Polar Ice

Flying back via Dubai from India recently over the polar route gave me an excellent chance to see the icebergs and glaciers from 40,000 feet. Emirates provides a great service and a bearable 16-hour flight which most folks use as a "sleeping car". But I had to follow the flight plan on the monitor and shoot a few glaciers and icebergs, the topic of some discussion on the change in the ice sheet in the polar region, particularly Greenland.

It's a marvel to see the world from this perspective, and hope that this will not be sacrificed to human encroachment. New studies and findings about the changes here present a real concern about the impact this will have on the global warming process. Ilulissat Icefjord, in northern Greenland, has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and is the focus of studies on the impact of climate change in the arctic. President Obama has just decided to address the Copenhagen summit on Dec. 9, and provide US commitments to the climate change discussions, with the hope that this will spur global discussions and commitments to lowering carbon output immediately.

The monitor shot shows where the photos were taken, after a flyover of Iceland, approaching the eastern coastline of Greenland.

Whistling in the Wind

The Copenhagen meeting on global warming and carbon reduction is fast approaching in December, and the prospects grow dimmer for a deal. The world's top three carbon polluters — the United States, China and India — have not indicated whether their leaders will attend the meeting, and that could have a big impact on its chances of reaching a consensus on action, as this article warns.

This, in the face of documentation that this phenomenon has occurred three times faster than predicted, much worse than anticipated back during Kyoto which the Bush administration refused to attend. In fact, it's deteriorated so rapidly that some scientists are taking the position that it's now unstoppable.

Because these negotiations are driven for the need to protect economies and cash flows, they are not able to focus on the real issue of simply taking large-scale, effective action which would reverse our human environmental impact in time. If the global leadership is in denial, then the whole ship goes down with the captain when the inevitable takes place.

I wouldn't have wished this for the world, but now things will play out in a way that must necessarily restore these unbalanced systems.

UNpave the City

Our predilection in US cities for spreading asphalt and concrete everywhere is taking its toll. The New York Times talks today about how the decrease in unpaved surfaces - due to development - has led to dangerous sewage overflows during rainy periods.

" But New York’s system — like those in hundreds of others cities — combines rainwater runoff with sewage. Over the last three decades, as thousands of acres of trees, bushes and other vegetation in New York have been paved over, the land’s ability to absorb rain has declined significantly. When treatment plants are swamped, the excess spills from 490 overflow pipes throughout the city’s five boroughs."

What this means for many older urban areas is a massive rebuild and configuration of existing infrastructure, transportation and public areas that is most likely beyond the budget capabilities of the old-fashioned industrial model of development.

This would then leave it to a new model of development that uses the arcology concept to build a completely self-sufficient project that incorporates its own waste processing and water conservation and reuse, and including landscape and natural terrain restoration. This keeps the load off of an aging municipal system and restores the ability of the natural systems to respond to weather and provide oxygen. This is beyond "Zero Carbon" models and part of the "Energy plus" model that is appropriate for large projects and development.

Urban reforestation and watershed restoration that brings the natural environment back into existing cities, such as UNpave, is another path that can balance human needs with the carrying capacity of the planet. For example in the picture above, the brick paving is perforated in several places with round green 'pockets', planted with pine trees and seasonal flowers. The trees, which can stand the extreme temperatures of Moscow, are reminiscent of its surrounding birch-pine forest. The designer, West 8, is based out of Netherlands, and is an urban design & landscape architecture firm established since 1987.

Litterbugs

Glorious shot of Everest in the ancient Himalayas, clear and warm weather showing the pristine flanks of the peaks. Except - take a look closer. Down in the trekking and climbing trails, lots of refuse: discarded plastic bottles, sleeping mats, foil packets, the usual human refuse which marks the eons-old habits of instant disposal that informs many an archeological dig. Unfortunately this refuse is made of plastic and nondegradable materials that should be carried out under a policy of zero tolerance for refuse and waste, much as is done in the USA's Grand Canyon in order to preserve what natural properties remain of the ecosystem.

The roads and trails of Nepal and India are littered with refuse, particularly since the products of Western societies have invaded a continent that is not prepared for the onslaught of non-biodegradable or burnable materials. The enzymes and the micro organisms responsible for breaking down organic materials that occur naturally such as plants, dead animals, rocks and minerals, don’t recognise plastics and polymers. What formerly broke down quickly now lasts for hundreds of years, eventually breaking down into polymers that contaminate the biosphere by introducing hormone-disrupting compounds into the environment.

