This extended holiday weekend is much anticipated personally because it signifies the return to a recreational activity that thrills me more so than any other. By this time most years the weather has warmed up enough to prevent any further delay in getting my cheap, little sailboat ready “for the season”. While there is very strong merit in, and a touch of previous discussion on, the return to sailing vessels for the purposes of international commercial shipping, this Memorial Day weekend I rather turn to the merits sailing has as a sustainable, low-impact, and surprisingly cheap way of having fun and experiencing the splendor of nature first hand. Won't you please take a few moments to consider how a traditional form of waterborne transportatio
Energy
LaHood To Learn From Spain On HSR
Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood is visiting Spain, hoping to glean some knowledge from the country's recent successes with high-speed rail.
The New York Time - Energy & Environment
Underused Natural Gas Capacity
Our underused natural gas capacity could almost completely replace our current coal-generated energy, argues Sean Casten, President & CEO of Recycled Energy Development.
Grist
Green Developments Getting Green Light
Developers are finding it easier to get funding for sustainable building projects due to federal incentives and investor interest in green certification.
Apartment Finance Today
Smart Meters Will Save The World
Columnist Stephen Cunningham of the BBC believes that technology like smart meters in homes will provide the necessary reduction in CO2 to reduce global warming.
BBC News
Clinton Promoting 'Climate-Positive' Communities
Last week in Seoul, Bill Clinton announced a new collaboration between the Clinton Climate Initiative and the U.S. Green Building Council to go beyond the single LEED building and create new green development models for whole communities.
The New York Times
Fighting Energy Ugliness
With communities balking at the purported ugliness of windtowers and solar panels, a Dutch company proposes using nature's own designs.
Fast Company
The Challenge of Turning Blue Collars Green
The new documentary The Greening of Southie follows construction workers in Boston as they adapt to the new rules and regulations of green development (sometimes unwittingly).
GOOD Magazine
Learning How to be Clean and Green from Germany
Germany's experience in implementing environmentally-friendly concepts like green roofs, wind power and other renewables is pointing the way for many American decisionmakers.
The New York Times
Nuclear Not the Answer, Says MIT Study
While nuclear energy is being touted as a possible savior for global warming, an updated MIT study says the technology hasn't progressed and is still too expensive.
The Wall St. Journal
Will it be a Small World After All?
In his new book 'Why Your World is About to Get a Whole Lot Smaller' economist Jeff Rubin describes how 'peak oil' will reverse globalization, revitalize cities and reinvigorate Canada's manufacturing base.
The Globe and Mail
Combining Infrastructures
A team of French designers are the winners of Metropolis’s 2009 Next Generation competition with their design for a combined electrical-transmission tower and landfill.
Metropolis Magazine
White Roofs Can Be Wrong Roofs
White roofs have gained cachet as a solution to the urban heat island effect. But in places where there are more cold days than hot, a white roof that reflects warming sunlight might not make the best sense, according to this piece.
Miller-McCune
Green School Building Bill Passes House
The Democrats of the U.S. House of Representatives have passed a bill that would create a green school building program in the U.S., investing more than $6 billion in its first year to build more environmentally friendly schools.
NPR
Cities Focus on Existing Buildings To Save Energy
Old buildings could be to blame for much of a city's energy waste. That's the case in New York, where officials are putting together a plan to retrofit older buildings to be less wasteful.
Grist
More on design competitions, and building a city's "culture of design"
Wed, 05/13/2009 - 09:35
Can a city's "design culture" be deliberately grown and fostered? If so, can City Hall be part of such a fostering, or must it come from the grass roots, from the cultural or design communities themselves?
Readers know I've been musing on these questions for a while. A few years back, after arriving here in Vancouver, I wrote on the difference between our city's reputation as a "city BY design", and the reputation some other cities have, as "cities OF design".
A City Without Cars
Michigan's Mackinac Island has been car-free since 1898. GOOD Magazine pays a visit to the island and finds that far from being Luddite, the island is very progressive, from extensive wifi to hydroelectric power.
GOOD Magazine
Don't Forget the Garbage
Using waste to create alternative energy is a strategy the Obama administration is neglecting, says North America’s largest garbage hauler Waste Management Inc.
Bloomberg.com
The Legacy of Bucky Fuller
The results are in for the Annual Buckminster Fuller Design Challenge. The winning designs include robo-scooters, biocentres, and a "future map".
Seed Magazine
