Short grass

Are the emission from cars the biggest threat for environment or is it short cutted laws? We need new eyes and new structures to see the full picture with new solutions.

Identity

Destructions of rights to resources and erosion of democratic control of natural resources, the economy and the means of production undermine cultural identity. With identity no longer coming from the positive experience of being a farmer, a craftperson, a teacher, or a nurse, culture is reduced to negative shell where one identity is in competition with the "other" over scare resources that define economic and political power.

- Another World is Possible- Popular alternatives to globalization at the world social forum, 2003 W.F. Fisher and T. Ponniah

Social construction of reality

Man is biologically predestined to construct and to inhabit a world with others. This world becomes for him the dominant and definitive reality. Its limits are set by nature, but once constructed, this world acts back upon nature. In the dialectic between nature and the socially constructed world the human organism itself is transformed. In this same dialectic man produces reality and thereby produces himself.

-The social construction of reality, 1966 by Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luchmann

Identity

Robert Merton (1957, Social Theory and Social Structure) describes the situation where we end up wrongly labeling others, and through this we actually influence their action, and they eventually become and act according to the label that then reaffirms our original label.

"You are a dumb student"; you begin to act like a dumb student; eventually you come to think of yourself and act as a dumb student.

And then we, in turn, are able to proudly declare that we knew who you were a long time ago. Merton call this "the self-fulfilling prophecy. "Yes. I guess this is who I am." Identity is a powerful aspect in everyone's definition of the situation. "Who we are" and "who they are" guide almost everyone in social interaction one way or another. [As people can talk without words, i.e with body language, the sentence "you are a dumb student" doesn't need to bee spoken. And as we are able to talk to our selves, we can also say that "You a dumb student", to ourselves.. never do]

More generally, the idea that even then we say nothing our clothes are talking noisily to everyone who sees us, telling them who we are, where we come from, what we like to do in bed and a dozen other intimate things, may be unsettling. To wear what "everyone else" is wearing is no solution to the problem, any more than it would be to say what everyone else is saying. We all know people who try to do this; even if their imitation of "everyone" is successful, their clothes do not shut up; rather thay broadcast without stopping the information that this is a timid and conventional man or woman, and possible an untrustworthy one. We can lie in the language of dress, or try to tell the truth; but unless we are naked and bald it is impossible to be silent.

 (Alison Lurie, 1982. The Language of Clothes)

 Interactions is also responsible for society. It is through it that society is formed, reaffirmed, and altered. It is through the absence of continuous interaction that society ceases to exist. Society depends on individuals continuously interaction with one another and with themselves.

The work of Goffman reminds us that creating identity is an active negotiation process between who others tell us we are and our continuous attempts to present who we think we are to others.

Social interactions, then, takes on further importance now. It is not only the basis of our human nature qualities; it is not only an important cause of how we act in situations; but it is also the negotioation process through which we create one another's identity. Through social interaction we become who in the world we are.

__________________________
All text from the book Symbolic Interactionism, An introduction, an interpretation, an integration, Joel M. Charon, 2009

Detective work

“I have already explained to you that what
is out of the common is usually a guide rather
than a hindrance. In solving a problem of this
sort, the grand thing is to be able to reason
backwards. That is a very useful accomplishment,
and a very easy one, but people do not
practise it much. In the every-day affairs of
life it is more useful to reason forwards, and
so the other comes to be neglected. There are
fifty who can reason synthetically for one who
can reason analytically.”

[swedish translation from which I read it would

be, last section;

"Only one man of fifty has the ability

to think analytically, the rest is dedicated to

puzzles all the parts together and hope to

thus obtain an overall picture in the end"]

-A study in Scarlet, 1887 (Sherlock Holmes), by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

To build up a forest

I'm in the middle of the agricultural area in the county Scania, southern Sweden. This is the best place for agriculture in Sweden and now heavily industrialized, with mile-long section of arable land in each direction and only few trees. Although Linnaeus said in the 1700's that soil erosion was a big problem in Scania and would be even worse in the future, and the solution for that in the 1800's; miles of willows planted as wind barrier and animal food, has now been saw down in favor of wider roads for cars, this in the 1900's. So soil erosion has been prevalent in recent years, and may be worse with a different climate (link to a report of a longer study on the correlation between weather and soil erosion in the area). Farmers, government, or any, must become better to build up barriers between the fields, to prevent the soil to move.


Here, in the middle of the agricultural area, some of those "any"; namely two brothers, began to plant trees at their own land. When the family bought more land, they planted more trees and a plan to grow a whole forest was in their minds.




Some trees (oak, hazel,
beech, cherries and wild apples, some showed
in the pictures) was planted
here as seeds, and
seedlings and are today
over 2 meter tall trees. But still, here is no forest. It's just a plan for a small forest, which is waiting and is planned to be here. Trees are carefully planted in the soil, and planned to not come too close to each other. And thoughts goes through my so-called ecologist mind, of how a forest grow back naturally, and how long this strategy would take to build up a forest. Even if its a small one. What can you can do with the land, when you are waiting; (my (ironic) solution were); build a private amusement park, a golf course or a wetland (with trees on its side).

The land is too big to use for permaculture or anything like that and a small vegetable plot is already there. So it is just a long wait, for a forest to take place. A land for the nature and with nature, a place where nature grows back. Even if more animals like deers are desired, the small trees need protection so the forest can take place and more food for them can grow here. Again a small contradiction of pure nature and a helping hand.


Some of the trees are newly planted in the soil, and are just tiny seedlings, so to protect them against grazing animals such as deer, some protection was invented (shown in the pictures, nets, baskets and wood strips).
















This week, with a report in my mind on how the present of hazel give a clue that we had a open landscape in the past as a result from grazing by large herbivores (article from Dr. Frans Vera, who argue that hazel and oaks needs open space, but to protect from grazing animals, they grow up with a protection of bushes with thorns, can't find the right ones but another; page 5, The effects of large herbivores on vegetation dynamics in temperate Europe), we went for an ecological experiment; small raspberry plants were found, dug up and we plant them around the small tree seedlings to protect them from grazing (first picture below).

