 CommentAs the full moon approached and the winter solstice upcoming ~ on Sun Dec 7, 2014 in LA, Starhawk joined a conscious community including SoCal 350 Climate Action Coalition, collectively co-creating a vision of a just transition away from climate- and ecosystem-damaging fossil fuels and industrial agriculture to a sustainable permaculture-oriented new world!
How to Make Urban Farming Sustainable? Distribution.
Posted on September 30, 2014 | No CommentsState and local governments must take bold, yet simple measures to correct the current major obstacle preventing real growth in urban farming — a viable distribution system.
Place Mobility: Streetcars, Bus Rapid Transit and Light Rail
Posted on August 18, 2014 | 3 CommentsAcross the US, inspired by the success of Portland's streetcar and a movement toward downtown revitalization and expanding public transit alternatives, projects enhancing place mobility move forward despite controversy.
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 | 3 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 | 13 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 | 10 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 | 6 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.
