Moving Ahead

Since finishing my Master's degree in Environmental Policy & Management at the University of Denver this past March, I've been working a couple of part-time jobs in an effort to find my path forward in the context of those things that I am passionate about career-wise. In May I began working with a small non-profit called Eco-Justice Ministries, an organization that works with churches to help them develop their ministries in ways that are more socially just and environmentally sustainable. In late July, after finding out that I had not been accepted into a Ph.D. program that I'd applied to, I was instead offered a job doing research on urban sustainability and public lands planning at the University of Colorado Denver (UCD). While both of these jobs have allowed me to explore areas of deep interest, I have decided that the urban sustainability topic incites deeper passions in me. And in all honesty, I have come to believe that this path holds the better career opportunities for me over the long-term. To help get deeper into this field, I have applied and received acceptance into a Master’s program in Urban & Regional Planning at UCD. This will help fill in some of the knowledge on urban systems and planning not covered in my first master’s degree, and will give me an even better chance of getting into the Ph.D. program and a particular fellowship program I want to apply to for 2009-2010. It’s a logical step from my thesis work at DU, and a very exciting opportunity.

I hope to maintain some sort of connection with Eco-Justice Ministries and use my increasing knowledge and experience to help them fulfill their mission. I don't know if that will be in a paid capacity, or as a volunteer; I'll figure that out over the next few weeks as things come together. Eco-Justice Ministries' mission is an important one, and one I want to support. This move should give me all sorts of things to want to think through and discuss on this blog, so I'm sure I'll be keeping a record of the journey as I move ahead on this project. Stay tuned!

Feeding the People: Food & Urban Sustainability

In the process of catching up on some news feeds today, I ran across this article from the BBC on a sustainable global food system for the 21st Century. This is probably one aspect of sustainability that gets the least exposure, but could be one of the most important.

One thing the article notes is that due to the increase in urban population, more than half of the world's people now live in cities. This brings up an interesting question: where do these people get their food? Feeding the urban population of the world as it expands over the next decades will be a major component in creating sustainable cities. Traditionally, planners haven't gotten involved in this aspect of urban planning. This is beginning to change, however. In 2007, the American Planning Association (APA) developed a Policy Guide on Community and Regional Food Planning in a effort to break through misconceptions that food has no connection with professional planning practice. The policy guide goes on to look at the land use connections to food systems and the impact of fossil fuels used to transport food the incredible distances it now travels from farm to plate.

This is one area that I'll admit I don't have a lot of background in, but I can see being a key piece of the puzzle of urban sustainability. As I find more information on this, I'll post it here. If anyone reading this knows of any resources to look at, please feel free to share in the comments.

City Sustain - The Revival

Greetings all! As you can see, I've been away for this blog for a while. Blogging takes an amazing amount of focus, and I've been a bit sidetracked. Well, life happens, but the time away has given me a chance to think about things, including what I want from this blog.

My dedication to the idea of urban sustainability hasn't wavered. I'm still absolutely convinced that the world's cities and urban regions will be the central focus in creating a more sustainable world. How we approach the planning and design of our cities must be a very high priority in a world sliding toward environmental, economic, and social collapse, a world where over half of the population now lives in cities, a proportion that will be come even more larger in the coming decades. Consequently, I want to get back to using this blog as a place to think about these issues, and communicate with people who share these concerns.

There is a new layer that I'm going to explore on this blog, however. In tandem with these thoughts, I've been exploring the relationship between my faith and sustainability issues. As I've done this, I've become more broadly curious about the role of faith communities in the drive to create a more sustainable world. When I first set up this blog, I'd thought about creating a second blog to explore those issues separately, but have realized during my hiatus that I can't really separate the two topics out. And in a personal blog, there's no need to do so. Consequently, my thoughts here will begin to incorporate a faith perspective on these topics as I feel appropriate. I have become very conscious of how my faith life drives my desire to advance the urban sustainability agenda, so I don't feel the need any longer to separate the topics out. If I'm going to use something like this blog to explore these issues, I need to explore the topic in it's fullness as I perceive it. We'll see how this works out as time goes on.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and has a peaceful and quiet holiday season.

