New Urbanism Evolves; The Future is "Agrarian Urbanism"

by Lloyd Alter

Greg Lindsay of Fast Company attends the 18th annual conference on New Urbanism, the architectural movement founded by Andrés Duany that tries to imbibe new communities with lessons from the old. But he finds that Duany has moved on. Lindsay writes:

"Duany believes the metaphorical asteroid -- call it peak oil, climate change, the collapse of complex structures -- is on its way. He's trying to push the body of planners and architects toward a small-town America that more closely resembles pre-1850 America than pre-1950."

Duany is now talking about the next big thing: agrarian urbanism.
Lindsay continues:

Agrarian urbanism, he explained, is different from both "urban agriculture" ("cities that are retrofitted to grow food") and "agricultural urbanism" ("when an intentional community is built that is associated with a farm)." He was thinking bigger: "Agrarian urbanism is a society involved with the growing of food."

More in Fast Company
James Howard Kunstler was there as well, and gives his overview in Clusterf**k Nation, including a bit of history of the New Urbanist revolution:

The basic idea behind the New Urbanism was that the quality and character of the places where we spend our lives matters, and that the surrender of the entire American landscape to Happy Motoring was an historic aberration that had to be corrected if the USA was going to continue as a viable project. Among other things, they noticed that if people live in places that aren't worth caring about, sooner or later they end up being a nation not worth defending -- and this is on top of the daily personal punishments suffered by hundreds of millions of people dwelling in a geography of nowhere.

He points out that the New Urbanists were fiercely opposed and often mocked as "being slaves to worn-out traditions -- like walking from home to work."
Now that people are finally catching up to these basics, the movement is evolving again. Kunstler writes:

The most forward-looking leaders in the New Urbanist movement now recognize that we have to reorganize the landscape for local food production, because industrial agriculture will be one of the prime victims of our oil predicament. The successful places in the future will be places that have a meaningful relationship with growing food close to home.

• http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/05/new-urbanism-evolves-future-is-agrarian-urbanism.php

Luna Ring: A Giant Solar Power Plant on the Moon

by Michael Graham Richard

Image: Shimizu

One of These Days, Alice. Bang! Zoom! Straight to the Moon!

Big problems need big solutions, and the Shimizu corporation in Japan certainly can't be blamed for thinking small. It has made plans to provide enough clean energy to all of humanity by turning the moon into a kind of anti-Death Star, a giant solar power station that brings life instead of death. It might sound like complete science-fiction now, but who knows what will be possible in a 100 years (if we make it that far)? Read on for more details on how this would work.

Image: Shimizu

This Plan Has Robots and Everything!

470diggsdiggThe general idea is: You build a massive "belt" of solar cells around the Moon's equator (that's about 6,800 miles, or 11,000 kilometers). You convert that electricity to microwaves or lasers that you beam back to Earth from the near-side of the Moon (the side always closest to Earth) with a 20km-diameter antenna, and you convert those beams back to electricity at power stations using receiving rectennas. A guidance beacon will make sure that the beam is always going where it is supposed to go (and if not, the power will be instantly cut).

The solar belt would initially be relatively small, but could be grown up to 400 kilometers wide over time. Such a belt could produce more than enough clean energy for all of humanity and then some. 

Image: Shimizu

Keep Your Feet on the Ground (For Now)

The plan involves construction by robots that are assembled in space and then landed on the Moon, the use of as much materials straight from the Moon's ground as possible, and a team of astronauts to support the robots on the surface of the Moon. That's crazy ambitious, but a lot of the things that we take for granted now probably would sound "crazy ambitious" to people from 100 or 200 years ago, so you never know.

But let's not count on something like this until the first watts are being beamed back to Earth. In the meantime, we need to find other ways to get off dirty sources of energy. It's good to dream and plan for the far future, but nothing's real but the present.

Image: Shimizu

See also: Japan's Moonshot? $21 Billion Invested in Space-Based Solar Power

Via Shimizu

Debate: "Does high density development make travel more sustainable?"

Two experts on transport planning, Peter Headicar and Marcial Echenique, tell us what they think about the role of spatial planning in encouraging more sustainable travel. 

Peter Headicar and Marcial Echenique. 

Our experts tackled two questions. Can land use planning make travel more sustainable and does high density, mixed use development encourage sustainable travel? This is the first debate that we have hosted on Sustainable Cities - read the views of Marcial and Peter, make up your mind and have your say.

Peter Headicar is reader in transport planning at Oxford Brookes University and Marcial Echenique is head of architecture and professor of land use and transport studies at the University of Cambridge. This article summarises the discussion at a debate which took place in January 2010.

Can land use planning help make travel more sustainable?

CO2  emissions from household cars by trip length and journey purpose (GB 2002-2006 average). Medium-distance journeys are responsible for the greatest proportion of CO2 emissions (click to see a bigger image).

