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Ecocities Emerging
To support humanity's transition into the Ecozoic Era
| Ecocity Builders
May 2012
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Greetings, Epistle to the Ecotopians, excerpted below and in its full version here, was found on the computer of "Ecotopia" author Ernest Callenbach (1929-2012) after his death on April 16th. Written in the throes of the Vietnam War, "Ecotopia" tells of a secessionist nation - carved from what was once Oregon, Washington and Northern California - that by 1999 has evolved toward a "stable state" of bioregionalism, in which each territory cultivates its distinct ecological character. Ernest was a longtime friend and advisor to Ecocity Builders. We will all miss him and we salute a life well lived. - Kirstin Miller, Executive Director, Ecocity Builders Epistle to the Ecotopians By Ernest Callenbach To all brothers and sisters who hold the dream in their hearts of a future world in which humans and all other beings live in harmony and mutual support -- a world of sustainability, stability, and confidence. A world something like the one I described, so long ago, in Ecotopia and Ecotopia Emerging.
As I survey my life, which is coming near its end, I want to set down a few thoughts that might be useful to those coming after. It will soon be time for me to give back to Gaia the nutrients that I have used during a long, busy, and happy life. ... So it behooves me here to gather together some thoughts and attitudes that may prove useful in the dark times we are facing: a century or more of exceedingly difficult times.
How will those who survive manage it? What can we teach our friends, our children, our communities? Although we may not be capable of changing history, how can we equip ourselves to survive it?
Hope. Children exude hope, even under the most terrible conditions, and that must inspire us as our conditions get worse. Hopeful patients recover better. ... In groups, an atmosphere of hope is essential to shared successful effort: "Yes, we can!" is not an empty slogan, but a mantra for people who intend to do something together -- whether it is rescuing victims of hurricanes, rebuilding flood-damaged buildings on higher ground, helping wounded people through first aid, or inventing new social structures (perhaps one in which only people are "persons," not corporations). We cannot know what threats we will face. But ingenuity against adversity is one of our species' built-in resources. We cope, and faith in our coping capacity is perhaps our biggest resource of all.
Mutual support. The people who do best at basic survival tasks (we know this experimentally, as well as intuitively) are cooperative, good at teamwork, often altruistic, mindful of the common good. In drastic emergencies like hurricanes or earthquakes, people surprise us by their sacrifices -- of food, of shelter, even sometimes of life itself. ... So, in every way we can we need to help each other, and our children, learn to be cooperative rather than competitive; to be helpful rather than hurtful; to look out for the communities of which we are a part, and on which we ultimately depend.
Practical skills. We all need to learn, or relearn, how we would keep the rudiments of life going if there were no paid specialists around, or means to pay them. Every child should learn elementary carpentry, from layout and sawing to driving nails. Everybody should know how to chop wood safely, and build a fire. Everybody should know what to do if dangers appear from fire, flood, electric wires down, and the like. Taking care of each other is one practical step at a time, most of them requiring help from at least one other person; survival is a team sport.
Organize. Much of the American ideology, our shared and usually unspoken assumptions, is hyper-individualistic. We like to imagine that heroes are solitary, have super powers, and glory in violence, and that if our work lives and business lives seem tamer, underneath they are still struggles red in blood and claw. We have sought solitude on the prairies, as cowboys on the range, in our dependence on media (rather than real people), and even in our cars, armored cabins of solitude. We have an uneasy and doubting attitude about government, as if we all reserve the right to be outlaws. But of course human society, like ecological webs, is a complex dance of mutual support and restraint, and if we are lucky it operates by laws openly arrived at and approved by the populace. ... Thinking together is enormously creative; it has huge survival value.
Learn to live with contradictions. These are dark times, these are bright times. We are implacably making the planet less habitable. Every time a new oil field is discovered, the press cheers: "Hooray, there is more fuel for the self-destroying machines!" We are turning more land into deserts and parking lots. We are wiping out innumerable species that are not only wondrous and beautiful, but might be useful to us. We are multiplying to the point where our needs and our wastes outweigh the capacities of the biosphere to produce and absorb them. And yet, despite the bloody headlines and the rocketing military budgets, we are also, unbelievably, killing fewer of each other proportionately than in earlier centuries. We have mobilized enormous global intelligence and mutual curiosity, through the Internet and outside it. We have even evolved, spottily, a global understanding that democracy is better than tyranny, that love and tolerance are better than hate, that hope is better than rage and despair, that we are prone, especially in catastrophes, to be astonishingly helpful and cooperative.
