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.

As reads from their website, “TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It started out in 1984 as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds. Since then its scope has become ever broader. The annual conference now brings together the world’s most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives (in 18 minutes). This site makes the best talks and performances from TED available to the public, for free. More than 200 talks from our archive are now available, with more added each week.”

TED is a fantastic, inspirational resource which offers a range of talks that would engage the Sustainable Cities Net audience. For example, related themes include A Greener Future?, Design Like You Give a Damn, Inspired by Nature, Technology, History and Destiny, The Power of Cities, The Rise of Collaboration, and more…. Check it out and enjoy!

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.

Cities for Mobility is a worldwide network of local actors engaged in promoting sustainable urban mobility: It comprises almost 500 local autorities, public transport companies and partners from private business, science, education and civil society from over 60 countries from all world regions. The network has been created by the German Municipality of Stuttgart (Mayor Dr. Wolfgang Schuster) in 1999.

If you are interested in joining the network free of charge, please visit the “Documents” section of www.cities-for-mobility.net (”membership forms”) or write to cfm@stuttgart.de.

You are kindly invited to join existing project initiatives and to bring in new ones.

Currently the network members put special emphasis on the crucial issue of rising energy prices in the ending oil age. How will local authorities be able/enabled to guarantee in the future sufficient mobility services to their citizens at affordable prices? The rational use of energy, energy-efficient vehicles as e.g. bicycles or electric mobility (above all Light Electric Vehicles - LEV; http://www.pedelec.com/main.php?language=en) and the use of renewable energy sources in transport are among the most urgently needed and most promising solutions that are already available at present.

C4M members are invited to gather in Stuttgart at the yearly World Congress at the beginning of June (next event: 15-16 June 2009) or at Regional Congresses in other parts of the world.

Please find some information and a link about the new website, WorldChanging Seattle below. This fantastic site which originated from the very popular WorldChanging site, is based in place at Seattle which reminds me of many other sustainable-city related sites, namely SustainableMelbourne.com and SustainableRotterdam.com. Read on to learn more!

http://www.worldchanging.com/seattle/

Who is Worldchanging?
Worldchanging is a solutions-based online magazine that works from a simple premise: that the tools, models and ideas for building a better future lie all around us. That plenty of people are working on tools for change, but the fields in which they work remain unconnected. That the motive, means and opportunity for profound positive change are already present. That another world is not just possible, it’s here. We only need to put the pieces together. Informed by that premise, we do our best to bring you the most important and innovative new tools, models and ideas for building a bright green future.

Why Seattle?
Worldchanging is part of a global conversation, but we’re also based in a place. Our headquarters are in Seattle, Washington, and we decided that our hometown was the best possible starting point for trying to bridge the global and local conversations. For many reasons, Seattle is an ideal basecamp for our conversation about how to create a sustainable city. We believe that its wealth of natural resources give Seattle policymakers a unique challenge when it comes to smart management. Seattle’s exploding population (if current rates continue, Washington state may double its population in less than 50 years) presents new challenges: Can we engineer a compact, efficient, appealing urban environment that will attract people into the city and help curb destructive sprawl? Can we create an infrastructure for moving people and goods that puts the needs of pedestrians and public transportation above those of personal vehicles? Can we take Seattle into the future?

Please find an abstract below from a post listed on the blogsite: “A Town Square: Conversations about where we live“. I thought it would be interesting to SustainableCitiesNet.com readers.

URL: http://heckeranddecker.wordpress.com/2008/06/13/the-next-city-2/
The Next City?
June 13, 2008 by aandh

This past weekend the New York Times Magazine was devoted to architecture and urban design, and the issue was entitled “The Next City.” I was crestfallen to see that the title of our project here had been scooped up. I was certain that we had been rendered obsolete - surely the NYT would get great journalists to talk about all of the issues facing the next city, and they would do so in a provocative and insightful way. They would spend time, and column inches, talking about making cities, even new and exploding cities in the developing world, sustainable and green and fit for their burgeoning populations. I was really bummed.

Until I read the magazine. At first I was puzzled, and then, as I began to reflect on what I had read, I started to get angry. Really angry.

Read More >

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

Please find below some information about the “Australia 2020 Summit: Final Report” which was recently posted on Australian Policy Online . There is also a link to the full article below.

Australia 2020 Summit: Final Report, Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, Posted: 02-06-2008

“This report is intended to provide a record of the Australia 2020 Summit and recommendations on each of the discussion areas for consideration by the Australian government. It is based on ideas put forward by participants during the summit discussion sessions, outcomes from preliminary summit events and ideas generated from public submissions received prior to the summit.

The report includes an introductory section and ten chapters which can be viewed and/or downloaded separately.
> Read full text”