This blog will follow U.S. local governments that are curbing greenhouse gas emissions, reducing energy consumption, utilizing renewable energy sources, adapting to the impacts of climate change, and developing more sustainably. It will showcase their challenges, accomplishments, innovations, strategies, and lessons learned.

ICLEI’s Local Action Blog launches to make available information on cities and counties on the front lines of climate, sustainability, and energy action.

The entire region is a brownfield and I wonder how many years, resources, and money will it take to clean it all up. I wonder if anyone will be held accountable.

Just because you can doesn’t always mean you should. “This gleaming hunk of urban development is about to rise on an artificial, perfectly square island off the coast of Dubai” [source]. Dubai has been going crazy creating all these islands off their coast probably because coastal properties enjoy greater demand and thus elicit higher prices. But in the long run, these islands are proving to be an environmental disaster as they end up destroying the marine life and coral reefs in the vicinity which are an integral part of the ecosystem. This 6.5 square kilometer mini-city is being designed by noted architect, Rem Koolhaas. Why would you care for the environment when your paycheck from this job alone can let you retire in riches?

Architect Vincent Callebaut’s latest project balances public galleries, meeting rooms and gathering spaces over canals and abandoned railroad tracks in the 19th Parisian district. Callebaut describes the process as an intention to “absorb and recycle by photo-catalytic effect the cloud of harmful gases (Smog) from the intense traffic near Paris” [source: Inhabitat].

Definitely a worthy and proactive effort at going beyond the traditional green architecture.

“Try this experiment. Go knock on someone’s door in West Oakland, Watts or Newark and say: ‘We gotta really big problem!’ They say: ‘We do? We do?’ ‘Yeah, we gotta really big problem!’ ‘We do? We do?’ ‘Yeah, we gotta save the polar bears! You may not make it out of this neighborhood alive, but we gotta save the polar bears!’ ”

Thomas Friedman writes about including the minority low-income populations in the ‘green movement’. Imposing conservation and sustainability on people usually doesn’t work. Rather you have to make the case that it is beneficial to them in the long run. Only then will they listen. Just like the corporations listened when it affected not only their image but also their bottomline.

The five-story structure in southern Athens produces zero emissions, uses no fossil fuel and meets virtually all its own energy demands — in winter and in summer — thanks to a computerized system that draws on both solar and geothermal sources. It even produces electricity on the side, some for selling back to the state [source]

I hope you didn’t imagine a building with terraced gardens.

Ganesh Chaturthi is an annual religious festival celebrated by Hindus in India. It has grown from household worship to societal celebration involving huge idols of the elephant god.

Will the design community respond to the challenge of building the twenty-first century city? Will they rally around the mayor’s plan?

The Metropolis Magazine is asking whether designers and city planners will heed to Mike Bloomberg’s vision of creating a cleaner and greener New York City

Christopher Hallowell’s Holding Back the Sea documents man’s futile attempts in controlling nature. Hurricane Katrina not only exposed our societal inadequacies but also laid bare some of our massive engineering feats. No offense to the Army Corps of Engineers, but they will always be fighting a losing battle and can only hold the fort so long. Even if it was technically possible to hold off the inevitable for a longer time, I doubt we have the financial prowess to do it anymore. Other more urgent and important priorities have crept up the national agenda. At some point in time, we have to reevaluate our presence in the volatile Mississippi basin. Perhaps nature doesn’t want us there at all. We can claim that we have been there for over a hundred year but nature has been there much longer, right?

Urban Growth: Top: Dallas, US 1976 Bottom: Dallas, US 2001 [source].

The Gateway National Recreation Area is currently planning on furthering the potential of the park and with the help of Van Alen Institute, National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA), and Columbia University are conducting a design competition. The competition has already attracted more than 100 architects, planners, and conservationists. The finalists are posted online and are pretty impressive. In a rare move, the competition has now moved to the voting stage where the public votes on the design of their choice. Head over and vote for the design of your choice; especially so if you live in the tri-state area. Conservation and protection of the last vestiges of our ecology are of utmost importance however it is equally important for us to reconnect with our natural habitat even if it is for recreational purposes.

For anyone unsatisfied with LEED, the options for green-home ratings are proliferating. The National Association of Home Builders is starting a certification system. Randy Hansell of Earth Advantage, a Portland-based rating system launched in 1994, reckons that there are more than 60 green-building rating systems in the country, up from six or seven in 2000.

Some local programmes, such as Earth Advantage, are partnered with LEED—and most are cheaper. (Earth Advantage usually costs $500-800; the price depends in part on how far in the boonies a green home is located.) [via The Economist.]

Read an actual letter sent to a man named Ryan DeVries by the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, State of Michigan. This guy’s response is hilarious, but read the State’s letter before you get to the response letter.

Don’t we love our bureaucracy?

tags: humor, environment, permit, bureaucracy