Planning Pool

Thanks to Martin Heigan on Flickr for this beautiful Creative Commons photo.

For the past three months, I have had the pleasure of participating in a series of discussions led by Dr. Bill Rees on the subject of the Post-Carbon City. It has been invigorating and exciting to imagine how we will transition out of our fossil fuel dependence. A key theme to these discussions has been: “What will the new economy look like when constrained by the social and ecological limits of our world?”

In a few weeks, this question (and many more) will be explored in greater detail when Vancouver hosts North America’s first ever De-Growth Conference from April 29 to May 2, 2010.

Speakers include: Vanessa Timmer, Peter Victor, Rex … Continue Reading

City in a Bubble by Flickr user polishq

Nicole Boyer facilitated a panel of speakers yesterday at Gaining Ground. Bill Rees, Vanessa Timmer, and Vincent Tan spoke about why we need to rethink cities and what cities of the future could look like.

To set up the context of why we need to rethink cities, Bill Rees showed how cities tax our ecosystems. Rees blamed Cartesian Dualism for creating the idea of “the environment,” something that is artificially separated from people and has infinite energy, resources, and capacity for waste. He also questioned the idea that economic growth is necessary, showing that growth is only a new phenomenon when considering the whole … Continue Reading