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Why Would the Economy Need Biodiversity?
And What Grassplots, Amur Leopard, and Mold Have in CommonWhat is biodiversity for? Some don’t need that question answered: you just adopt a philosopher’s perspective, and everything becomes clear—all living things have the right to dwell on the planet. For others, the question is confusing. Those trying to find a quantitative answer to this question include not only biologists, but also economists—the latter...
ESSAY
CROSSTALK
The Challenges for Innovating in Green and Blue Infrastructure: The Case of an Innovative Drainage Approach in Belo Horizonte, Brazil
Green and blue infrastructure (GBI), a form of nature-based solutions (NBS), can provide huge benefits for cities, as GBIs are innovative ways to connect biodiversity and people. Besides the direct functions that the infrastructure provides (e.g. flood prevention or cooling effect), there is also a series of co-benefits that nature in cities can have, such as the preservation of biodiversity...
CONVERSE
RESPOND
Stories of the Nature of Cities 1/2 Hour. Episode 3—Generations
Episode 3: Generations Thursday 3 December, 2pm EST To register: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_WoAWdCplSIOpazo3KvNGGQ “A Child of the Oasis” by Ari Honavar A mother and daughter meet an undocumented refugee on their annual ride to the father’s Remembrance Wall. “Not Icarus” by Michael Harris Cohen A grandmother defies social law by killing birds to try to save her granddaughter from disease. The...
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Nairobi’s Rapidly Expanding Transport Network is Costing its Ecological Lifeline
Since 2013, the government of Kenya has laid out extensive expansion plans for the city’s transport infrastructure. Nairobi County’s strategy lays out a progressive framework that has seen the introduction of Mass Rapid Transit Systems (MRTS), the standard gauge railway, connectors, and the expansion of several other feeder roads. The 2006-2025 Master Plan of the Nairobi Metropolitan Area also portrays...
Inappropriate Infrastructure Can Make Green Spaces Unlivable
The urban matrix is dominated by the built environment that undoubtedly predominates over green infrastructures like domestic gardens, woodlands, tree-lined streets, squares, sports fields, and green corridors. Thus, cities must be seen as a complex system where the interacting gray, green, and blue elements cannot be analyzed individually. Proper handling of these intricate interactions should guarantee their habitability and sustainability....
What Can Policymakers Do to Enhance Nature-based Solutions for Sustainable Cities?
Cities are almost entirely dependent on surrounding regions for food, water, and energy (FWE) to sustain urban population and activities. Sixty percent of the global population will live in cities by 2030, with 90% of urban growth in the coming decades likely to occur in low- and middle-income countries. Rising costs of urban production, consumer-oriented lifestyles, and pressures to improve...
What I Know Now: The Need for “Good Trouble” to Build an Anti-Racist Science of Ecology
A meditation on race and ecology on the occasion of the death of U.S. Representative John Lewis.Representative John R. Lewis (1940-2020) was a hero of the civil rights movement in the United States. He was one of the six leaders of the famous 1963 March On Washington, a leader of the Freedom Rides and other key protests, as well as...
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SCIENCE &
TOOLS
Depuis Ma Fenêtre / From My Window
Read this in English.J’ai fait les chroniques confinées quotidiennes pendant la quarantaine parisienne, et voici quelques observations récentes de notre maison à Pantin, dans la banlieue nord-est de Paris. Les Mésanges charbonnières qui ont élu domicile dans le...
PEOPLE &
COMMUNITITES
Orchards from the Forest: A Local Solution to Extinction
The destruction of Cerrado (Brazilian Savannah), the second largest biome in Brazil after Amazonia, has become the main concern of urban collectives focused on reintroducing elements of this important ecosystem in city landscapes and in the imaginations of city dwellers. In this essay, we look at urban farming for Cerradoregeneration from the perspective of cultural historical activity theory (CHAT) (Engeström, 2001,...
PLACE &
DESIGN
An Antidote for the Unjust City: Planning to Stay
In 1993 or thereabouts I entered a contest for women to depict what they did on a particular day. That day, I went to meetings early in the morning at Harlem Hospital. I took photos of the abandoned buildings on West 136th, where I parked my car, and photos of a huge plastic bag in one of the stunted trees....
ART &
AWARENESS
Reflections on Cities, Seasons and Bioregions
This winter I had occasion to spend a few days in the city of Albuquerque, where it was cold, dry and brown. Winter in the Southwestern United States. Trees along the Rio Grande were bare; not too many trees elsewhere. Taking the taxi back home from the Los Angeles International Airport, fondly known as LAX, was almost a sensory overload,...