The Nature of Nature

In Jane Jacob’s The Nature of Economics, there were many different perspectives of the systems that encompass us daily. I liked how she wrote this in a sort of fictional way, to further capture the audience with what the different characters were saying. I think it engages the reader better and keeps their attention. The part where Hiram begins to explain how the different systems are actually not linear but in fact webs, the other characters begin to disagree, just how people in real life would have differing opinions. I appreciate that Jacobs did this style of writing because it shows the reality of how different people have different thoughts on things, and how these disagreements might become arguments in real life. The web system that was explained in the discussion was perfect and a great way to illustrate the way different systems in real life are not closed or isolated from everything else, but in fact actually connected with everything. All systems, weather that be a weather, traffic, government, food or other systems, they are all somehow connected and when one thing happened to one, it will have an effect on all others. And this isn’t just limited to one country. When things happen in one country, those systems can effect other systems in other countries. If pollution in China is severe, those pollution particles can be tracked in California’s air, as has been done already. No system is isolated or alone, and actions in that system will affect all others.

With this system’s concept in mind, I also watched the TED video by Janine Benyus 12 Sustainable Design Ideas From Nature. I thought this video was excellent and the ideas presented by Beynus were great. They show just how nature deals with problems while contributing to its habitats and not harming its surroundings. Humankind can learn a great deal from these ideas to solve our own problems. We have many solutions but at such a heavy cost to the environment we live in, and the one our children and future generations will be living in. One of the most interesting concepts thats already coming into fruition is the one with the insects that fly and never crash into one another because of their communication system. This is now being implemented in automobiles by different car companies. These systems are smarter and institute crash avoidance in a whole new way. These systems have sensors that the car has in place to sense where a car is, how close another car is from itself, where cars are slowing down, real time speed, and so forth. These cars are communicating with each other to avoid crashes and even prevent traffic jams. Many of the ideas presented by Beynus are very well illustrated by nature and we need to pay attention to these to make sure we can harm the environment less and can have a clean, safe home for our children and all other future generations.

Reinventing Green

Societies can get into a habit of thinking about different systems in a certain way. The community can become stagnant and not think about problems with alarming reactions, and let those problems pass as if they weren’t important. In his presentation at UC San Diego at the Roger Revelle Centennial Symposium in the video Science for the Future and the Future of Science, Ashok Khosla talks about various problems in his native India and how Roger Revelle inspired him to do his work in that country. I liked the section of the talk when he spoke about the wine glass theory of economics and how that is not sustainable. The wine glass analogy is perfect for understanding how the higher you are in economic class, the more wealth you are given when you work. Since the stem of the glass becomes very thin, it shows the least amount of wealth given to the lowest workers according to their class. Khosla shows that perfectly in his explanation of the wealth distribution. It allows anyone to see easily how income inequality is a problem. This can be compared to how other environmental problems are looked over and not really paid attention to by society. There is no urgency to fix these problems or to participate in change to view these problems. Until the problem becomes a pressing issue in people’s lives, they don’t really care to make a change.

Because we are always stuck in the same way of thinking, sometimes we don’t believe that our way of thinking could change. This is what Sally Goerner mentioned in the piece Changing the Dream: How Civilizations Reinvent Themselves. I agree with most of what she states in that societies only know what they believe to be the ultimate correct view of the world. There seems to not be any incentive to change that thinking because it is what each society and people from each time period have always known to be correct. She mentions how every few hundred years, the way of thinking changes. Our particular method began with the end of the Medieval ages and has since been valid. We still believe that each person should have equal rights and not just because some people are nobles or royalty they should be treated differently.

I actually thought about this in the context of The Windsors, the Royal Family of England. Some of their actions seem to be stuck in the Medieval times, and this is why there was such public uproar against them when the situation with Princess Diana occurred. Princess Diana was a part of the new, modern way of thinking that everyone should be treated with respect and fairly. None one is entitled to special treatment. When Diana married into the Royal Family, she was an outsider, not royalty, even though her father was the Earl of Spencer. When the public eventually found out of the bad treatment and unfair situations she was placed in by Prince Charles and others, they asked, why are they so special? They’re not, they are just humans like the rest of us. The Queen didn’t understand that anything that happened to them was not only a private family matter, but also a public matter, since they are part of the state of England. With the backlash and then untimely death of Princess Diana, we saw the old and new way of thinking clashing with one another. The old, medieval thinking of entitlement, privateness, and exclusiveness was torn apart when Queen Elizabeth II walked outside the gates of Buckingham Palace with the people to observe the thousands of flowers placed by the people. She couldn’t understand why they cared, why it mattered  to them when something like this was a private matter. That day, they began to see the new, modern way of thinking that included equal rights, open government for the people, and public involvement.

