Culture and Coexistence into the Great Unknown
Edison estimates a $65 million cost to replace the failed steam generators, with an overall $100 million associated losses. Edison has already backed off assertions of a June opening, due to lingering safety concerns. Meanwhile, an earthquake study moves forward, albeit with less outside oversight than that of Diablo Canyon Nuclear Plant.
Can scientists engineer a biofuel that will replace the environmental and climate destroying and evermore expensive fossil fuels central to the functioning of our urbanized civilization? The answer is no and yes.
Southern California’s new Sustainable Communities Strategy plan posits that as a region, we have to grow up, not out. That doesn’t mean Hong Kong skyscrapers, but more apartments near light-rail stations and vibrant mixed-use areas like the ones in downtown Pasadena.
We must view the fragility of the planet, the disaster of our resource addiction, the warming of the earth’s atmosphere as an immune response to our daily environmental mis-stepping, a call for a re-conceptualization of our cities. We must demand a retrofitting of our urban environments to live together more efficiently, giving credence to community, allowing space for the open wild in us and them.
The Aboriginal Australian Rainbow Serpent meanders snake-like like a river across the landscape, sunlight reflecting the spectrum of colours. He inhabits permanent waterholes and controls precious oils and waters.
Detroit must overcome its landscape sprawl and its prime benefactor: the automobile, to revive the economy and become an environmentally sustainable 21st Century city.
With “ambitious but achievable” transportation and land use proposals left off the table, California’s first climate protection mandated Sustainable Communities Strategy aimed high but did not quite achieve setting the San Diego region on a long-term course toward sustainability.