by Alex Aylett
Sustainable cities have been a hot topic for over a decade. But never has there been a time when the challenges and opportunities of sustainability have been so clearly on display. On the one hand, billions of stimulus dollars around the world are being channeled into the green economy. On the other, we find ourselves at the tail end of a year where report after report have made clear that things are much worse that we realized; when did we start talking about 1.4m sea level rise and a 40% reduction in grain yields by the end of the century? Somehow, old classics like putting energy efficient lights on city hall and installing some LED traffic signals just aren't that exciting anymore.
Toolkit for Change
That makes ICLEI's recently released Sustainability...
by John de Graaf
Just before Thanksgiving, I attended the 5th International Gross National Happiness Conference, held at Iguassu Falls, Brazil. Several hundred people from around the world gathered to discuss the latest in “Happiness Science” research and practical applications through policy and cultural changes currently being adopted in several countries. The first of these conferences was held in Bhutan, a tiny Himalayan kingdom, whose monarch once proclaimed that “Gross National Happiness is more important than Gross National Product.” I attended the second conference, in Nova Scotia, along with representatives from 46 nations.
As many Worldchanging.com readers are probably aware, there has been a boom in happiness studies recently, stirred by...
by Kirstin Butler
After all the hullabaloo over Balloon Boy, it’s reassuring to learn that some Americans look up for reasons other than media pranks. In fact, whole communities of amateur astronomers and citizen scientists look to the skies for discovery, education, and inspiration. Aiding them in those pursuits is Spacehack, an online directory of and for people who want to participate in space exploration.
Since January, Spacehack has provided a portal for educating and engaging those with an interest in the extraterrestrial. And in the context of both next-generation space races and abysmal science performance in our schools, it seems like Spacehack's mission to support space literacy for the future is more important than ever.
At Spacehack's helm is Ariel Waldman, a...
The Sharing Ethic of the Commons, Like Thanksgiving, is Woven into American Traditions
by Jay Walljasper
Last November’s hopes for the United States moving in the direction of a commons-based society are being challenged now in fierce debates over health care reform, increased social spending, tougher Wall Street regulations and other progressive measures that once seemed inevitable.
But commons thinking did get a small boost this fall in an unlikely setting—a hit television series. The acclaimed Ken Burns PBS documentary declared national parks as “America’s Best Idea”—a ringing endorsement of the commons as a deep-seated American ideal seen by millions of viewers. National Parks stand as one of the most beloved symbols of what we share together.
Ken...
Last week, I stood on the stage at Seattle's Town Hall and called on Seattle to become North America's first carbon-neutral city, dropping its per capita climate emissions to nothing by 2030.
Since then, I've gotten a whole slew of great emails and calls from people who are thinking that goal through, and have questions. Mostly, folks have been wildly supportive, generally wanting most to know how they can help build the movement to do that. I'm a writer, not an organizer, and I don't have the plan, but I can explain a little more my thinking, and share some observations about what seems to be needed right now. Hopefully those will help.
The timing and target come from the now-common observation that we need to aspire to return the level of CO2 in the atmosphere to 350 ppm. In...
That which is unsustainable cannot go on. Unsustainable things that are propped up too long snap and collapse suddenly. Our way of life is unsustainable. The sooner we transform our economy into one that can generate sustainable prosperity, the better off we’ll be, and with every passing day, the risks of catastrophe grow larger and more certain. We need change now.
These shouldn’t be radical statements; they’re all demonstrably true. Yet they cleave right down the middle of what is fast becoming the largest generation gap in at least 40 years, a growing split between people under 30 and people over 60.
When confronted with generational conflict, we naturally tend to see the elders as seasoned and realistic, and the youth as passionate and ethical, and to seek a middle...
Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS) is a proposed (and controversial) solution to powerplant pollution that captures carbon from smokestacks and stores those emissions underground.
Although some believe this idea would help provide the amount of power currently demanded while reducing pollution, it has others scratching their heads. Many feel confused about the science, as there are are still technical challenges to overcome, and others feel outraged as they believe CCS could be used as another industry-created excuse not to move forward on important renewable energy discussions and investments.
What do you think? Is CCS an idea worthy of time and implementation? Whatever your opinion, we think it's worth understanding the concept of CCS and hope this week's cartoon will...
Greeting Worldchangers,
Our two night event at Town Hall Seattle starts tomorrow! We are thrilled to invite you to Town Hall’s Center for Civic Life for an evening with Alex Steffen, Seattle City Council President Richard Conlin, Seattle Mayor-Elect Mike McGinn and the Worldchanging Team.
