About Social Media Today
Posts by Warren Karlenzig Subscribe 
US Climate Change Study: Cities Center of Risk, Opportunity
The US National Climate Assessment, a new draft study by 13 federal agencies under the Dept. of Commerce, warns that climate change is introducing to cities ample societal and business risks, but also economic opportunities. Because extreme weather...
Chicago's amazing street trees and parkways
I recently visited my hometown of Chicago, which 25 years ago, featured many neighborhoods that looked and felt like the proverbial concrete jungle. The street trees and lush and creative parkways throughout the city now make virtually...
My TEDx talk: Collective Intelligence for Sustainable Cities
Warren Karlenzig at TEDx MissionTEDx Mission recently invited me to speak at their San Francisco event on how cities are using collective intelligence approaches to address climate change and climate change adaptation. Crowdsourcing and savvy...
Census and Experts Confirm Death of Sprawl in US
The United States has reached an historic moment. The exurban development explosion that defined national growth during the past two decades has come to a screeching halt, according to the latest US Census figures. Only 1 of the 100 highest-growth...
Japan's Green Renewal? After the Disaster's UN Tour
I've returned from a sobering United Nations-led tour of six tsunami-damaged communities and two radiation-impacted cities in Northern Japan. The obvious conclusion: the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident is forcing Japan to go green, including the...
Cities Win Big in Leaked Agenda for UN Rio+20
A leaked agenda for the United Nations Rio+20 conference places urban sustainability in a major role for UN member nation Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) put forth for ratification this June. The document acknowledges that cities are on par...
Global Mayors Put UN’s Sustainable City Guidelines In Motion
After providing the curriculum for training urban leaders from 12 Southeast and Central Asian nations a few weeks ago, the United Nations is now globally launching the full content of the Shanghai Manual: A Guide for Sustainable Urban Development in...
Death of Sprawl: Past and Future
Seems like my chapter "The Death of Sprawl" from The Post Carbon Reader is taking on a life of its own. Friday, Christopher Leinberger had an Op-ed in the New York Times, titled "Death of the Fringe Suburb," which built upon concepts I had...
UN's Shanghai Manual Launches to Guide Urban Futures
A powerful triumvirate, the United Nations, Bureau International Des Expositions and the mayor of Shanghai, released this week The Shanghai Manual: A Guide for Sustainable Urban Development in the 21st Century. This timely (and free!) manual is...
UN Rio+20 Agenda Galvanizes Sustainability Community on Cities
As Rio+20 takes shape (officially, the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, follow-up to the historic UN 1992 "Earth Summit," held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), the issue of sustainable cities appears to be taking center stage in...
UN's New Sustainable City Effort Starts With Asia
We all need to reinvent urban planning for the 21st century. Never has the need been greater for integration across urban management, systems, experts, policies and technologies. The world is rapidly becoming more urban, especially in Asia, where...
Urban Parklets: The New Front Stoop
San Francisco's parklets (left, from top to bottom: #1, Valencia Street, #2 and #3 Divisadero, and #4, Castro and 17th, bottom) are a vibrant testimony to the city's Pavement to Parks Program, managed by a non-profit, the Great Streets Program. The...