Yes - Peter Headicar

Land use can have a major effect on how and why people travel. The location of your home in relation to your office, the shops or your children’s school has a direct influence on the choices you have about what mode of transport you use and how far you travel. For example, when the shops are just around the corner, you can chose to walk rather than taking the car. So it should be possible to use land use planning to encourage more sustainable travel.

Unfortunately, in the UK the influence of land use planning on reducing car use is limited by weak transport policies. Too often driving is the cheapest and easiest option. People often feel that streets are unsafe for walking or cycling, train fares are too expensive and bus services are slow and inconvenient. Transport policies have been improving but will need to change a lot more in future to cope with worsening congestion, climate change and higher oil prices.

In addition most spatial planning is focused at the local level which makes it difficult to have a big impact on car use. The focus on urban form within settlements and using site travel plans to reduce driving ignores questions about the relationship of different types of land use to their wider contexts. What really matters is the strategic location of development and the balance of jobs, houses and other land uses within and between whole towns and cities at the sub-regional level. It’s the longer journeys between towns, of between 5 and 25 miles, that are responsible for a much greater proportion of overall car mileage and hence CO2 emissions.
Although the effects of spatial planning on travel may be limited at the moment, that doesn’t mean we should relinquish the current and future benefits which it does offer. Land use patterns change very slowly. Our decisions now will have an influence for decades or even centuries to come. Working on the precautionary principle, we should continue to foster a pattern of land use that will support more sustainable travel in the future. By contrast lower density, more dispersed patterns will make sustainable transport policies impossible to implement.

To raise awareness of the links between spatial planning and travel, emphasising the strategic dimension, the Commission for Integrated Transport has recently published a web-based guide, www.plan4sustainabletravel.org. The website helps local planning authorities identify and promote the right type of development in the right location to reduce the need to travel and reduce car mileage.

 

The ReVISIONS programme – designing cities of the future. Land use planning should be used to determine what sustainable infrastructure and technologies are practical where, but not to try and influence travel patterns.

No - Marcial Echenique

Land use planning has very little effect on how people travel – what really matters are cost and convenience.
Current land use and transport policies try to improve environmental sustainability by reducing the need to travel (e.g. by promoting compact cities and mixed use, high density development) and persuading people to walk, cycle or use public transport. However, in reality socio-economic trends such as rising incomes and a shift from manufacturing to service industries have a much greater effect on travel patterns.
To make travel more environmentally sustainable, we should focus instead on technological improvements. Efficiency in cars is improving rapidly and further gains can be achieved with the introduction of hybrids and electrical cars. Spatial planning is important to determine which technologies are practical where. For example, combined heat and power is better for compact urban areas whereas solar power or ground source heat pumps work better at lower densities. This is the direction our research (the ReVISIONS programme, Regional Visions of Integrated Sustainable Infrastructure Optimised for Neighbourhoods) is heading.

Does higher density urban development encourage more sustainable travel?

Population density and annual distance travelled (NTS, 2002-06). At higher densities people don’t drive so far but travel further by bus and train (click to see a bigger version).

Yes - Peter Headicar

We should use spatial planning to make travel more environmentally sustainable by concentrating growth in and around major urban settlements with higher density development. People who live in towns and cities don’t have so far to travel between their homes, schools, jobs and shops. They have more choice about what mode of transport they want to use. For example, they can choose to use public transport that is nearby or to walk between places that are close together.

Data on travel patterns in the UK provides clear evidence of the links between density, accessibility and travel. At higher densities (especially over 30 people per hectare) the average annual distance travelled per person falls, particularly distance travelled by car. The distance travelled by public transport increases. Areas with very good levels of accessibility to public transport have lower levels of car use and higher proportions of public transport, walking and cycling.

Alternative patterns for future urban growth. Market led dispersal gives people more living space and increases economic competitiveness.

No - Marcial Echenique

The received wisdom is that high density, mixed use developments using brownfield sites are more environmentally sustainable because they reduce people’s need to travel. But this is simply not the case. Recent evidence shows that in developed countries doubling the population density only reduces the distance travelled by car per person by 5 to 10%. This conclusion from SOLUTIONS research (www.suburbansolutions.ac.uk) has been confirmed in a comprehensive study by the US Academy of Science.

Concentrating growth in urban centres damages economic growth and quality of life. High density cities are overcrowded and expensive. Because there is more travel by car in the same space (as there is double the population) there is more congestion, more energy use and more CO2 emissions. Because travel takes longer it costs more. People travel shorter distances and the economy suffers.

By contrast, in lower density places where travel is easy, people have better access to a wider selection of jobs, homes, shops and services. Businesses have a larger market area for their goods – there’s more competition, lower prices and greater prosperity.

