[p2p-research] Fwd: california looking at no more agriculture scenario

Wed Mar 4 09:33:54 CET 2009

The joint workshop I run with Banny, on water issues, easily meets the
urgency
test: Obama's new energy secretary, Steven Chu, has just stated that "we're
looking at a scenario where there's no more agriculture in California".
Immediately following our workshop, a state-wide water state of emergency
is declared.
http://www.vimeo.com/3195518
http://www.flickr.com/gp/92494461@N00/6161Hi

Chu's warning about "no more federal water" contains an irony: The Central
Valley Irrigation Project, which enabled Caifornia's agriculture to
flourish,
was authorised in 1935 as an infrastrucure project to beat the Great
Depression.
Eighty five years later, the state's dependence on long-distance irrigation
is
a structural impediment to sustainable water and agriculture. Now Obama
promises to spend hundreds of billions of dollars on infrastructure -
to beat the depression.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-warming4-2009feb04,0,7454963.story

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Doors Report <doors-report at list.doorsofperception.com>
Date: Tue, Mar 3, 2009 at 11:44 PM
Subject: Doors of Perception: March 2009 - Tweets from America
To: Doors Report <doors-report at list.doorsofperception.com>

Doors of Perception Report
March 2009
Tweets from America
by John Thackara

Everyone tweeted madly during my talk at the Interaction Design
Association (IxDA) conference in Vancouver. The Twitter-enabled crowd
seemed split as to whether my dire warnings about peak protein and peak
indium were the proper concern of interaction design. I remain split on
whether or not this new communication medium addles the brain.
http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23ixd09
http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshdamon/3271654415/

IxDA chair Greg Petroff tells me that in his neighbourhood, in San
Francisco, near-strangers have started to meet for a socially-bonding
beer every Friday. They assemble, twit-free, at the house whose owner
has stuck a plastic flamingo in the lawn.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/interaction09/

During my visit to Bainbridge Graduate Institute (BGI), students taking the
Sustainable Business MBA tell me what they look for in an employer:
"generous,
empowering, optimistic, creative, trusting, respectful, transparent,
restorative, purpose-driven, meaningful, compassionate, humble, healthy,
diverse." I have to explain that Doors has no vacancies - probably because
we
exemplify just those qualities.
http://www.bgiedu.org/content/view/9/40/

BGI students spend four days each month together at IslandWood, a 225 acre
"school in the woods" on an island off Seattle. The rest of the time the
facility's fabulous food, and LEED gold-rated buildings, are enjoyed by high
school students who go there for outdoor classes in environmental
stewardship.
The subject is compulsory in all the state's schools.
http://www.islandwood.org/

When not on their island, BGI students work remotely from home. They seem
remarkably happy with the online tools they use. I'm hopeful that
Sharepoint,
Illuminate and The Channel can work for DoorsOfPerceptionU, too.
http://illuminatelearning.com/

Social media are not just used by interaction designers with the attention
span
of gnats. I learn from Chris Allen, its architect, that Johnson and Johnson
has
a "social media strategy", too.
http://www.lifewithalacrity.com/

In Palo Alto, I learn from Tim Brown that Ideo undertook more than 20
substantial "social impact" projects in 2008 - and demand is increasing.
Back in
London, I meet local government officials who are enthusiastic about their
experience on iTeam, a joint venture between Ideo and Forum for the Future:
iTeam trains public sector managers in the use of design innovation to
tackle
climate change.
http://www.forumforthefuture.org/the-i-team

Reflecting on the iTeam experience, a local govenment officer states that
"small
is the new big". Despite the hugeness of the climate change challenge, it's
usually best to begin with modest-scale projects. Smallness, however, is a
challenge for the design industry: business model is based on a cost
structure,
and therefore day rates, that are not small.

A lively debate ensues in Palo Alto when I ask whether designers should
hesitate
before they deliver pre-cooked solutions to the developing world. I am told,
robustly, that Ideo practises "empathic research", and that empowering local
knowledge is a priority in its social impact projects.
http://www.designobserver.com/archives/entry.html?id=38773

The words "social" and "sustainable" cover most of life on earth. How is one
to
choose which design projects to do? Banny Banerjee, new Director of
Stanford's
Design For Change programme, tells me that the three criteria by which their
projects are selected are: beneficial impact, scalablility, and urgency.
http://www.stanford.edu/group/dschool/people/team_banny_banerjee.html

The joint workshop I run with Banny, on water issues, easily meets the
urgency
test: Obama's new energy secretary, Steven Chu, has just stated that "we're
looking at a scenario where there's no more agriculture in California".
Immediately following our workshop, a state-wide water state of emergency
is declared.
http://www.vimeo.com/3195518
http://www.flickr.com/gp/92494461@N00/6161Hi

Chu's warning about "no more federal water" contains an irony: The Central
Valley Irrigation Project, which enabled Caifornia's agriculture to
flourish,
was authorised in 1935 as an infrastrucure project to beat the Great
Depression.
Eighty five years later, the state's dependence on long-distance irrigation
is
a structural impediment to sustainable water and agriculture. Now Obama
promises to spend hundreds of billions of dollars on infrastructure -
to beat the depression.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-warming4-2009feb04,0,7454963.story

Our Stanford workshop focuses on entrepreneurs developing tools to help
citizens
manage water sustainably. Sally Dominguez, whose Rainwater Hog has won lots
of
prizes, wanted our advice on the best way to translate celebrity into sales.
Our
design experts conclude that people will pay better money to save their
house,
than to save the planet, and advise Sally to re-brand the system as an
on-site
emergency water supply.
http://www.buildinggreen.com/auth/article.cfm/2008/11/24/BuildingGreen-Announces-2008-Top-10-Green-Products/

