Author Archives: Kirstin
Guidelines for Sustainable Communities
Posted here for download: EcocityGuidelines
The True Cost of Unwalkable Streets, continued
The graphs tell the story. Start by looking at the dramatic rise in US obesity over a 14-year period:
The problem is especially acute in America, where the combined share of overweight and obese residents is now well over 60 percent, ranking first among 22 nations represented in this graph from the OECD:
Now consider the trend in the rate of diabetes:
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One of the nation’s foremost experts in environmental health, Dr. Richard Jackson, has eloquently reminded us of the seriousness of this problem, which he highlights in a documentary series shown on PBS. Now consider the correlation between obesity and diabetes:
An excellent (though unsigned) article in Medscape Education summarizes why this should be a major concern:
Type 2 diabetes is a serious
Powerful Thinking on Agriculture to match Ecocities, continued
Jody Butterfield and Allan Savory
Surprises
Check out the surprises in store for me when I read some about his work, and that of his wife Jody Butterfield.
Surprise number one: Savory was the first person and only person in my reading who I who I have found who says as I have from time to time that we simply have not thought systematically enough to reverse climate change. Savory looks at the problem holistically enough and on a large enough scale to draft the biology of the planet to serve in the battle to reverse – not adapt to or slow down but reverse – global heating. His particular proposal is to draw CO2 back down into the soil from which it READ MORE
Dec. 10: Ecological Cities, AIA East Bay
Ecocity Builders’ Executive Director Kirstin Miller presents on The Ecological City Structure.
November 6: Underdog World Revolution
12 NOON at San Francisco GREENFESTIVAL. Daniel Pinchbeck, Counter-Culture Icon and Richard Register discussed ecocities. Center Stage. Question they explored: “How do we achieve a quantum leap in human consciousness and upgrade to a thrivable planetary culture before everything hits the skids?” More information http://www.greenfestivals.org/
Depaving the World
by Richard Register
Maybe you’re itching to take a wide, full swing to drive the shiny steel of a nice heavy pick deep under the asphalt. You too can leverage up a satisfying big slab of that black, gooey hard stuff. I love destroying asphalt and maybe you’d like to join the party. Here’s a “how to.”
Alas it all begins with land ownership. It all ends with redesigning land uses and rebuilding most of what we’ve built to date, so destructive are today’s cities and towns. It’s useful to divide possible projects into three categories: small, medium and truly satisfying. The last one means BIG-which I haven’t seen yet.
Just to give you a sense of proportion: since 1992 I’ve probably depaved one acre with my various friends. READ MORE
Road to Rio
by Kirstin Miller, Executive Director, Ecocity Builders
Ecocity Builders’ members recently returned from another round of meetings with United Nations Member States and Major Groups in New York City in the lead up to the UN Conference on Sustainable Development, Rio+20, convening this June in Rio de Janeiro. While there, we met with Sweden’s Rio+20 Ambassador and city focused groups to discuss how countries can better support local authorities and citizens working to improve the environmental and social health of human settlements.
Also in recent developments, Richard Register and I visited Tianjin Eco-city in China early in March where we consulted to the Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-city Administrative Committee (STECAC) that is responsible for the building of this the READ MORE
Oct 14, Architecting the Future
Intensive at the Bioneers Conference, San Rafael, CA, hosted by the Buckminster Fuller Institute. Ecocity Builders’ Executive Director Kirstin Miller will present on Ecocity Mapping and the International Ecocity Standards Project – a finalist in the Buckminster Fuller Challenge.
October 10: 350.org work party with Friends of Five Creeks
At our Codornices Creek daylighting project and restoration. Started at 10am Codornices Creek restoration project on the border of Berkeley and Albany
October 2: Watershed Environmental Poetry Festival
Berkeley, CA – Ecocity Builders co-sponsored and Kirstin Miller spoke at the festival and on the Creek Walk. Link to more information.