Each night, the doors will open at 6:30 pm. Come early and come hungry as Seattle's street food perfectionists from Skillet will be serving up delicious pre-talk snacks outside Town Hall. After a bite to eat, head inside to visit with other worldchangers and our fantastic sponsors: The American Institute of Architects, The Bullitt Foundation, Climate Solutions, The Community Coalition for Environmental Justice, The Fremont Brewing Company, Greendrinks, Groundwire, PubliCola, People’s...
As world leaders begin to pack their bags for the Climate Summit in Copenhagen next month, feelings of anxiety may accompany the pressure to hammer out an international agreement to cap carbon emissions to keep our planet from entering a period of climate crisis. A group of people involved in the Climate Prosperity Alliance are working to shift the debate to a more positive and productive goal.
Instead of focusing on carbon-reduction strategies and schemes like cap and trade, “clean coal”, or carbon sequestration, the Climate Prosperity Alliance believes the Copenhagen Summit should be the entryway that leads the world into a global green economy.
While some analysts are already predicting a dismal outcome for the conference, citing the inability of major players such as the...
Yak herders in Mongolia may seem like the most unlikely of bank customers. There’s little infrastructure in their largely rural country, making it tough to find a local branch office. But in these sparsely populated steppes, opening a personal savings account is increasingly seen as a first step out of extreme poverty, according to international microfinance leaders.
Altan Govii Shiree Cooperative
The Altan Govii Shiree cooperative is located in one of southern Mongolia's most scenic areas - near the Bayanzag, or Flaming Cliffs. Its tourism business has been supported by Mercy Corps since 2003. The cooperative now has 10 gers that accommodate about 500 tourists each year, raising the fortunes of vulnerable herding families in the area.
Until relatively recently, Mongolia’s...
by Edward Wolf
Bikes, boats, and bodies align to spell “350” at events in 181 countries, sounding a worldwide call for climate stability. Congress takes halting steps toward passing a law to limit U.S. carbon emissions and advance clean energy. Diplomats from 193 countries prepare to hammer out a global climate treaty in Copenhagen. But few expect this year’s activism, politics, or diplomacy to change the game. The 21st century to-do list keeps growing. What will it take to accelerate change?
Three recent books say that it’s all about thinking. In The End of the Long Summer, Dianne Dumanoski tells how our thinking got us in planet-scale hot water; in Whole Earth Discipline, Stewart Brand advocate heresy to get us out; in Thinking in Systems, the late Donella Meadows...
Not only are women's rights essential to a vibrant society, but they are also essential to a healthy, viable environment. This week's cartoon describes why women's rights and environmental sustainability go hand in hand. Studies show that when given equal access to education and rights over their own bodies, women choose to have fewer children. Overpopulation is a serious issue, with huge implications for problems like climate change. By giving women rights we are investing in what Kim Stanley Robinson calls some of the best climate change technology available today.
To get involved with the women's equal rights movement, check out the Global Fund for Women. This organization, led by the innovative Kavita Ramdas, is the largest independent foundation working to advance...
What can any of us do in the face of planetary catastrophe?
Staring into the ecological abyss, it's easy to feel small and unimportant. Edward Abbey wrote truly, "Sentiment without action is the ruin of the soul." But it's often hard to see how any actions we might actually take, as individuals, will have any meaningful effect, whatsoever: leaving aside the pablum about small steps and each doing our part, we all know in our hearts that taking out the recycling will not do much to slow the melting of Greenland.
The best thing, the really hopeful thing, about the Transition Town movement is that it breaks the emotional isolation privatized responsibility inflicts on us, and makes us part of a group working together towards change.
1) What are Transition Towns?
Transition Towns...
by Alex Aylett
Unless we act now, our children will live in a significantly warmer world. To get an idea of what the cost of inaction means for future generations, the climate research team at the United Kingdom's Met Office Hadley Centre released an impressive interactive map of what a warmer world will look like. The dollar-store summary is that a world at +4°C/7°F isn't pretty.
Recently, the map was the centerpiece of U.K. Foreign Secretary David Miliband's press conference to call attention to the pressing need for us to get something significant out of the Copenhagen negotiations.
[Map below too small? Click here to launch full screen version]
The online map provides a simple interface to explore the what and the where of climate change impacts: forest fires,...
The Journal for Participatory Medicine has just launched with a session at the Connected Health Symposium in Boston. According to the press release,"the Journal will be written and peer-reviewed by and for all stakeholders: patients, healthcare providers, caregivers, researchers, payers and policymakers. Physicians who have practiced in the participatory model report greater satisfaction when they work with patients who are actively engaged. Similarly, participatory patients say they feel empowered, heard, and more in control."
