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  • From: Keith Johnson <keithdj@mindspring.com>
  • To: Permaculture ibiblio <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>, openpermaculture <permaculture@openpermaculture.org>, BPG <bloomingtonpermacultureguild@lists.riseup.net>
  • Subject: [permaculture] [Fwd: Ecocity Builders' November/December 2006 Newsletter]
  • Date: Wed, 25 Oct 2006 10:47:47 -0400

Building Cities in Balance with Nature

CALENDAR

Saturday, October 28, ELEVENTH ANNUAL WATERSHED ENVIRONMENTAL POETRY FESTIVAL, 12 to 6PM, Berkeley City College, FREE. Ecocity Builders will be hosting a panel: "Ecological Design and the Poetry of Place--Strawberry Creek Downtown" with Kirstin Miller and Richard Register of Ecocity Builders, poet Lewis MacAdams of Friends of the LA River, and Gus Yates of Citizens for a Strawberry Creek Plaza. For more information and festival schedule, visit www.poetryflash.org.

December 3-7, The 6th International Ecocity Conference, Bangalore, India. Previous conferences were held in Berkeley CA, Australia, Senegal, Brazil and China. This conference will focus on ecocity applications for Bangalore and other cities, towns and villages in India. Side trip to Auroville after the conference. For more information, visit our website: www.ecocitybuilders.org.

March 20 - May 8, 2007, "The Ecological City Structure," taught by Kirstin Miller, Program Director for Ecocity Builders, at U.C. Berkeley Extension in San Francisco. This course emphasizes the organizing principles of ecologically healthy cities. We explore such topics as ecozoning; sustainable development strategies; the restoration of watersheds, urban agriculture, and natural systems; and a cooperative framework for successfully addressing larger organizational systems. In addition to the weekly lectures and discussions, students form working groups to study topics in depth.

Ecocity World Summit?the 7th International Ecocity Conference, date TBA, (late 2007 or early 2008), San Francisco Bay Area, USA.

*Articles in this edition of Ecocity Builders' eNewsletter are all by Richard Register. Longer articles have links.


Chungqing and the Three Gorges Dam

In a chapter long ago, Rusong Wang, a youthful but leading ecologist at the Chinese Academy of Science, was dispatched to the site the government was considering for a big new dam in the Three Gorges region of the Yangtze River. His mission, back then in the early 1980s, was to assess the ecological impacts of a dam at that location. He returned to say such a dam would be very destructive and he advised against the project. There would be massive dislocation of people, many extinguished species and landslides of saturated earth to make many places anywhere near the reservoir uninhabitable. The government sent in their equivalent of the US Army Corps of Engineers. ?We can build such a dam,? they said and it was done.

In the latest chapter, I went to Chungqing just three weeks ago to the ?Ecopolis 2006 Conference,? convened by that same Rusong Wang. It was my second time in the city in three years. I didn?t know how far the dam was from the city. I?d assumed it was way downstream ? about 350 miles downstream it turned out. But until I saw an enormous map at a very special museum I didn?t realize the reservoir?s waters would be lapping almost at the very doors I was standing next to, right there at the confluence of the Yangtze and Jailing rivers. I had just seen a model of Chungqing, the largest model I?ve seen in my life, perhaps quite appropriately since Rusong and many others in China claim Chongqing, at 32 million people, is the largest city in the world. Strangely, I?ve never seen it on any of the lists of the megacities of the world. Odd for those of us outside of China keeping track of such things to have lost track of 32 million Chinese people. The model filled the floor of a room half the size of a basketball court surrounded by ground floor and balcony levels for viewing. Covering most of its hilly rolling landscape was a forest of high rise buildings like several Hong Kongs going on and on across a vast area.

Turning to a smaller but in its way equally impressive map on one of the walls I saw the various levels of the water behind the Three Gorges Dam for this year, the year after next year and the projected completely full stage, each delineated by a different colored string of lights, marking as it were the high tides. To my surprise ? in fact I felt kind of shocked ? on this map the eventual lake backed up all the way into Chongqing. But that is precisely where the map ended: at the suburban edge of the city. Frustrating.

Maybe the authorities didn?t want to emphasize the fact that the lake made it all the way up into Chongqing. According to the map?s row of lights for the 2010 level, red lights at that, it appeared that still water would be just sitting there at the level of the highest flood levels on the Yangtze ? or higher. Of course no one would dare flood such a city, I thought, though the dam is flooding out 1.5 million villagers. Slamming such a problem in the face of 32 million urbanites with cell phones and e-mail connections would be quite another story. It might prove to be an eco-wake up call of some scale. We?ll see in a couple years.

