U R B A N
S T A R S
let’s twinkle our city
BIODIVERSITY research book
“if all insects on Earth disappeared, within 50 years all life on Earth would end. If all human beings disappeared from the Earth, within 50 years all forms of life would flourish.” — Biologist Jonas Salk
M I D TE RM
P e r macu ltu r e Permaculture is a branch of ecological design, ecological engineering, and environmental design which develops sustainable architecture and self-maintained agricultural systems modeled from natural ecosystems.
The core - Take care of the earth: Provision for all life systems to continue and multiply. This is the first principle, because without a healthy earth, humans cannot flourish.
- Take care of the people: Provision for people to access those resources necessary for their existence.
- Set limits to consumption and reproduction, and redistribute surplus: Healthy natural systems use outputs from each element to nourish others. We humans can do the same. By governing our own needs, we can set resources aside to further the above principles.
URBAN S TARS
Permaculture is an ecological design system for sustainability in all aspects of our lives. Permaculture teaches us how build natural homes, grow our own food, restore diminished landscapes and ecosystems, catch rainwater, build communities, take care of waste and much more. The philosophy within permaculture is one of working with rather than against nature, and of protracted and thoughtful observation rather than premature and thoughtless action. Permaculture design techniques encourage land use which integrates principles of ecology and applies lessons from nature. It teaches us to create settings and construct ecosystems which have the diversity, stability, and the resilience of natural ecosystems. In the spirit of sustainability, it also teaches us to allow natural and designed ecosystems to demonstrate their own evolutions.
BIODIVE R SIT Y
M I D TE RM
HIGH LINE, NEW YORK CIT Y
The High Line is a public park built on an historic freight rail line elevated above the streets on Manhattan’s West Side. It is owned by the City of New York, and maintained and operated by Friends of the High Line. Founded in 1999 by community residents, Friends of the High Line fought for the High Line’s preservation and transformation at a time when the historic structure was under the threat of demolition. It is now the non-profit conservancy working with the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation to make sure the High Line is maintained as an extraordinary public space for all visitors to enjoy. In addition to overseeing maintenance, operations, and public programming for the park, Friends of the High Line works to raise the essential private funds to support more than 90 percent of the park’s annual operating budget, and to advocate for the preservation and transformation of the High Line at the Rail Yards, the third and final section of the historic structure, which runs between West 30th and West 34th Streets.
URBAN S TARS
BIODIVE R SIT Y
Impact The recycling of the railway into an urban park has spurred real estate development in the neighborhoods that lie along the line. Mayor Bloomberg noted that the High Line project has helped usher in something of a renaissance in the neighborhood: by 2009, more than 30 projects were planned or under construction nearby. On the other hand, the real estate boom has its victims as well: many well-established businesses in West Chelsea have closed due to loss of neighborhood customer base or rent increases. Crime has been extraordinarily low in the park. Shortly after the second section opened, The New York Times reported that there have been no reports of major crimes such as assaults or robberies since it opened. Parks Enforcement Patrols had written summonses for various infractions of park rules, such as walking dogs or bicycles on the walkway, but at a rate lower than Central Park. Park advocates attributed that to the high visibility of the High Line from the surrounding buildings, a design feature inspired by the writings of urbanist Jane Jacobs. "Empty parks are dangerous", David told the newspaper. "Busy parks are much less so. You’re virtually never alone on the High Line." Residents who have bought apartments next to the High Line have adapted to its presence in varying ways. For the most part though, their responses are positive. A New Yorker columnist was of the opinion, when reviewing the diner renamed for the High Line, that "the new Chelsea that is emerging on weekends as visitors flood the elevated park ... [is] touristy, overpriced, and shiny."
M I D TE RM
S T OP TALK I N G,S TAR T P L ANTI N G
"Stop talking. Start planting." is a global campaign that promotes our conviction that talking alone is not going to make a difference and that now is the time for action. These pictures show children holding their hand over the mouth of prominent community members such as Chinese Forestry Minister Jia Zhibang, Chinese superstar Wei Wei, theologian Hans K端ng, German musician Peter Maffay, supermodel Gisele B端ndchen and also many other Heads of State, Government leaders and Nobel Peace Prize Laureates.