We may even have begun to share an understanding that while the dark times may continue for generations, in time new growth and regeneration will begin. In the biological process called "succession," a desolate, disturbed area is gradually, by a predictable sequence of returning plants, restored to ecological continuity and durability. When old institutions and habits break down or consume themselves, new experimental shoots begin to appear, and people explore and test and share new and better ways to survive together.
It is never easy or simple. But already we see, under the crumbling surface of the conventional world, promising developments: new ways of organizing economic activity (cooperatives, worker-owned companies, nonprofits, trusts), new ways of using low-impact technology to capture solar energy, to sequester carbon dioxide, new ways of building compact, congenial cities that are low (or even self-sufficient) in energy use, low in waste production, high in recycling of almost everything. A vision of sustainability that sometimes shockingly resembles Ecotopia is tremulously coming into existence at the hands of people who never heard of the book.
 | | Ernest Callenbach 1929-2012 |
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Keeper of the International Ecocity Conference Series
Ecocity Builders is a non-profit organization dedicated to reshaping cities, towns and villages for long-term health of human and natural systems. Ecocity Builders 339 15th Street, Suite 208 Oakland CA 94612 USA www.ecocitybuilders.org www.ecocitystandards.org 
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Powerful Thinking on Agriculture to match Ecocities
by Richard Register, President, Ecocity Builders
 | | Allan Savory |
I've run across a very impressive agriculture theoretician and practitioner named Allan Savory. He has notions in food raising and stewardship of the vast grassland areas of the world to match the very basic thinking of ecocity design and planning. At a big ranch in Zimbabwe, out of an office in Boulder, Colorado and his home in New Mexico he has been on the ground proving a new system of large herbivore grazing and not only care for grasslands but restoration of deserts back to the grasslands that once were, for example in the southern Sahara, Sub Sahara Africa, Arabian Peninsula and the Middle East, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Mongolia and China and in fact many other places, highly productive grasslands and kindred bush grazing land. These lands, many deserts now, once hosted vast herds of self-managing wild hoofed herbivores replaced by human mis-managed domestic herbivores, then deserts.
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Our Rio+20 - EcoCitizen World Map
Enter the Ecozoic Era
The Ecozoic Era refers to a vision of an emerging epoch where humanity lives in a mutually enriching relationship with the larger community of life on Earth.
As EcoCitizens, we seek to achieve a human presence on earth in balance with living systems - one eco-citizen action, neighborhood project, city/community plan, regional/territorial strategy, and supportive national/international policy at a time. Ecocity Builders is partnering with nonprofit tech company Ushahidi, The Mozilla Foundation, Manu Kabahizi, creator of OurRio20 map and AzIS, a mobile and web application firm based in Kigali, Twanda where Kabahizi is Director of Business Development. Launch coming soon
  
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Green Economy and Poverty: Challenges and Opportunities
by Robert Maina Mburia
Nairobi, Kenya
 Korogocho, Nairobi, Kenya. Photo: Kirstin Miller
Environment and Poverty
Huge misunderstandings that emanate from misinterpretations, misrepresentations in regard to poverty, environment and sustainable development largely linger in many debates held at various levels. Needless to say the environmental situation currently is critically ill and requires radical, far-reaching and emergency measures. There are many huge rural communities that are falling way below poverty lines owing to the environmental conditions like global warming, ozone depletion, land and environmental degradation, water scarcity, waste management, pollution among others. In the current world talks about environment are propagated through emotional dispositions and received with skepticism as well especially when seen to contradict the development intentions. The thin line between environmental protection and economic development is not always clear with the temptations of falling into either unfounded extremes rising day by day.
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The International Ecocity Framework and Standards (IEFS) initiative seeks to provide a vision for an ecologically-restorative human civilization as well as a practical methodology for assessing and guiding progress towards the goal.Website http://www.ecocitystandards.org
To date in English, Chinese, German, French, Korean and Portuguese |
Ecocity Insights
by Jennie Moore
Director, Sustainable Development and Environmental Stewardship, British Columbia Institute of Technology
HEALTHY AND ACCESSIBLE FOOD
Uneven access to healthy and nutritious food is a global phenomenon - witness: many North Americans' struggle with obesity while many Africans' starve. Food often comprises the largest component of a city's ecological footprint (COV 2011), and agriculture contributes 10-12 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions (FAO 2009). Recent studies indicate that the type of food (e.g. meat) and the way it is processed (e.g. organic) have a greater environmental impact than the overall distance food travels (i.e. food miles) and the total amount consumed (Webber and Mathews 2008).
