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Please find an abstract below and some attached information from the recent “Making Cities Livable” conference, Santa Fe. The documents cover issues about children and nature in urban centres by Professor Louise Chawla and Selena R. Paulsen. If you would like more information contact Louise at louise.chawla @colorado.edu.

Abstract: Paper for International Making Cities Livable Conference, Santa Fe, New Mexico, June 1-5, 2008
Restoring Children’s Access to Nature in Urban Environments
Louise Chawla and Selena R. Paulsen
Children, Nature and Cities
In his book Last Child in the Woods, the journalist Richard Louv (2005) described a radical change in the pattern of children’s lives that has occurred in the space of one generation. Baby boomer parents and grandparents typically remember having free run of their neighborhoods by the time they reached middle childhood, but too often, their children and grandchildren live under conditions that Louv calls virtual house arrest: confined to their homes by real or imagined dangers beyond the front door, dependent on their parents to drive them to structured activities and play dates, entertained by experiences that come to them second hand on TV sets and computer screens. This loss of physical activity outdoors is associated with a rising rate of childhood obesity: more than 17 percent of 2 to 19-year-olds were overweight or obese in 2003-2004, up from 5 percent in 1971-1974 (Ogden et al., 2006). Being overweight in childhood increases risks of low self-concept, depression, diabetes, hypertension, and high LDL cholesterol, among other negative consequences, and overweight children are more likely to become overweight adults. What especially concerns Louv, however, is children’s loss of freedom to explore the natural world, find special places in it, and feel at home in this larger universe that sustains and transcends us.

benefits_of_nature_fact_sheet_1_april_20071.pdf

studentgainsfromplace-basededunov28.pdf

Please see the “Call for Nominations” notice below from Climate Change Clean Air Initiative for Asian Cities.

We are announcing the 2008 “Call for Nominations” The Better Air Quality (BAQ) - 2008 Young Voices Award on Urban Air Pollution and Climate Change Clean Air Initiative for Asian Cities (CAI-Asia) encourages new thinking and approaches to deal with the problems of urban air pollution and climate change in Asia. http://www.cleanairnet.org/caiasia/1412/channel.html

So far, traditional approaches used in dealing with urban air pollution and climate change have not produced enough results nor are seen to create significant impacts in the future. It is therefore important to consult with the next generation of air quality and climate changes policy makers, experts and managers. The 2008 Young Voices Award on Urban Air Pollution and Climate Change (the Young Voices) will be handed out for the first time at the Better Air Quality (BAQ) 2008 workshop, which will be held from 12-14 November 2008 in Bangkok, Thailand (Further details can be found here: BAQ Awards, “Young Voices Award”: http://baq2008.org).

Eligible for the Young Voices award are full/part - time students currently enrolled at Universities or Colleges in an academic degree (undergraduate or advanced degree) program in a subject that is of relevance to urban air pollution and climate change in Asia. The maximum age at the time of BAQ 2008 (12-14 November, 2008) is 25 years. There is no geographical restriction on participation in this competition and students from all over the world can participate. The award committee will however consider the ideas submitted for their relevance for Asia. If applications are submitted on behalf of a group the application form should clearly indicate who the person is who will present at BAQ 2008 if the awards committee selects the submission as one of the winners.

Deadline:
Please send form and attachments (if applicable) to baq2008 @cai-asia.org and cornie.huizenga @cai-asia.org before 15 August 2008. Only electronic applications will be considered.

Please find message below from Permaculture North, Sydney, Australia of the forthcoming lecture regarding transition towns and relocalisation of community to address peak oil and climate change.

Monday, 21st July 7pm for 7.30pm sharp start
Ku-ring-gai Centre for Seniors, 259 Pacific Highway Lindfield

Peak Oil, Climate Change and the Sydney Transition: Permaculture’s Latest or Greatest Challenge?
After decades of debate, challenge scepticism and uncertainty there is now a growing global consensus on the reality of global warming, though still debate about solutions and weak commitment to action in many nations. Peak Oil – though first predicted in 1956 – is a newer debate and is going through a similar cycle. There are still nations and vested interests in denial and plenty of sceptics. There are plenty of others hoping for a ‘techno-fix’ to the Peak Oil issue. The impacts of Peak Oil, however, are starting to bite right now, much earlier than severe climate change effects. Rising fuel prices, rising food prices, airline cost-cutting and price increases, transport industry struggling and even food-riots are current daily news. We may have much less time to adjust to Peak Oil than to Global Warming. No one can know the exact impacts or timing, but the future scenarios all seem to involve both energy and climate volatility and uncertainty.