Some of the older trees got a better soil from a tip from a girlfriends father. We went out and dug some square meters around 10 of the trees to take away competition from grass and herbs, then some mulch and a lot of water. On the top we placed newspaper, with rocks and grass to hold it, to make it moist and free from new grass (second picture below).

I think we did a good job. But this is a slow process. If any have a similar experience.. this project need some more good tips.














In this part of Scania, plans to try to plant (back) some of the old willow rows are ongoing. A dialog shall start this year, from which farmers and land owners can have a say and would be convinced to plant willows on their land, the dialogue is organized from Leader Söderslätt, as a part of the Swedish rural area program, under the EU LEADER initiative. The strongest argument is that willow rows is a part of the cultural history (article about the willow planting dialog, in Swedish), but more willows would, if the rows are more connected to each other, allow animals to walk longer distances, which would be good for biodiversity but what about arable land and grazing on vegetables? Truth is that heavily industrialized agriculture doesn't need animals.

Most and first, we need to see that there is enough trees to prevent soil erosion. Sweden have many programs in other countries with tree planting and other actions to build up better arable land and prevent soil erosion, from our aid organization SIDA, maybe they should go to southern Sweden and help out a little too?



This part of Scania is so beautiful, with the open landscape and a stormy ocean so close that it is easy to forget about the problems here, but projects as those mentioned, is a prove that some very interested people around here wants to uncover the difficult truth, to make it a better place from the holistic view to ensure future living.

Learning, doing and groupwork

The only thing that endures over time is the law of the farm: I must prepare the ground, put in the seeds, cultivate it, water it, then gradually nature growth and development to full maturity.. there is no quick fix.

-Stephen Covey

Balance of nature

Besides of intra and inter- specific competition (competition between individuals within a species and between species) there is also a "kind side" of nature, the trophic levels. Those trophic levels are not limited by competion between individuals or by species, but from energy. With a ratio of 1:10, those tropic levels shapes a pyramid, with few food-chains longer than 4 steps.

In the trophic pyramid, humans effect it everywhere; from being the producers, the consumers, predators and decomposers. Well, our way of doing it is always worse than nature and extra energy is needed always and biproducts seems to be inavitable.

However. My idea was to see people more as producers, with a lot of knowledge both scientific but also like a human knowledge, we know how we live, what's working, what's not and so on. If humans was seen more as producers in the food-chain, everything would be dependend on them later on. If humans would be seen more as producers than consumers that needs a fixed ground (the plants in the ecosystem, the society with structures and buildings in the human system), we would gain more energy in the higher level, that means a more effective work with less competition.

What shape has the watch?

"Why should anyone claim the shape of a watch is round - a manifestly false proposition -since it appears in profile as a narrow rectangular construction, elliptic on three sides; and why the devil should one only have noticed its shape at the moment of telling the time?

-Alfred Jarry

Old reuse update

Society in modern times is about consumption, and consumption is about resources. When we do new things for higher consumption, we also have a reduction of valuable resources and often have a major impact on the environment. What companies want is to sell more things, it does not matter if it is, excuse me when I say this, cheap crap that breaks down directly, it's pretty good actually, if it does, so the store can sell the new stuff tomorrow .

That is why we must reverse the high consumption of resources to a high consumption of things, things that we already have. We can change things we do not want more. But it is not a flea market or second hand stores, this time, neither the private second-hand shopping between people from advertisements in newspapers and the Internet, no- this may be a company that buys things from customers and sell it back to the store, which can sell it to new customers. It's fairly easy to implement in some stores that have their own brands, such as clothing stores, eyewear and footwear. Or why not in the market for tools and materials for construction? Video game stores have a system already in stores, when they buy used games from customers and sell them to new customers, nothing wrong with that, but if you go back to your dress, blouse or shirt that you used once at a party and want no more, it could be more than strange to go back to the store and want money back for it - today.

A company in the customer-business in a direction opposite from today, can be a good way to have contact with customers, as it would not be too fun to go back to the store and "give the clothes back", so REuse fix that instead, the customer will get money in advance and the clothes goes back to "the starting store", the store that sold it originally or the store that wants to buy it "back". It should also be marked as a REuse thing. Large stores which sells a lot of things can have a special corner or area with REuse things, a corner which can attract new customers to the store, when the price is lowered ..

The main point would be that things have a "second rate", such as cars, boats and houses has today. So the customers can consume things to different types of events, and after the party or camping trip, they can get some money for it instead of having a lot of junk in their house! The customers can see that things are worth money even if they are little used, in a much simpler way than today, where you have to be active in searching for and advertising for both old and "cheaper" stuff.

If the company REuse would start and get a bigger venue, it can change the world a little bit for the better. We can still have a high consumption, but it becomes a different type. And it's good for the environment, shops, and us.

Since there were things we wanted to have, right? We never believed that they must be cheap and bad for the environment? Good quality and longevity will be the next thing for many stores. And it can lead to increased consumption, because money can recycle also. The only loss is for customers who wants new things, but it is their choice (it can also be a slogan .. REuse, it's up to you how to choose) and they can acually buy more with less money even if things would be more expensive, because of the oportunity to "give it back". So even small stuff can be handle with care, when they have a value even after they left the store and the price paper taken off. The company REuse, shops, customers and the environment benefits from this system so why not just start reuse?

I made a small scheme to get an overview. Read the image from the people box. Business 1, 2 and 3 may be a hiking shop, HoM and a shoe company. Black lines show the way of things and pink lines, the money flow. Pink lines should also be between company 1,2 and 3 and REuse.

A little summary list of REuse

• Less garbage


• Can lead to better usage and handling of products


• A second value to small stuff like cloths, camping, video games (already have it), constructing market, glasses, bicycles, electric stuff, carpets, furnitures, lamps etc


• A value in “old crap”


• Is a company- so its just for the store to buy it “again” from the company


• Stores get a stronger name- you can get the same brand and stuff but a bit cheaper- reused
  - which can lead new custumers to the store


• The loss for the custumer “that wants more” gets it back when she/he can sell things easy and not bunker things in their homes


• The stores will make a profit


• Can lead to better products, products which last longer


• The company REuse can be as a brand but instead of being a labeling for good things, it is a profit company too


• This shape a circular usage instead of a linear


• Can effect stores to start renting out stuff instead of sell everything


• A mix of new and "old" in the same store, makes the old stuff more valued than hiding it in a corner of a flea market

Like it? Well, go ahead. Implement it for real. Steal my idea and make it big!

