Book Review: Toward Sustainable Communities
Toward Sustainable Communities: Resources for Citizens and Their Communities
By Mark Roseland (2005) Revised Edition
Canada: New Society Publishers, 2007.
Reviewer/Synopsis by: H. Rusina
Toward Sustainable Communities provides the context and vocabulary to have intelligent conversation on the issue of sustainability as it pertains to community development. It is packed with definitions, resources and case studies making it a good reference for those with an interest in planning. Stylistically it is rather dry and pedantic, but it is comprehensive in covering the issues related to community development. The Book is organized in three parts:
Part One: Sustainable Communities Sustainable Planet
This section begins with establishing the contextual groundwork for the discussion of sustainability. Definitions of sustainability are considered and the concept of community capital is introduced. Community capital in this text includes: “natural, physical, economic, human, social, and cultural forms of capital”(p.5), and in a sustainable community, all six forms of capital are strengthened (p.12). Traits of sustainable communities are outlined and characteristics of sustainable development strategy discussed with a special emphasis on “community mobilization”, as “sustainable development must be participatory development”(p.27). Different types of policy instruments are then explored under the category headings: “Regulations, voluntary instruments, expenditure, and financial incentives”. Thus, “applying the concept of sustainable development to North American communities requires mobilizing citizens and their governments to strengthen all forms of community capital. Community mobilization is necessary to coordinate, balance, and catalyze community capital”(p.43).
Part Two: Sustainable Community Building Blocks
The bulk of the book is made up of this section. In it the core issues of sustainable community development are overviewed. Chapter headings are: Greening the City, Water and Sewage, Waste Reduction and Recycling, Energy Efficiency and Renewables, Atmospheric Change and Air Quality, Transportation Planning and Traffic, Land Use and Urban Form, Housing and Community Development, and Community Economic Development. After the relevancy of each topic is discussed, each section lists related tools, initiatives, resources and references. This section is particularly helpful for those looking for case studies and ideas.
Part Three: Mobilizing Citizens and Their Governments
This section focuses on how to mobilize citizens and governments to achieve the goal of sustainability. “Public participation, decision-making, the role of local government and planning for action” are covered in the first chapter. Particularly useful is a section entitled “Getting City Hall Onside”, which features advice from politicians and staff. The second chapter discusses planning tools for managing community sustainability, including sustainability indicators. The book concludes with a chapter on “Lessons and Challenges” –closing with the notion that sustainability has the potential to not only sustain, but improve communities (p.224).
Toward Sustainable Communities is very much about defining terminology and providing general reference to relevant material. For example, it defines and discusses sustainability indicators, but does not list data sources or calculation methodologies specific to the building blocks discussed in chapter two. This sort of information is outside the scope of this book, which limits its usefulness. By now much of the case study information is fairly well known, especially if you follow sustainable development, but if you are new to the field, this is an excellent primer.
ShareBook Review: Four Fish: The Future Of The Last Wild Food
Four Fish: The Furture of the Last Wild Food
By Paul Greenberg (2010)
New York: The Penguin Press, 2010.
Reviewer/Synopsis by: H. Rusina
One of my biggest irritations with meat eating is the nonchalance with which animals are consumed. That said, I am happy to report that Greenberg’s book will give many reason to pause prior to heading out for that next meal. Using an approachable style, Greenberg mixes field and scientific research with personal anecdotes yielding an informative and entertaining study -One which is the perfect gift for that seafood lover in your life and one which should be required reading for all seafood consumers.
Four Fish is dedicated to the four fish most desired by consumers: salmon, bass, cod and tuna, and stave for the concluding chapter, these are the chapter headings. Each fish gets a similar investigation detailing their historical abundance and conditions required for populations to thrive. Then come details as to how populations have been depleted due to environmental factors, development and over-fishing. Next, in the wake of declining stocks, attempts to domesticate the species for food and save remaining wild populations through regulations are discussed. Woven through the accounts are site visits with individuals connected to the process in some way.
In the discussion of wild fish, numerous causes of reduced stocks are mentioned including: “Greed, monopolization, technological improvements, subsidies to build fishing fleets, destruction of prey species.” Add to this the difficulty in establishing baseline population numbers and regulating fish that run in international waters. Interestingly, research has shown most good fish/bad fish information based educational campaigns have “failed to yield any improvement in the plight of the animals” –“It is only unilateral government action regulation that has had an impact.” Another idea Greenberg introduces that could help the animals is the concept of the artisan fisherman herder or ecologically knowledgeable fisherman steward that lives in the area fished. In the dire case of bluefin tuna, adopting an all out ban similar to the International Whaling Commission’s “zero catch quota” for whales could be the only hope.
