Archive for March, 2008
Network - UNEP launches the Climate Neutral Network
Posted in Models, Movements, Visions by fedwards on March 5th, 2008
According to the UNEP website, The Climate Neutral Network (CN Net) has been established to assist those interested in achieving big cuts in greenhouse gas emissions to achieve their goals. They do this by:
* Firstly, by making public the inspiring plans and strategies that pioneering partners have drawn up in order to achieve climate neutrality and encouraging them to publicize their achievements—and challenges—via regular up-dates of the web pages.
* Secondly, by acting as a forum through which those who aspire to climate neutrality may network and learn more to plan their own emissions reductions.
* Thirdly, by acting as an honest broker, bringing developed and developing country participants together to green the development path and support the Millennium Development Goals.
The Climate Neutral Network could have been called the Carbon Neutral Network. However the long-term aim is to address all greenhouse gases, including all six under the Kyoto Protocol, and others covered by treaties such as the Montreal Protocol on substances that deplete the ozone layer.
To find out more about this recently established website visit http://www.climateneutral.unep.org/.
Tags: Carbon-neutral, climate change, energy, networks, Resource, Transport, Urban Design and Built Form, waste, Water
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Resource - New book “Edible Estates: Attack on the Front Lawn” by Fritz Haeg
Posted in Models, Movements, Visions by fedwards on March 5th, 2008
Metropolis Books has recently released “Edible Estates: Attack on the Front Lawn“, a project by Fritz Haeg. See the review below about this great topic.
“The Edible Estates project proposes the replacement of the domestic front lawn with a highly productive edible landscape. It was initiated by architect and artist Fritz Haeg on Independence Day, 2005, with the planting of the first regional prototype garden in the geographic center of the United States, Salina, Kansas. Since then three more prototype gardens have been created, in Lakewood, California; Maplewood, New Jersey and London, England. Edible Estates regional prototype gardens will ultimately be established in nine cities across the United States.”
Click here for excerpts of Edible Estates: Attack on the Front Lawn.
For more information visit Metropolis at http://www.metropolismag.com/cda/story.php?artid=3176.
Tags: Food, Health, Provocations, Resource, Urban Design and Built Form, waste, Water
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Comment - More on Car Free Cities
Posted in Visions by fedwards on March 4th, 2008
The section below is republished with permission from the Going Solar Transport Newsletter #47, 4 March 2008, compiled by Stephen Ingrouille. Going Solar, www.goingsolar.com.au/transport. This newsletter provides an excellent commentary on local sustainable transport issues in Melbourne.
Car Free Cities
“The industrialised nations made a terrible mistake when they turned to the automobile as an instrument of improved urban mobility. The car brought with it major unanticipated consequences for urban life and has become a serious cause of environmental, social, and aesthetic problems in cities.
The urban automobile:
· Kills street life
· Damages the social fabric of communities
· Isolates people
· Fosters suburban sprawl
· Endangers other street users
· Blots the city’s beauty
· Disturbs people with its noise
· Causes air pollution
· Slaughters thousands every year
· Exacerbates global warming
· Wastes energy and natural resources
· Impoverishes nations
The challenge is to remove cars and trucks from cities while at the same time improving mobility and reducing its total costs.”
Ref: J H Crawford http://carfree.com / (‘Carfree Cities proposes a delightful solution to the vexing problem of urban automobiles.’)
“Cars kill city life. They make the places they invade unpleasant, noisy, dangerous and smelly. But, of course, they deliver mobility. Making the city car free does not mean making car access impossible. But it does mean keeping cars out of central areas and making the public transport network more effective. Cities are taking the carfree challenge not just to save the environment, but to compete with other cities in creating places where people will want to work, live and spend. In this century, economic success comes with environmental quality. Venice, one of the world’s most admired cities, is of course car free.
In England, even the city of Birmingham, in the heart of the car industry, has turned its central area over to people on foot. London is taming the car with a congestion charge. Montpelier in the south of France has made its central retail and entertainment district a place for walking. These are examples of a movement that has swept Europe in the past 30 years and is catching on in the US. The first Australian city to go car free will gain a huge competitive advantage. Melbourne should not be looking for a single iconic building to win fame. Its whole central grid of streets and lanes is its icon.”
Ref: Nicholas Low, The Age, 9/9/07
Tags: Transport, Urban Design and Built Form
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