If we want to build successful, prosperous places, we have to let people live where they want. We should stop forcing people into flats built on brownfield land – in places where people don’t actually want to live and where there is little economic growth. Take development the south of England for example – employment is growing in the west and south whereas new homes are being built to the east in places such as the Thames Gateway. Instead, we should promote low density, dispersed development where there is a quick, efficient flow of goods and people.

• http://www.cabe.org.uk/sustainable-cities/updates/encouraging-sustainable-travel

Communities Magazine: Education for Sustainability

Web Features

· LIVE AND LEARN: O.U.R. Ecovillage Builds Learning Community

Elke Cole & Javan Kerby Bernakevitch

The residents of an eco-oriented, education-focused intentional community and demonstration site wear many hats, both public and private.

· SEEING THE GOOD IN THE WORLD: Connecting Communities and Students for Sustainability Education and Transformation

Joshua Lockyer

After several years teaching about community in the abstract, an anthropologist and environmental studies teacher finds that direct student engagement with intentional communities provides the spark needed for personal inspiration, connection, and the potential for social transformation.

· HOW TO ADD ZEST TO YOUR SUSTAINABILITY EDUCATION PROGRAM

Melanie Rios

A permaculture teachers hits upon a gold mine of effective methods for enlivening her teaching—by drawing from the principles of permaculture itself.

Also in This Issue (Print Version Only)

· NOTE FROM THE EDITOR: EDUCATION FOR SUSTAINABILITY

Chris Roth

· TEACHING HANDS-ON WORKSHOPS IN COMMUNITY

Michael G. Smith

One-day workshops, two-week intensives, two-month apprenticeships, season-long internships, work parties, work exchanges, and other hands-on learning programs all offer unique benefits and challenges for both participants and intentional community members. A veteran teacher and natural builder shares his experiences from Emerald Earth Sanctuary.

· TO LEARN SUSTAINABILITY IS TO LEARN COMMUNITY: An Example from South Portugal

Leila Dregger

Strained by difficult economic and ecological conditions, farmers Claudio and Fernando discover new avenues toward prosperity and land restoration through alliances with a peace community dedicated to regional renewal.

· SUSTAINABILITY: REFLECTIONS FROM AN ECO-WARRIOR

Bruce Davidson

A cofounder of Sirius Community traces his path to a broadened understanding of sustainability—one which depends, more than anything else, on a change of consciousness.

· ECOVILLAGES AND ACADEMIA

Daniel Greenberg

Ecovillages offer ideal campuses for sustainability education, but cannot fulfill their potential if cloistered from academia. Building bridges between the two is essential for the survival and relevance of both.

· LEADERSHIP FOR SOCIAL CHANGE: Living Routes in Action at Huehuecoyotl

Giovanni Ciarlo

An action learning program at a Mexican ecovillage offers students real-world lessons in project implementation and community service, while also benefiting residents and neighbors.

· OLYMPIC-SIZED COMMUNITY

Satyama Dawn Lasby

The sustainability coordinator for the biggest event in the world realizes that catering with washable dishware and eliminating bottled water from the green rooms, while laudable, are ultimately just drops in the bucket.

· INTENTIONAL "COLONIES" AND TROPICAL SUSTAINABILITY

Jon Kohl

Intentional communities in developing countries often seem like intentional colonies instead, appealing to the rich and the mobile but inaccessible to local people. Effective sustainability education requires an alternative model.

· TOWARDS A SEVENTH GENERATION

Understanding Israel

Tracing results within her own community, a lifelong educator suggests that time spent teaching children now to love and respect the earth will help us all move towards a sustainable future.

· PERMACULTURE AND HOLISTIC EDUCATION: A Match Made in Heaven...and Earth

Paul Freedman

The founder of Salmonberry School finds that permaculture and holistic education share many common principles, values, and analogous practices, with great potential for integration. 

· BUSTED, ALMOST BLUDGEONED, POSSIBLY BROKE: Hard Lessons from the Trenches of Sustainability Education

Lee Icterus

Making your community a home base for sustainability education programs can bring unanticipated challenges, potential pitfalls, and learning experiences no one thought they had signed up for. A survivor shares cautionary tales and tips.

· CAR-REDUCED AND CAR-FREE RURAL COMMUNITIES

Greg Ramsey

In the quest to create eco-communities that can lead us toward a sustainable future, nothing is more important than reducing car dependence—and fortunately, we already know how.

· BEYOND SUSTAINABILITY: BUILDING FOR HEALTH: accommodating people with environmental intolerances in intentional community living

Julie Genser

People with environmental intolerances could be a perfect match for intentional community living if their needs were better understood and met there. Are communities willing to educate themselves and perhaps stretch their definitions of “sustainability” in order to accommodate the environmentally ill?