Human justice- environmental issues

a toe infection, a psychopath makes life terrible for an ex girlfriend and an innocent woman drags into a money fraud. how can we start to talk about things like recycling glas or paper in those cases? environmental problems are not about silly things like that and we need to understand that without a society where people feel that they can make a different, nothing will ever change. what we need to understand is that human justice is a basic need for future development and to get to environmental issues, the basic needs have to be fixed first. and after that we need to build up a more environmental friendly system, which also works without to much of a pain. so to fix the task; ask people what they need and how, that means a good environment (human life) is needed for a good environment (future life). what this is al about tonight, is that things are not easy to fix, because we live and respond to the human society and therefore humans who live in that system knows what is difficult. ask them, do not just give them facts to follow. we need more real bounds.

Treehotel- a hotel in a tree

Come closer to nature, live in a tree!
Go and feel nature, sleep in a treehut, one hour drive from Luleå, in Harads, North Sweden. Plan is to make 24 of them. Inspiration came from the movie Trädälskaren.

17th of July is the first night you can book. But you can take a look at the concept at their homepage here.

More treehouses can be found at the Treehouse by design blog

The secret powers of time

Great animation about different time perspectives from different time zones and different people, and the effects for all of us.

Interested for more? See when Philip Zimbardo, has the full (real) presentation here.

Seasonal Ingredient Map

Easy overview of seasonal food in US plus find ingredient descriptions, shopping guides, recipes, and tips

We don't have that for Europe.. is it because we eat even more locally? Or just a language barrier, or just that we travell less and do not care what other countries are doing, again- eat more locally. Come on.

The orang-utan gets to have a well-deserved break

The orang-utan, as well as Indonesia's rainforests and carbon-rich peatlands, finally get to have that break you've been asking Nestlé to give them. Earlier this week the biggest food and drink company in the world announced it was committing to stop using products that come from rainforest destruction.

From Greenpeace's newsletter (click to read full article)

Communication for another development

The irony in this field is that the world "communication" has many interpretations. This leads to the confusion so evident in the latter to the professor. The different interpretations stems from a variety of myths: (1) communication can be improved in any time; (2) communication is the same as medium; (3) communication units in agencies have a clear mandate; (4) communication is about sending information; (5) information will do the job.

"participatory communication shapes the very nature of development, while 'telling' communication simply promotes the desired development outcome.

Three coordinates that guide our actions and the ability to choose different communication functions for each initiative; Campions- have a sincere belief in helping people discover their own potential; Context- communities, geography, culture and history, organisations, donor institutions and corporations, government, politics, policies, funding rules, media, time; Communication-from just telling to a mix of telling and listening to a focus on listening, exchange and dialogue (advocacy and participatory)

"If this sounds basic and straightforward to you, good for you! It took us twenty-five years to figure it out"

From the book Communication for Another Development- Listening Before Telling. Windy Quarry and Ricardo Raírez

Französisches Viertel

Second of four best examples of sustainable neighbourhood (in the world?); the Französisches Viertel, Tübingen in Germany. First post was about the Vauban district in German Freiburg and third and fourth are from Sweden; Hammarby Sjöstad in Stockholm and Western Harbour in Malmö



TÜBINGEN
Tübingen is a university town 45 km south of Stuttgart. Its population is 87,000 and has been growing for a long time, mainly due to migration. New areas needs to be planned. Here is an example from Südstadt.

PROJECT APPEARANCE DESCRIPTION; Französisches Viertel (French Quarter, 9.8ha) is now an area for 6500 people and 2000 jobs. The land was before an area with former French military barracks, now an area with new housing in between; including mixed-use, high-density and car-reducing transport concepts, and advanced landscape, water and energy solutions. Kindergarten, schools, meeting rooms, studio for artists and a lot of open space. In one of the picture, a special playground with arrangements for watergame. Mix of old and new, big and detailed, community gardens and plants on the balconies. The organic process required a relatively high freedom in design.

Strategy; The strategy was implemented by making use of a Städtebauliche Entwicklungsmassnahme ("Urban Development Act", S165 BauGB) which allows a municipality to remain in control of the development process. The framework contained a written part, describing both physical and social objectives, and a master plan, resulting from an open competition that was won by three architecture students in 1992. Land was advertised in the local media. Public events organised by the agency served as participatory platforms through which people interested in joining a partnership could get to know each other. In the first round, the fundamentals of planning information on the citizens arranged themselves into groups, a decision which is primarily from the respective life situation is: families with children, older people, adults without children, professionals, youths, students and women to interests of a female-planning resume. Once an interest group had formed, the agency could decide to grant a site option, usually for a period of six months. Options were given upon provision of bank securities by each member and an assessment of the group's social composition. In making this assessment, the agency aimed to establish a true social mix, with no dominating social factor. Applications were decided on public meetings, on which the agency had to justify any rejection. These interest groups expressed their specific demands on the design of public space in general and in relation to specific spatial situations. Initially this was done in an initial brainstorming session on this first night, then later in the formed working groups were formed from each stakeholder group spokesman elected were the following, which one continuously held working group met in the supervision of a neutral moderator was here the comparison between the well various interests held, with the help of a landscape architect as a "drawing hand" was a specific plan.

Participation: Initiating top-down
Participants: citizens who made it higher than that of a foreign design
Structure: Municipality of Tübingen, partnership groups
Financing: No specific subsidies were given beyond the standard tax breaks available nation-wide at the time (Eigenheimzulage - now discontinued).

More to read;
Seminar Nachhaltige Siedlungen in Baden-Württemberg

Vauban

First out of four best examples of sustainable neighbourhood (in the world?); the district of Vauban in Freiburg, Germany. Next post is Französisches Viertel (French Quarter) in German Tübingen and then two exampes from Sweden; Hammarby Sjöstad in Stockholm and Western Harbour in Malmö


FREIBURG
Freiburg in South-West Germany is called one of the greenest cities in the world. Not only because of its surroundings and closeness to Black Forest but because of its green policy, the political perspective.

