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  • From: Keith Johnson <keithdj@mindspring.com>
  • To: "ecocity@igc.org" <ecocity@igc.org>, Permaculture ibiblio <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] Solving the big environmental problems
  • Date: Sun, 21 Aug 2005 12:58:01 -0400

Richard,
Folks on the Permaculture listservs may be interested to hear from you. I'll pass this along.
Thanks,
Keith

--
Keith Johnson
Permaculture Activist Magazine
PO Box 1209
Black Mountain, NC 28711
(828)669-6336

also Patterns for Abundance Design & Consulting
Culture's Edge at Earthaven Ecovillage
http://www.permacultureactivist.net
http://www.earthaven.org
http://www.bioregionalcongress.org



ecocity@igc.org wrote:

Dear writer friends and members of the press, a few of whom I don't know
well,

I will be from time to time sending a press release and commenting on the
point where environmental problems and solutions intersect with urban
problems and solutions. If you'd like not to receive these, just let me
know and off you go!

Why, though, have environmental victories that seemed so great left us with
a far worse situation than the planet has seen in 65 million years? I'm
reaching out trying to say it has something with building our cities, towns
and even villages on the basis of cars and the far-scattered built
community. I'm feeling the press of time running out. Maybe you can help.

Good luck to us all!

Richard Register


P R E S S R E L E A S E
Contact Richard Register
President, Ecocity Builders, Inc.
1 510 444-4508
ecocity@igc.org

Cities for People, not Cars:
Campaign Launched to Redirect the Environmental Movement.

Why has the environmental movement seen so many victories since the first
Earth Day yet the really big problems ­ global warming, species extinctions
and rapidly approaching 'peak oil' are far worse now than ever before?

Because, says educational non-profit Ecocity Builders, society has yet to
seriously confront the largest things human beings create:the city. The
city is not being examined in its most basic design and functioning and no
strategy to transform it in any meaningful sense has been suggested by the
environmental movement.

The following letter was sent today to the twelve large environmental
organizations listed below who are campaigning to improve the policies of
Exxon.

The invitation to participate has been issued and now we will see if the
challenge is accepted by these organizations. The ideas and strategies
exist for replacing the city based on the parameters of cars and very cheap
energy ­ which is about to end forever­ with cities built around the
measure of the human being and the health of nature. The hour is late, but
the necessity for turning around our disastrous trajectory as a civilization
is absolute.

The following letter has been sent to the organizational members of the
Exxpose Exxon campaign:
Alaska Coalition Alaska Oceans Program
Alaska Wilderness League Defenders of Wildlife
Friends of the Earth US Greenpeace
MoveOn.org National Environmental Trust
National Resources Defense Council Sierra Club
Union of Concerned Scientists US Public Interest Research Group
The letter follows.


Dear Exxpose Exxon Campaign Leaders,

Regarding your Exxpose Exxon campaign, I have a strategy suggestion.
Let the current campaign play out as it is going, then consider something
very different.
On one hand you will find a criticism here, but may also notice that a
change in strategy could make more difference than practically any other
approach to solving the Earth¹s environmental problems at this crucial time.
The essence of it all is that we need to change the whole
car/sprawl/paving/oil system to a pedestrian/compact & diverse
city/rails/renewables system. To make a small difference in oil company
policy or promote a 'better' car prolongs and expands the larger system of
which the smaller change is a part. 'Ecological' or 'whole systems'
thinking is at the root of the strategy I¹m suggesting here.
Denis Hayes, organizer of Earth Day in 1970 and head of the Solar Energy
Research Institute before Ronald Reagan eviscerated that government agency,
gave the keynote address at an Earth Day 1990 conference I organized called
the First International Ecocity Conference.
In that address Denis asked how it was that with so many victories under the
belt of the environmental movement, why, regarding the really big problems
were we in far worse condition than before?
At another Earth Day talk he gave in 2000 he echoed the same theme again,
and now five years later yet, 35 years from Earth Day #1, global warming is
approaching catastrophic proportions for many parts of the world, species
diversity is collapsing ever more rapidly and the threats of 'peak oil' are
moving toward us quickly.

WE HAVE TO ADMIT, DESPITE MANY SUCCESSES IN OUR OWN VIEW, IN THE LARGER
PICTURE WE ARE LOSING THE BATTLE FOR THE EARTH EVER MORE QUICKLY.
WHAT'S MISSING?

What I hope to encourage you to see is that what is missing is a clear
understanding that cities are the largest creations of humanity and that if
we do not address this largest of our works we will not solve the largest of
all environmental problems. Simple in concept, yet hard for people to
grasp. My best guess is that progress on that subject is difficult because
people need to face some big questions personally in order to deal with that
particular solution, from changing the neighborhood to thinking through our
relationship with the automobile on a deep level.
For example, looking at the whole system, we can notice that the
'better' car with high gas mileage encourages sprawl ­ and feeling good
about continuing driving. In fact we should be building cities for people,
not cars. It's a very big order, but not one that is by any means
impossible.
My organization has been working for years, largely ignored by
mainstream environmental groups and foundations while maintaining with a
small membership, drawing together many tools that can actually reshape
cities. These include something called 'ecocity mapping', another called
transfer of development rights (TDR), another called ecological
demonstrations projects or 'urban fractals' and more.
The ecologically informed city for radically reduced energy use, much
smaller physical footprint and much smaller ecological footprint can be
built and you can help it happen. The Exxpose Exxon campaign is doing all
right to expose Exxon for its destructive activities, but we need to avoid
the notion that oil companies can be OK and cars can be a real contribution
to a green future. They can't, even the 'better' ones. We can instead move
directly to building an alternative to the whole car/sprawl system. It is
time to stop giving the impression that Exxon could save us if it just tuned
up its policies, or that the Prius will save us because it's cleaner, drives
farther per dollar and cleans our conscience. Such thinking falls far short
of sufficient to the needs of our present crisis, which is a crisis for the
deep future too.
So please do join us in thinking this one through. You have enormous
power to mobilize people and it is important that we have no "blowback" for
helping perpetuate the car/sprawl/paving/cheap energy Empire. You can
literally build a better future. We hope to hear from you soon.

Sincerely,

Richard Register
President, Ecocity Builders
P.O. Box 697
Oakland, CA 94604
ecocity@igc.org
www.ecocitybuilders.org




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  • Re: [permaculture] Solving the big environmental problems, Keith Johnson, 08/21/2005

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