About Social Media Today
future
Cities Without Borders
Cities of the future would benefit from tapping into a ‘connect the dots’ framework, which will bypass borders and nations and instead connect points of interest directly.[read more]
Climate Change and Our Future: Does Culpability Matter?
Are humans culpable in climate change? Are the problems human-induced? Does it even matter?[read more]
India’s Urban Future
India is one of the few remaining large countries of the world yet to experience the urbanisation of its population. In most regions – from the US, to Europe and Latin America – more than 75% of people live in urban areas. By contrast, only 31% of India’s people live in cities. This, however, is set to change dramatically in the coming decades. By one estimate an additional 250 million people – equivalent to 80% of current population of the United States – will call India’s cities home by 2030. The number of cities with more than 1 million people will increase from 42 today to 68.[read more]
Excavatory Improv
[Image: From Sean Regan's final project at Urban Islands 2009].For his final project at Urban Islands – hosted the other week in Sydney and previously discussed here, here, here, here, and elsewhere – Sean Regan produced a heavily-illustrated fake article for a distant-future issue of National Geographic. [Image: Image and text from...[read more]
Why I’m an environmentalist
I’ve been on vacation this week in the San Juan Islands off the coast of Washington state…biking, relaxing, reading, eating well. On our bike rides, we’ve seen cows, horses, sheep, an alpaca, fields of wildflowers, historic sites (check out the Pig War), a vineyard, snow-capped mountains, harbor views and an old limestone factory. As I...[read more]
Sustainable Cities Collective
What's New on
“I agree I think that the nature of human interaction and involvement depends on the nature of the actual facility itself. Getting people in and around fossil fuel burning power plants is seen as a security risk, but that still leaves many components of our infrastructure that could benefit from being noticed (and that citizens could benefit from noticing). I think of examples like John ...”
“I thinks it's provocative. In Florida, we were given tours of muncipal water treatment facilities as children, less so access to energy facilities. There is a cogeneration facility at MIT that sits comfortably in the urban context, as thousands pass by daily. But I'm always concerned that critical systems and humans should not mix for the most part. Educational programs may make the same point ...”