Voices

· LETTERS: No Avatars Desired, 2010 Cohousing Conference, The Sustainable Human

· PUBLISHER'S NOTE: AFLOAT IN CHOPPY SEAS: Though Our Support is Hot, Our Profits are Not

Laird Schaub

 

· MILLER KEEPS THE GEARS TURNING

Laird Schaub

 

· COOPERATIVE GROUP SOLUTIONS: OPEN MEETINGS: WORTH THE RISK?

Beatrice Briggs & Laird Schaub & Tree Bressen

 

· CREATING COOPERATIVE CULTURE: AN INVITATION, AND A MUSTACHE ESCAPADE

· GROWING FAMILY IN COMMUNITY

Ma'ikwe Schaub Ludwig

Twelve-year-old Jibran has always lived with fuzzy boundaries between “family” and “community.” They became even fuzzier when he came home to discover his mom’s positive pee test. (From Issue # 146 - Family) 

 

· PARENTING IN COMMUNITY: The Voyage from Fantasy to Reality

Jesika Feather

Though “baby having” had not been a consensus decision, a small community embraces a newborn, survives his infancy, and bonds like any other family: doing each other’s dishes, snuggling on the couch, and fighting over who gets a shower before the hot water runs out. (From Issue # 146 - Family) 

HOUSEHOLDING: COMMUNAL LIVING ON A SMALL SCALE

Elizabeth Barrette

Especially in financially uncertain times, those seeking the advantages of intentional community living can often find them within a single shared house. (From Issue # 144 - Community in Hard Times) 

 

· NUDGING AT BOUNDARIES

Julie Boerst

Easing themselves in and out of each other’s houses, yards, and chicken coops, members of White Hawk Ecovillage find traditional borders becoming more porous. (From Issue # 146 - Family) 

 

· REVIEWS: TOGETHER AND APART; EDEN WITHIN EDEN

Reviews of two great books on community living, one on life in a convent with surprising insights even for the most secular, and one on the history of utopian experiments in Oregon. (From Issue # 146 - Family)

 

• http://communities.ic.org/
  
  
  

Linking Sustainable Community Activities to Pollution Prevention

A Sourcebook

By: Beth E. Lachman 

This report provides an introduction to sustainable community activities and ways in which supporters of pollution prevention can take advantage of such efforts. A "sustainable community" effort consists of a long-term integrated and systems approach to developing and achieving a healthy community by addressing economic, environmental and social issues. Fostering a strong sense of community and building partnerships among key stakeholders are also important elements of such efforts. This report discusses how hundreds of communities across the United States are taking "sustainable community" approaches to deal with their most pressing problems. Such approaches have been applied to issues as varied as urban sprawl, inner-city and brownfield redevelopment, new economic development, a strong local economy, environmental justice, ecosystem management, agriculture, biodiversity, green buildings, energy conservation, watershed management, and pollution prevention. This report explains such activities by examining the process of developing a sustainable community initiative, describing sources of support, and presenting detailed community examples. Then, it explores the relationship between sustainable community activities and pollution prevention. The author includes an extensive annotated bibliography giving points of contact with phone numbers, web page addresses, and published documents about sustainable community activities throughout the United States.

See Also:

Research Brief

Free, downloadable PDF file(s) are available below.

Full Document (File size 0.5 MB, 2 minutes modem, < 1 minute broadband)

RAND makes an electronic version of this document available for free as a public service. If you find this information valuable, please consider purchasing a paper copy of the full document to help support RAND research.

Use Adobe Acrobat Reader version 7.0 or higher for the best experience.

Contents

Preface HTML
Summary HTML
Acknowledgments HTML
Acronyms HTML
Chapter 1:
Introduction HTML
Chapter 2:
The Sustainable Community "MOVEMENT" HTML
Chapter 3:
Elements of Sustainable Communities HTML
Chapter 4:
Resources for Sustainability Efforts HTML
Chapter 5:
Sustainable Community Examples HTML
Chapter 6:
Relationships Between Sustainable Community and P2 Activities HTML
Chapter 7:
Conclusion HTML
Annotated Bibliography HTML

http://www.rand.org/pubs/monograph_reports/MR855/index.html

Green Your School Guide

---

• http://earthday.net/lessonplans

What is a Green School?

Green Schools are the most effective agents for enacting significant positive environmental and educational change in schools and communities. School greening is quickly becoming more than a trend; rather, it is now the method of choice for providing healthy, comfortable and productive learning environments while saving energy, resources and money.

A green school improves the health and energy-efficiency of the school facility, ensures science-based environmental and civic education in the classroom, implements healthy food choices into the cafeteria, promotes alternative means of transportation, and expands recreational choices and opportunities for all students.

