Ecological Imperative

The Good Society--Gathering the Evidence

Governance in the good society is grounded in integrated and evidence-based decision-making based on the science and research circulating widely in society. This carbon map is an example of such evidence, as over 95% of the world's scientists now concur that we are indeed changing the climate as a result of human impacts. We need to think carefully about our own perceptions of what our governments say they are doing on our behalf and what decisions are actually being made. Governments are only as accountable as we make them.

Yin and Yang

I write a lot about the need for reconciliation in my work, of the three imperatives, between the built and the non-built environment, and with other species. But I have never thought about the dynamics of the relationship between light and dark, how good lighting also needs darkness. This video shows how light is a default solution for improving the quality of our built environment. Three elements are essential--focal glow, ambient luminescence and play of brilliants.

Design will Save the World

Besides the urban gardening and urban farming movements, there are some wonderful artistic creations being developed, using existing walls of buildings. It is about design with nature, rather than over nature. Others refer to biomimcry. For me, these living walls bring beauty back into out lives, a manufactured nature in some ways (Newman and Dale, forthcoming), but more importantly, they call to our tactile senses, and that, I believe, is critical to the implementation of sustainable development.