The green movement in the city began over 30 years ago with the succesful campaign against the proposed nuclear power plant an nearby Whyl. After the Chenobyl disaster 1986 the municipalty desided to abdon nuclear power. Same year, Freiburg became on of the first cities in Germany to establish an Environmental Protection Office. Freiburg is now famous for the large investment in solar energy, public transportation and high use of bicycles. But in Freiburg its more; "citizens of Freiburg really do identify themselves with this policy".

PROJECT APPEARANCE DESCRIPTION; Vauban, a neighbourhood project, 38 hectares big, with 5000 inhabitans and 600 jobs, is one of the best examples of how to build urban spaces with ecological awarness. The neighbourhood is traffic-calmed, with majority of households not owning a car. Two large garages are situated in both ends. Low energy building is obligatory; zero-energy or energy-plus buildings are standard for the most. Between the housing the rows of old trees have been preserved as much as possible. Flat-roof with vegetation, store rainwater which is reused. Schools, kindergarten, youth facilities, civic meeting places, market place, restaurangs and cafeés as well as spaces for recreation and play can be found here. A tramline goes to and from the city center, rail covered with grass to reduce the sound. Single houses are promitted which leads to a compact urban building structure. The overall look is 2-4 stores high houses which are very diverse; every house have its own appairience, with a lot of green in the between but as well as at, over and around the houses.

Strategies; Several different ways to enter the area; the Genova Housing Association originated from Forum Vauban and was founded in 1997 to allow people with low incomes to be part of the Vauban project, the Students' Union, SUSI created dormitories with rooms for 600 students in six old barracks and three new buildings and the Buergerbau (Citizens' Building Stock Corporation) specialises in co-ordinating the building cooperatives (Baugruppen) as well as private developers. 15 baugruppen (several households get together, decide on a piece of land, plan a building and hire an architect and building team, thus saving money and time), co-building and co-housing were formed, each consist 5-15 families. To organise the whole, organisation Forum Vauban, founded in 1995 to support the planning and building process. Their maninly activties are;

• Supporting the implementation of community-based building projects such as "Baugruppen" (groups of building owners), co-housing and co-operative building.
• Realisation of a sustainable model district, especially in the fields of traffic and energy.
• Coordination of the social work and implementation of a neighbourhood center
  

Participation: Bottom up
Participants: far-reaching citizen participation initiates model projects which go beyond sustainable measures set by a city.
Structure: forum of inhabitants (Forum Vauban e.V.), city council working group Vauban, building administration/project group Vauban
Financing: urban developing measures; provincial revitalisation programme Baden-Württemberg, model projects funded, amongst others, by the EU (LIFE programme) and the German Federal Foundation for the Environment, private investors


Read more;
Sustainable Urban District Freiburg-Vauban
Freiburg Green City

Personal reflection on why and how

It seems that some people are born with an alturistic way to look upon the world. Altruism, definded as an unselfish consern for the wellfare of others is also used in biology where one can count how good it is to "help another" in a matter of pretect the genes in a family or colony, so called kin selection. Example is social insects and the naked mole rat. In our society, people can behave alturistic and have courage to stand up for others who can't speak up. But a lot of people have the never-ending question "how would this help me" (we might do some calculations for them, hm?).

In a world out of balance, we need to work with all. Even with people who do not think like us. This is the challenge.

But to start with, we should look to ourselves. How do we contribute to a better world? What is alturistic in my behavior? I nag alot about a vegetarian diet to cut low of the resources and everything what''s around. I know when I don't eat meat/milk that I use 1/3 of the agricultural land compared to a person with a mixed diet. I have no clue what local or seasonal choices adds to this but I know that the way of my eating habits affect my own impact on the world and that is other people in the world. Choices like I don't want to buy new things when I can find old things in the same condition, is another, seperate my garbage, buy organic and I do not own a car seems to me like I do like a lot of others does..

A woman said to me once that "no of course, we have to deal with our own problems first, before we can save the world", and its still in my head because this was a response to if I could go and help them in their exchange clothes day. I try to in my head in every choice I do, see the impact for both environment and humans. So would this not be an action, i.e "one small step to save the world"? I think that a lot of people think in this way, and they are really great, they do what they can do in their everyday life, but not in mass actions or demonstrations. So question is; does everday environmently behavior as action, counts?

What I think or you think, does it even counts in the big picture? Is it anyone that can see how I behave and act and think? If I have an environmental profile I might not buy so much stuff as others, and how do we measure "less". Does my lifestyle effect anything? Compare it to someone that buys a car and we need 100 of people like me? Or how is it? Or is it just a feeling of good alturistic behavior?

Example; for my owns sake I tried to be a vegan for a while, but as eggs are good nutritions, I stoped. Now, everytime I buy organic eggs, it feels as I do something good- because this will acually be counted. But if I buy lintils instead of meat- is that anyone who sees that? And even more important- if I done that for 12 years- does it counts? I know for my own that I try to make an even more delicious meal every time, and if I have friends or family over, it can affect them- but really, how can low-consumption be measured? Sure- it feels good for me, but its also a heck to find all good food, to think in every choice, even if I'm "use to it". So truth out, is it really alturistic (does it make it any better for others), or is it a selfish way to get the feeling "I've done my part".

In last conference/meeting with the group of "buy environmently friendly" (handla miljövänligt), from Society of Swedish Nature Conservation, a discussion about the organisation's labeling, Bra miljöval (one of strictest requirements in Sweden and most used) was brought up, and the question; how would the dream society look like in the future? was answered with -yes labeling is a way we are doing it, but we do it because it should be worthless- the goal is to have everything labeled". That future is maybe not for us who lives here right now, so being environmently friendly is both a direct act (counted as a demand for more organic stuff) and an act to future generations (organic production can run in the long-term). But an environmently friendly behavior that are based on a minimalistic way of shopping, is hard to see. In the other hand, a top-down attitude in terms of "someone else have to do it", "if it's that bad, we need to change"(means, restrictions from government) or "technology will fix the task" is not in the right line. Why haven't it already saved some of our resources for example? Last post show hos fisheries is in deep danger, and more examples can be found all over in different areas!

