The Long Emergency

Book • Tags: Initiative, Peak Oil,

URL: http://kunstler.com/

The global oil predicament, climate change, and other shocks to the system, with implications for how we will live in the decades ahead.

Ref: Kunstler, James Howard, 2005, The Long Emergency, Grove Press New York

Crude Oil Peak

Website • Tags: Initiative, Peak Oil,

URL: http://www.crudeoilpeak.com/

Matt Mushalik is a peal oil researcher and advocate who states "Believing or not believing in peak oil? It’s not a religious question. It’s a number crunching job."

How to talk to a Climate skeptic

Website • Tags: Climate Change, Initiative,

URL: http://www.grist.org/article/series/skeptics/

Grist are a nonprofit organization who presents environmental news and commentary. They are funded by foundation grants, user contributions, and advertising.

Transition Towns

Website • Tags: Built form, Initiative,

URL: http://www.transitiontowns.org/

A Transition Initiative is a community working together to providing solutions to Peak Oil and Climate Change.

Curitiba

Curitiba - Brasil • Tags: Built form, Initiative,

URL:

A city acclaimed for its web of solutions to social, environmental and planning initiatives beginning in the early 1970’s. Chapter 14 of the book Natural Capitalism (listed here) gives a great overview of Curitiba.

Ref: (Hawken, P, Lovings, A., Lovins, L.H, 2000, Natural Capitalism: creating the next industrial revolution, : Chapter 14.)

Cities as Sustainable Ecosystems

Book • Tags: Built form, Design, Health, Initiative, Policy, Pollution / Chemicals, Waste,

URL:

Cities as Sustainable Ecosystems shows how cities and their residents can begin to reintegrate into their bioregional environment, and how cities themselves can be planned with nature’s organising principles in mind. By Peter Newman and Isabella Jennings.

Ref: Newman, P & Jennings, I 2008, Cities as Sustainable Ecosystems – Principles and Practices, Washington: Island Press

Cradle to Cradle

Book • Tags: Built form, Design, Health, Initiative, Policy, Pollution / Chemicals, Waste,

URL:

This groundbreaking text is a manifesto calling for the transformation of human industry through ecologically intelligent design. By William McDonough and Michael Braungart.

Ref: McDonough, W & Braungart, M, 2002, Cradle to Cradle, NY: North Point Press.

Urban Growth Boundary

Oregon - USA • Tags: Built form, Policy,

URL: http://www.sprawlcity.org/portland.html

Groundbreaking legislature introduced in 1973 to prevent the continuation of urban sprawl. Applies to the 241 cities in Oregon with the capital, Portland being the most renowned.

Shadow Plans

Australia - Adelaide • Tags: Biodiversity, Built form, Culture / Education, Initiative, Transport, Water,

URL: http://www.urbanecology.org.au/shadowplans/

A concept originally developed by Richard Register, Paul Downton and the University of South Australia traced the past, current and ideal future urban form for Adelaide.

Venice

Italy • Tags: Built form, Culture / Education, Design, Transport,

URL:

Venice is included due to its car-free urban form that attracts around 20,000,000 tourists per year.

Fes/Fez (Medina of Fes el Bali)

Morocco • Tags: Built form, Culture / Education, Design, Transport,

URL:

The UNESCO World Heritage Site of the Medina of Fes el Bali is believed to be the largest contiguous car-free urban area in the world.

BedZED

UK • Tags: Built form, Design,

URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BedZE

Beddington Zero Energy Development (BedZED) is the UK’s first eco-village, where sustainability has been considered in nearly every design feature.

Christie Walk

Australia - Adelaide • Tags: Built form, Design,

URL: http://www.urbanecology.org.au/christiewalk/#basicfacts

Christie Walk is a medium density co-housing development located in downtown Adelaide which combines many ecologically sustainable and community enhancing features.

Architecture for Humanity

Worldwide • Tags: Culture / Education, Initiative,

URL: http://www.architectureforhumanity.org/

Architecture for Humanity is a nonprofit design service who utilise a network of more than 40,000 professionals willing to lend time and expertise to help those who would not otherwise be able to afford their services, such as community groups, aid organizations and foundations.