Participatory Medicine is a new approach that encourages and expects active patient involvement in all aspects of care. Several years ago, the late Dr. Tom Ferguson pulled together a group of physicians, patients, and other professionals (including myself)...
The Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics is celebrating their 10th anniversary with an 11 day science festival called Quantum2Cosmos: Ideas for the Future. Speakers from around the world will be converging on Waterloo, Canada to talk about string theory, quantum computation, dark matter—and a few bright green themes. Two WorldChanging Canada writers, Karl Schroeder, and Mark Tovey, are among them.
Karl Schroeder was a panellist on the 'Are We Bound for Space' panel on Tuesday at 8PM. Other panellists included Chris Hadfield, Robert Richards, Donna Shirley, and Lawrence Krauss. The session was moderated by Steve Paikin. Karl suggests, among other things, that solving the problems of living in space will teach us a great deal about how to live within one earth, instead...
By Kirstin Butler
Access to clean drinking water is already a major issue for millions. Studies predict that falling water levels will become a primary trigger for climate-related conflict within the next 50 years. (In fact, climate warfare already transcends the theoretical: the phenomenon of water wars has become its own reporting beat.) That's why a new project highlighting solutions to these issues couldn’t be more timely.
Out of Water is a traveling exhibition and forthcoming book about water technologies for arid climates. The project focuses on the quarter of the Earth’s land currently threatened by desertification and extreme water shortages. First displayed at the University of Toronto, Out of Water comes from two faculty members at the school’s architecture and...
What do you do when things are booming but your credit's dried up? Perhaps you begin to invent new ways of doing business.
U.N. Habitat recently released a report showing that the pace of urbanization is increasing, with "200,000 new dwellers flooding into the world cities and towns each day." That's like a new city the size of Seattle, Washington D.C. or Copenhagen springing up every three days. And while it is true that in the Global North, some industrial areas have become home to shrinking cities and others are in line for massive climate troubles, the trends suggest that most cities that are growing today are going to see long sustained booms in population.
But our cities are not only growing quickly, they're getting younger. We live on a young planet, with two billion...
This week's cartoon describes compressed air, a potentially effective way to store excess energy from renewable sources and provide power on demand. Currently, renewable sources of energy, like wind and solar, can produce a lot of power, but only when the sun is shining or the wind is blowing. Using the energy when we have it to pressurize air, we can release the air gradually against a piston or a turbine to provide power on demand. As Jer once told Alex, you can think of compressed air like an "air battery." The idea of using air energy storage to heat or cool has been inspiring inventors for years. Some have even been working to find a way to propel a car using only air. More work still needs to be done, but it's an exciting set of ideas.
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Editor's...
Greetings Worldchangers! Do you live in Seattle (or are you looking for an excuse to visit)? This November presents a rare opportunity to see Alex in person locally at Town Hall Seattle. On Nov. 11 and 12, Alex will share Worldchanging's latest thoughts about the planetary challenges we face and his cutting edge ideas about bright green solutions, sustainability and urban innovation. And after the talks, you'll also get a chance to meet other Worldchangers, make connections and share ideas. Provocative thinking and changemaking people all in one room! Tickets are $5 and are going fast. Details and links for purchasing are below.
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Alex Steffen: Building a Planet with a Future
A two-night talk presented by Town Hall’s Center for Civic Life, 11/11 and 11/12
The future is...
We here at Worldchanging just celebrated our sixth anniversary! In addition to publishing a series of "101" posts, highlighting some of the iconic pieces we've published over the years, and a primer on blogs and other resources we lean heavily upon, we though that it might also be useful to share a timeline of the project so far, noting some representative events, to give the interested reader a sense of where we came from and how we got here; perhaps knowing something of the evolution of this project may even inform some of your own work.
Worldchanging begins in the Fall of 2003. Alex Steffen and Jamais Cascio had begun discussing possible collaborations after working together on scenario projects and a proposed new edition of the Whole Earth Catalog. Alex had just come back...
When Worldchanging was first created it was unique. In a media world dominated by news of pessimistic futures and small steps, Worldchanging was an alternative option for those looking for positive, innovative solutions. Now, the movement has grown and the fight for a bright green future has gained many voices.
While reading our daily news, we often came across media makers whose messages were echoing our own mission. We chose to collaborate with many of these people and organizations to help spread our collective message, and in some cases to gain a greater international understanding about various issues.
Below is a list of our media partners. For years, we shared with many of our partners not only content, but also a common goal of spreading knowledge essential to creating a...
Worldchanging is six years old today!