Why sustainable thinking is so boring for some, is because we need to think of how we act, how we consume, how we built, how we produce. We can not just do what we want, we need to think of the consequences in the long-term. The alturistic way thinks about the wellfare of other humans, now and in the future. But in a modern society where we don't have insight in everything we need to ask other, or put our trust into others who can labeling it. So is that a good society? Sure I can do the choice of being environmently friendly or I can have no knowledge at all; I can choice a nice, funny, interesting, nutrition right package! Choices! I have an environmentalist lifestyle or NOT.

The thing is that people don't have the interest in everything. And we (environmentalists) need to understand that, because it is hard also for us to do "right" in every situation. I think that in many situations it might not be right at all. To collaborate in those situations and discuss happens all the time, by science, labeling groups and in NGO's. But do we have the right answer? And if we have, who cares? Who are the people who will follow?

Information is not even the beginning on the task we have to deal with in a sustainable society. Some people are sensitive to it, want to discuss it, want to act in a way of involve more people. But not to forget, is to ask who those "more people" are. Everytime we do something like an "exchange clothes day" it will gathering a lot of people that just think in the same way as the people who organise it. So is it an improvement? We should make it easy for all. If we want to exchange clothes, we should be able to do it every day. To make it as easy as the alternatives should be the answer. And it is not before that, we can say that we fully act according to our arguments and puts this in the context of sustainable development i.e "save the world".

Like with the labeling- goal is to make it worthless, so should living in a society be without a need to feel to act alturistic, it should just be there naturally and right; wellfare should be equal.

Human made disaster- coral reef

Another great summary from TED. Coral reef ecologist Jeremy Jackson; How we wreckled the ocean.

The habitat distruction is unbelievable,

the area of the ocean floor that has been transformed from forest to level mud,to parking lot, is equivalent to the entire area of all the forests that have ever been cut down, on all of the earth in the history of humanity, and we manage to do that in the last 100 to 150 years.

Keep the flow

Have you, after meeting new people, felt that "that person was not my type" or "we didn't have "that"-the flow, or "that was a weird meeting" or even "what just happen there?". I admit, that happens to me a lot. But as well, other times its the other way,"we just had that flow" or "the meeting was so good, energy sparkeled everywhere" or "what a lovely person" or just a little dumb smile that holds to next meeting, maybe some angry eyes walking on the street.

To feel it in every situation- like in the shop, seeing people on the street walking, meeting friends friends, or at conferences, before lecture starts in the morning- is maybe not something we reflect and remember the rest of the days, but if you meet someone a little longer, its like you got to know them in relation to yourself and how you can work together- even if it just for a clue.

Some know the dance of meetings well, and can talk to almost anyone- question is if they are intrested in everyone or just social talent. Others might care a lot but can not even ask the questions she or he wants to, to not be rude or too curious. Some talkes about their experiences, their reading news, drinking habits or late nights- but is it a social skill to just talk when its not interesting to any?

Things that can be good to use in a good conversation can be used from the book Interviewing for solutions (De Jong, Berg 2007), where some of the "Skills for not knowing" also can be good in a meeting with a new person.

• Listening (who and what is important for the person)
• Affirming perceptions ("uh-hm", "sure","I can understand why you did...")
• Responding (ask questions of why/how/when..)
• Complimenting (respond to something said before, can be a question)
• Key words (see if special words are used)
• Paraphrasing (what they just said)
• Natural empahty (not too much, be carefull with own experiences)
• Normalizing (all kids do like that..)
• Relationship questions (who/how/why do you know)
• Scaling questions (0-10 in happieness etc.)
• Nonverbal behavior (body language)

Another way of doing it well is with Nonviolent Communication (NVC), which is a way of talking to make sense between two people so they really understand each other. NVC can be used in a conflict or just to smoothering a conversation. The homepage present, Nonviolent Communication as;

a way of relating to ourselves and others, moment to moment, free of past reactions. By learning to identify your needs and express them powerfully, as well as to bring understanding to the needs of others, you can stay connected to what is alive in you and create a life that is more fulfilling.

The book Nonviolent Communication (Rosenberg, 2003) gives many examples of talks between wife and husband to find the needs that are there but which are not listening to, e.i not understood deeply, and also how to understand and solve war-situations with the methods. From the homepage;

How to do that [understand another's needs] can be with some concrete skills for manifesting the purpose of creating connections of compassionate giving and receiving based in a consciousness of interdependence and power with others;

1. Differentiating observation from evaluation, being able to carefully observe what is happening free of evaluation, and to specify behaviors and conditions that are affecting us;
2. Differentiating feeling from thinking, being able to identify and express internal feeling states in a way that does not imply judgment, criticism, or blame/punishment;
3. Connecting with the universal human needs/values (e.g. sustenance, trust, understanding) in us that are being met or not met in relation to what is happening and how we are feeling; and
4. Requesting what we would like in a way that clearly and specifically states what we do want (rather than what we don’t want), and that is truly a request and not a demand (i.e. attempting to motivate, however subtly, out of fear, guilt, shame, obligation, etc. rather than out of willingness and compassionate giving).

Try to have a flow of a conversation, when one of the people do not care about what the others are saying! We have always "eldsjälar", "enthusiasts" (driving forcees), which can be good at their specialties, but what to do with the rest? Just assume that we do not want to talk to them, because they does not seem to want to talk to us?

In the process of sustainable development, we need to talk to everyone, even if difficult. But to start we might believe that it is easier if we do something together?! To have a common goal, or having the feeling that we need to do something, is the first step. Next is to create confidence in this process. This confidence must be built on the feeling of being important.

Eldsjälarna can't take the full process by themselves, even if other people "seems to think like them". To make this balance walk is to walk on the thin rope between two trees, with help from your friends on the sides. It takes a bit more time, but everyone gives their energy, concentration and collaboration. And in the end it feels like we were all in the process, and all of us made it flow.

Upon Equality

May Day. Stockholm, yesterday.

Good weather, great company, a lot of people and a huge message.

The fact that we "must" demonstrate, means that equality as a human right is not a general view, there is a conflict between the importance and current situation. In the picture, some of the demostrants of the Left Party, and the banner in the left says profitability against community. Although Sweden is one of the most equal countries in the world, we have had in recent years the right-wing party in government and the views if Sweden really is an equal country mension that good, are apparently different. Since we are about to vote again very soon, our biggest party, the Social Democrats was also mostly yelling against the incumbent government in its demonstration walk.

