Emergent Futures Tumblelog

This is the Tumblelog of Paul Higgins and Sandy Teagle - Futurists from Melbourne and Brisbane in Australia. Go to Emergent Futures to see more or follow on Twitter at FuturistPaul . If you right click on the pictures, titles or links in these posts you will be able to go to the original story on the web. If you click on comments for each post you can either read what others have said or add your own comment via Disqus. If you click on the date of a post it will take you to a single post view where you can copy the web link if you want to send it to someone else. If you click on the tags it will take you to other stories from Emergent Futures with the same tag.

May 22nd 2012

Reblogged from smarterplanet|66 notes |# Comments

Paul Higgins: A bit cynical about this in the long term. Talked to one of our neighbours last week who builds urban gardens for people. he says that people start out all enthusiastic but many fall into disrepair

smarterplanet:

4 Tips For Starting A Farm In Your City [Video] | Fast Company

Consider this paradox: 49 million Americans live with daily food insecurity, 23 million live in urban food deserts, and collectively we’re all getting fatter. Simultaneously vacant lots, concrete grooves, and other desolate, empty spots dot urban landscapes, while a quarter of traditional agricultural land is severely degraded according to the UN.

Enter the urban farm: a fast, smart, cheap way to bring healthy food closer to those who need it, transform ugly vacant spaces into lush gardens, and promote a healthier, greener, more connected urban community.

A recently released video by the American Society of Landscape Architects uses case studies from edible-city innovators, such as Cleveland and Detroit, to offer practical advice for bringing urban farms to your backyard (or corner lot or rooftop). Here are four helpful tips:

Posted at 8:22am and tagged with: food, agriculture, urbanisation, urban farming,.

Paul Higgins: A bit cynical about this in the long term. Talked to one of our neighbours last week who builds urban gardens for people. he says that people start out all enthusiastic but many fall into disrepair smarterplanet: 4 Tips For Starting A Farm In Your City [Video] | Fast Company Consider this paradox: 49 million Americans live with daily food insecurity, 23 million live in urban food deserts, and collectively we’re all getting fatter. Simultaneously vacant lots, concrete grooves, and other desolate, empty spots dot urban landscapes, while a quarter of traditional agricultural land is severely degraded according to the UN. Enter the urban farm: a fast, smart, cheap way to bring healthy food closer to those who need it, transform ugly vacant spaces into lush gardens, and promote a healthier, greener, more connected urban community. A recently released video by the American Society of Landscape Architects uses case studies from edible-city innovators, such as Cleveland and Detroit, to offer practical advice for bringing urban farms to your backyard (or corner lot or rooftop). Here are four helpful tips:

May 6th 2012

One Thing Missing from the Urban Farm Movement: Farmers

Reblogged from climateadaptation|52 notes |# Comments

climateadaptation:

Now reading

Posted at 6:31am and tagged with: food, agriculture, urbanisation,.

April 11th 2012

Reblogged from smartercities|42 notes |# Comments

(Source: humanscalecities)

Posted at 6:43am and tagged with: cities, environment, climate change, trends, urbanisation,.

April 7th 2012

World’s Largest Rooftop Farm Planned for Brooklyn Making New York the Model For Urban Agriculture

Reblogged from stoweboyd|62 notes |# Comments

futuresagency:

BrightFarms is pushing ahead with very large scale an innovative urban food production, and has announced plans for the world’s largest rooftop farm in Brooklyn:

BrightFarms announces plans to build the world’s largest rooftop farm in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, making it a model for urban agriculture! For more info, click here.

  • 100,000 Square feet of available rooftop space
  • 1 million pounds of local produce (tomatoes, lettuces & herbs) the farm can grow
  • 5,000 New Yorkers’ total fresh vegetable consumption needs can be met by the farm
  • 25 full time jobs created
  • 1.8 million gallons of storm water the farm can prevent from going into local waterways

When you consider that amount of rooftop space available in cities you can imagine something on a massive scale. New York City has approximately 900,000 buildings. If only 10,000 were suitable for rooftop gardening at half the size of the Sunset Park project, we could see 500 million pounds of produce, enough to supply 25 million people’s produce.

Posted at 3:41pm and tagged with: food, agriculture, urbanisation, cities,.

March 24th 2012

Reblogged from kickstarter|34 notes |# Comments

kickstarter:

Learn, dig, and play! Raleigh City Farm is an urban farm startup that is “growing food made from local rain, local compost, and local sunshine.” The team behind the project are excited to prove that a city can create self-sustaining spaces that are as good for the community as they are for our collective bellies, and the farm will work with university students, school children, neighbors, and seniors to grow fresh produce for local grocery stores and farmers markets. We’re so excited to see this grow, we’ve planted it as our Project of the Day!