Transition Sydney has been formed to stimulate and support local action initiatives aimed at building community resilience and planned adjustment to a world where cheap energy is no longer available and our personal and collective carbon footprint must be reduced to save the planet’s climate and biosystems. Such community-driven ‘relocalisation’ initiatives are likely to prove the most important response to the future challenges, particularly if government responses prove ineffective or even dangerous.

In a multi-media and interactive presentation, Peter Driscoll and Andrew Harvey from Transition Sydney will provide key information on Peak Oil and Climate Change and how these two realities might interact. They will examine possible future scenarios and possible solutions. The vulnerability of the Sydney Region – a metropolitan conglomeration of over 4 million people, 40 local government areas and 8 large city hubs will be discussed. They will then focus on the areas of Sydney serviced by Permaculture North’s activities and activism, the actions that can be undertaken and the central role of Permaculture in building localised community resilience. Finally they will discuss the Transition Towns model of community engagement with local councils to develop local energy descent action pathways for their communities.
After the meeting we will have an open discussion and debate about permaculture strategies to transition. Be prepared for a thought provoking and stimulating meeting this Monday that will get you planning for action.

More information can be found at www.permaculturenorth.org.au Phone 1300 887 145, or email info @permaculturenorth.org.au.

See the snapshot below of the website for the Bicycle Film Festival to be held in New York, 9-12 July. Check out the website at http://bicyclefilmfestival.com/index.php.

URL: http://www.sfvictorygardens.org/about.html

A local network of home gardens = A community of food producers!
Victory Gardens 2008+
(VG2008+) is a program of Garden for the Environment and the City of San Francisco’s Department for the Environment. A two-year pilot project to support the transition of backyard, front yard, window boxes, rooftops and unused land into organic food production areas, Victory Gardens 2008+ derives its title from, and build on, the successful nationwide Victory Garden programs of WWI and WWII. Victory Gardens 2008+, however, redefines “Victory” in the pressing context of urban sustainability. “Victory” is growing food at home for increased local food security and reducing the food miles associated with the average American meal.

Victory Gardens 2008+ was ideated by San Francisco based artist and designer Amy Franceschini in the Fall of 2006, for which she received the 2006 SECA award from the SF MOMA. Amy Franceschini partnered with Garden for the Environment for the planting of three initial Victory Gardens, and to develop and operate a citywide Victory Gardens program in San Francisco.

Please find information about The Chatham House Food Supply Project published in May 2008.

URL: http://www.chathamhouse.org.uk/publications/papers/view/-/id/624/

Chatham House Food Supply Project, May 2008

Download Paper here

Demand for food is increasing because the global population is rising and major developing economies are expanding. Global supply capacity, meanwhile, is struggling to keep up with changing requirements. Four global food supply scenarios have been developed by the Chatham House Food Supply Project to consider the challenges created and their impact on the EU/UK:

• ‘Just a Blip’: what if the present high price of food proves to be a brief spike with a return to cheap food at some point soon?
• ‘Food Inflation’: what if food prices remain high for a decade or more?
• ‘Into a New Era’: what if today’s food system has reached its limits and must change?
• ‘Food in Crisis’: what if a major world food crisis develops?

Across the world the responses to change will be conditioned by uncertainties surrounding the availability of sufficient energy, water, land and skills. EU/UK stakeholders need to start planning now to develop new food supply systems that are up to the task.

More about this project: UK Food Supply in the 21st Century: The New Dynamic.

A reminder of Growing Communities’ Australian School Gardens Network Gathering and the Learning in the Garden Seminar, happening in Brisbane on 13th, 14th & 15 July 2008. With less than 4 weeks to go, make sure your registration is in by the 6th July to secure a place both at the gathering and at the seminar. To download full program and registration form go to http://www.growingcommunities.org.au/litg2008.htm

Since we started promoting the idea of gathering the school gardens community together, we found that there are many people and organisations around Australia working in some capacity in or with school gardens. Many of these people don’t know of or have not heard of one another’s work. We have also found that there is a growing interest in school gardens by NGOs, government and private bodies manifested with, in some cases, increasing support for school gardens initiatives at local, state and federal levels.

