An Array of Utopian Flowers
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An Environmental Advocate’s Response to ‘Planet of the Humans’
Posted on May 14, 2020 | No Comments -
Green Banking: Toward A Regenerative Economy
Posted on May 8, 2020 | No Comments -
THE BOTTLE SCAM: Land, Water, and Indigenous Rights – Plastic Plague Pt. 5
Posted on May 1, 2020 | 2 Comments -
THROWAWAY SOCIETY: Economics & Inequity of (Plastic) Consumption – Plastic Plague Pt 4
Posted on April 16, 2020 | 3 Comments -
The BirdHouse: Reconnecting People & Place through Arts & Ecology
Posted on April 8, 2020 | No Comments
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WilderUtopia in 102 Languages
‘Medicine Walk’ Featured in SBLitJo
Santa Barbara Literary Journal released ‘Bellatrix: Volume 3’ in June 2019, which among adventurous fiction, poetry, essays, and lyrics, features an excerpt of Jack Eidt’s psychic-animism fiction, Medicine Walk. Buy the book!
utopian overdose 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.
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.
African Garden Cities: Urbanization Without Planning for People
Posted on May 7, 2013 | 1 CommentMaster planned, self contained New Cities have appeared all over Africa. Emulating models from the global north, private-sector boosters advance them without considering factors such as environment, economy, context and even poverty. Nairobi-based urban practitioner Jane Lumumba argues they might only make social and economic problems worse.
Honduras: Neoliberal Utopias Advance on Indigenous Land
Posted on February 23, 2013 | 2 CommentsThe government of Honduras plans the creation of neoliberal free-market enclaves, unaccountable to national laws and governed by foreign corporate interests. Stipulated for territory inhabited by Garifuna people and campesino farming communities, with propaganda about democracy, economic innovation and humanitarian justice, "President" Pepe Lobo should first refrain from presiding over the coup-backed "illegitimate regime."
China’s Urbanizing Utopia: Ghost Cities and Propaganda Theme Parks
Posted on December 19, 2012 | 3 CommentsChina has been building ghost towns for years, and like a never-ending vaudeville show, the bizarre overbuilding never stops. Here are four of recent eyebrow-raising developments.
Honduras: Neo-Colonial “Free Market” Charter Cities, Democracy Not Included – By Annie Bird
Posted on September 25, 2012 | 5 CommentsFree marketeers and Libertarians advocate for the world's first Charter City, with authoritarian governance, facilitated by a military coup, coordinated using political sway with business partners, using public funds from the IDB for infrastructure plans, and built on land "purchased" from indigenous communities, small farmers and the state of Honduras.
Chinese Mega-Cities Contrasted with Calvino’s ‘Invisible Cities”
Posted on August 13, 2012 | 2 CommentsRapid industrialization in China has caused a massive migration to crowded, faceless and polluted urban mega-cities of 10 million residents or more. They should consider Italo Calvino's utopian "Invisible Cities" to rethink the role of imagination in urban planning.
H. G. Wells on the Futurist Dystopia of Fritz Lang’s “Metropolis”
Posted on July 15, 2012 | 5 Comments"Metropolis" hallucinates a futuristic city, a paradise of glass and steel, where underground workers toil endlessly at the giant machines that run the world above. Controlled by the autocratic industrialist, his spoilt son falls for the working class prophet who envisions some mediation between workers and managers. Noted science fiction author H. G. Wells reviews the controversial 1927 masterpiece.
Model Cities: Neo-Colonialists Seek Submissive Wild For Capitalist Utopia
Posted on May 15, 2012 | 6 CommentsNeo-colonialism in Honduras: Paul Romer's Charter Cities movement advocated suspension of sovereignty and democracy in the service of unfettered capitalism. Unfortunately, the enabling legislation was deemed by the Honduran Supreme Court as unconstitutional. While the coup-backed government of Honduras presses the issue forward, resistance members and indigenous and labor organizations continue to fight this libertarian dream on the Coast of Trujillo.
Mother-Nature Is Not A Wicked Witch: Oren Lyons on Oz
Posted on February 20, 2012 | 2 CommentsBaum's "Wizard of Oz" as a Utopian American Dream soft-peddles an anti-nature-prejudice amid dazzling urban-industrial landscapes. This bias at the expense of the earth's resources has led us to today's environmental and economic collapse.