The benefits of green schools are now well established and range from significant reductions in greenhouse gases to impressive energy cost savings, improved student test scores and higher teacher and student retention, as well as very impressive improvements in children’s health. Studies have demonstrated that green schools greatly reduce student sick days, significantly improve the health of students with diabetes, asthma and other respiratory illnesses, reduce social inequity, enhance student motivation in both the short and long term, and provide an educationally rich setting.

Despite what many people think, green schools cost on average less than 2% more to build than a traditional school, yet the payback often occurs within only a few years due to the energy savings alone. A green school typically utilizes 33% less energy and 32% less water – enough savings to hire two additional full-time teachers.

Ultimately greening America’s schools presents an extraordinary cost-effective opportunity to improve the health and educational settings for all students, increasing school equality and competiveness while reducing long-term health and operational costs.

Categories of a Green School:

• Facilities
• Curricula and Classroom
• Food
• Transportation
• Recreation
  
  

  Themes:

• Sustainability
• Climate
• Natural Resources and Wildlife
• Energy
• Civics Education
• Thoreau
• Organics and Food
• Other
• Monthly Lesson Plans

Lessons by Subject

Mathematics, Statistics and Economics

• All school design curriculum
• Food and You
• Crops and soil
• Endangered Species
• Deforestation
• Human Populations and Carbon Emissions
• World Oil Consumption
• Yearly Temperatures and Climate Change
• School Energy Audit

Social Studies

• Bobbie Bigfoot Sustainability lesson plans
• Environmental History in March
• Environmental History in April
• Environmental History in June
• Environmental History in September
• Environmental History in October
• Environmental History in November
• Environmental History in December
• Civil Disobedience
• What is a Republican Government?
• Our Rights and Responsibilities
• How Can Citizens Participate?
• Why Do We Need a Government?
• The Conflicts of the Founders
• The Government and Natural Rights

Language Arts

• Shel Silverstein
• Robert Frost
• Samuel Taylor Coleridge
• Langston Hughes
• Matthew Arnold
• John Keats
• William Butler Yeats
• On Wildness
• Civil Disobedience

Creative and Performing Arts

• Perform "Walden" at your school

Science

• Bobbie Bigfoot Sustainability lesson plans
• What's in Your Water?
• Fundamental Forests
• Biodiversity: Earth's Living Treasure
• Water Ways
• What's Up With the Earth?
• Renewable Energy
• Bright Lights CFL Energy Saver Fundraiser
• Smart Moves: Transportation, Energy, and Environment
• Powershift: Clean Energy Solutions
• Renew Our Future
• Global Challenges English
• Green Schools and Green Building
• Organics 101
• Organic Food, Organic Lifestyle Environmental Jeopardy
• A Changing Climate Environmental Jeopardy
• What's in Your Food, What's in Your Body Environmental Jeopardy
• Sustainability Environmental Jeopardy
• Your Local Environmental Environmental Jeopardy

Sustainability

As defined by the World Commission on Environment and Development, sustainable development is "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." From office buildings to agriculture, it is important that we do not deplete nature's resources faster than they can be restored. The most urgent issue concerning sustainability is the burning of finite resources such as oil, coal, and natural gas that leads to pollution, deforestation, and climate change. Many opportunities exist for teachers and students to green their school and community, from eliminating toxins in cleaning products to improving air and water quality. The result is a cleaner, safer and more sustainable planet, as well as a more productive and healthy environment for students. The following resources offer opportunities for you and your students to learn about sustainability and get active for a better school, community, and planet.

• Have and Have-not

• Sustainable Dining

• Biodiversity

• Bobbie Bigfoot Sustainability Lesson Plans

• Environmental Jeopardy

• Green Schools and Green Building

• Food and You

• The Trash we Pass

More video resources on sustainability: EarthScope
Back to Lessons by Theme

Civics Education

In order to create an informed and responsible citizenry, civics must become an integral part of the educational discourse. Through active civic engagement, students can learn the value of their participation in government and their potential to effect change. Democracies are built upon the assumption that a government must evolve as the needs of its citizens change, but we can only achieve a responsible government if the citizenry is actively demanding these needs. Thus, education and practical experience are essential in realizing this goal. Earth Day Network's Education Department sponsors teachers in cities across the United States as they engage their students in action-oriented civic and environmental education through the National Civic Education Project. This project and the following curricula seek to promote civic and environmental education in the classroom and greater community.

• What is a Republican Government?

• Our Rights and Responsibilities

• How Can Citizens Participate?

• Why Do We Need a Government?

• The Conflicts of the Founders

• The Government and Natural Rights

Back to Lessons by Theme

Transportation

School greening should expand beyond the property of the school to be a take-home message – literally! How students and staff get to and from school is an essential component of school greening. Well-developed school transportation plans should increase the number of children walking or biking to school, decreasing traffic and emissions. This is also much healthier for the children, discouraging obesity and getting them outdoors. The exhaust from idling school buses and private vehicles contains harmful substances in the form of particle pollution and poses an unnecessary health risk for children, drivers, and the community at large. Compounded with health hazards, idling wastes fuel and adds carbon and pollutants to the atmosphere. For children who are out of walking distance, bus policy should be modified to make the ride as clean and healthy as possible.

