A few days ago a trusted colleague, John Steiner, sent me an email thread that told the story of an interesting Japanese invention - a machine that converts plastic into oil. You can see a video for yourself if you click here. This machine answers a question I have harboured for years, and that is: if plastic [...]
Further to the Australian Federal Elections reported here in September. And the US Elections completed two weeks ago, I am noticing more action in the human hive, that says Resource Allocators and Inner Judges are busy trying to decide what to do next. The US Elections brought similar results to those in Australia -- very [...]
At the World Planners Congress (WPC), in June, 2006 I witnessed a notable public paradigm shift when Planning Leaders from around the world issued a position paper on the New Urban Planning (Farmer et al., 2006). In 2006, the authors stated that New Urban Planning was smart planning because it is a responsive learning system. [...]
July Greetings, Integral City-zens and Friends of Integral City We are already into the second half of 2010! Happy 4th of July to American readers! This is a quick link summary of what we have been up to in the first half of 2010 and where we will be going in the second half of 2010. (These are [...]
If you want to find out how complex the relationship between ecology, water resources and human food supplies is becoming, check out this item on Endangerd Species Act Ruling and food production in California. In order to even grasp the players in this scenario one has to gain some altitude and look at it systemically. It [...]
Every New Year needs an inspiring sermon to put life into perspective. At this start to the new decade and with a need for something more than bland resolutions, to repair that which has not worked from the last decade, I like the message in recent sermon by Bruce Sanguin, Founder of the Evolutionary Christian Centre, at [...]
Globe Award 2010 – Leading Sustainability Awards Sustainable cities can be nominated for international award STOCKHOLM, NOVEMBER 23, 2009: Globe Awards will be presented for the fourth consecutive time at the annual gala at Nordiska Museet in Stockholm April 29th, 2010. The applications will be viewed in four categories: research, innovation, city and reporting. The [...]
Mayors need a framework appropriately complex to respond to the emergence of zoonotic diseases (ie. diseases that cross over from animal populations into human populations) (Sapient Circle, 2004). These threats make demands on emergency response systems that are not merely complicated, but are complex. This means that the interconnections of animal and human health systems, through diseases such as SARS, West Nile Disease, BSE, E-Coli and Avian Influenza, create exponential levels of complexity. It appears that zoonotic bio-emergencies are more dynamic and subject to sudden jumps in severity, than non-bio-emergencies, because the underlying viral/biological elements are capable of learning or adapting to their human environments/life conditions. Thus they require complex non-linear approaches to develop successful response strategies.
I've just listened to the Wisdom Radio interviews of Jim Garrison with Bill McKibben, (author of Deep Economy) and Lester Brown (author of Plan B 3.0). Both authors are talking about a decisive metric that has been scientifically confirmed (by IPCC and others) that creates a super-ordinate goal that cities need to subscribe to. It [...]
This article illustrates the twelve intelligences identified in Integral City: Evolutionary Intelligences for the Human Hive (Hamilton, 2008) through the work of architect Teddy Cruz. The author discusses Cruz’s socially responsible architectural practice in terms of each intelligence and demonstrates how he transcends and includes traditional, modern and post modern mindsets into an integral evolutionary paradigm.