To celebrate our sixth anniversary, we've created a collection of what you might think of as the Worldchanging canon: pieces that have had enduring popularity and that we think say something important. And it turns out the two overlap pretty well. After compiling a list of our most popular articles we noticed that a high proportion of our most read, forwarded and linked pieces not only represent groundbreaking work, they also highlight many of the core ideas we often discuss on Worldchanging.
Below you'll find the links to our anniversary series, Worldchanging 101. We hope this toolkit makes Worldchanging's big ideas exciting and accessible to all who want to rediscover some excellent writing, whether new to the site, or old friends. We...
Economics is not my strong suit, but I'm trying to wrap my brains around the economic discussion of climate action, and where it's gone wrong, since it increasingly seems to me that there's a strong argument to be made that climate action will accelerate the economy, not drag it down. Here are some of my notes. I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments.
1) Harberger's Triangle is an economics term that refers to the "dead weight loss" created by a societal intervention in a market. In other words, the economic growth that we, in theory, forfeit by not allowing the market to find the perfect optimization of supply and demand.
Putting societal burdens on markets makes them less efficient.
2) A cap-and-trade system, a carbon tax, or any other method of putting a price on...
Paul Hawken Shares His Thoughts with Worldchanging About Optimism, Doomers and What's Next
by Kamal Patel
From the 2009 Sustainable Industries: Economic Forum. Seattle, Washington.
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...
Planetary boundaries are the natural limits on humanity's use of the planet. Strikingly, until recently, no one had made a serious effort to quantify these limits in measurable ways. That's why a new report from the Stockholm Resilience Center, attempting to give hard numbers for most of these boundaries, is so crucial.
The Resilience Center focused in on nine boundaries: climate change, stratospheric ozone, land use change, freshwater use, biological diversity, ocean acidification, nitrogen and phosphorus inputs to the biosphere and oceans, aerosol loading and chemical pollution. These are each critical in their own ways:
Stratospheric ozone layer
The stratospheric ozone layer filters out ultraviolet radiation from the sun.
(Find more on the stratospheric ozone layer in our...
I love Copenhagen. It's beautiful and unbelievably livable and human-scaled. People are friendly, the food is good, it's downright pleasant to walk around. Forget Denmark's climate leadership, its wind-powered economy or the stunning fact that Copenhagen is aiming to increase the percentage of total trips taken by bicycle from its current 37% to 50%: the Danes just know how to live.
I just had an outstanding stay there, including a series of terrific conversations with folks I really admire: Cameron Sinclair and Emily Pilloton, the leaders in mobilizing humanitarian architecture and design; Christien Meindertsma, whose amazing backstory book Pig 05049 won an Index award; designer Suzi Winstanley, (who IS related -- I'd wondered -- to the 17th C. revolutionary Digger Gerrard...
by Kirstin Butler
In simpler times, just checking the tag inside a t-shirt was enough to qualify you as a discerning consumer. Choosing goods “made in the USA” over countries with more lenient labor laws meant that you’d done your due diligence as a shopper. As geopolitics have become more complex, though, so too has the supply and demand of stuff; and now making even the most basic purchases can be fraught with considerably more anxiety.
The good news is that while the times have gotten more complicated, technology has kept pace. Finally the tools to enable meaningful supply-chain transparency have come of age, and more people than ever before can use them.
Until recently, visualizing global goods’ sourcing was the domain of contemporary artists and technoactivists....
Vinay Venkatraman, an interaction designer, is one of a rapidly expanding group of scholars and professionals around the world working to define the way our stuff behaves. Although it's natural for most people to understand the need for interaction with gadgets like software and mobile devices, the field is actually remarkably broad. In an increasingly interactive age, the success of systems, services and even whole corporations and organizations often comes down to an effective interface, created with human behavior in mind.
Venkatraman is a partner at Copenhagen Institute for Interaction Design (CIID), an institution that harbors a one-year Masters degree program in interaction design as well as a research center and consultancy. He helped initiate the Institute with Simona...
This week's cartoon features a special message to US President Barack Obama from the Earth. As we noted in this 2008 post, "COP-15 is almost certainly going to be a watershed moment" for the climate change movement. As we've written before, the best thing President Obama can do to make the UN Climate Conference in December a success is to show up in person.
Click image to enlarge
Editor's note: This post is part of a series featuring Worldchanging ally Andy Lubershane's original graphics. While many of the issues covered in the comics have been discussed on Worldchanging in the past, we hope that you'll be able to use this new medium in a different way … whether it's in your classroom, on your office wall, or to help explain ideas to friends and family.
Andy Lubershane...