It also occurred to me that at the upper end of such lakes, the flowing water slows down and drops its sediment. Silt builds up turning still, muddy waters into marshes, then meadows. The dredging would be a nightmare, wouldn?t it? I asked Rusong, convener of our conference on behalf of The Ecological Society of China and the Scientific Committee on Problems in the Environment (SCOPE), the very man who explored the project in the early 1980s.

He said yes, that will be a very big problem but in addition ? and people are not talking about it ? is the fact that when the water stops rolling along, when it arrives at the lake and virtually stops, much of the pollution from 300 factories, dozens of quarries and dozens of towns up stream, estimated at one billion tons of effluent per year (says the Water Technology Net web page) will float to the surface right there in the city. Oooooops!

Another interesting technicality emerges with a 350 mile-long lake: it is not level. This too was a surprise. All those little molecules of water and fragments of detritus trying to squeeze past one another, trying to attain ?level? actually don?t pull it off. Such long lakes, it turns out, are higher at the upper end. If the official eventual elevation over sea level of the Three Gorges Reservoir is 175 meters (574 feet) just behind the dam, at the upper end of the lake it could be a dozen or more feet higher. Either it will not fill up to designed capacity to spare the city, reducing its electricity producing capacity, or it will flood portions of the city closest to the lake. Chongqing is hilly. How about Rusong?s predicted landslides? Would they occur there too?

Another problem: It turns out that the dam is already removing sediment so effectively that at the delta of the Yangtze on the East China Sea the nutrient level at the base of the food chain has fallen off precipitously and the fishing industry is suffering sever production losses.

Yet another problem: less silt means an eroding coastline in the delta region. The new ?ecocity? called Dongtan being designed by Arup, the English design and development company (I wouldn?t call it an ecocity because it features cars for the elite and a categorically imposed eight story height limit) is planned for the largest island in that delta. It has been slowly getting larger through silt accretion. Not any more! In the last two years, with the dearth of sediment coming down the Yangtze, those low lands are beginning to be washed away by the sea.

Link to rest of the article... <http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=5fwdmzbab.0.z9ofnzbab.hdosiabab.189&ts=S0212&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ecocitybuilders.org%2Fchina-article.html>


The issue behind this idea is that us people on this here planet, with our capacity to think, should be able to sit down and devise a strategy to reverse global heating, stop the destruction of the biosphere through species extinctions and build a home for our civilization (cities, towns and villages, their support systems and attached technologies) that serve humanity while actually enhancing the health of natural systems rather than being the chief engine of biological and climate destruction. Why not? It could be done, given that we can in fact think, and often compassionately and with real skill in applying effective solutions to almost anything. But will we do it, try it or even clearly conceive of it?

That?s what Lester Brown?s ?Plan B? is all about, and that?s what Al Gore in his 1992 book, ?Earth in the Balance,? had in mind with a ?Global Marshall Plan,? an attempt to establish such a strategy for surviving and thriving and getting on with it in full health and vitality.

But I think we need a new approach and a new name. Maybe it?s time to synthesize that past thinking on the subject in the last decade or two, reshape it some, and activate.

?Plan B? sounds too stiff and needs to shed its baggage of some serious contradictions. It needs to be seen as more accessible, less part of the processes of the remote elite or bureaucrat struggling so tediously for precision that masks political intent. It just doesn?t grab the imagination or stir the soul.

?Global Marshall Plan? is too tied in with past history and specifically with American control of that process. American history and even its role in the recovery of Europe after the Second World War is not universal enough in the full swath of human history and the drama of the approaching collapse of not just civilization but much of nature herself. What will happen if we continue on the path of ?Plan A? ? business as usual, with all it?s oil guzzling, wars and pollution is, essentially, taking down a whole planet.

About the contradictions, the random ?grab any solution that comes down the pike and go for it? which celebrates the ?better cars? won?t work. It carries within it its own seeds of self- destruction. As our old friends of Ecocity Builders will know, we believe that promoting ?better? cars will prolong the disease of sprawl, providing a rationale for more of the same with only small modification. Brown?s Plan B promotes more cars, if ?better,? and thus worse cities. We need to correct this contradiction.

Instead, we need prioritization here. We need to do ?whole systems? thinking. If we do we will come up with something I believe would best be called the ?Biophilia Strategy.?

Link to rest of article... <http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=5fwdmzbab.0.h8ofnzbab.hdosiabab.189&ts=S0212&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ecocitybuilders.org%2Fbiophilia.html>

Ecocity 6
After a heart-wrenching postponement of the Sixth International Ecocity Conference in Bangalore India due to the July 11th bombings of the commuter rail service in Maumbai, the rescheduled event is moving forward, with a launch on December 3. New security policies have been established and the government and our hosts seem satisfied that all will be secure and run smoothly.

