What’s so interesting about the blogsphere is how this digital community self-replicates and we have this on-line community of discourse, debate and back and forth chat. Blogs are the in-thing now, almost a new level of spinning news, beliefs, conspiracies, information, marketing and self-aggrandizement. We’ll see how the socio-psychological dynamics of our world will be changed for the good in this virtual world of blogging.
PacifiCAD Blog is about opening up the discussion on sustainability into a pretty rarified world of technology, ITS, engineering, building, planning, land use, climate change and the like with a real open forum to “spin” or put the discourse into a context that may or may not align with traditional corporate thinking. This blog in one sense looks at the premises of Peter Senge’s the sixth discipline, studies the cradle-to-cradle concept of design, embraces the living building concept and believe in the 2030 challenge in architecture, but again, through another set of lenses – we are trying to distinguish our blog from all the other cool, informative and important ones.
The primacy of the PacifiCAD blog is to look at things here in our region, in this community where we work, live, play, consume and grow. Down to Earth was started by two college buddies, Paul Dillon and Bart Mihailovich, and it has morphed into a web site hosted by the Spokesman Review. Paul and Bart blog prolifically and are dedicated to a green Spokane, and are involved in looking at the entire fabric of sustainability as it unfolds within a community like Spokane, Spokane County and this Cascadia and Eastern Washington region.
PacifiCAD blog was mentioned last Friday, and we thank Bart and Paul for getting us on their blog. Below is a snippet of what came out on the Down To Earth Northwest blog site. We at PacifiCAD support Spokane’s move toward sustainability. We support events that center around robust discussion tied to food security, alternative transportation, sane land use planning, technology and engineering fixes that take in today’s generation’s needs as well as those seven generations out. Or at least we hope we do. This blogsphere is still unfolding, and how we add to the framing of issues and discourse. PacifiCAD will continue to support Down To Earth blog, and will continue to link to those issues and points on the blog that tie into PacifiCAD blog’s mission.
http://www.downtoearthnw.com/
From Friday’s Quote, Down to Earth Blog, Spokane, Washington:
“Speculation about Sarah Palin’s tanking as Alaska’s governor can’t be overshadowed by her retrograde thinking on climate change — she doesn’t think humans are responsible for global warming. Moreover, she doesn’t believe in protecting and preserving the natural world because she sees the end of days will soon be upon us. Palin loves this wacko place.”
And…
“…sustainability is not just a matter of resource management and smart grids and retrofitting to so-called greener technology and products. It’s more than cradle-to-cradle action. More than biomimicry. It’s more than Transition Cities popping up here and there. And more than media and psychological spin. Corporations, institutions, and governments need to take that Natural Step into eco-community thinking. We need leaders to enlist cultural experts, artists, writers, planners, strategic thinkers, rabble rousers, performance artists, educators, and myriad of other social science and soft science experts, as well as the cadre of software wonks and technologists and design engineers.”
Both above quotes are excerpts from Paul K. Haeder’s first post HERE on the PacificCAD’s Sustainability Blog. Titled “Spin, Flat-Earth Thinking, Marketing - How Do We Frame Climate Change So Everyone Gets It,” it’s more unfiltered (yes, as a blog should be) than his insightful commentary over at The Inlander. That’s a very good thing. It’s a brilliantly bizarre introduction, filled with Haeder’s usual intensity and razor-sharp perspective. Your head might hurt from absorbing multiple points but you’ll come away with a better grasp of the societal understanding of climate change.
This first post is overflowing with information. He covers media bias–think back to the George F. Will controversy and lack of retraction–and offers solutions: “Fundamentally, it’s clear that humans have to have a major shift in how we view nature – we are part of it, not separate from it. This has been talked about by Rachel Carson, John Muir, Aldo Leopold, and countless others in the sustainability and deep ecology movements.”
And how’s this for skepticism: “The [Gallup] Poll results show that 41 percent of Americans believe the media are over exaggerating the facts and problems associated with climate change. This is a high number, and it’s the highest percentage of skepticism in a decade. Look at this one year change – Republicans moved from 59% to 66% total who are skeptical about the media’s coverage of climate change; independents moved from 33% to 44%; the rate among Democrats remained close to 20%.”
That’s not highly encouraging, especially as the Waxman-Markey bill is met with a collective yawn, and even our own little Sustainability Action Plan ends up a forgotten civic footnote. Another point, counterpoint debate. All the more reason to read his post, and push the discussion forward in terms of our community and humanity at large.
Not a criticism, just a suggestion--
ReplyDeleteIt would be great if the concepts you underlined above (such as living buildings and 2030 challenge) were links to additional information on these topics--standard Web site format and a great way to expand our understanding. Having so many terms underlined made me think there were lots of links I was looking forward to following.
@BarbChamberlain