Energy in Colorado

MSNBC.com has a great story from the Washington Post this morning talking about the state of energy politics here in Colorado.

In the move toward a more sustainable urban future, one thing that will need to be figured out is how to power our cities. While compact land use patterns and alternative transportation types and fuels will be important, finding new way of electricity will also be important to a sustainable urban future as well. Colorado is taking some great strides in that direction. Read the article and get a feel for the great direction Colorado is moving in!

On a Personal Note...

This article from Wired Science gives me an even more personal reason to work for urban sustainability and lessening the impacts of climate change. I've suffered from this particular affliction, and all I can say about it is:

OUCH!!!

Farming in the City

The BBC has posted a great story on the Detroit-based non-profit Urban Farming and the work it is doing end hunger in our cities.

Their mission statement says that "Urban Farming intends to eradicate hunger while increasing diversity, motivating youth and seniors and optimizing the production of unused land for food and alternative energy". The goal of sustainable development is to integrate issues of environment, economics, and social justice in a way that current needs can be met without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Urban Farming is an organization that lives that definition. They work with volunteers and donors to farm unused urban land, making it productive and feeding the poor of their neighborhoods. They provide work for offenders on county jail rehabilitation programs, allowing them to develop new skills and a sense of self-worth.

If our cities are ever going to approach true sustainability, raising food locally is going to be a piece of the equation that integrates environment, economics, and social justice. A video on Urban Farming's website notes that during World War II, many Americans planted "victory gardens" to support the war effort. They ended up raising 40% of the produce grown in the US during that time. We are in a situation no less dire now. As the earth's climate warms and gas and oil and food prices rise, we are needing to re-evaluate how we feed ourselves. Raising more of our foods locally, either within the city itself, or more closely within the urban region, will become a greater necessity. Urban Farming is one organization recognizing this necessity and working to shift paradigms in the right direction.

Even an Oil Tycoon Gets It

I've always thought of the move to sustainability as being a major paradigm shift, a major move to a new worldview, and this week I think we're starting to see concrete evidence of that, especially in terms of energy.

First was this article from the Breakthrough Institute on the need to cut our nation's addiction to oil. Not just foreign oil, but all oil. The article does great job of explaining why we can't drill our way out of high oil and gas prices. In short, there just isn't enough domestic supply to really make a difference in how much gas costs, and it will do nothing to curb climate change. When it comes down to it, drilling is not the answer.

What really amazed me this week was who has stepped forward to offer a plan for moving forward. Oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens spoke about the need to move away from oil Tuesday on Good Morning America. Yes, you read that correctly; an oil tycoon stepping up to offer solutions for our nation to completely break our addiction to oil! I know, it blew me away too. Watch the video; he really thinks this is an emergency situation and needs to be a national priority. If we don't deal with this now, Mr. Pickens predicts $6/gallon gas and $200/barrel oil by this time next year. Combined with the ever-expanding credit crunch and housing market collapse, this is not something any of us want to see happen.

Mr. Pickens also has a website detailing his plan (thanks to CNET and Spatial Sustain for pointing to this). Basically, the plan is to use wind to replace natural gas as a generator of electricity. The maps he has from the Department of Energy showing wind generation potential in the US are amazing. (Yes, the GIS geek speaks!) The next step in the plan would be to utilize that natural gas that's taken away from power generation for the transportation sector. This would cut our foreign oil imports by 38%, which would cut our outpouring of cash for oil by $300 billion per year.

This is a big deal. While I'm not sure about the long term use of natural gas (a fossil fuel) for transportation, it could be a great transition fuel to get us to something better. And while Mr. Pickens' priority is focused on foreign oil and the not-inconsiderable amounts of money being spent on it, this plan is still a step in the right direction. We need to start somewhere, and if just eliminating foreign oil begins to move us in the right direct, so be it. The most important thing is that the paradigm is shifting. New ways of looking at the world a being born right in front of our eyes, and in some unexpected places. Let's just hope that the private sector, Congress and the new president embrace this worldview quickly and begin helping us move down a more sustainable path.