Posted at 5:54am and tagged with: crowdfunding, food, urbanisation, agriculture,.

kickstarter: Learn, dig, and play! Raleigh City Farm is an urban farm startup that is “growing food made from local rain, local compost, and local sunshine.” The team behind the project are excited to prove that a city can create self-sustaining spaces that are as good for the community as they are for our collective bellies, and the farm will work with university students, school children, neighbors, and seniors to grow fresh produce for local grocery stores and farmers markets. We’re so excited to see this grow, we’ve planted it as our Project of the Day!

February 13th 2012

Reblogged from stoweboyd|134 notes |# Comments

stoweboyd:

Infographic that shows the number of new inhabitants of cities per hour.

Posted at 6:07pm and tagged with: cities, trends, urbanisation, visualisation,.

stoweboyd: Infographic that shows the number of new inhabitants of cities per hour.

January 28th 2012

Jarrett Walker’s Human Transit: Are we thinking about urban planning all wrong? - Slate Magazine

Reblogged from smartercities|90 notes |# Comments

Walker is my favorite transportation blogger. This is a review of his new book. Pretty good read.

derekpeterson:

Posted at 3:40pm and tagged with: Cities, Urbanisation,.

January 25th 2012

Reblogged from smartercities|197 notes |# Comments

humanscalecities:

Daily Chart: Over half of China’s people now live in urban areas

Posted at 3:29am and tagged with: population, demographics, urbanisation,.

humanscalecities: Daily Chart: Over half of China’s people now live in urban areas

January 23rd 2012

Reblogged from climateadaptation|105 notes |# Comments

climateadaptation:

China’s urban population exceeds rural for first time ever

“Just over 680 million now live in cities – 51.27 per cent of China’s entire population of nearly 1.35 billion.

Most have moved during two decades of boom in search of economic opportunities, and the historic mass migration from fields to office and apartment blocks ends the country’s centuries-long agrarian status.

But the rapid modernisation and demand for improved living standards is piling extra pressure on society and the already blighted environment, experts claim.

With 75 per cent of Chinese expected to be living in cities within 20 years, the demand for more transport, energy, water and other vital infrastructure is set to test resources and city planners.

“Urbanisation is an irreversible process … It will have a huge impact on China’s environment, and on social and economic development,” Li Jianmin, head of the Institute of Population and Development Research at Nankai University told reporters.

In the 12 months from December 2010 to December 2011, a further 21 million arrived in cities – more than the population of Sri Lanka – while rural inhabitants dropped, the statistics show.

Many of those settling down in urban areas are migrant workers – people moving from the country to cities to seek economic empowerment.

This transient population of cheap labour, put at nearly 221 million by a national census last April, helped turn China into the world’s second-largest economy in just three decades.

Months following the consensus, another government report said more than 100 million farmers would move to cities by 2020.

The influx is seen as having a destabilising effect on urban society, according to experts.”

Read the rest at The Telegraph

Posted at 8:34pm and tagged with: urbanisation, China, cities,.

climateadaptation: China’s urban population exceeds rural for first time ever “Just over 680 million now live in cities – 51.27 per cent of China’s entire population of nearly 1.35 billion. Most have moved during two decades of boom in search of economic opportunities, and the historic mass migration from fields to office and apartment blocks ends the country’s centuries-long agrarian status. But the rapid modernisation and demand for improved living standards is piling extra pressure on society and the already blighted environment, experts claim. With 75 per cent of Chinese expected to be living in cities within 20 years, the demand for more transport, energy, water and other vital infrastructure is set to test resources and city planners. “Urbanisation is an irreversible process … It will have a huge impact on China’s environment, and on social and economic development,” Li Jianmin, head of the Institute of Population and Development Research at Nankai University told reporters. In the 12 months from December 2010 to December 2011, a further 21 million arrived in cities – more than the population of Sri Lanka – while rural inhabitants dropped, the statistics show. Many of those settling down in urban areas are migrant workers – people moving from the country to cities to seek economic empowerment. This transient population of cheap labour, put at nearly 221 million by a national census last April, helped turn China into the world’s second-largest economy in just three decades. Months following the consensus, another government report said more than 100 million farmers would move to cities by 2020. The influx is seen as having a destabilising effect on urban society, according to experts.” Read the rest at The Telegraph

December 29th 2011

Reblogged from stoweboyd|23 notes |# Comments

Edward Glaeser, cited by Robert Kunzig in The City Solution via National Geographic Magazine (via stoweboyd)

Posted at 5:54am and tagged with: cities, economic, urbanisation,.

“
There’s no such thing as a poor urbanized country; there’s no such thing as a rich rural country.
”