Some Strong Seeds in Degrading Soils View from Fort Leme, Rio de Janeiro (June 14 through June 17, the "World Congress of ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability" and June 18 through 23 the "United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development" organized by the United Nations Department of...
by Richard Register Tong Yen Ho, Chief Executive Office of the Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-city Project, asked me about the origin of the word "ecocity." I sent him a short version of the story just yesterday. Then Today Kirstin Miller asked me for an article for our...
Thought Piece by Richard Register, President, Ecocity Builders Ecology and evolution are the same thing! I don't mean this figuratively but literally. Recently I was noticing that though evolution happens so slowly that we can't often see the changes or have to have exhaustive, expensive studies...
By Ernest Callenbach. Originally published by TomDispatch.com [This document was found on the computer of Ecotopia author Ernest Callenbach (1929-2012) after his death.] To all brothers and sisters who hold the dream in their hearts of a future world in which humans and all other beings live...
The graphs tell the story. Start by looking at the dramatic rise in US obesity over a 14-year period: The problem is especially acute in America, where the combined share of overweight and obese residents is now well over 60 percent, ranking first among 22 nations...
[caption id="attachment_2913" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Jody Butterfield and Allan Savory"][/caption] Surprises Check out the surprises in store for me when I read some about his work, and that of his wife Jody Butterfield. Surprise number one: Savory was the first person and only person in my reading who I...
In the last few weeks, by coincidence, I had read Lynn Margulis’ 2007 novel, Luminous Fish – tales of science and love. When I heard the book existed I said to myself I had to get it quick. I’ve been an enormous admirer of this...
Second, the ecocity movement has been refining the notion of what an ecocity actually is and how it could contribute essential insights, principles and guidelines to urge, shape and assess city policies and actual physical form and function in a transformation toward a sustainable future. The...
by Richard Register I attended a most unusual conference two months ago but shrinking cities was in the news and needed some commentary. So I postponed writing and posting this report until now...
So, too, Jacobs argued, a city is a diverse mix of people and processes, with its own self-organizing dynamic. We can exploit this dynamic by design, but this is a different idea of design, perhaps. Top-down interventions can certainly be part of this process (Jacobs...