Why we need more equal communities was proved with the book The Spirit Level: Why Equality is Better for Everyone, that came out last year. List below is from the homepage of The Equality Trust.

1) In rich countries, a smaller gap between rich and poor means a happier, healthier, and more successful population. Just look at the US, the UK, Portugal, and New Zealand in the top right of this graph, doing much worse than Japan, Sweden or Norway in the bottom left.

2) Meanwhile, more economic growth will NOT lead to a happier, healthier, or more successful population. In fact, there is no relation between income per head and social well-being in rich countries.

3) If the UK were more equal, we'd be better off as a population. For example, the evidence suggests that if we halved inequality here:

• Murder rates would halve


• Mental illness would reduce by two thirds


• Obesity would halve


• Imprisonment would reduce by 80%


• Teen births would reduce by 80%


• Levels of trust would increase by 85%

4) It's not just poor people who do better. The evidence suggests people all the way up would benefit, although it's true that the poorest would gain the most.

5) These findings hold true, whether you look across developed nations, or across the 50 states of the USA. ´

- The Equalily Trust.

Ending this post with an interview with the authors to the book The Spirit Level: Why Equality is Better for Everyone seen in YouTube.

Signs of spring

Last week have been a little bit cold again, but the trees they really want to open their leaves, some shrubs couldn't hold it any longer and this morning in the train across the country I see light green from the floffy flowers on willow and also the early leaves of birch. The grass seems greener and some other green plants grow under the almost naked shrubs. Wood anemones came yesterday or the day before, a lot, a lot!

A mother moose and her kid looked at me in the forest, everything stopped for some seconds. I went the other way and they walked first trough the running trail then up to the car road, before cossing it, she looked in both directions- no cars- go kid, go!

Later, same run, I saw a man with a white horse at a green hill, the horse ate the new grass and the man stod with the rope in his hand some steps away, like a man with a dog- go and play! But the horse just grazed the grass and the man walked in the sun, ontop of a green hill with blue sky in the background and a white horse.


In the end of the round I meet a male deer in his work to get the skin of from his horn, and the winter fur fell down from his body. He walked to tree to tree and had an eye on me.

Going by the train and I can see a lot of agriculture land, large scale to be compared with the past, small scale to be compared with todays industrial "farming". Here and there, wetland have been constructed, and I wonder if it is to take the water away from the land, catch the nutrients from the field or to get the money from Biodiversity Act.

With last week with a lot of "do it yourself garden" (read about a new community in Mölndal, my mothers balcony in the city and my grandma's garden) in my head, I'm thinking, how to combine social, ecological and economical sustainability. They are not, and should not be seperate. Mostly we talk about the ecolocial part, but to get there, we need to go throught the people. I guess it lays in the word "humanity", we have to do more things together, like planting trees and flowers in the spring, see the big wild animals, plant food, cook together, babysit each others children, not because we have to- but because it is fun.

So, train is soon in Uppsala. Tomorrow spring will be "singing in" at Valborg celibration with champange and strawberries to breakfast, boat race in the river by the city and in the evening Valborg fires. Day after then May Day. This is how to combine a weekend of early signs of spring with politics and future thoughts.

Environmental awareness: attitude or action?

A lot of money is invested in media campaigns to foster sustainable behavior. Sometimes so much, that the money spend on spreading the information could be used to fix the problem instead.

It is not that some people are bad and some are good, several investigations says that most people are well informed about environmental issues, and have a high awareness, a lot of us have the same knowledge, and the attitudes that recycle, drive less, eat more vegetables is a good fact; but, it is just some of us that live as we learn. Why is that?

A lot of things hold us back,

• time might be the single biggest of this; "it takes to much time to recycle, go by bus, or find the organic goods, "flight saves days!", "I should do all those things if I just had more time.."
• money is another; "it is not that much more expensive to take the car", "organic goods are to expensive for my house-hold"
• lack of knowledge; "I have no clue how to make a compost"
• and a lot of other things; weather, distance, heavy to carries the food from the store, etc

So how should we do, to live as we learn?
Community-Based Social Marketing work in this way, step in that order, 1-4;

1. Every sustainable behavior have its own barriers; to identify them before doing anything else is the key. The barriers can be found with small surveys, qualitative methods, lists, meetings
2. (When known the barriers) Use the Behavior Change Tools;

- Commitment; People want to be consistent, hence they are more prone to behave a certain way if they have already committed to it. Written commitments tend to be more effective than verbal ones.

- Prompts; People are forgetful; prompts are visual or auditory reminders of specific behavior.

- Norms; People tend to behave as other people do, hence seeing that other people behave in a particular way, may convince people to behave that way themselves

- Communication; Vivid, personal and concrete. Know your audience. Credible sources. Message should be easy to remember. Present losses (in money) that occur as a result from inaction instead of savings in action. Threatening messages should follow by a concrete solution. Common goals. Feedback

- Incentives; People are affected by encouragement and perceived threats; examples of incentives are user fees, refunds, discounts, and social approval

3. Piloting in a small scale
4. Evaluation

So, is it necessary to foster everyone? Shouldn't sustainable behavior be just the standard way of living? Anyhow; we need to find the barriers for our behaviors and to do that we need to talk to the people about what is difficult and what is missing, what they need etc etc..

This can be self-organizing if we know how to do it. We need to combine a lot of knowledge to just set up the structure of a society like this; but when we have done it, it would be a wonderful place to be. And that is all we want, right?

Beautiful library

View a stunning 3D picture here of a wonderful library. A celebration of human art and knowledge. I want a library like that!

Mission: sustainable

Mission: sustainable. Americans do it again; easy, funny-fun, and a happy ending. We just need to have a consultant (or eight) and then we can live the American dream in the suburban sprawl all of us (their footprint would, after the change, cover just one globe they say).

Here is the program that all environmentalist want to show the non-environmentalists. What is missing?
Mission: Sustainable on Vimeo.

It's all happening in San Francisco

A small garden on my way to Alameda

Today in the Bay Area and beyond, urban homesteaders like Ms. Stone and her roommates are raising their own food in their backyards, in community gardens and on derelict and undeveloped spaces in the city. They’re preserving and pickling vegetables and fruits, sewing their own clothes, baking bread, making alcoholic, and much more.