Domesticating species via various forms of aquaculture is rife with its own set of problems. Most notably disease and parasites that come with overcrowding, pollution associated with the waste, inefficiency in species selection, and genetic mixing of farmed and wild populations. Closed system aquaculture and managing farms as closed loop ecosystem eases some of the risks and problems. Considering more appropriate species to domesticate also makes sense. With all of the fish discussed, it requires more pounds of seafood to grow them, than they in fact produce. Greenberg discusses selecting fish on the basis of their ecological footprint as a common sense alternative to current practices. Substitutions observed include Barramudi instead of bass and tilapia instead of cod.
Greenberg’s conclusion is about achieving balance and truly considering what you put on your plate to be a “privilege”. He discusses the need for establishing some fishing and aquaculture “ground rules”. Suggested policy guidelines for wild fish include: “Profoundly reduced fishing, converting significant areas of ocean ecosystems to no-catch areas, global protection for unmanageable species, and protection for the bottom of the food chain”. He calls for species we domesticate to be: “Efficient, nondestructive to a wild system, limited in number, adaptable, and functional in a polyculture.”
Four Fish ends with a brief epilogue about the bittersweet joys of fishing. As Greenberg is a lifelong fisherman, I can understand why he included this, but it somewhat weakens the power of his conclusion chapter. All said, without being overly heavy-handed, the book is meaty enough to make you question your consumption. It is an enjoyable, well-researched, informative read that will hopefully make you think twice before eating.
ShareBook Review: A New Earth: Awakening To Your Life’s Purpose
A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose
By Eckhart Tolle ( 2005)
New York: Plume (The Penguin Group), 2006.
Reviewer: H. Rusina
First off, I’ll preface this by stating I don’t know too much about Oprah’s take on this book -I do know it was chosen for her book club. I wanted to read it because I read Tolle’s 1999 book The Power of Now: A Guide To Spiritual Enlightenment and it included a quote, which got me thinking about Regenerative Studies and sustainability. The quote is as follows: “The pollution of the planet is only an outward reflection of an inner psychic pollution: millions of unconscious individuals not taking responsibility for their inner space… If humans clear inner pollution, then they will also cease to create outer pollution.” Naturally, I thought a book titled “A New Earth” might delve a little deeper into this line of commentary.
Similar to The Power of Now, A New Earth is at its core about ego consciousness. In this sense, it is a reiteration and extension of Now. Tolle’s work examines how one can recognize the ego and understand how it manifests to cause problems in ones life and in the world at large. Considerable time is spent discussing pain and collective “pain bodies” or energy fields with frequencies that resonate in the brain. He advocates living in the present moment as the way to overcome ego, as well as pain bodies and provides strategies for entering into an awakened state. Towards the end of the book, he provides a discussion on deriving a sense of inner purpose and maintaining it via “awakened doing”.
Tolle’s work is grounded in spiritual thought and his book draws on many stories from a range of traditions. Indeed the title itself references a Bible verse in which a new heaven, or spiritual awakening will bring about a new earth. While Tolle’s message of mindfulness or awakening to the present moment is not “new”, he does not claim it as such. What is new, is perhaps the accessibility of the teachings -given their sympathetic and nonjudgmental tone.
From a Regenerative Studies (RS) perspective we include human thought as a basic phase/process of ecosystem functioning. Along with conversion, distribution, filtration, assimilation, and storage –human thought is included as an essential aspect of regeneration and critical component in sustainability. In RS, we recognize that “the human intellect has become a dominant force in the global landscape…and humanity has no choice but to provide the mind in nature.”(Lyle p. 27 –Regenerative Design for Sustainable Development, 1994).
If we humans are providing the mind in nature, it makes sense to tap into the present moment and keep our egos in check. Ultimately, a topical message relating to the Earth’s ecology is not what one is necessarily left with after reading A New Earth, rather one is left contemplating the root causes behind destructive behavior and how they can be refocused. From an ecological standpoint, I am left remembering Lyle’s vision for a new earth, where “mind and nature join in partnership” and “The human mind is nature’s consciousness, and not its master.” (Lyle p. 27 –Regenerative Design for Sustainable Development, 1994).
ShareBook Review: The Story Of Stuff
The Story of Stuff: How Our Obsession With Stuff is Trashing The Planet, Our Communities, And Our Health –And A Vision For Change.