The royal family’s drama many years ago showed us the contract between the old, medieval ways of thinking and the new, modern approach. When we think of our society and systems in a new light, we can understand and find solutions to old problems that we could have never found through our old ways of thinking. This is what needs to happen to society when dealing with environmental problems. We continue to think in our old ways and try to solve modern problems with old solutions. These won’t work and will only work as bandages to larger problems. When we begin to change our thinking as a society and open to new ideas and solutions, we can possibly find solutions to environmental problems and help make our world become a better place

Cycling Towards Change

After learning of the Velib bicycle sharing program in Paris, France from the “Velib” video on Street Films, I was surprised at the speed of the implementation of the program throughout the city. There are a lot of regulatory hurdles that have to be passed through to implement a transit program, but when it comes to bicycles, it might take a bit more. Bike lanes have to be implemented into an already existing city. They are usually not grade separated and are sometimes even placed onto the regular car lanes themselves. Because of these unique factors, it surprised me how fast Paris had their program up and running. Another thing that was very important is the saturation of bike stations throughout the city. The moment a mass transit system ceases to be reliable, people will not use it, and accessibility to bike stations in close proximity to homes and destinations of users is very important for a program to take off and become successful. If Los Angeles was to begin a similar program, the city and region would also need to saturate the area with thousands of bike stations. In Paris, there are 1,400 bike stations, and most importantly, never more than 1000 ft apart. Los Angeles needs to implement a similar program, where they fit bike stations everywhere they can, in areas that are not being used for anything, small nooks and extra space, and make the program very reliable. This is the way people will adopt the program and begin to tell other people about it, and a snowball effect can take place with more people leaving their cars for bikes.

I also watched the short documentary, 2012: Time for Change. This documentary presents the various aspects of the 2012 theories about a change coming to the world. It documents different native tribes and their explanations and other people who give insight to the matter. I have to say that I already thought and agreed with most of this video and what was presented. The 2012 end of the world theories I didn’t take as truth, but what some natives and other people did state is that after that date, a subtle but very important change, even dangerous to us, had occurred. Environmentalists have been warning about a limit or tipping point from which we cannot return from, and I think that is what the documentary was actually aiming for. It was not so much as to declare the apocalypse, but to warn that maybe this particular date was that crucial tipping point for climate change for our planet.

With new modes of transportation like bicycling, we can reduce the carbon footprint we leave on this planet for future generations. Less people driving cars means less pollution and less fossil fuels being used. If cities around the world would begin to adopt systems of transportation that pollute less and even relieve congestion, our societies would be more productive and healthy.

Mindless Plopping

As an urban planning student, I have learned a thing or two about what is best in terms of laying out a city and the techniques that are used right now around the country. Some of these techniques only determine the economic sense or the spacial sense in the methods of getting anything done through these manners.

Until recently, the development and the planning industries didn’t take unto account the environmental or green aspects of any project. Everything had to be on time and under budget if possible. Thats what matters and what still matters for the most part today. However, the planning industry is beginning to shift towards a more sustainable approach. Open spaces, mass transit, and sustainable communities are beginning to become mainstream and people are more accepting and now even expectant of these ideas in everything that is built or remodeled. Edward McMahon talked about how new master planned communities are beginning to encompass nature and environmental aspects in their building and maintenance. These simple aspects were not present only fifty years before, when everything was auto centric and revolved around getting cars through a place as fast and conveniently as possible.

Now that new sustainable communities are popping up all over the country, people are beginning to expect green aspects in their homes and places where they live. This is a great achievement for the environment and for the planet as a whole. The hardest thing is for people to accept the fact that climate change is real and that their choices have a greater impact than they think, and the choice to build and live in more sustainable communities speaks loudly in favor of this.

I do have some disagreements with what Mr. McMahon said about regulations that would make sustainable communities more possible. In order for sustainability to go mainstream, people must accept and vote with their purchases for the places that offer more sustainable and nature friendly amenities to them. Potential buyers will not purchase anything if it is not in their standards, and this is where planning comes in. Regulations like zoning and land use ordinances are in place to raise property values and protect the livability of neighborhoods, whether they are industrial parks or residential zones. People will not want to live next to a polluting factory or coal plant that can spew carcinogens into their air and water. This is why urban planning regulations are in place, and some of these regulations are what McMahon talks about removing. I agree that sustainable communities are important but they will never be publicly accepted until they are also economically profitable, which is what has happened in The Woodlands, Texas. I have visited The Woodlands before and it is amazing what they have done. It truly feels like you’re living in a quieter, peaceful place. The reason this master planned community works is because of the planning and zoning regulations the city has in place to protect property values. What we must find are the sweet spots where a place becomes both environmentally friendly and economically viable.

After reading this, I also viewed the U.N. Climate Summit talk on Democracy Now! Most of the ideas in sustainable community growth and urban environmental friendliness are reverberated by the three person panel that discusses the talks in New York. Vandana Shiva spoke about the devastating floods in India that killed thousands of people. These countries that are still developing have populations that are not so concerned with the environment but more on keeping their jobs and having money to pay their livelihoods. It would seem that the more developed nations like the United States would have citizens that would be more concerned about the environment because they are better off, but we all know this is simply not the case.

The problem for both of these cases, the developed and developing countries, is the economy. The economy is number one for both of them, and the environment comes after. In building sustainable communities, profitability is first. For the people of India, staying alive and keeping their jobs is important, which makes the economy first. We can see a common problem here, the economy is first. The economy and the environment are always unbalanced. When one goes up, the other must go down. It is too expensive to be green and when its green its not profitable.

In building master planned communities, there is a change occurring, one where customers are expecting green aspects in every corner and in every room. We can only hope this trend continues where choosing green will be profitable, and where we can recognize the good it does for our neighborhoods and planet.