-from yesterday's New York Times; read full article here

And an older one; From concrete to community .

School garden, in Alameda

San Francisco ’s streets and public rights-of-way make up fully 25% of the city’s land area, more space even than is found in all of the city’s parks.

-Pavements to park

And a lot of pictures and some useful links; Shift Design Studio

"A day in San Fran", picture from city center

See more of my pictures from San Francisco here 1, 2, 3

A very beautiful place to live

Ok.. I have to, again, point out what it's all about. Went to a presentation today about the "Eco-City" Masdar, a so so presentation about it I have to say. Not many in the audience, but A LOT of good questions about it.

Masdar is a city 20 minutes (by car) from Abu Dhabi that will be completly without cars. A high-tech city. 40 000 inhabitans AND 50 000 commuters. "Low use of water" and "the only building with a surplus of energy will be built here" (ok.. check this out first).

Sustainable? Yes- in energy coverage maybe?. What about social, (more) ecological or economical? I don't think we can make this all around the world. Do you? The problems that we have are huge, and how to get energy is not about this. Ok. Good to have a center on that- we can implement it some over the world. BUT a sustainable community is not about investment in high-tech. It is about human connections. Todays post at A very beautiful place, says it better than me.

One of the questions in today's seminar was about the food; "how to get food to the place, can it be grown there?" answer; "it requires too much water" and another "what about the waste?" answer; "we will make biogas".

So..
we have problems still;
what about human waste? urin and feces
what about food production?
what about water(level)?
what about building houses for poor?
how to make people thrive?
feel safe?

most of the questions above, fit together in the sustainable development, but not in the concept of a "sustainable city". And to see the difference in those two is the way of see the future.

What do we expect from the society?
Can everyone be "successful" (e.i, can we have a world without poor and in a same time a growing pop. of people who gets richer and richer?)

What do more parks do for a society, like more benches, more places to be for "free"? I've heard exampels from different sources that says that our cities boring appearance without greens, without places to sit down, is because it collect the people we don't want to see in the city. But, hey, they are in the city anyway, but somewhere else. Isn't it time to build a city for everyone? A future for everybody? Build societies instead of cities. Connect every 'stupid' human being. Because this is how we are.. a lot of different people. People does not disappear just because we can't see them.

-- so I'm here at the science festival week here in Gothenburg. A lot of interesting events, but even here you can see a trend of things that I guess is investment in some sort of business. I am sorry if I am so negative but all this give me a thought to a very cute, attractive young woman in the Ecocity World Summit in Istanbul that told me about her plans to make an ecocity in Estonia, and she told me in the end that it was "only for the businesses". And I just wonder how can wellbeing be about "just businesses". It's about life, and life is priceless.

So again- what do we expect from life?

Film from Eco-Unit

Low density, high density

New York, Central Park.

Found on my wall, from a magazine

Environmentalist usually don't like high density, it's ugly, un-human, boring and so on but if every human would have a house and their own farmland and so on, we would not fit on this globe. And transportation would be dreadful!

Suburban sprawl is more densed than country side, but not enough. Long distances requires cars. Downtowns with 100 floor buildings? Shadows too long, dark.

If every human on this planet would stand on their feet, close to the other, they would fit on Sweden's largest island; Gotland, with a size of 3 140 km2. That would mean a world without humans, a wild world- who would feed us?

We can't live like that of course, but it shows a little perspective what we are doing.

The transformation of a city ontop of the Roman

 Empire pillars, grandma's painting in my kitchen

We need to build dense and compact, but in a smart way; beautiful, practical, lot of functions, mixed-used (use shade side for office, ground floor for stores, sunny-side as terraces apartment).

See a house from Uppsala here and a couple of them from Paris here and don't forget to make the space between the houses more fun than that! Bridges, water, levels, gardens, and so on..!

The smart, ecological city is compact and fun!

Center for a World in Balance - Invisible Children

Center for a World in Balance - Invisible Children

Posted using ShareThis

Crash Course

The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function.

-- Albert Bartlett

The Crash Course by Chris Martenson seeks to provide you with a baseline understanding of the economy so that you can better appreciate the risks that we all face- 20 chapters, total 3 hours 23 minutes. Or see a 45 minutes seminar here.

Mission: impossible?

Sometimes I think I am on the right track, but sometimes it feels like glue in my head, and sometimes I think that maybe someone put glue into it, or control my brain from a huge central miles from here.

Explain to me what happens to all the train lines that was built in US in the early 1900 century, seen in every cowboy movie. How come, that governments put billions after billions to roads and highways. And what happen to that electric car that was invented before 1900? And why is it, that we eat animals that was feed on grains and beans so we loose 90% of the energy when we in the same time talkes about a world in hunger? Tell me why it's so important to have white small socks when running, and tell me where my freinds went.

Is being environmental conserned the opposite to be into the society? Am I weird?

Nah, I just questionize everything. What do we know for real? We just know what we can read from others; if white small socks for running is the thing that dosen't give you bad looks from outside- let's buy it!

My brain's running slow today and I feel demotivated. Anyway, what about this motivation.. It is not up to some environmentalists to save the world..

We are all in it, and so much more can be done if we collaborate. And so much more thing can be created and understood and explored if we just talked a little bit more and questionize a little together.

Throw out your tv! Meet family, friends, people. Discuss and build! Build relations, grow food, learn about different humans and why humans are so complex. Explore! Create! Talk! Love!

Complexity of environmental problems

Far from all people are interested in environmental issues, if they were, it would be slightly easier to get to the action of the imbalance of the whole earth but also to the problems closer to us. But put in another way, the reason that we have environmental problems is that someone unconsciously or consciously use natural resources in such a way that a conflict arises. Without disagreement, no environmental problems.Hence people have to be interested in environmental issues to have an environmental issue. Questions are many, beacuse environmental problems are complex.

