"Leave Oil Before Oil Leaves Us"

In the spirit of the Stoics, who saw much of life as inherently uncertain, some are contemplating the climate and energy uncertainty that may lie ahead in proactive way. In the video below you can see examples in southern London of what is being called, "Transition Towns". It's what these communities have decided to do in the face of the possibility that oil has peaked. They are working to transition their lifestyles, food, businesses, transport and even currency so that they "leave oil before oil leaves us."

Totnes, Southern England, UK

Brixton, South London

White House proposes tax credits for clean energy

White House proposes tax credits for clean energy

Urban Planning for Bicycles (Copenhagen)

Here is a video demonstrating how the city of Copenhagen is incorporating bicycles into their streets. Some very interesting ideas are shown. Their goal is 50% of commuters to use bicycles by 2015. They are currently near 37%.

Philadelphia International Sustainability Conference

Tuesday, December 15th, 8:30 -12:30 at the Academy of Natural Sciences.  Free, Registration required. Full event information can be found here. 

"The Philadelphia International Sustainability Conference will provide a forum for the fruitful exchange of ideas to help meet the economic and environmental challenges of the 21st century. This conference is free and open to the public, but registration is required. Featuring:

Michael Nutter: Mayor, City of Philadelphia
Alan Greenberger: Deputy Mayor, City of Philadelphia
Doncheng He: Assistant of the Provincial Governor of Henan, China
Xinyong Liu: Deputy Mayor of Hebi City, China
Katherine Gajewski: Director for Sustainability, City of Philadelphia
Natalia Olson-Urtecho: CEO, The Ecolibrium Group"

Also for next semester . . .

As I mentioned before, I like to do a series of workshops during SDN 602 to help strengthen areas of weakness you each may feel you have. I like to offer unique ones based on what students feel they need. In the past I've offered:
- AutoCad
- Ecotect
- Photoshop / Illustrator
- How to Create a Remarkable Presentation

So, I'd like those of you taking this course to complete a quick survey (Click here to take survey). I'm going to be polling two things:

1. are you interested in participating in a workshop I want to do
2. what workshop do you want to do

There is a limit to the number of workshops that can be completed well enough for me to run. I want to offer quality over quantity. So please complete the survey to let me know (Click here to take survey)

In Preparation for SDN 602

For those of you taking you this course next semester, I do a workshop on how to present your work, especially through talks supported by projected images. An important technique to use is the use of a narrative. Data is important, and good data is best to integrate into your presentation. However, what is absolutely essential to a remarkable presentation is the story. The best presentations always, always tell a story. That is, the presenter tells the story with support from the projected images. One does not read what is on the slide. One becomes a storyteller with the illustrations projected behind them. Below is a pretty good example.