Blogs

From the Sacramento Bee Viewpoints: Fires can be restorative, unlike heavy logging

Our daughter Caroline is six years old, a fact that is less important to her than the much more exciting fact that she is about to turn seven. The other day Caroline and I were discussing plans for her birthday celebration when she asked, out of nowhere, “If I’m going to be seven, how old is the earth going to be?” “Four and a half billion,” I replied. After being reassured that billion was not, like zillion or cajillion, a made-up word, Caroline wanted to know “how anybody ever figured out such a big birthday number.” “It all started with seashells on mountaintops,” I told her.

This Friday, visionary architect Sim Van der Ryn takes you on a reflective journey of a more ecological and humane approach to design. With a focus on the strengths and weaknesses in our approach to the design of our communities, regions, and buildings he looks at promising trends and projects that demonstrate how we can help create a better world for others and ourselves. Enjoy this beautifully illustrated book drawing on a rich and revered career of a noted leader in the field.    

Continual growth and consumption is unsustainable. We've published many books on why the idea of "sustainable consumption" is impossible, but this post by Alison Singer at Worldwatch breaks it down simply and effectively.