URBAN S TARS
BIODIVE R SIT Y
AIMS and VISION 1. Planting 1,000 billion trees. We want to protect the existing woods and we want to plant billions of new trees. Altogether 1,000 billion new trees. There is still one billion hectares of free space on our earth where 1,000 billion trees could be planted. These trees would absorb an additional 10 billion tons of CO2 every year. 1,000 billion trees sounds like a huge amount, but it is possible. The Chinese alone planted 2.7 billion trees in 2009 as a contribution to the UNEP-Billion Tree Campaign. If everybody plants 150 trees in the next ten years we will reach 1,000 billion trees by 2020. By working together we can definitely achieve this. It isn’t that hard and it is not impossible anymore.
2. Leave the fossil fuels in the ground.
3. Poverty into the museum through climate justice.
We absolutely need to get our CO2 emissions levels down to zero by 2050. The technology for such a CO2-free future already exists. With today’s engineering capabilities we can easily make the transition to 100% renewable energy (without the need for nuclear power) by 2050.
To restrict the future warming to just 2°C, which was promised by the heads of the governments in Copenhagen, only 600 billion tons of CO2 can be released until 2050. If we produce more CO2 than this the temperature will also increase more than 2°C. If the average temperature increases by more than 2°C there is a chance that the ice in Greenland could melt completely. This would mean that the mean sea Level would rise by 7 metres. If we divide 600 billion tons of CO2 by 40 years this allows 15 billion tons of CO2 per year. In 2010 31 billion tons of CO2 was produced. The next question we face is how we can divide these 15 billion tons of CO2 fairly across the worlds population? Should it continue like it is today with the USA and Europe producing more than 60 percent just by themselves? For us children there is only one solution: everybody gets the same, meaning 1.5 tons of CO2 per person per year, estimating a population increase to 9 to 10 billion people by 2050.
M I D TE RM
T HE MAN W H O P L AN T T RE ES Plot
The Man Who Planted Trees (French title L'homme qui plantait des arbres), also known as The Story of Elzéard Bouffier, The Most Extraordinary Character I Ever Met, and The Man Who Planted Hope and Reaped Happiness, is an allegorical tale by French author Jean Giono, published in 1953. It tells the story of one shepherd's long and successful singlehanded effort to re-forest a desolate valley in the foothills of the Alps in Provence throughout the first half of the 20th century. The tale is quite short—only about 4000 words long. It was composed in French, but first published in English.
The story begins in the year 1910, when this young man is undertaking a lone hiking trip through Provence, France, and into the Alps, enjoying the relatively unspoiled wilderness. The narrator runs out of water in a treeless, desolate valley where only wild lavender grows and there is no trace of civilization except old, empty crumbling buildings. The narrator finds only a dried up well, but is saved by a middle-aged shepherd who takes him to a spring he knows of. Curious about this man and why he has chosen such a lonely life, the narrator stays with him for a time. The shepherd, after being widowed, has decided to restore the ruined landscape of the isolated and largely abandoned valley by single-handedly cultivating a forest, tree by tree. The shepherd, Elzéard Bouffier, makes holes in the ground with his curling pole and drops into the holes acorns that he has collected from many miles away. The narrator leaves the shepherd and returns home, and later fights in the First World War. In 1920, shell-shocked and depressed after the war, the man returns. He is surprised to see young saplings of all forms taking root in the valley, and new streams running through it where the shepherd has made dams higher up in the mountain. The narrator makes a full recovery in the peace and beauty of the regrowing valley, and continues to visit Bouffier every year. Bouffier is no longer a shepherd, because he is worried about the sheep affecting his young trees, and has become a bee keeper instead. Over four decades, Bouffier continues to plant trees, and the valley is turned into a kind of Garden of Eden. By the end of the story, the valley is vibrant with life and is peacefully settled. The valley receives official protection after the First World War. (the authorities mistakenly believe that the rapid growth of this forest is a bizarre natural phenomenon, as they are unaware of Bouffier's selfless deeds), and more than 10,000 people move there, all of them unknowingly owing their happiness to Bouffier. The narrator tells one of his friends in the government the truth about the natural forest, and the friend also helps protect the forest. The narrator visits the now very old Bouffier one last time in 1945. In a hospice in Banon, in 1947, the man who planted trees peacefully passes away. http://vimeo.com/32542316
URBAN S TARS
Greening the Desert II: Greening the Middle East This half hour video documents the ongoing work of Permaculture Gurus, Geoff and Nadia Lawton, in the Dead Sea Valley. It begins with the famous original 'Greening the Desert' five minute video clip, and then continues into Part II, a 2009 update to the 2001 original. You'll get to see and learn about the original Greening the Desert site and see some of the spin-off effects of its influence throughout Jordan, and you'll also be introduced to a new educational demonstration site that was started in 2008. http://vimeo.com/7658282
Back To Eden OFFICIAL FILM After years of back-breaking toil in ground ravaged by the effects of man-made growing systems, Paul Gautschi has discovered a taste of what God intended for mankind in the garden of Eden. Some of the vital issues facing agriculture today include soil preparation, fertilization, irrigation, weed control, pest control, crop rotation, and PH issues. None of these issues exist in the unaltered state of nature or in Paul's gardens and orchards. http://vimeo.com/28055108
BIODIVE R SIT Y
Greening the Desert II: Greening the Middle East This is a beautiful French film that teaches us the importance of living close to nature. This film certainly makes you think about the way we live on our planet. No doubt about it, the idea for the film is quite original. A lady from a remote harmonious and peaceful planet is sent to earth for the first time in 200 years to see how the earthlings are doing. Her reaction to earth's current state, pollution, noise, cars, big trees is quite hardhitting and honest. The film is filled with beautiful scenes shot in the Auvergne region of France, a region of distinct turf-coloured volcanoes. http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=_-yIZNXnd6Y
M I D TE RM
ASPH ALT R E MO VAL
Asphalt has given us a city that is less noisy, cleaner free of dust and mud but asphalt also stop nature growing in urban. Ecocity Builders has developed asphalt removal projects, particulary in Berkeley, to transform paved area into garden and small parks.
