Charm City EcoVillage

Welcome to the Charm City EcoVillage Tumblog! Charm City Ecovillage is community of individuals in support of healthy, ecologically friendly design of our cities. We promote verdant city growth, returning nature and wildlife back to the urban environment and learning about ways in which city residents can live off the earth. Sorted Posts: Act Local Anti-road Beautification and Art bMore Carbon Footprint Carm City EcoVillage Pics Ecocity Eco Tips Ecovillages Energy, Clean and Green Food in the City Global Warming Green DIY Green Living Guerilla Gardening Homesteading Living Walls Meatless Monday Recipe of the Week Permaculture Recycled, Upcycled and Repurposed Earth's Resources Stewardship Street Art Sustainability Transportation Urban Agriculture Urban Design Urban Forestry Urban Parks Volunteer Opportunities

[ilovecharts]

Real-time Air Quality Index Visual Map

[urbanfunscape]

An Elevator For Cyclists In Trondheim http://ift.tt/1iAG8L9

[sisyphean-revolt]

We like to be out in nature so much because it has no opinion about us.

Friedrich Nietzsche (via h-o-r-n-g-r-y)

[oahficw]

After spending €15bn on over 2,000 new trains, The French train operator SNCF discovered they were too wide for thousands of platforms across the country. Those platforms are now being remodelled. 

[urbendisaster]

Face. Palm.

[thislandisparkland]

What Vancouver’s Mid Main Park Can Teach Us About Small Parks

I love tiny parks—the more itty-bitty the better—and when I was back in Vancouver recently, I made sure I went to visit the relatively new Mid Main Park at Main and 18th Street done by Hapa Collaborative. I had been watching the design process from my perch in Toronto and was excited to see what it looked like in person. In short, the park is awesome, and it can teach us a lot about how to create great small parks.

There are a few reasons why this park is great. One is that it uses its space incredibly well, creating different rooms in a pretty tiny park by changing the elevations, using curved pathways, and incorporating distinct design elements in different places. It’s also located at an interesting bend in Main Street and creates a nice place to stop and people watch.

The other reason though is found in the whimsy of its design. As this recent post in the excellent blog The Dirt points out, the design of the park was meant to evoke the feel of a nearby ice cream shop that had closed in the 1980s. The park includes candy-red stools, a sculpture that resembles bendy straws, long concrete benches, and a small grassy knoll. Too many times, small parks are left as a patch of grass with a bench or two when they can be so much more. Dare to dream big, tiny parks!

The final reason is that the park is also an excellent example of what can happen when a city reclaims under-utilized roadway for park space. The design called for the closing of a slip lane on the western portion. Closing this lane and turning it into part of the park allowed this piece of public space to be stitched back into the city.

image from Hapa Collaborative

[charmcityecovillage]

Graduating from an HBCU on the 60th anniversary of the Brown vs. Board of Education ruling; makes me proud of the steps my country has taken (albeit too slowly) to destroy hate.

[angelclark]

ENDLESS ELECTRICITY: Here’s A Way Of Turning America’s Roads Into Gigantic Solar Panels

There are about 31,251 square miles of roads, parking lots, driveways, playgrounds, bike paths, and sidewalks in the lower 48 states. If Julie and Scott Brusaw have their way, they will all someday be replaced with solar panels.

For the better part of a decade, the Idaho couple has been working on prototyping an industrial-strength panel that could withstand the weight of even the largest trucks. They now appear to have cracked the formula, developing a specially textured glass coating for the panels that can not only bear tremendous loads but also support standard tire traction.

By their reckoning, at peak installation their panelized roads could produce more than three times the electricity consumed in the U.S.

The material could power electric vehicles through a receiver plate mounted beneath the vehicle and a transmitter plate is installed in the road.

[askjeansplice]

THIS IS UNBELIEVABLY IMPORTANT AND UNBELIEVABLY DISAPPOINTING THAT IT’S GOTTEN SUCH LITTLE ATTENTION.

PEOPLE THINK ABOUT IT, JUST HOW MANY ROADS THERE ARE ALL OVER THE WORLD AND HOW MUCH ENERGY COULD BE PRODUCED USING THESE LIKE SERIOUSLY “THREE TIMES THE ELECTRICITY CONSUMED IN THE U.S”. IT’S NOT JUST GOING TO HELP REDUCE THE AMOUNTS OF GREEN HOUSE EMISSIONS, IT’S GOING TO CREATE JOBS IN THE COUNTRIES IT’S USED IN. IT HAS SO MUCH EXTRA STUFF IT’S UNBELIEVABLE HOW AMAZING THE ROAD COULD BE.

THESE PEOPLE ARE SAINTS, THEY’VE WORKED THEIR BUTTS OFF AND VOLUNTEERS HAVE WORKED JUST AS HARD TO GET TO THIS LEVEL BUT THEY STILL HAVE JUST UNDER $ 800,000 TO RAISE IN 15 DAYS.

THIS SORTA STUFF IS HOW WE’RE GOING TO CREATE A GREENER EARTH AND IT’S BEEN VIRTUALLY IGNORED BY TUMBLR. WE NEED TO SUPPORT THIS STUFF AND THESE SORTS OF PEOPLE WHO SELFLESSLY DEDICATE THEIR WORK TO CREATING A BETTER WORLD.

PLEASASASASASSSSSSEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE PEOPLE NEED TO SEE THIS.

[crunchthedeerstroyer-deactivate]

Science-Pone has spoken

[p0kemina]

Capitalist piggies need to figure out how they’re going to make money out of this and wait for all the coal deposits to be exhausted before they let anyone take notice of this awesome fucking idea.

[environmentalillnessnetwork]

[charmcityecovillage]

Only 12% of the people living in cities reporting on air quality reside in cities where this complies with WHO air quality guideline levels. About half of the urban population being monitored is exposed to air pollution that is at least 2.5 times higher than the levels WHO recommends - putting those people at additional risk of serious, long-term health problems.

[micdotcom]

Here’s what your city would look like under rising sea levels

A new website called "World Under Water" will help you with just that. The site, created by environmental crowdfunding platform Carbon Story, combines Google Street View images with wave graphics to demonstrate how rising sea levels might affect the world’s most famous landmarks — as well as your own backyard.

Read more | Follow policymic 

[conflictingheart]

[ilovecharts]

Hours Worked On Minimum Wage In Order To Pay For One University Credit Hour

[carolxdanvers]

*Flings this chart at baby boomers*

[environmentalillnessnetwork]

Better late than never: EPA finally takes first step to collect safety data on fracking chemicals - Environmental Defense Fund

[lilightfoot]

Colonisation of the poor. Photo, early 70’s.

[drziggystardust]

Painfully relevant 30 years later. 

[observando]

Nature is full of genius, full of the divinity; so that not a snowflake escapes its fashioning hand.

Henry David Thoreau (via thatkindofwoman)

[plantedcity]

If you build a city that is great for an eight-year-old and for an 80-year-old, then you build a city that is going to be great for everybody. They’re like an indicator species. We need to stop building cities as if everybody in them is 30 years old and athletic.

Gil Penalosa, the "pied piper for sustainable transportation," quoted in a Globe & Mail profile. 

Photo: The Atlantic Cities

(via plantedcity)

[justfillingshoes]

“When the earth is ravaged and the animals are dying, a new tribe of people shall come unto the earth from many colors, classes, creeds, and who by their actions and deeds shall make the earth green again. They will be known as the Warriors of the Rainbow” -Old Native American Prophecy

[artamanen]

Spring Garden