Image: boris van hoytema via flickr CC

Exploring the complexity of sustainable development within a rapidly changing nation…

Though China’s economy is projected to become the world’s largest within the next twenty years, industrial pollution threatens both the health of the country’s citizens and the natural resources on which their economy depends. Capturing the consequences of this reality, Bryan Tilt conducts an in-depth, ethnographic study of Futian Township, a rural community reeling from pollution.

The industrial township is located in the populous southwestern province of Sichuan. Three local factories – a zinc smelter, a coking plant, and a coal-washing plant-produce air and water pollution that far exceeds the standards set by the World Health Organization and China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection. Interviewing state and company officials, factory workers, farmers, and scientists, Tilt shows how residents cope with this pollution and how they view its effects on health and economic growth. Striking at the heart of the community’s environmental values, he explores the intersection between civil society and environmental policy, weighing the tradeoffs between protection and economic growth. Tilt ultimately finds that the residents are quite concerned about pollution, and he investigates the various strategies they use to fight it. His study unravels the complexity of sustainable development within a rapidly changing nation.

“The Struggle for Sustainability in Rural China: Environmental Values and Civil Society”,  by Bryan Tilt

“Paul Hawken Shares His Thoughts with Worldchanging About Optimism, Doomers and What’s Next”, by Kamal Patel

To the sustainability and the social justice crowd, environmentalist, entrepreneur and author, Paul Hawken, requires little introduction. He has written six books, including “Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution,” a book Bill Clinton calls ‘the fifth most important book in the world today.’

Hawken was this year’s Sustainable Industries: Economic Forum keynote speaker. During the event, Hawken asked the 300 plus sustainably-minded business leaders, entrepreneurs and political heads to truly look at the data: dangerous levels of atmospheric CO2, peak oil, peak soil – peak everything. Despite this, he said he remains optimistic. He focused much of his talk on solutions such as innovative solar design and collaborations, like linking green banking with affordable, green housing, food and transportation.

“What kind of economy would it be if we were to maximize the production of natural capital, rather than maximizing the capital of people? When you maximize the productivity of people, you use less people. Well we have more people than there are jobs. Basically we are using less and less of what we have more of, and with natural capital, using more and more of what we have less of. And we are using more of it (natural capital) to make people more productive, to use less people. So this is upside down and backwards, we should be using more and more people to use less and less natural capital.”  Paul Hawken

Read the full article by Kamal Patel on Worldchanging.

The RCE Hamburg and Region is part of a global network of Regional Centres of Expertise on Education for Sustainable Development (RCEs) coordinated by the United Nations University. The aims of the 3rd European Fair on Education for Sustainable Development are threefold:
i. to provide European organisations with an opportunity to display and present their works (i.e. policies research, activities, practical projects) as they relate to education for, with and about the environment with a focus on renewable energy and climate issues;

ii. to foster the exchange of information, ideas and experiences acquired in the execution of projects, from successful initiatives and good practice;

iii. to discuss methodological approaches and projects which aim to integrate the topic of renewable energy and climate change in the curriculum of schools and universities;

iv. to introduce the European RCEs and discuss their activities in the field of renewable energy and climate change, as well as explore possibilities for cooperation. Last but not least, a further aim of the event will be to link and network people and organisations working in the field so that they can use renewable energy as one of the tools towards tackling the challenges of climate change.

Please visit European Fair for further details.

This call for proposals is co-funded by CCAA and IDRC’s Urban Poverty and Environment program. The application and project development process is led by CCAA.

Full details on this call can be found at: www.idrc.ca/ccaa-urbancall. Completed applications, accompanied by full proposals, must be submitted no later than midnight, Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), November 30, 2008 to: ccaa-urbancall @idrc.ca

The Climate Change Adaptation in Africa (CCAA) research and capacity development program is jointly funded by IDRC and the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID).

The Skyscraper Museum presents:

New Verizons
Date:July 22, 2008
Time: 6:30 PM

Location:
NYPL Donnell Library Auditorium,
20 West 53rd St. between 5th & 6th

“New Verizons” looks at the high-value real estate portfolio of buildings erected for 20th-century telephone technology and how developers, architects, and engineers are retrofitting and re-positioning these properties.

Project teams present two case studies:
375 PEARL STREET

• Rick Cook, Partner, Cook + Fox Architects LLP
• Douglas Winshall, Executive Vice President, Taconic Investment Partners

1095 AVENUE OF THE AMERICAS

• Dan Shannon, Partner, Moed de Armas & Shannon Architects
• Douglas Mass, President, Cosentini Associates
• Frank Frankini, Senior Vice President, Equity Office Properties

COST

• FREE Museum & Corporate Members
• $5 Students & Seniors
• $10 Adults

Individual Membership Form

Payment may be made in cash at the door. 1.0 CEUs available. Please contact programs[AT]skyscraper.org or call 212-945-6324 with any questions.

URL: www.skyscraper.org/reny