permaculture

[Keith Johnson <keithdj@mindspring.com>]

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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