The International Ecocity Framework and Standards (IEFS) calls for nutritious food that is accessible and affordable to all residents and is grown, manufactured and distributed by processes which maintain the healthy function of ecosystems and do not exacerbate climate change. Food consumed is primarily grown within the local bioregion.
Ecocities enable access to healthy and nutritious food through zoning of land dedicated to agricultural production both within the city and at its periphery. This could include greenbelts and areas adjacent to natural parks, formation of contiguous open space and green corridors, community gardens, home-based agriculture, street-side gardens, etc. Community-based programs such as fruit-tree harvest and crop-sharing initiatives further enable people to access the bounty of urban agriculture. Food hubs and farmers markets can provide the means for food producers to access local markets directly. More broadly based agriculture activity, including farms and orchards that surround the city can enable access to bio-regionally based food supplies as well. Building rooftops and terraces can also be used for local food production, including raising small animals such as chickens and rabbits. Ground-oriented buildings and sheds, including court-yards, and even below-grade structures such as cisterns can be used for local farming including aquaculture (Todd and Todd 1994).
Although density can produce a more efficient pattern of living through, for example, access by proximity to services, it also concentrates demand. In the case of food, access to retail venues is increased, but careful design is required to ensure that access to the means of food production is not eliminated. Where demand for food by an urban population exceeds the capacity of the local bioregion, the importance of policies that shape demand for organic and fairly traded foods become increasingly important. The success of organic food retailers demonstrates that many people in Western society are willing to pay a premium for ethically and organically produced food. Still many others find these types of products too expensive to purchase on a daily basis.
Some cities are beginning to map food access and finding that parts of the city are virtual nutrition deserts. Understanding the population's nutritional needs and planning for access to healthy and nutritious food is an important strategy that can help communities move toward achieving this important IEFS principle.
References:
COV (City of Vancouver). 2011. Talk Green Lighter Footprint, part of the Greenest City initiative ( http://talkgreenvancouver.ca/goals/lighter-footprint)
FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization). 2009. Low Greenhouse Gas Agriculture: Mitigation and Adaptation Potential of Sustainable Farming Systems (ftp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/010/ai781e/ai781e00.pdf)
Todd, Nancy Jack and John Todd. 1994. From Eco-Cities to Living Machines: Principles of Ecological Design. Berkeley Cal: North Atlantic Books.
Webber, Christopher and H. Scott Mathews. 2008. "Food-miles and the Relative Climate Impacts of Food Choices in the United States," Environment, Science, and Technology, Vol. 42, Issue 10, pp. 3508-3513.
British Columbia Institute of Technology, School of Construction and the Environment is Lead Sponsor of the International Ecocity Framework and Standards Initiative
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Founded in 1992, Ecocity Builders is a nonprofit organization dedicated to reshaping cities for the long-term health of human and natural systems. www.ecocitybuilders.org
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ANNOUNCING
Ecocity World Summit
September 23-27, 2013
NANTES, FRANCE
SAVE THE DATE!
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Rio+20 WITH ECOCITY BUILDERS
June 2012
Sun Jun 17, 2012 10am - 3pm (date/time is tentative) Title: Communities of Resilience and Hope Where: Santa Teresa, Rio de Janeiro Description: Workshop, neighborhood tour + social event to explore actions, mapping, storytelling and tools for increasing local resilience and community coherence and stability. Organizers: Ecocity Builders, Transition Santa Teresa, Gaia Education Mon Jun 18, 2012 5:30pm - 8:30pm Title: Global Forum on Human Settlements Special Event Where: Espace Cultural Eletrobras Furnas, Rua Real Grandeza 219, Botafago, Rio de Janeiro Description: Special Session Evening Conference and Award Ceremony Organizers: Global Forum on Human Settlements, UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, UN Human Settlements Program Awards: Richard Register, Ecocity Builders; Tianjin Eco-City, China; City of Nantes, France Mon Jun 18, 2012 12:30pm - 2pm Rio+20 Side Event Title: Building Ecocities - Geodesign and Citizen Participation Where: US Center Rio+20 UNCSD Description: Ecocity Builders, in partnership with the US Department of State, Esri, Mozilla Foundation, Ushahidi and the Association of American Geographers. The workshop will demonstrate how ecocity principles and geodesign, tied to citizen participation and multidisciplinary sustainable development frameworks and networks, can produce quantifiable benefits to cities and citizens.
