“What we have done is totally wrong. We think we can use concrete to channelize a river. We think we can use dykes to protect the city from being flooded.” According to Professor Kongjian Yu, a Chinese ecological urbanist, draining all the water away from cities is a bad idea and not effective in containing […]
Here’s a follow on story to Vertical Farming. It’s also about urban farming and “inspiring communities to build sustainable food systems that are equitable and ecologically sound, creating a just world, one food-secure community at a time.” Check out Growing Power. Founded in 1993 by retired basketball player, Will Allen, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Growing Power […]
Here’s a mechanism to ensure around 7 billion people have enough to eat: vertical farming! The idea comes from Dr. Dickson Despommier, a retired professor of microbiology and public health in environmental health sciences at Columbia University. What is vertical farming? It’s indoor farming, like the concept of greenhouses, but on a much larger scale. […]
By Danielle Carpenter (June 2012) – Rio+20 sounds like the name of a band, or perhaps a kind of sunscreen that works best in the southern hemisphere. In fact, Rio+20 is the short name for the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development. It will take place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 20-22 June 2012. Coming […]
John ‘Jody’ Kretzmann and John McKnight are the directors of Assets Based Community Development Institute (ABCD Institute) at Northwestern University in the US. ABCD mobilizes struggling communities using resources already at hand and shows them how to work toward positive change. “Challenging the traditional approach to solving urban problems, which focuses service providers and funding agencies on the […]