I?m very much looking forward to doing some planning for future work in India with our enthusiastic and hard working host, Rajeev Kumar, and looking at establishing a more firmly organized international effort among past organizer/activists of our international ecocity community. Rusong Wang, who I feature in my China report herein, is also planning on being there. Jeff Kenworthy will be there too. He is probably the world?s premier expert on the relation between city form and structure and such crucial factors as energy, pollution, transportation modes and design.

I?m looking forward to meeting Debra Efroymson after much e-mail communication, who represents the Canadian aid program to developing countries called Health Bridge. She will be speaking at Ecocity 6 about pedal powered transport in the world?s future and is bound to cover some of their other programs in India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Vietnam for combating smoking and delivering various other health services. Then there will be several European ecological engineering speakers and many speakers and important policy makers and planners from India. We will wind up with a trip to Auroville to see this historic ecologically tuned town near Pondicherry, India whose pioneers reforested hundreds of degraded acres of land and attracted thousands of dedicated pilgrims of alternative lifestyle over the last 40 years.

For more information, see our web page: www.ecocitybuilders.org. Would love to see you there!


Ecocity World Summit
This summer in correspondence among the past key conveners of the international ecocity conferences, our local ?Relay Committee? received authorization to host the Seventh International Ecocity Conference in the Bay Area, which we are going to be organizing as the Ecocity World Summit. Early planning is now underway. Though we have considerable preliminary work to do before bringing this effort before the public, we are now confident we can move forward with strong resolve. This then is an advance announcement to our own members and friends and a first call to ask if you?d like to help and become involved.

The dates we are looking at are mid November or early December 2007 or Spring 2008. Currently we are debating venues in San Francisco, Oakland and Berkeley.

Our conferences always cover a wide range of themes from architecture to environmental activism, from energy policy to restoration strategies, from social justice issues to rebuilding after disaster ? we want to spotlight New Orleans, for example, a particularly troubled place with immense potential to teach the world how to rebuild for the future should it?s leadership embrace ecocity strategies. As a major theme we will be addressing the connection between urban design and the problems and solutions of global heating, species extinctions and the coming end of cheap energy, especially oil. Few people draw that connection well, if at all. We need to wake them up.

That?s where the really big conservation solutions lie, in reducing demand radically ? and where pieces of the whole strategy for thriving on this planet can become best organized for everything cities do best.

If you are interested in receiving updates for the Ecocity World Summit, please let us know. kirstin@ecocitybuilders.org


Downtown Berkeley at the Future's Crossroads
The University of California has selected and the City of Berkeley has spoken, and if they do not exercise a change of course soon, they will lose one of the best opportunities anywhere for leading the world into a sane and healthy 21st Century.

The remarkable thing is that the University is charged with training the leaders of tomorrow and yet is not assessing tomorrow clearly in its own development planning. Similarly the City claims to be ? and is regarded by many in other parts of the world to be ? a leader in imaginative and progressive policy. In regard to urban design it absolutely is not. But more about that soon.

The development site in discussion comprises land on two blocks between University Avenue, Oxford Street, Center Street and Shattuck Avenue in downtown Berkeley, California. On the southern of the two blocks there is a one story Bank of America Building, a parking lot, a three level parking structure and a University printing press building with a blank face to the street. On the northern of the two blocks in question the University owns about half the property. The site is a truly extraordinary one, with its Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) Station and the University of California Berkeley Campus just one block from the BART Station. On average about 10,000 people walk that route every day, which is an educational opportunity, albeit unconventional, for waking people up to new perspectives. Also, it is a small portion of the city with a rich mix of ?land uses? from housing nearby to offices, jobs, commerce, education, entertainment, good food--many necessary ingredients of social and economic vitality close together. In addition, Strawberry Creek is buried just a few yards south of the site and ready for bringing back to the surface from its underground dungeon as a symbol and actual small part of the natural environment crucial for people to honor at this time in history. The potential is nothing short of stunning for a project that could capture the imagination of the world and leadership for those able to grasp the opportunity.

Why would I say something as extravagant as claiming the opportunity is one of the best in the world? Because the world is facing the largest crisis in 65 million years and if the right thing is built there, that particular development would constitute a major and early part in the solution to that crisis. The most conspicuous symptoms of that crisis are rapid global heating, which most people are conscious of now, and rapid collapse of biodiversity, meaning species are going extinct at a stunning rate. Things are fraying out rather rapidly as demonstrated by the heat wave in western Europe in 2003 that killed 59,000 people and Hurricane Katrina in 2005 that caused $200 billion in damage and displaced 250,000. We need to learn and teach some lessons quickly. Building better cities is the strongest literally physical leverage point humanity has for dealing with that crisis and the site north of Center Street in downtown Berkeley has potential for exhibiting the best of what we might call ?rescue city planning.?

