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Ecocity Builders Membership Invitation
Dear Friends and Members
History now is turning on very large gear wheels. Like a clockwork calendar that never goes back, it reaches times of immense significance and doors are opened or shut forever.
By
near sheer coincidence and an invitation from one of Ecocity Builders'
supporters, I recently had dinner with the man who saved the world.
Crossing paths with Mario Molina, the Mexican atmospheric scientist and
Nobel Laureate, was a stunning experience in inspiration. He actually
did save the world! At least the living portion of it we know and love
so well. It is possible! He, with his research and campaign partner
Sherwood Rowland, identified the problem with CFC refrigerants and
aerosol sprays back in 1973. Then, in shock themselves at the
implications for the ozone layer
in the stratosphere and all life below it, they went on to successful
work refining the science, bringing the tale to the public and
motivating the politicians and diplomats to a successful conclusion in
the Montreal Protocol.
Thus was an apocalyptic plague of ultraviolet radiation-induced cancer
for millions of species on the Earth's surface and deep into is waters
averted.
Certainly we know times are dire with climate change
arriving on the shoulders of looming resources depletion, especially
that of oil and rare metals which people have come to see as an
entitlement of the post industrial information world dream. But as they
say, you can't eat the menu and behind the information there needs to
be the forests, farm lands, fisheries, mines, solar and wind energy technologies and exceedingly thorough recycling if we are to have a secure future to share with what remains spared by human excesses and myopia.
With glaciers melting rapidly, the great "Brown Cloud of Asia" forming from December to April every year, consolidating the smog of Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Thailand, Indonesia, China, Korea and Japan that resists moving by sheer weight, with it spreading eastward, thinning to yellow/gray/white and at times arriving on the North American west coast while contagious Los Angeles asphalt and delusions of independent ego grandeur spread paving from China to Brazil, India to Nigeria...
Where are you now, Mario Molina, and who are you if not all of us willing to try a redesign the way we live and learn?
Time to save the world. Again.
We are now coming right up the 8th International Ecocity Conference in Istanbul Turkey,
closing what has been a solid year for Ecocity Builders, in spite of
the very bad diagnosis for the planet. Our approaches and ideas that
might have seemed "utopian" or "before its time" a few years ago are
increasingly understood as actually practical and about as timely as
possible.
Please, join with us and help us rebuild cities in balance with nature.
If not now, when? If not us, who?
With great appreciation and hope,
Richard Register, President
Ecocity Builders, Inc.
Oakland California
USA
http://www.ecocitybuilders.org
JOIN TODAY!  Ecocity Builders' President Richard Register (right) with Paolo Soleri (left) at Soleri's 90th birthday party, Arcosanti, Arizona.
Photo credit: Susan Felter 2009 |
MEMBERSHIP Help
- Build thriving urban centers based on "access by proximity" and reverse patterns of sprawl and excessive consumption
- Shift policies to prioritize walking, bicycling and transit and to reduce dependence on automobiles
- Restore biodiversityin the heart of our cities, in the form of creeks, gardens, parks, farms and greenways
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It was a great 2009 for Ecocity Builders, thanks to our staff, interns, volunteers, supporters and members like you. Thank you!
S
Here's some of what's next for 2010 and beyond:
Our Center Street Plaza proposal for redesigning the heart of downtown Berkeley goes for City Council review in January 2010.
Our Urban Village Project initial
phase wraps up with a solid community outline plan for a West Oakland
neighborhood and plenty of momentum moving forward. We will continue to
develop this approach as a model for sustainable local and regional
planning anchored in practical climate solutions and ecological urban
redevelopment.
Work on our Ecocity Standards project
will move forward. We are breaking down the ecocity approach into
specific steps that can be measured and tracked moving
forward.
We intend to further develop a consulting team that
synthesizes and implements ecocity strategies, plans, designs and
policies everywhere people are striving for greener, more sustainable
cities. We have already been invited to assemble such a team for
several projects in China and Canada.
We will continue to travel far and wide to spread the word about the ecocity approach to
sustainable development. Our President, Richard Register, has traveled the equivalent of circling
the globe now over 38 times, speaking, consulting, and advocating for
ecological cities.
We will continue to refine our ecocity mapping and redevelopment
strategy begun with UC Berkeley's Department of City and Regional
Planning graduate students as a powerful model to solving our largest
environmental, social equity and economic problems.
We will continue to bring ecocity ideas to the world through our International Ecocity Conference Series that has been held on all populated continents of the Earth (as of next week in Istanbul): California, Australia, Senegal, Brazil, China, India and very soon, Turkey. Planning for the 9th International Ecocity Conference, Ecocity World Summit 2011, Montreal, Canada has already begun.
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Please
continue to support an approach that is unique and promising, through
your own work and partnerships, and by joining with Ecocity Builders
and its global community.
Very Best Wishes to You and Yours in the coming New Year.
Warmly,
Kirstin Miller Richard Register
Executive Director, Ecocity Builders President, Ecocity Builders
 
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Building Cities in Balance With Nature
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339 15th Street
Suite 208
Oakland, California 94612
USA
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