Seven per cent of all US energy use is to process waste - thereby causing
30m
million of tons of emissions. Charles Zhou mesmerises us with his story
about
the use of smart micro-organisms to optimize sludge digestion, and of
microbial
fuel cells to recover clean energy from wastewater. Ninety-nine percent of
current wastewater treatment facilities do not recover any energy from
wastewater. Zhou seems set to become the Bill Gates of sewage.
http://www.ccleanenergy.com/

Southwards again, to Orange County. The Planning Center has asked me to run
a
workshop around the question "What would life in a sustainable world be
like?"
Participants from grassroots organizations present case studies in which
they
use existing resources in a creative, original way.
http://urbanhomestead.org/journal/2009/02/16/the-planning-center/

Jules Dervaes is a pioneer in urban edible gardens; he calls these "urban
homesteads". Jules has launched a social networking site to help disseminate
what they have learned, and to multiply the groups involved. His practical
concern is that planners might make it illegal to keep chickens in urban
areas.
http://www.freedomgardens.org/
http://urbanhomestead.org/journal/2009/02/16/the-planning-center/

California is spending more than $20bn on "green" school buildings. The
state
spends $65,000 per classroom seat for the building - versus $1 per child per
year for garden upkeep and support. Mud Baron, who se job is to help L.A.
schools develop gardens and nature projects, wanted our help to persuade
planners and architects that "contact with nature" - not just buildings - is
a
crucual ingredient of "green" schools. We propose re-labeling school gardens
as
"outside classrooms" and thereby solve Mud's resource problem at a stroke.
http://tiny.cc/3Wohf

Another one of our case studies, Proyecto Jardin, is an inspiring example of
a
bario-based economy. Irene Pena tells us that this community garden for food
and
medicinal herbs must daily confront issues of land-use, group
self-organisation,
food coo-ps, seed storage, and green jobs - to name just a few.
http://www.healthycity.org

Thanks to Claudia Hernández, I also know more than I did before about
Hispanic Herbalism.
http://nccam.nih.gov/
http://www.hispanicherbs.com/
http://www.pitt.edu/~cbw/altm.html <http://www.pitt.edu/%7Ecbw/altm.html>

Project Hope provides scholing to some of Orange County's 16,000 homeless
children. The project began in 1989 when a teacher began educating local
homeless children from the back of her car. A huge issue is mobility: the
foundation spends $8,000/month moving students around. We ask whether
churches, hospitals and universities, with their often under-used spatial
and human resources, could be added to the empty strip mall spaces,
and half-abandoned motels, that are on offer now.
http://www.projecthopeschool.com/

Brian Biery explained the concept of "place-based philanthropy", which is
new
to me. The Flintridge Foundation, of which he is programme director, closed
its Conservation, Theatre and Visual Arts programmes in order to focus all
its efforts on the community where Flintridge's endowment was created,
and where it is headquartered—Northwest Pasadena and Altadena.
http://www.flintridgefoundation.org/home/home.html

I visit the Silver Lake den of Stephanie Smith, founder of the decade's most
timely website: wannastartacommune? "With the right tools you can start a
commune and share resources, wherever you are. Connect more deeply,
save time and money, and do right by the earth. What's not to like?
Start a commune today".
http://wannastartacommune.com/

I'm invited to a meeting at LA's new cathedral. An organisation called
Progressive Christians Uniting has invited faith-based, community, and
environmental organisations to discuss "building America's green future."
Leaders of Inland Empire Concerned African-American Churches, and the
Southern
Christian Leadership Conference sit down next to non faith-based groups such
as
L.A. Bioneers, South Central Farmers - and Doors of Perception.
http://greendig.net/progressive-christians-van-jones-2/

I am there to meet Van Jones, author of The Green Collar Economy and leader
of a
nationwide platform called Green For All. Jones has worked with Obama for 18
months on the development of the multi-billion dollar Economic Recovery
Package
that the new president just signed. Jones talks about the creation of "green
pathways out of poverty, and greatly expanding the coalition to fight global
warming" - but we are all keen to find out what the plan means in practice.

GreenForAll has launched a Clean Energy Corps. Five cities have joined
together
in a Green Collar Cities programme. And a Green For All Academy trains
community
organisers to be effective advocates for green collar jobs: Participants
receive
advanced media and messaging skills, economic and climate science training,
and
high level political tools and analysis
http://www.greenforall.org/

On the campaign trail, Obama promised to create five million green collar
jobs.
The US press interprets this to mean wind farms creating jobs for sheet
metal
workers, machinists, and truck drivers; or the roofers, insulators, and
building
inspectors needed to increase the energy efficiency of buildings through
retrofitting; or the civil engineers, electricians, and dispatchers needed
to
expand mass transit systems.
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2008/09/pdf/green_recovery.pdf

Several people round the table with Van Jones caution against interpreting
"green jobs" only in terms of tech-based projects. Health care, social
solidarity, and grassroot project coordination, should also be thought of
green
work, they sat, because these are affordable activities that will keep life
bearable.

Throughout my trip I ask people what a "smart grid" is; everyone I meet
tells me
something different. At the Van Jones meeting, I suggest that a smart grid
is
best thought of as a social grid. Later, someone sends me this statement by
Dr.
Martin Luther King: "We must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented
society to a person-oriented society". He said that in April 1967.

On Venice Beach, I meet a big group of special needs students. They are
filling
plastic bags with trash picked up from the sand. Their teacher tells me that
they come at least one a month, and are volunteers in a fast-growing
movement
called Heal The Bay.
http://www.healthebay.org/volunteer/

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