By Annie Leonard.
New York: Free Press (Simon & Schuster), 2010.
Reviewer: H. Rusina
True to its title, Leonard’s book is a comprehensive primer outlining how the planet, communities and health are negatively impacted by consumer culture. The chapters are organized to reflect the lifecycle of consumer goods and the reader is guided through the story via a lifecycle analysis of a t-shirt, book, and computer. Extraction, Production, Distribution, Consumption, and Disposal are the chapter titles and each section details processes and their ramifications, which are backed up by noted studies and often by Leonard’s own experiences.
From resource extraction through to disposal, Leonard is thorough in citing examples that truly reflect the worst in shortsighted decision making. The resources “Extraction” chapter alone cites enough to make ones blood boil. A particularly egregious example is found in the “Distribution” chapter wherein Haitian farmers were actively discouraged from growing a self-sufficient food supply by the World Bank and USAID. Read it and weep: farmers were instructed to stop growing rice and become garment workers for US corporations. The price of imported rice then tripled and you guessed it, -more poverty for Haiti (see pp 137-139).
Each chapter includes hopeful signs of change and offers suggestions for improving current practices, which keeps the tone positive. Also hopeful is Leonard’s vision for change found in the book’s epilogue. Her vision is organized around four key “paradigm shifts”: Redefine Progress, Do Away with War, Internalize Externalities, Value Time Over Stuff – Cheesy and utopian on one hand, yes, yet undeniably thought provoking. The challenge here is to get beyond cynicism and really start envisioning change.
For newbs this book will be an eye-opener that will resonate for quite sometime. For those seasoned in sustainability issues, there is probably not too much new information here and you may even get a little annoyed –I mean how many times do we need to read the Interface Carpet success story (see pp 187-189). For you, this book may be useful for the endnotes and as a log of the many projects and organizations discussed. Ultimately, this is a well organized, easy to comprehend, thoughtful work and useful reference.
ShareReview: Earth In The Balance: Ecology And The Human Spirit
Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit
By Al Gore (1992)
New York: Plume (The Penguin Group), 1993.
Reviewer/Synopsis by: H. Rusina
Earth in the Balance is comprehensive in scope encompassing the core issues defining the environmental crisis, a discussion on how the crisis came to be and a vision for how change might be implemented. As such, the book is organized in three parts: Balance at Risk, The Search for Balance and Striking the Balance. The book is introduced as an inquiry into the damaged relationship between civilization and the earth. It is Gore’s belief that through reinvention and healing of this relationship, solutions to the crisis will emerge. Coming from a politician, it is easy to question Gore’s motives for writing this book. It is perhaps the reader’s lot to suspend judgment and cynical dismissal and hear –or rather read Gore out.
In part one, Gore outlines what he views as the major threats to keeping the earth in balance –or able to sustain human life. These threats begin with non-acceptance that an environmental crisis exists. Here Gore points to a failure to recognize human vulnerability to climate change in the face of historic precedent and emergent data patterns. Next, he outlines strategic air pollution threats including ozone depletion, diminished oxidation of the atmosphere, and global warming. He then examines threats to the water system (lack of recharge, contamination, etc), the earth’s surface (deforestation/species loss, erosion, desertification, etc), and to our food supply (genetic erosion, etc.). He ends the section with a chapter on waste. Here it is solid waste driven by consumer culture that is the primary culprit. All said, part one is grim, especially due to the fact that the increasing human population compounds pressure on already compromised systems. Gore is indeed thorough in describing the growing threats to a habitable planet some of which are natural, most of which are manmade, all of which are well documented.
Part two is organized around the concept of searching for balance through confrontation and understanding. Here, Gore transitions away from earth science based threats to the environment to a philosophical inquiry as to how we ended up with such a marred relationship with the earth in the first place. He begins by delving into our political and economic systems. He then discusses information theory and technology. He closes with chapters investigating psychology and sociology and lastly, philosophy and religion. Within each chapter, Gore points out how, in theory and practice, our relationship with the earth gets fouled. While many may not agree with Gore’s philosophical waxing, the ambitious scope of his analysis is commendable and thought provoking.
Gore’s closing section puts forth his vision for healing our relationship with the earth. Essential to his plan is the adoption of a “central organizing principal for civilization” around saving the environment. He believes that once this shared goal is universally agreed to, political strides can be made. Gore then outlines, what he calls a “Global Marshall Plan” as the instrument, which could rescue the environment. The plan is both global and regional in scope and meant to be entered into voluntarily.
