Our post yesterday, “Taking on Smart Growth” prompted a lengthy exchange between the author and a very well informed critic. Despite our best efforts to communicate our point of view, ultimately the critic described our criticisms of new urbanism as coming from “Wingnuttia.” Rather than continue to argue the point on yesterday’s post, [...]

When green technology delivers decentralized solutions to water and energy - from hi-tech and low maintenance, ultra-effective septic systems to affordable rooftop photovoltaics and electrical storage systems, there are a lot of public works contractors who will be looking for something to do.

A green mega-project:
High rise agriculture for food & biofuel.
(Photo: www.verticalfarm.com)

Fortunately, we have the [...]

Definition: “New Urbanism - the revival of our lost art of place-making, and promotes the creation and restoration of compact, walkable, mixed-use cities.”
It is completely impractical to make everything “walking distance” from everything else. People like cars. The car is the most liberating personal appliance ever invented. The new urbanist war [...]

Definition:  “New Urbanism - the revival of our lost art of place-making, and promotes the creation and restoration of compact, walkable, mixed-use cities.”
On one of www.TreeLink.org’s posts, I noticed the tag “urban forestry is America’s frontline defense against climate change.”  I couldn’t agree more.
So how is this statement reconciled with “new urbanism” and “smart growth” that [...]

To follow up on yesterday’s post, it has become more clear than ever how land use decisions are the place where every tenant of environmentalism is applied, yet the centrality of land use, like the centrality of population demographics, is rarely the focus of environmental discussions.  But if population demographics provide the primary preconditions for [...]

Not long ago I learned of an excellent service for urban forestry, www.treelink.org, which has a list-serve that is possibly the most subscribed interlink for professional arborists in the United States, if not the world.  For several weeks now I’ve been reading the emails that fly back and forth between these folks who have the [...]

We have just published an interview with noted climate scientist Roger Pielke, Sr., a retired professor of atmospheric science at Colorado State University, Ft. Collins, and a senior research scientist at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Since July 2005 he has written and maintained Climate Science, a blog that serves as a scientific forum for [...]