Organizer: US Government Tue Jun 19, 2012 3pm - 5:30pm (plus ongoing exhibition and event series) Title: Sentinels of Sustainability Where: Forte do Leme Description: Slide shows on research, work and projects of the participants; Posters from Ecocity Builders, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, associates; Mini-lectures with educations proposals; Opening reception and cocktail on June 19.
Organizers: Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, The Mega Cities Project, Ecocity Builders Tue Jun 19, 2012 7:30pm - 9pm Rio+20 Side Event Title: Building Ecocities (similar to Mon Jun 18th event) Where: P3-B, RioCentro Description: Ecocity Builders, Esri, US Dept of State, Asoc of American Geographers, Ushahidi, Mozilla, Nicholas de Monchaux, UC Berkeley and Kirstin Miller for Ecocity Builders. VIP speaker: Joseph Alcamo, Chief Scientist, UNEP. Organizer: UN Conference on Sustainable Development - Rio+20 Thurs June 21, 2012 12:45 (tentative) Title: Ecocities Session, Global Town Hall Forum Description: A full session on ecocity initiatives hosted by ICLEI, Local Governments for Sustainability. Richard Register to speak for Ecocity Builders. Organizer: ICLEI, Local Governments for Sustainability Rio+20 Website:
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June 1st in Berkeley ---
Center Street Plaza project at the Berkeley Breakfast Club
Connecting people to place in the heart of downtown Berkeley
Center Street Plaza features deep green technologies and thoughtful community place-making strategies. The community plan for the plaza, developed for Ecocity Builders by Walter Hood and Hood Design, was endorsed 8-1 by Berkeley City Council in March 2010. Final technical studies and design work is now underway with the City of Berkeley. More information: http://ecocitybuilders.org/projects/current/center-street-plaza/ |
"The problem is the present design of cities only a few stories high, stretching outward in unwieldy sprawl for miles. As a result of their sprawl, they literally transform the earth, turn farms into parking lots and waste enormous amounts of time and energy transporting people, goods and services over their expanses. My solution is urban implosion rather than explosion."
-Paolo Soleri
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Ecolution
Thought Piece by Richard Register, President, Ecocity Builders
Ecology and evolution are the same thing! I don't mean this figuratively but literally. Recently I was noticing that though evolution happens so slowly that we can't often see the changes or have to have exhaustive, expensive studies to prove something is happening with mutations in time spans most of us are used to. Nonetheless we can notice that mutations are in fact happening. Most are detrimental but occasionally one is beneficial. The dynamics are pretty well proved. Looking at the constant interaction of living creatures and cosmic rays and other disturbances chemical and ridiological we now can see that these can change our DNA in tiny but profound ways. And so we know as we go about our dance of selection in Darwinian ways, we humans are evolving. Plus, with the discovery after Darwin was long gone, of what mechanism actually causes the "natural selection" he and Alfred Russell Wallace identified - the mutations just mentioned - we have a mechanism now well studied. READ ON
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Car Free Journey
By Steve Atlas
When you think of a vacation trip to Los Angeles, what comes to mind? You probably believe driving is the only way to get anywhere. This was the classic image of L.A. until very recently.
Flash forward to today. Now, Los Angeles enjoys a much more extensive and efficient public transit system. It is truly possible to visit LA and never drive.
Two months ago, we spotlighted Long Beach (served by Metro's Blue Line) and Catalina Island, and showed how visitors without cars can enjoy a great vacation here.
Today, we will focus on Los Angeles itself. We will show you how to have a great experience using public transportation. Use Metro's subways and light rail lines, and supplement them with Rapid and Express bus routes. These lines generally operate frequently during daylight, evening, and weekend hours. For detailed route and schedule information, visit www.Metro.net, or call (213) 922-6000.
Before starting your trip, go to http://www.metro.net/around/destination-guides for more information about attractions, dining, and other highlights along each of Metro's rail and rapid bus line.
To find out more about Los Angeles attractions, visit www.discoverlosangeles.com, or call
(323) 467-6412 to speak to a Visitor Center representative.
The Los Angeles Tourism & Convention Board provided this introduction to Los Angeles' transportation choices for visitors who don't want to drive. (Be sure to read next month's column that will be a special report by lifelong LA resident Richard Risemberg:
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Principal Features of an Ecocity
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PRINCIPAL SPONSOR OF THE INTERNATIONAL ECOCITY FRAMEWORK AND STANDARDS
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