Tag Archives: sustainability

India: A Resilient World Leader in 2050

Posted on March 2, 2012 by admin

India must overcome the same serious challenges facing many emerging economies: immense rural to urban migration, rapid growth and industrialization, massive infrastructure needs, corrosive corruption, large cultural divides, and an uneasy relationship with meddling foreign nations and transnational organizations. Despite … Continue reading →

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Sustainability Warfare

Posted on March 1, 2012 by admin

India’s enormous economic growth, deep cultural divisions, fragile infrastructure, and stressed ecological systems may make it one of the least sustainable places on earth.  But I just returned from Mumbai and I wonder if the opposite is more accurate. The … Continue reading →

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Education, Propaganda, or Brain Washing?

Posted on September 1, 2011 by admin

Sustainable developers sometimes act like zealots.  They believe that past patterns of land development are deeply flawed and unsustainable.  They know climate change will place huge burdens on our industry and agriculture.  They are confident that the ecological systems providing … Continue reading →

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Is the Agenda Set?

Posted on August 30, 2011 by admin

An increasingly common complaint voiced at local planning meetings and repeated on Tea Party blogs is that sustainable development planning efforts have pre-determined outcomes: all the big decisions have been made before citizen engagement begins. Planners and their plans, according … Continue reading →

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The United Nations Agenda?

Posted on August 12, 2011 by admin

Since the earliest days of civilization, cities have been plagued by outbreaks of cholera and other illnesses that killed or disabled residents and workers.  In 1854, a London physician, John Snow, demonstrated that cholera was caused by sewage leaking into … Continue reading →

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Property Rights and Liberty

Posted on August 5, 2011 by admin

Liberty is a cherished American ideal, guaranteed and protected by the Declaration of Independence, the US Constitution and Bill of Rights, and the focus of countless legal and political debates.  Recently, Tea Party activists are making troubling claims that sustainable … Continue reading →

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Dear Board of Supervisors

Posted on July 30, 2011 by admin

Dear Supervisors, I am writing this letter to express my support for sustainable development planning initiatives in our region. Sustainable development, for me, boils down to wise investment in our community’s infrastructure: the systems that provide us food, water, energy, … Continue reading →

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Tea Party: Deeper Issues Simmering Below the Surface

Posted on July 27, 2011 by admin

The critiques of sustainable development by Tea Party activists are many and I review the specifics elsewhere. Here I summarize and critique five deeper issues that seem to simmer just below the surface and motivate many of the concerns: 1)   … Continue reading →

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SUMMARY: Tea Party Critiques of Sustainable Development

Posted on July 25, 2011 by admin

Tea Party activists are raising serious concerns about community-based planning efforts promoting sustainable development, smart growth, green infrastructure, comprehensive planning, sustainable agriculture, local foods, and related outcomes.  The issues being debated are significant, and bear upon not just how our … Continue reading →

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Tea Party: Confusion and Fear

Posted on July 23, 2011 by admin

I attended my first tea party meeting.  It confused me. Discussion ranged over a wide range of topics including sustainability, local economic development, food security, sustainable agriculture, protecting farms, forests, and other open spaces, reducing tax burdens caused by unplanned … Continue reading →

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