As a result Growing Communities see it as crucial that those working in this field should come together to look at these issues. It is of great value to explore ways of working cooperatively and examine the important role that school gardens will have in addressing pressing environmental, health and food security issues affecting Australia today.

We hope to see as many of you coming to Brisbane in July.

Happy gardening.

Growing Communities
192 Boundary Street, West End, Qld 4101
i: www.growingcommunities.org.au

Growing Communities is a community based cooperative enterprise working to promote the establishment, development and on-going support of school gardens, community gardens and city farms in South East Queensland and beyond.

The section below is republished with permission from the Going Solar Transport Newsletter #63, 10 June 2008, compiled by Stephen Ingrouille. Going Solar, www.goingsolar.com.au/transport.

Noise Pollution
“Drivers hooted their way through Mumbai’s first no-honking day, ignoring efforts to cut the ear-splitting cacophony of life in India’s most bustling city. …The city of 18 million suffers from severe noise pollution, with not even designated ‘no honking zones’ - such as for hospitals and educational institutions - spared by impatient drivers. …Doctors say noise pollution stemming from cars, motorcycles, trucks and air traffic takes a toll on health, pushing up stress levels. Last year, the World Health Organisation said long-term exposure to traffic noise could be linked to heart disease.”

Ref: SMH, 8/4/08, URL

Quiet Ultra-Light Rail
“I live in close proximity to the line that runs between Stourbridge Junction and Stourbridge Town [in the UK] and during the week am plagued with the noise made by the rail carriage that generally uses that line. However, Sundays are a totally different situation. Your ‘People Mover’ slips virtually silently up and down the line and almost goes unnoticed. Apart from
the benefits to ourselves and other residents of reduced noise, I would imagine that there is also a significant reduction in the amount of fumes and other gases that pollute the environment.”
Ref: Parry People Mover Website 24/8/06, URL

The section below is republished with permission from the Going Solar Transport Newsletter #63, 10 June 2008, compiled by Stephen Ingrouille. Going Solar, www.goingsolar.com.au/transport.

Fading Cars
“With car buying down by close to 33-percent since 1990, Japan is claimed to be in the grips of kuruma banare, which, for Japanese carmakers, is the polar opposite of hakuna matata. ‘It’s being labelled the ‘demotorisation’ process, and it involves large numbers of people in Japan’s urban centres not buying cars.

“Surveys have revealed a variety of reasons, from the cost of purchase and ownership, to vehicles simply not being status symbols anymore, to cars being passé – as in ‘so 20th century’. The greatest worry [for car makers] is that young folks are simply not into cars, preferring cell phones and gadgets to Cubes and keis. Losing their audience before the love affair has even begun is no doubt causing JDM manufacturers to lose sleep. And the even worse news is that the trend is expected to continue, with another 1.2-percent drop in sales predicted this year. Japanese carmakers are fighting the perception that cars aren’t cool or worth the price by expanding their marketing and sales efforts in an attempt to form emotional bonds in other ways. It is certain, however, that they aren’t the only ones interested in the outcome: Japan’s kuruma banare is expected to befall Europe as well.”
Ref: Jonathon Ramsey, Autoblog, 23/5/08, URL

26/05/08
“General Motors Corp. announced it was closing four truck and sports utility vehicle plants and launching a new series of environmentally friendly vehicles in the face of high fuel prices. The automaker said it was also considering selling its hulking Hummer brand as consumer demand for gasoline guzzling vehicles dried up in its home market. ‘These moves are all in response to the rapid rise in oil prices and the resulting changes in the US, changes that we believe are more structural than cyclical’, said Rick Wagoner, GM chairman and chief executive officer.”
Ref: Mira Oberman, The Australian 4/6/08, URL

And Also …

“The first two oil shocks banished oil from power generation. How fitting if the third finished the job and began to free transport from oil’s century-long monopoly.”
Ref: Economist.com 29/05/08, URL