In a society where refuse (and corpses!) are burned out in the open, this creates serious problems of not just pollution, but a cycle of disruption of the food chain, ultimately concentrating at the top of it, where the predators (human, mammal and fish) concentrate these chemical disruptors and experience the effects on the endocrine system that create systemic disorders. With the understanding that cultural shifts are not desirable throughout the globe, and that local cultures should be presereved, it's imperative to respect the indigenous practices and not contaminate their environment with oil-based polymers. This plastic pollution eventually ends up in the Pacific oceanic landfills known as the Western and Eastern Pacific Garbage Patches; huge accumulations of plastic that ultimately end up on the shores of many countries and destroys life in the ocean and on the ocean floor. Banning the worldwide production of plastic bags and containers would be a very constructive first step.

One hopeful development is the production of biodegradable packages and products, using corn, soy, and possibly hemp-based materials so that these materials break down quickly and are beneficial to recycle or burn in the traditional fashion. Implementing a recycling system into a culture that is still living very rurally without any infrastructure is not a viable solution, so it becomes the responsiblity of the global manufacturers and the government to make certain that this problem doesn't continue.

It's disheartening to see this beautiful country begin to resemble the dirty highways full of trash that are endemic to Western culture, and to see that its environment is becoming irreversibly contaminated.

When is Enough Plenty?

So what is climate change about? I'm taking this opportunity on Blog Action Day to join up with more than 13,000 other keypad-enabled folks all over the globe to pitch in my 2 centavos. We're ramping up to the UN Climate Change Conference in December, in Copenhagen, where the international community will agree on some essentials, if things go well.

Getting the arms around this issue (and I don't mean the military ones) involves quantified information as well as a means of calculating carbon footprint, which is the crux of this whole issue. Having done that, the strategy involves solving the problem by changing lifestyles and behavior.

But what does this mean, really, to humanity on this earth? To me, sitting here in the USA which is famously a first-world power with incredible global reach and also historically the biggest producer of CO2 and pollution on earth by far, it means asking the question, "When is enough plenty?"

We just hoover it in and spit it out. More, more more. UBS, AIG, Goldman. While planetary life dies from this. The greed of it is rapacious and unending, the piles of money and stuff that matters to no one at the end of a lifetime yet leaves a legacy of waste. We've lost the quality of immersion in life, the ability to honor the simple and sacred, for the sake of speed and superficiality. Where is the real? I think it will find us in a way that we don't want.

Unless we change the climate of our minds.

Of Mice and Men

The best laid plans - in this case, no plans are laid at all. Peter Gleick poses excellent musings on the realities of population versus diminishing resources, and the inability of local governments to foresee the impacts of their policies and decisions. Megaregion planning is something that is emerging in some of the more dense clusters, but the limits to growth are not being examined. America 2050 tries to project into the future for some of the larger trends.

Data on infrastructure and planning is on our State government website, along with an admission that decisions are being made in a disjointed fashion, and asks for a consolidated planning organization. Which apparently SCAG is gunning for, but with a completely wrong old-boy agenda. The presented example of a good plan is the SANDAG diagram. It's strictly logistical and growth-oriented.

This site lays the groundwork for land use and transportation to guide all planning, but does not include any consideration of natural capital or social capital, which are crucial elements of the entire picture. So it's very one-dimensional and isn't supportable, and fosters destructive bubbles like we've seen with banking and real estate in the last year. What's happening is that this view only sees government and commerce, with the underground economy and its impacts in the shadows. So of course its solutions are incomplete and ultimately don't work.

A regenerative approach is necessary, as I've laid out before, and will involve the processes of a values-driven culture and a recognition of the larger aspects of the impact of human habitation.

Wrapup

Here's the rest of the 1414 Fair Oaks Building story. In 1982, a very swingin' bash was put on by Whit, Wayne and Bob to say farewell to all that had transpired in the 24 years of its history. Herb designed the invitation. Whit played sax in a barbershop quartet - so he WAS the entertainment - and we all showed up for a last party there. The facility was sold, and underwent some modifications. Subsequently it had a close call with the wrecking ball, but it was rescued from that fate (tip of the hat to Ray Girvigian, FAIA, who also had an office here) and later purchased by a private buyer for professional office use.

So there was another party and reunion in June of 2005, with South Pasadena Heritage attending, along with the new owners who continue to use the structure today. The community was very pleased with the outcome, and the Chamber of Commerce staged their own gathering of luminaries here to set this structure off on its new course. As of today, the immediately adjacent lot is being cleared for new construction, but this hallmark of an era and the imprint of uniquely influential design practice in the City of South Pasadena remains!