Jühnde

Germany - Jühnde • Tags: Culture / Education, Initiative,

URL: http://www.german-renewable-energy.com/Renewables/Navigation/Englisch/Biomasse/case-studies,did=132906.html

A bioenergy plant (cogeneration) fuelled from local waste products provides enough energy and hot water for the entire viilage in the German town of Jühnde.

Cuba

Cuba • Tags: Design, Food,

URL: http://www.cityfarmer.org/cuba.html

Organic urban agriculture helped to save the country from starvation after the collapse of the Soviet Bloc in 1989.

Treehugger

Website • Tags: Biodiversity, Culture / Education, Design, Economy, Energy, Food, Governance, Initiative, Pollution / Chemicals, Transport, Waste, Water,

URL: http://www.treehugger.com/

TreeHugger is a modern aesthetic website dedicated to driving sustainability mainstream. It strives to be a one-stop shop for green news, solutions, and product information.

Green Square Town Centre Public Domain

Australia - Sydney • Tags: Design, Water,

URL: http://mcgregorcoxall.com/#/projects/44

An ecological engine treats polluted stormwater in a restored urban creek through plant and natural filter mediums to provide an abundance of recycled water to surrounding land uses.

The Wilderness Society

Website • Tags: Biodiversity, Initiative, Pollution / Chemicals,

URL: http://www.wilderness.org.au/

Advocating protection of wilderness areas for biodiversity and carbon sink values.

Australian Wildlife Conservancy

Website • Tags: Biodiversity, Initiative,

URL: http://www.australianwildlife.org/Home.aspx

AWC acquires land, and works with other landholders, to establish sanctuaries for the conservation of threatened wildlife and ecosystems.

Bioregional

Worldwide • Tags: Culture / Education, Governance, Initiative,

URL: http://www.bioregional.com/

BioRegional is an entrepreneurial charity who help others to achieve sustainability through consultancy, education and informing policy.

Milennium Ecosystem Assessment

Worldwide • Tags: Biodiversity, Governance, Initiative,

URL: http://www.millenniumassessment.org/en/index.aspx

The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment provides extensive scientific appraisal of the condition and trends in the world’s ecosystems and the services they provide, as well as the scientific basis for action to conserve and use them sustainably.

Economic Reform Australia

Website • Tags: Economy, Initiative,

URL: http://era.org.au/

Economic Reform Australia advocates the shift to a socially, environmentally and financially sustainable economic system.

Visual economics

Website • Tags: Economy, Initiative,

URL: http://www.visualeconomics.com/

Presenting relevant economic data in an informative, palatable and visually engaging manner.

Natural Capitalism

Book • Tags: Economy, Initiative,

URL: http://www.natcap.org/

A ground breaking text for a systems based economic approach and a conceptual milestone on the road toward ecological sustainability.

Britain from Above

UK • Tags: Built form, Initiative, Transport,

URL: http://www.bbc.co.uk/britainfromabove/

TV series presenting aerial imagery that depicts Britain’s workings, cities, landscapes and peoples in new and extraordinary ways.

International Energy agency downgrades oil production estimates

• Tags: Peak Oil,

URL:

The day of reckoning on oil as an energy source is approaching and the world does not have a contingency plan. The world’s output of conventional crude oil has peaked and global oil exports are past their prime. The unconventional sources (tar sands, heavy sour crude, ethanol, natural gas liquids, bio-fuels and shale) are struggling to keep up with the ongoing depletion in the world’s largest oil fields. Therefore, it is probable that the world’s current production of total liquids is at or near maximum capacity. Puru Saxena notes that the “IEA in its latest World Energy Outlook 2010 report presents a far more realistic scenario. According to its latest study, the IEA now expects global total liquids production to increase to just 96 million barrels per day by 2035! Bearing in mind the fact that the world currently produces 88 million barrels of total liquids per day, the IEA is now essentially implying that output will only increase by 9% over the next 25 years!”

Puru states that “it is notable that in 2009, the IEA stressed the importance of oil for economic growth and concluded that 106 million barrels per day will be required by 2030; representing an increase of approximately 18 million barrels per day above current output. Interestingly, in last year’s report, the IEA predicted that global production will peak at only 96 million barrels per day in 2035! So, within the course of a single year, the energy watchdog for the developed world lowered its production estimate by 10 million barrels per day!”

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