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Straw + Simplicity = Quake Resistance
Andrew Revkin, Dot Earth (blog), New York Times
The powerful earthquake in central Italy is a reminder that we’re floating on dynamic plates of earth. Vulnerable communities, from Oregon to Istanbul, face the task of limiting losses from inevitable disasters even as they deal with today’s challenges.

Darcey Donovan has joined the swelling ranks of engineers and scientists with a passion for helping build resilience in such places. Her inspiration was the 2005 earthquake in Pakistan. Her goal was to create a way to build quake-resistant houses in poor rural regions using local materials. Her material of choice, in the end, was straw.
(6 April 2009)

Dutch Have Safest Cycling Streets
April Streeter, Treehugger
Gothenburg, Sweden -- The Dutch and the Danish pass back and forth the crown for best cycling country. Now new research (from the Dutch) shows Holland to have the safest cycling roads (graph after the jump). Here's how Tineke Huizinga, State Secretary of Transport, views the bike:

"The bicycle oils the wheels of the municipal traffic system. Cycling means arriving at work, school or the gym in a more alert frame of mind, feeling creative and positive."

That may seem like a subjective statement, but the Dutch have found cyclists do have fewer sick days. And, amazingly, cycling safety is NOT give the highest priority in Dutch planning.
(7 April 2009)

Distance from grocery store determines weight: Study
Joanne Hatherly, Victoria Times Colonist
VICTORIA — Want to lose weight? Move closer to a grocery store.

A new study from the University of British Columbia shows people who live within a kilometre of a grocery store are half as likely to be overweight, compared to those living in neighbourhoods without grocery stores.

The study shows that old-style urban planning that mixes retail with residential zones gets people out of their cars, onto the sidewalks, and helps them keep their weight down.

And if one grocery store is good, two or more is even better, the report released Monday showed.

Researchers found that every additional store within a kilometre translated into an 11 per cent reduction in the likelihood of being overweight.
(6 April 2009)

James Howard Kunstler: Investing In Infrastructure For An Age Of Scarcity
Jebediah Reed, Infrastructurist
... When a barrel of crude hit $147 last summer, he was looking more and more like a prophet. At the present $47, let’s just say the jury is still out.

But it’s hard not to have the sense that Kunstler’s ideas are worth careful consideration, even if one believes that future oil supplies might be a bit more abundant than he suggests. For instance, his 1994 book The Geography of Nowhere was a decade or more ahead of the cultural curve in describing the structural miscalculations of America’s sprawling suburbs. Now, even with OPEC cutting production, Kunstler still predicts oil supply shortages dead ahead. Will we feel the bite this year? Next? The year after? “Soon enough,” he says.

Naturally, this informs his ideas about what kinds of infrastructure investments the nation ought to be making. Recently, he discussed that subject, the tragic nature of imaginary money, and “evangenical roller rinks” with the Infrastructurist.

JR: So we’re starting a major new round of investment in our national infrastructure. Can we agree that’s a good thing?

JHK: Well, for instance, I think it would be a catastrophic mistake to devote a trillion dollars to fixing up the highways. I mean the days of “happy motoring” in this country truly are behind us. We should be planning for a period when energy resources are much more scarce. Throwing that kind of money at roads is not the way to go about doing this.

JR: How would you be doing it?

JHK: I don’t know that I would undertake a spending program like this at all. That said, I’m a pretty strong advocate of repairing the national rail system. It’s obviously not the answer to everything. But it would certainly put a lot of people to work doing something that’s meaningful for society. The infrastructure is out there, waiting to be fixed. I’m pretty adamant that we shouldn’t be going the path of high-tech, maglev, high speed rail at this moment, because we need to prove that we can do this at the Hungarian level before we try to proceed past that.
(2 April 2009)