What Should We Do With a Semi-Abandoned U.S. City? » INFRASTRUCTURIST

Hantz Farms will use a trellised system that’s compact, highly efficient, and tourist-friendly. It won’t be like apple picking in Massachusetts, and that’s the point. Score wants visitors to Hantz Farms to see that agriculture is not just something that takes place in the countryside. They will be able to “walk down the row pushing a baby stroller,” he promises…For the most part the farms will focus on high-margin edibles: peaches, berries, plums, nectarines, and exotic greens. Score says that the first crops are likely to be lettuce and heirloom tomatoes.

(via jayparkinsonmd, noosphere, tragos)

lauraemily:

Last week I had the pleasure of seeing Nobel Prize winner Al Gore speak at the American Museum of Natural History on his new book Our Choice.

I sat 3rd row center, right behind Tipper, entranced as our former vice-president gave the most inspiring, informative, entertaining talks I have ever attended.  The man speaks with such experience and authority, such compassion that I cannot fathom how there are still disbelievers.  Regardless, he’s given us the tools to reverse the path of the climate crisis, it’s now our job to pick up these tools and go to work!

Oh, and for the record, Letterman was right, he looks great!

Cathy of Not Eating Out In NY took a trip to Eagle Street Rooftop Farm, a 6,000 square foot urban farm in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.  Check it out…

NYT: A German town called Vauban, which was built and completed in 2006, is virtually car-free.  Only 30% of resident families own cars, and they must park them in municipal lots on the edge of town.  Streets are devoted to pedestrians and bicyclists, and neighborhoods are mixed-use, so people are within easy walking distance of all the necessities, from grocery stores to banks to pharmacies.

Vaubanians live kind of like New Yorkers … only on clean, quiet, and (it must be said) rather boring streets.  ;)

Fun fact:

Passenger cars are responsible for 12 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in Europe — a proportion that is growing, according to the European Environment Agency — and up to 50 percent in some car-intensive areas in the United States.

startmeup:

This amazing couple went the entire year and only created 1 bag of trash for their three person household! Read how they did it here.

That rocks.

Maria Gunnoe is the recipient of the USA Goldman Environmental Prize 2009 (“‘Nobel prize’ for grassroots environmentalists”) for her work to stop mountain top removal practices by coal mining companies in Appalachia.

Check out the other five recipients who’ve been doing remarkable work around the globe.

Set your DVR for two shows on sustainability this week.

Tonight on the History Channel: Modern Marvels looks at Environmental Tech

Take a look at the innovations designed to hold off a global warming meltdown. Visit giant solar energy towers in Spain, install a rooftop wind turbine and ride in a car that runs on air. Will a daring attempt to remove carbon dioxide from our atmosphere by dumping iron in the ocean really work? Discover how everyone can go green with the flick of a switch.

Wednesday on the Discovery Channel: “Earth: The Sequel” (watch preview above)

A show based on the bestselling book of the same name.  In an email to supporters of Green For All, Van Jones wrote:

Our friends at the Environmental Defense Fund have partnered with the Discovery Channel to bring green energy technologies to life as never before.

Am I really writing to ask you to watch TV on Wednesday?

Yes.  Because this special tells the story that the whole nation needs to know: 

We have an abundance of clean energy alternatives already available to solve the global warming crisis and rebuild a clean, green America.

Sometimes the simpler the idea, the better.  A government-sponsored campaign in Argentina is aiming to sell 200,000 bikes to low-income people.  That’s President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner posing with an Argentinian-made Olmo.

The bikes can be purchased on an installment plan of about $5 a month.  The benefits are three-fold: the health of the planet, the health of people, and the health of the small and/or local business that will build and service the bikes.

“Green Anthem” by Rapper, Activist, and Green For All Academy Fellow, Tem Blessed.

Tem Blessed spoke at the Good Jobs Green Jobs conference; they played this music video to pump up the crowd before Van Jones took the stage.

After his knock-out speech at the Good Jobs Green Jobs conference, Van Jones invited the whole Green For All team up on stage.  I had tears in my eyes.  Talk about hope!

If you get a chance to hear Van speak, run, don’t walk.