• Transportation
• The Green School Bus: Action Plan to Green Your Transportation - Student Action Plan
• No Idling
• No Idling - Background
• Climate Change Doesn’t Idle, You Shouldn’t Either: Action Plan to Stop Bus Idling – Student Action Plan
• Don’t Be Idle—Take Action to Prevent Diesel School Bus Idling – Lesson Plan
• The Asian Brown Cloud - Lesson Plan
• Brown Skies in Mexico City - Lesson Plan
• Idlers, Please Stop Your Engine - Lesson Plan
• Please Do Not Make Us Cough, Turn Your Engine Off - Lesson Plan
• Ready, Set, Stop Idling - Lesson Plan
• The 6 Major Air Pollutants - Power Point (LP Supplement)

•  http://earthday.net/lessonplans 
  
  

Protecting rainforests shown to reduce poverty Ecologist

Study findings go against conventional wisdom that says biodiversity conservation is not compatible with development goals 
THEECOLOGIST.ORG

Introduction of measures to protect rainforests and ecosystems in Costa Rica and Thailand over the past 40 years have improved the livelihoods of the local population

Conserving rainforests may help to reduce poverty as well as protect biodversity, according to analyses undertaken in Costa Rica and Thailand.

Researchers from Georgia State University looked at the long term impacts of poor people living near parks and reserves set up before 1985 and found the net impact of the protection was to alleviate poverty.

Study author Professor Paul Ferraro said the findings went against the conventional wisdom that says biodiversity conservation was not compatible with development goals.

'The results are surprising. Most people might expect that if you restrict resources, people on average will be worse off. In contrast, the results indicate that the net impact of ecosystem protection was to alleviate poverty,' he said.

REDD agreement

The findings come as seven countries; Norway, Germany, US, UK, Australia, Japan, France commit to funding projects that will protect rainforests.

At a meeting in Oslo this week they reached an interim agreement to help get REDD projects (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation) up and running while they wait for an international agreement on tackling climate change. A new body to manage the funds will be set up by the end of the year.

Eco-tourism factor
Professor Ferraro admitted that the countries analysed in his study, Costa Rica and Thailand, may not representative of all developing nations having both experienced rapid economic growth within relatively stable political systems.

He also said the study did not look at the reasons behind the fall in poverty. However, he believes the expanding eco-tourism sectors in both countries may have played a significant part.

'The question we need to answer now is whether poverty is being reduced through ecosystem protection per se or because tourists come to see the biological diversity or because the protection maintains the supply of other valuable ecosystem services,' he said. 'Or is poverty reduced through donor investments in development activities and enhanced roads and public services (e.g. electricity and water infrastructure) that often accompany the establishment of a protected area?'

The Rainforest Foundation said the findings indicated that protected areas could have a positive, rather than the usually negative, impact on poverty alleviation in poor countries in and around areas for biodiversity.

'However, they have to be treated with caution, as we do not know from the study whether specific 'pro-community' measures were in place in the cases studied, as these tend to be the exception rather than the rule, and could distort the findings of this study,' said UK executive director Simon Counsell.
http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_round_up/493886/protecting_rainforests_shown_to_reduce_poverty.html

Useful linksProtected areas reduced poverty in Costa Rica and Thailand

	READ MORE...
	INVESTIGATION Why only the Amazonians can save the rainforest 'Saving the rainforest' has been a battle-cry of the environmental movement since its inception. But just what does that mean, how does it work, and who exactly does the 'saving'?
	NEWS Biodiversity crucial to lives of billions, says UNEP Ecosystems are buffering humanity against the worst impacts of global warming and also alleviating poverty, says United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
	SPECIAL CONTENT Atlantic Rising: Liberia faces choice between deforestation and REDD If alternatives to deforestation like REDD do not arrive soon Liberia's remaining rainforest cover is likely to go the same way as its neighbours in Cote d'Ivoire
	NEWS Activists hail 'historic' Canadian forest agreement Logging companies agree to deal safeguarding an area of endangered boreal forest twice the size of Germany
	NEWS Clamping down on logging in Brazil moves it to Paraguay Former Paraguayan government minister makes plea for West to intervene in runaway illegal logging situation displaced from Brazil

Promoting Livable Communities

by: American Institute of Architects   

The challenge to making livable communities a reality lies in convincing policy makers to revamp a complex tax code that encourages sprawl and traffic congestion at the expense of “walkable,” mixed-use development and mass transit.