Environmental conflict
Environmental problems are a result from conflicts. Daniels and Walker say that there may be no conflict setting more complex than environmental policy (p. 43). They identify seven different salient sources of environmental conflict complexity;

• Multiple parties
• Multiple issues
• Cultural differences
• Deeply held values and worldviews
• Scientific and traditional knowledge
• Legal requirements
• "Conflict industry", wich referes to anyone whose personal interests are better served by the perpetuation of a competitive and conflictual approach to environmental policy than on some calm, quiet settlement.

Hallgren and Ljung (2005) also listed; no single actor has enough of an overview or knowledge to be able to describe or deal with the problems; there is lack of information in several different areas; unclear system boundaries when dealing many issues simultaneously; and that there are power structures which often has to be questioned or challenged.

The communicative turn
Urbanisation has been at a furious pace over the past 100 years all over the world and now live more than half the world's population in cities. World Bank at the EcocityWorld Summit conference in 2009 claimed that 400 000 km2 of land is under planning in the developing world, a total size of al built area today- a whole new world before 2030!

The problems, which we have because of a rapid movement to the cities, are many and affect both ecological, economic and social systems, both in and outside cities. Similarly, the proposals on how to solve them endless and the questions are; who's going to solve them, and which are the tools required to build our communities so that they contribute to sustainable development? The questions have become so numerous that people talk about 'the communicative turn "a discussion of the Western democracy essence and its future. Increasingly they believe that we must move away from an expert-driven approach to a process-oriented community where citizens are seen less as a spectator and become more involved in community decision making.

Sustainable development
A huge difference is found in the meaning of the words sustainable future and sustainable development. Just because, put another way; the difference in building sustainable cities and to build cities that contribute to sustainable development. Although the concepts of future and development are combine in the definition in the Brutland report, which defines sustainable development as development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Sentence just told that this is our goal, not a map of how to get there.

Working with sustainable development may today seem different from the goal, sometimes nothing else than just information sharing. Meaning, sustainable development is not happening at all. More books and groups have been created to work on climate issues in recent years, than ever. But the strategies are often to get more people knowing about the problem, "if only everyone was in it, it would go easy". Information sharing and real action is not the same thing; The information is about something outside ourselves, while the action is a deliberate act, the target is the environment but the process is about people. Similar, UN says that "human beings are at the center of concerns for sustainable development "in the first principle in Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, 1992. So how human respons, not her interest in sustainable issues is a key to make the process towards a sustainable future more succesful. That is the reason why we have to work sustainable within the process while working towards the goal. Sustainable development as a process is as important as sustainable future.

Sustainable development as a process
Hallberg and Ljung (2005) argues that sustainable development is a society's attention created through conversation. "It is through talks that sustainable development will realized and a society's attention on our common future issues are created" (freely transl. from Swedish).

Sustainable development can therefore bee seen as a process that is constantly changed and are concerned of those involved. The Richard Register, founder of the organisation Ecocity Builders mean that "you have to change the map over and over again, it [ecocity mapping] will never be finished and final; such is the way of all maps" (Register, 2006) -and so the process to a sustainable future.


References
Hallgren and Ljung (2005), Miljökommunikation- aktörssamverkan och processledning
Register (2006), Ecocities- rebuilding cities with nature
Daniels and Walker (2001), Working through environmental problems- the collaborative learning approach

Inexpensive solar cells

Earth receives more solar energy in one hour than the entire planet currently consumes in a year.

With new technology close to the green plant's photosynthesis it's now possible to make solar cells less expensive.

Based on the principle of photosynthesis -- the biochemical process by which plants convert light energy into carbohydrate (sugar, their food) -- the Graetzel solar cell is composed of a porous layer of nanoparticles of a white pigment, titanium dioxide, covered with a molecular dye that absorbs sunlight, like the chlorophyll in green leaves. The pigment-coated titanium dioxide is immersed in an electrolyte solution, and a platinum based catalyst completes the package.

From Science Daily 12 th of April; Inexpensive Highly Efficient Solar Cells Possible

[tip from technology-will-save-the-world Jimmy, who might be right in this case]

New Face

people [do only] understand the need to join together in some sort of coordinated way in order to negotiate or co-construct an outcome

We co-construct our identities through our interactions with others. We want to do it well, because we want to feel respected and to build the personal dignity and honor of the other. The interactions occur in the moment as a single speech act, or they may occur in the "expanded moment", as within larger context of action (conversations, episodes, lifescripts). Identity management is complex, indicating a need for healthy facework across the many different situations of our lives. Where and how do we select a starting place, or a hypothesis for acting in the situation? How do we know where and how to "join" others in the moment?

Facework offers people an opportunity to ask questions that shift from a limited worldview with scarce resources for change, to one of a complex network of relationship that embody a multitude of options for life's challanges.

Act with intent, but understand that you are always co-construction something larger than the objective you are trying to archive in the moment.

Text; From the book Facework. Bridging Theory and Practice. Demenici, K., & Littlejohn S.W. 2006 Drawing; Mary DeLave, who is also the cover artist for the book


------


With those words and a little facelift on the blog site, I hope to reach out with more ease. But not to forget, is to put the knowing into doing. We already have a lot of knowledge, it's now time take the step to practise in the whole community. We need to use our ability to communicate and communicate in a more efficient way (creates better facework) to meet the challanges that are in the way of sustainable future. Let's start with a sustainable communication, how we interact to understand each other and with that do something together.

Viking Green Center

Green is the city of Göteborg when it comes to green spaces and available public transportation, but as an old harbour area, the city next to the water does not connect water with citizens, something which was raised in the short film Göteborg- super sustainable city. As the old industrial city it is, most of the riversides are occupeted by roads and harbour areas, much of them not even in use. A "dream" for the citys' future is now to connect the city to the other side of the river, which would make the river as the center for the city.

To discuss and visualize different plans, a special place has been built, "Älvrummet" is now the forum for the future plans along the river. In todays newspaper I could read about the Viking Green Center, a hugescale plan, which in my impression, just opened another room for discussion!

So when planning seems to be stuck,  it might be good to just do "whatever", to really see the potentional in a place, to make the ground for discussion. Here; do we want to have a tribal house in the middle of the town, as our icon building? And what do we have as choices to this?

The short film below is in Swedish but gives some good pictures of the project, in the end the woman says that there is an emty area in which we can build on, right in the city- where 30 000 (!) people can live in new skyscrapers. Well, that was good news!!!