URBAN S TARS
Impervious surfaces such as concrete and asphalt can be useful for providing access for pedestrians, bicyclists, wheelchair users, and cars. However, the paving over of millions of acres of land and vegetation have contributed to numerous economic and environmental problems. In many cities, over half of the urban land is paved for roadways and parking lots. While we may need sidewalks and roadways, we can minimize the pavement we use for driveways and parking areas, and thereby restore the natural environment. Ideally, we shouldn’t be paving over habitat and farmland to accommodate auto-centric development, but through depaving, we can reverse the damage!
BIODIVE R SIT Y
Firstly, impervious surfaces prevent rainwater from entering the soil and instead divert it to nearby waterways. Along the way, the rainwater carries pollutants such as oil, antifreeze, plastics, pesticides, and heavy metals from the roads into local streams and rivers, devastating riparian habitat and polluting local waterways. In places like Portland, Oregon, which uses combined sewer overflows, the high volume of stormwater runoff forces untreated sewage into the rivers.
M I D TE RM
T HE RUI NS
NORTH BROTHER ISLAND NEAR NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK
CZESTOCHOWA, POLAND’S ABANDONED TRAIN DEPOT
URBAN S TARS
ABANDONED CITY OF KEELUNG, TAIWAN
BIODIVE R SIT Y
M I D TE RM
G UERRI LL A G A R DE N I N G
Guerrilla gardening is gardening on land that the gardeners do not have legal right to use, often an abandoned site or area not cared for by anyone. It encompasses a very diverse range of people and motivations, from the enthusiastic gardener who spills over their legal boundaries to the highly political gardener who seeks to provoke change through direct action. The land that is guerrilla gardened is usually abandoned or neglected by its legal owner. That land is used by guerrilla gardeners to raise plants, frequently focusing on food crops or plants intended to beautify an area. This practice has implications for land rights and land reform; it promotes re-consideration of land ownership in order to reclaim land from perceived neglect or misuse and assign a new purpose to it. Some guerrilla gardeners carry out their actions at night, in relative secrecy, to sow and tend a new vegetable patch or flower garden in an effort to make the area of use and/or more attractive. Some garden at more visible hours to be seen by their community. It has grown into a form of activism.
URBAN S TARS
BIODIVE R SIT Y
M I D TE RM
E kos t ade n A ug us t enbo r g, S w e d en
The district of Malmรถ has become physically dilapidated, economically challenged and socially deprived since the 80s. The area suffered from recurrent seasonal flooding due to an inadequate drainage system and a high rate of health problems due to poor drainage and unemployment. In 1998 the Augustenborg District in Malmรถ, Sweden initiated an extensive urban renovation programme under the name of Ekostaden (Econeighbourhood). The Ekostaden approach sought to address the area as an integrated whole and to transform it into an ecologically, socially and economically sustainable city district. It set high priority on working with the local residents in this process, as well as a range of stakeholders in the public and private sectors.
URBAN S TARS
BIODIVE R SIT Y
Impact Community workshops, formal design information sessions, festivals, cultural events and informal chats on street corners helped in shaping a new neighbourhood with public space and community-run cafes and activities. Green roofs creation solved efficiently and sustainably flooding problems.