That is the primary conclusion of this new report issued by the American Institute of Architects and partnering organizations at the Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) Financing Forum, which will bring together national housing, development, public and private finance, transportation practitioners and policy leaders to discuss the complexities of financing TOD. The forum is being held at the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center and will also highlight the opportunity for federal transportation reform and encourage connections and linkages for accelerating the development of TOD.

“Unfortunately, the tax credits and federal financing tools that affect the built environment do so in ways that frequently conflict with livability principles,” the report states. “On balance, federal policy is much more consistent with single-use development that is characteristic of sprawl at the edges of our communities.”

The report details the billions of dollars in tax credits and incentives available to encourage green building construction. However, this tax policy in large part is applied without any appreciation of the location of these buildings. As a result, the tax code has opened the floodgates to sprawl. One example cited by the report is the depreciation deduction, which applies only to new construction. Because of this limitation, new construction is encouraged on new land at the expense of renovating historic properties on existing property. And, this new construction has little incentive to be designed to last significantly longer than the depreciation period.

''This study offers simple, common sense steps for turning our complicated tax code into a tool for unleashing green construction,'' said Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.), a member of the House Ways and Means Committee. ''Green buildings aren't green if it takes an hour to get to them and makes traffic congestion worse. We can improve quality of life and reduce money spent on gas and electricity by using the tax code to offer incentives for buildings that are accessible and reduce sprawl. Nobody understands this better than architects, and I commend them for this relevant and timely study.''

The report proposes four recommendations that will enable the federal government to recalibrate the Internal Revenue Code and create models for livable communities that can define the next generation of American growth and development.   

 

Resource(s): http://www.aia.org/aiaucmp/groups/aia/documents/pdf/aiab083048.pdf

 

Lessons Children Teach Adults About Living Happily

by John Sherry 

Oh to be young again. 

Be carefree, pressure free and free to enjoy life to its fullest. With gusto and enthusiasm. Fresh faced and full of spirit.

To re-live and re-discover our fun formative years. To put a smile on our face and a spring in our step once more. To live happily.

The good news is we most certainly can. And the way to achieve this is to take lessons from the very people still doing this every single day.

Children! Our younger ‘us’.

Children have a different take on life. Not encumbered by conditioning or less damaged by events that bother us adults, they dive into life and make the most of it. They swim in all life has to offer and teach us what we are missing and have left behind from our own childhood.

So what are these lessons?

Lesson 1: Play

Youngsters are permanently engaged in play. Whether on their own or most likely with other children play is air to them. From make believe to making up games they play at life, with life and in life. It’s one big playground. Play is their non-serious, fun exploration of their world around them. Their minds conjour up thousands of possibilities which they then exuberantly bring to life as they move joyously from a real physical world to a real created one. What’s wrong with painting frog faces in the garden or riding blue mushrooms over polka dot skies to the wizard king’s chocolate castle?

Adults:

Play more! Not sport or competition but play. Let your serious what-will-others-say side drop. Getting playing. Kick leaves in the park. Pretend more. Do silly games. Put energy into fun activities. Play, play, play.

Lesson 2: Laughter

It’s a fact that children laugh up to 300 times a day compared to only 15 laughs for adults. If something makes them giggle they let it out. They also have a relaxed manner with life so that more appears funny or amuses them. Worry to them is rarely part of their internal make up so more sparks humour and cheers them up. With an attitude of positivity they can’t help but look for and find amusement in all they do, see and discover.

Adults:

Are you a laugh-a-lot? If not get giggling. Adults tend to study something and chew it over more before dropping their guard so that hilarity can get in. Our older minds are more developed to ponder and check as a self protection radar. Turn it off. Release worry. Look at things for what they are. See the funny side of life more. Or the absurd. And the plain stupid and laugh at it…and don’t stop. It’s good for you.

Lesson 3: Honesty

Children are consumately honest. If they feel it or see it, they say it. Not in a hurtful way, just in a simple disarming manner. If it matters on the inside it comes out in innocent fashion. Never to hurt or get their own back, always to state what’s going on for them. Be it upset or happy, questioning something you have said they don’t understand or merely to let out an emotion like their love for you. Even if it’s in the middle of the supermarket or during a church service. Always with gentle charm and pure accuracy in their observations.

Adults:

Let’s be more innocently honest. When adults think honest it’s to let fly and tell someone what we really think of them. An anger driven tirade or a release of pent up frustration. What’s required is more genial truth. Basic stuff like, “I love your neck” or “I don’t like custard with apple pie”. Nothing heavy or hurtful. Childlike joy in the words, “You look beautiful Mummy” will do it everytime.

Lesson 4: Love

This is easy for kids. Love is pretty much their over-riding emotion. They show it, share it, give it, talk it and exude it. It seeps out of them. They wear it on their face. Offer it in their hugs. Speak it in their words. Live it in their spirit. Love in all forms especially for their parents, animals, people they know, places they like, activities they enjoy, food that’s a favourite and friends they make. They are the centre and the source of love in action.