$4 a Gallon Gas: The Perks

Can there be an upside to these $4 gas prices we're seeing? Time seems to think so: 10 Things You Can Like About $4 Gas.

I knew that if gas prices ever got high enough, many of these things would happen. I do feel bad for those trapped by our atrocious, auto-centric urban planning in situations where they have to drive to jobs that can barely cover their gas because public transit is too inconvenient or just not available. But they're about the only ones I can feel bad for. When I see big SUV's rolling down the road, I have a hard time feeling bad for them. Maybe that makes me a bad person, but that's the way I feel.

When my wife and I moved recently, we purposely focused our search near the parts of town where something like 98% of our life happens. Now we live a mile from my wife's office and our church, which means she walks to work daily and we often walk to church. I'm currently working part-time from home, but I can easily catch a bus to the office, and I think I'm about to be offered some part-time research work that would be a short walk from another bus line. This just goes to show that with a bit of planning, it's not that hard to make this situation work for you.

Take a look at what you're doing and see if you can turn these $4 lemons into even richer lemonade.

I'm Published!

Some time ago, I submitted a summary of my Master's Capstone project for publication. I had met one of the editors at a GIS panel discussion at DU and he'd seemed interested in what I was working on. I submitted the text, but had never gotten word that it had been posted.

Well, in doing a Google search for something today, what should be the first hit? My publication!!! What a crazy world we live in sometimes.

The full capstone is linked over on the right under "Personal Links", but this posting summarizes the document fairly well. Read on if you're interested!

Culture War over Auto Choices?

I have to admit, I had never thought of people's choices in automobiles as a culture war. Typically, when one sees that phrase, it's usually homosexuality or abortion that are being discussed (or argued very, very loudly, as the case may be). However, this article on CUNY's Sustainable Cities Blog has helped me see this in a new light.

Leaving aside for a moment the idea of abandoning the car entirely (another culture war, perhaps?), our choices in cars do show how we perceive our relationship with our world and it's resources. It's also reflected in a former White House Press Secretary's answer to a reporters question about energy and American lifestyles.

Take a read and see what you think.

What was I saying?

In my last post, I pointed to some articles about the end of the American car culture.

Today, the national average for gasoline hit $4.02 per gallon.

While I hate to see it come to this, I've long had  a feeling this is what it would take to get people to start changing their habits. The pain in the pocket book is certainly getting people's attention. Now, to get people to stick to these new habits even if prices go down; that will be the true challenge.

America's Car Culture: Is the End Near?

This post here on the Spatial Sustain blog serves as a great introduction to this article here from the Philadelphia Inquirer on what might very well be the end of the American car culture.

I've been wondering for awhile now when this might happen. We've known for too long that our car culture was creating problems for the natural environment as well as creating problems for public health and social cohesion. For some reason, we've been too unwilling to explore the alternatives necessary to move in more sustainable directions. It finally looks like the daily increasing gas prices are going to force the issue. Public transit ridership is up across the country, and there's no end in sight for these ever-increasing gas prices. It will be interesting to see where this goes. I think we're in for a huge paradigm shift and a re-imagining of what American culture is all about.

Welcome to my blog!

Welcome to my blog! During my studies at the University of Denver, I developed an interest in the areas of urban sustainability and the role geographic information systems (GIS) can play in assessing and developing urban sustainability policy. I became interested in this topic when I discovered that by the end of 2008, over 50% of the human species will live in urban areas. This blog is a way for me to continue those studies, develop my thoughts, and share them with others. Please feel free to leave comments; I would love to have conversations with people who share these interests.

For more information on me and my background, please click on the "My Resume" and "My Capstone" links in the links list on the right.