Développement durable et efficacité énergétique

Politicians and oil companies might waste time debating whether or not we’ve reached peak oil. What they ignore is that we run out completely in under 40 years’ time, by which time a third of the planet’s biodiversity will be lost.

In the meantime, tantalum, that great mainstay of mobile telecoms, will last only a few years more and run out just in time to celebrate the planet breaking the 2oC barrier in 2060.
There’s so much more words could say, but this, a very relevant and informative environmensl visualization, says is so much better...

Via Lauren Moss

As we plan for the future of our planet, it is imperative that we consider the effects of development on both the environment and human populations. A city is only truly sustainable if it uses natural resources efficiently while still fully meeting the needs of its inhabitants and a decent standard of living.

Recently, the UN Human Settlements Program (UN-HABITAT) launched its “State of the World’s Cities Report 2012/2013” which addresses the prosperity of cities. According to the report, the first step to achieving prosperity is to define the goal: What does prosperity mean in 2012? This is a difficult question to answer given the vast disparity of living conditions throughout the world. Additionally, it is imperative that the definition of prosperity today consider the needs of future generations. To this end, UN-Habitat developed a “City Prosperity Index,” which translates the five dimensions of prosperity identified by UN-Habitiat—productivity, infrastructure development, quality of life, equity and social inclusion, environmental sustainability—into measurable indicators (see page 15 of the report).

This definition of the prosperous city is consistent with the principles of a smart, sustainable and just city... further reading at the article link

Via Lauren Moss

"Degrowth recognizes that humanity’s access to the earth’s resources and services of the biosphere are constraints upon socioeconomic activity. It also holds that politics and economics cannot trump thermodynamic and ecological realities. It places the limits to growth and ecological overshoot at the center of the predicaments Homo sapiens confront. It connects to culture and political/economy through this root public policy question: How to equitably distribute a shrinking economic pie?"

 

"We developed our world economy with oil as our security against future debt, always able to borrow more with the ‘certainty’ that cheap oil would provide future income to pay it off.

… This is the fundamental truth that eludes our cornucopian economists: our economy functions on energy input, not money output. Without endless cheap energy you can’t have endless employment. Our infinite demand has hit the wall of finite resources…[xxix]

Timothy Garrett, a contemporary physicist, has developed a model of economic activity as a heat engine -complete with a coefficient of output- which, expressed in lay terms means the economy is dependent for its output on the amount of energy –not capital or money or labor- flowing into it."

Must-read analysis by Dan Bednarz and Allana Beavis on what "the end of cheap energy and growth" means for Western health systems.

Via Willy De Backer

Architecture that does not have a function, is not appreciated or that stands unused has no place in a world that consumes as many naturally resources as ours.

The global building industry caters to the needs of billions, but it also is the highest consumer of these resources, meaning that there must be a level of responsibility in play that restricts unnecessary works at all costs.
However, an increasing number of urban development projects are being undertaken that are unused and unnecessary. These ‘ghost towns’ stand as an outdated and regressive waste in the meantime, although they are often justified as a long-term development goal...

Via Lauren Moss