Adults:

Love is often an adult challenge. Things get in the way of it. Relationship failures. Society influences. Ingrained behaviours etc etc. Showing love attracts love; plain and simple. Start with safe stuff like the things you love to do or people you love being with and show that love. Then take it from there and  let that love flow .

Lesson 5: Adore life as it is

Children firmly live in the moment. They are 100% involved in what they are doing. Immersed in the now and no other time. Watch them play or enjoying a game and you’ll see. Life is brilliant right here, right now. Why consider any other when it’s so great today? They rarely scan for future events (unless it’s tomorrow’s birthday party) or say, “Do you remember when..?” Life is magical and if NOW isn’t they go find a way to make it that way, straight away. No can’t-do-that thinking. There’s no waiting, this is as good as it gets.

Adults:

You may be thinking that it’s not that easy for us grown ups. Why? If you don’t adore your job, social life or where you live, then change it! If not for real, in your approach to it. Find ways to love and adore life as it is. Or work towards it being that way. Like a child don’t be swayed by doubts or excuses (you will call them reasons). Find the adoring in your world and focus on constantly.

Lesson 6: Express themselves

Whatever is going on with a child comes out. Nothing is held back. They have a natural ability to express their happiness or pain, confusion or excitement. Chiefly because they find ways to express them. No subtle clues or hidden messages. They express the feeling in words backed up by gestures, body langauge and energy plus the odd cheeky grin or hang dog look. If they feel it they have an expression for it. That way you in return always know what you are dealing with. It’s honesty in emotion.

Adults:

Boy are we good at not sincerely expressing ourselves. Hiding our true feelings. Blanking that person we fancy like mad. Or taking out our anger at our boss on drivers on the road or the shop assistant. Children deal with it and let it go. We fear the response and keep it in. There’s a lesson right there. We need to learn to express ourselves as it’s never as bad as when we don’t.

Lesson 7: Imagination

Imagination is a permanent state with children. Day dreaming is their reality. Creating made up worlds is par for the course. They also imagine themselves in these worlds having a ball or the time of their life. Or fantasising…..

• What they are going to do later that day
• Colours, shapes and sounds  that feed their senses
• By re-creating known places or people
• What is possible or could be created
• Who they are be it princess or pirate

Adults:

Imagination has become more of a child talent fast appearing in the adult world. Cosmic ordering and the process of intention has struck a chord with the masses that your creative mind can actively imagine into life anything from events to abundance all  backed up by science.  Keep that up people. Feed your imagination. Expand what’s possible. Live in your dreams

We are supposed to teach children but, in reality, we can learn from them. They have the outlook and attitude to life we have lost and let go of. Many adults would love to be young again. Well here is a perfect place to start.

The lessons in life from our happy ever after children.

• http://realsimplepeople.com/2010/06/02/the-7-lessons-children-teach-adults-about-living-happily

Steps Toward Community Sustainability

Steps Communities Can Take Today to Move Toward a More Sustainable Future

In its "Model for Sustainable Urban Design", [PDF/3MB] the NECSC joins the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the International City/County Management Association and many other organizations in promoting resource-smart community development among all U.S. communities. The 21 recommended steps below consolidate best practices promoted by these organizations and practiced by the nation’s most sustainable communities:


Design, Planning and Management

• Engage regional stakeholders in envisioning a sustainable future
• Incorporate sustainable design principles into comprehensive and general plans
• Establish short-, mid- and long-term sustainability goals, objectives and evaluation criteria for development decision-making
• Make development decisions predictable, fair and cost-effective
• Create economic incentives to encourage sustainable development

Energy

• Develop a sustainable energy strategy with corresponding plans, policies and programs for implementation
• Deploy sustainable energy technologies such as cogeneration, distributed generation and renewables, and practice efficient energy management
• Develop local sources of recoverable energy including municipal landfills, wastewater treatment and solid waste processing facilities
• Adopt energy-efficient building standards

Land Use and Transportation

• Promote mixed-use developments at densities that support regional transit
• Create walkable neighborhoods with a strong sense of place
• Encourage use of alternative fuels, fleets and transit infrastructure
• Strengthen and direct development toward existing communities
• Preserve open space, farmland, natural beauty, habitat and critical environmental areas
• Integrate open space throughout the urban landscape

Housing and Environmental Systems

• Encourage compact building design
• Create a range of housing opportunities and choices
• Provide incentives for higher-density housing along transit corridors
• Reward sustainable best management practices by the building design and construction industries
• Reclaim and reuse, where possible, all urban “waste” waters
• Encourage use of products designed to be recycled for multiple uses

http://www.necsc.us/toward.php