The
climate crisis won't be solved by changing light bulbs and inflating
your tires more, planting a tree and driving a little less. It's going
to require a truly fundamental shift in how we build our cities and
live in them.
When a tornado flattened Greensburg, Kan., in May 2008, the city vowed to rebuild -- with a twist. All new municipal structures would be built "green," with businesses and homeowners encouraged to follow suit. Likewise, in New Orleans, where Brad Pitt's Make It Right foundation is constructing new, affordable green homes for Ninth Ward residents displaced by Hurricane Katrina.
For most of the past generation, the aims of environmental
sustainability and social justice were seen as equally worthy, yet
painfully and unavoidably in conflict. Tree huggers and spotted owls
were pitted against loggers and hard hats. Fighting global warming was
held to inevitably worsen global poverty and vice versa.
History granted to the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt a clear and unambiguous sense of national purpose - first to recover from the Great Depression, then to win World War II. Some of us of us remember our mothers and grandmothers hearing the same simple explanation for the actions of train conductors, gas station attendants, dry cleaners, grocers and many others, "Lady, there is a war on."
In the 1975 cult environmental novel "Ecotopia," Washington, Oregon and Northern California secede from the United States in the midst of a global financial crisis. Author Ernest Callenbach creates a sustainable society where recycling is required, food wastes are turned into organic fertilizer, and most energy comes from solar, sea, wind and geothermal power.
POZNAN, Poland - Energy use in buildings
accounts for one-third of global greenhouse gas emissions, but the
potential of the construction sector to combat climate change has not
been tapped, according to a new report issued by the United Nations
Environment Programme.
The report was released Saturday to governments meeting in
Poznan for the latest round of UN climate change talks. The
negotiations are aimed at reaching agreement on a successor pact to the
Kyoto Protocol, whose first commitment period ends in 2012.
SAN FRANCISCO - Like a lot of Bay Area homeowners, Alissa
Hauser and husband Steve Brown have already done the small things to
save on utility bills and pursue a green life: lower the thermostat,
install energy-efficient lightbulbs, use old T-shirts for rags instead
of paper towels.