The crisis is a climate and evolution emergency, and the criticism I level at the University is that it is not paying attention to this in its planning, but could. Certainly in choosing the developer for the Hotel/Conference Center and architect for the Museum Complex they have made responsible decisions according to standard operating procedures. Many very positive features for these projects are in discussion including some ?green? elements and architect Toyo Ito?s past work is a real inspiration and bodes well for the Museum Complex. But will anyone in this planning process as it is unfolding press on to address these larger problems?

Link to the rest of the article... <http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=5fwdmzbab.0.i8ofnzbab.hdosiabab.189&ts=S0212&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ecocitybuilders.org%2Fberkeleydowntown.html>


Golden Bug!

Every once in a while something extraordinary happens because an ecologically spectacular project, even if a small one, gets built.

There is a place that used to be a vacant lot, a portion of a parking lot and closed section of 9th Street at the border of Berkeley and Albany. In 1993 Ecocity Builders working with Urban Creeks Council and Carole Schemmerling, who negotiated the permits to build, daylighted a one block reach of Codornices Creek at the south edge of the married student housing facilities for UCB called University Village. Ecocity Builders has worked there for a two hours almost every Sunday since then. Our philosophy: minimum but steady maintenance and maximum biodiversity. It?s an extraordinary environment, with all sorts of native plants, an orchard of 25 fruit trees, and countless insects, birds, fish, crawdads, salamanders, gophers, compost pile with worms and an occasional frog and red-sided garter snake.

Last Sunday, we saw one of the most spectacular visitors ever to arrive there. It was a ladybug-sized beetle in radiant gold, varnished in a kind of candy apple layer of sparkling tiny flecks of light. Truly as stunning an animal as I have ever seen in my life, dead in a collection or alive in the wild, this one of course alive ? in the urban wild. The lesson here: built it and they will come. Don?t and they won?t.

By the way, it was a gorgeous spring this year draped in flowers due to the long, long rains, and a bountiful summer with lots of fruit picking down there. Join us any Sunday (but ones with medium to heavy rains) between 11:00am and 1: 00pm, two blocks north of Gilman Street at 8th Street, where 8th Street crosses the creek.


Buy "Ecocities" from Ecocity Builders

Most of the world's population now lives in cities. And in the short one hundred years of building cities for cars, humankind is destroying the basis for life on Earth as we know it. Now, with peak oil on the near horizon, it is time to build cities for people, not cars. "Ecocities, Rebuilding Cities in Balance with Nature" by Richard Register describes how.

"...a wonderful account of how we can transform cities into places that are not only sustainable, but which are a joy and an inspiration to live in. "Ecocities" needs to be read not only for its intellectual contribution to future city development, but also for how it speaks to the heart about the true meaning of the city." ? Jeffrey Kenworth, Professor in Sustainable Cities, Institute for Sustainability and Technology Policy, Murdoch University

You can order Ecocities directly from Ecocity Builders? website: http://www.ecocitybuilders.org/books

<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=5fwdmzbab.0.udhlmabab.hdosiabab.189&ts=S0212&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ecocitybuilders.org>

Renew/rejoin at http://www.ecocitybuilders.org/join.html If you are not currently a member, please consider becoming one!

You can also mail your donation to Ecocity Builders, P.O. Box 697, Oakland, CA 94604. Contact Kirstin Miller if you have questions: kirstin@ecocitybuilders.org

email: richard@ecocitybuilders.org <mailto:richard@ecocitybuilders.org>
phone: 510 444-4508
web: http://www.ecocitybuilders.org <http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=5fwdmzbab.0.udhlmabab.hdosiabab.189&ts=S0212&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ecocitybuilders.org>
Membership Information <http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=5fwdmzbab.0.8of4uwbab.hdosiabab.189&ts=S0212&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ecocitybuilders.org%2Fjoin.html>
Ecocity Builders eNewsletter, November - December 2006




--
Keith Johnson
Permaculture Activist Magazine
PO Box 5516, Bloomington, IN 47408
(812) 335-0383
http://www.permacultureactivist.net
also Patterns for Abundance Design & Consulting
also Association for Regenerative Culture
also APPLE-Bloomington (Alliance for a Post-Petroleum Local Economy) It's a
small world after oil.
http://www.relocalize.net/groups/applebloomington
also Bloomington Permaculture Guild


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  • [permaculture] [Fwd: Ecocity Builders' November/December 2006 Newsletter], Keith Johnson, 10/25/2006

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