Directing Gore’s plan are 5 strategic goals, which provide the framework. They are: (1) “Stabilize the world population” (through literacy/education, birth control and curbing infant mortality rates through healthcare). (2) “Rapid creation and development of environmentally appropriate technologies” (through development of a Strategic Environmental Initiative SEI). (3) “Comprehensive change in the economic “rules of the road” by which we measure the impact of our decisions on the environment” (via revised methodologies that include environmental costs, debt-for-nature swaps, see Gore’s economic “rules of the road” on pages 346-347). (4) “Negotiation and resolution of a new generation of international treaties and agreements aimed at protecting the environment”. (5) “Establishment of a cooperative plan for educating the world’s citizens about our global environment” (through citizen science, etc). For each of these strategic goals, Gore details specific policy implications and provides discussion on what the role of the US would be.
After outlining the “Global Marshall Plan”, Gore concludes the book with an analogy to a sand pile, a little more psychology and a final acknowledgement to his faith. While appealing to faith in the human race to make the right decisions makes for a nice conclusion, the meat of the final section is really the Global Marshall Plan. In discussing the plan, Gore is surprisingly comprehensive and self-critical. The plan reads as sound policy, and cannot be dismissed as mere utopian pablum. Democrat that he is, Gore is critical of the Bush administration throughout the book, though justifiably so given his analysis. Leaving this book, I am impressed with Gore’s ability to confront the issues. I am impressed by his attempt to put together a practical plan of action. The scope of his thinking gives me perhaps a little bit more faith in politicians.
ShareThe Challenge is On: Make Stormwater Management Sexy
At a recent lecture on water treatment, it was stated that “stormwater management just isn’t sexy”. As the chuckles died down, the inspiration for our latest challenge was born: to infuse a little sexy into stormwater management. Can we bring sexy back to something that never was sexy or have we just overlooked its inherent sexiness? Perhaps stormwater management needs a sexy spokesperson or maybe just a minor makeover. Surely there must be some way to increase its sex appeal. Get creative people and send in your ideas and images showcasing your attempt at making stormwater management sexy. We look forward to your submittals (please note: the word is sexy, -not lewd).
SharePublic Record: Questioning the Leadership of LEED…
hmmm…. So, to achieve LEED Certification the design team submits documentation of all the strategies used on the project to meet the credit requirements. Presumably this documentation is kept on file somewhere by the USGBC? The questions is, who has access to the documentation and who doesn’t? The submitted documentation is a resource containing a wealth of information, useful to anyone interested in sustainable design. To hand over this much research, plus a fee, in exchange for LEED certification seems crazy -given that it is not clear who has access to the documentation and who doesn’t. LEED AP’s do not have access to it and it does not appear to be public record. If an organization is dedicated to advancing “Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design”, what do they have to lose by making public all the strategies and calcs submitted? It would seem this would speed up the innovation process, as more strategies would be available for design teams to “riff” on. Further, if certain industry insiders are granted access to the documentation, wouldn’t that constitute an unfair advantage? I am not certain who sits on the board, but there could be conflict here, if they have access and others don’t. There’s no question that LEED has provided incentive for developer’s to go green. The issue is freedom of information combined with a non-profit mission to expand sustainable building practices. If LEED and the USGBC exist for the public good, all project documentation should be accessible by the public: Calcs, methodology, etc -all the required documentation. I have previously contacted the USGBC on this issue to no avail. The representative I spoke to told me I could not view project documentation and that they were not sure who had access to it.
ShareWhy is No One Talking About Algae Biofuels?
Every morning… Same old price of oil story… Same old talk of offshore exploration… Sure, there’s tons of oil off the Juan de Fuca Plate -but is it ecological suicide to go after it? And then aren’t we just caught in the same old non-renewable, dirty fuel trap? Meanwhile, the only biofuel getting airtime is ethanol -yawn! Where’s the coverage on algae based biofuels? Research has proven that algae used in waste water treatment can be harvested for its oil then converted into biodiesel. Now that’s using waste as a resource! If we can’t get off oil, let’s at least be proactive in examining the possibilities of using waste oils or oils that can be extracted from waste processes. We do have alternatives to drilling and using ag resources to produce fuel. The more alternatives we have the better. Isn’t financial advising 101 to “diversify your portfolio”…
Algae Research Info:
Cal Poly Pomona Algae Research
Resource Shortages, Population and Lifestyle
So let’s suppose technology does save us…
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