2014 Midterm Elections, Get Out The Vote!

If it’s not one thing, it’s another keeping me from sitting down and really ramping up this blogging thing. However, this was too important to pass up at least a quick reblog.

Environmental and sustainability issues are in many ways inherently political. While there is a lot that all of us can do to move things in the right direction, making sure we are represented by people who understand the need to debate the options and take action is vital. (Yes, I know many of us think that the whole system here in the USA is broken to at least some degree, but that’s a post for another day. Maybe.) I have seen a meme floating around that I think summarizes my thoughts on voting fairly succinctly: “Not voting is not a statement; it is surrender.” (I might not have that exactly right, but it’s close. If I can find an attribution for this, I’ll update this post with the information.) I’m preparing to vote, are you?

WordPress.com News

Since 2004, WordPress has set out with an ambitious goal in mind — to democratize publishing and put state-of-the-art tools in front of publishers both large and small across the planet. We believe strongly in this vision because when more people have access to powerful tools on the web, that in-turn empowers them to do great things and publish amazing content. We feel the same way when it comes to democratizing, well, democracy — and in just a few weeks, citizens across the United States will have a unique opportunity to flex their political muscle and vote in the 2014 Midterm Elections.

For our part, we want to provide our US-based users a set of resources to help them make a smart, informed decision when it comes to who they will vote for. We also want to provide a toolkit so that they can get more information on where to…

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Feeding the People: Food & Urban Sustainability

In the process of catching up on some news feeds today, I ran across this article from the BBC on a sustainable global food system for the 21st Century. This is probably one aspect of sustainability that gets the least exposure, but could be one of the most important.

One thing the article notes is that due to the increase in urban population, more than half of the world’s people now live in cities. This brings up an interesting question: where do these people get their food? Feeding the urban population of the world as it expands over the next decades will be a major component in creating sustainable cities. Traditionally, planners haven’t gotten involved in this aspect of urban planning. This is beginning to change, however. In 2007, the American Planning Association (APA) developed a Policy Guide on Community and Regional Food Planning in a effort to break through misconceptions that food has no connection with professional planning practice. The policy guide goes on to look at the land use connections to food systems and the impact of fossil fuels used to transport food the incredible distances it now travels from farm to plate.

This is one area that I’ll admit I don’t have a lot of background in, but I can see being a key piece of the puzzle of urban sustainability. As I find more information on this, I’ll post it here. If anyone reading this knows of any resources to look at, please feel free to share in the comments.