Regeneration
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A volcano of their very own: Mount Elephant
Showers of fiery red, molten volcanic bombs streaking through the air, rivers of flowing lava across the land. This chaotic, noisy and spectacular scene is not Hawaii or Iceland today but Victoria, 180,000 years ago. At 240 m above sea level the almost perfect cone of Mount Elephant, on Eastern Maar Country at Derrinallum, is…
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The Reason Many People Don’t Volunteer (It’s Not Time)
Last week I was sat in a room filled with a load of really passionate people who had come together to discuss creating a Community Newspaper. The ideas were flowing. The questions were flying about and the enthusiasm was there. But when it came to the crunch; “Hands up who wants to be part of…
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Beyond Economics: A New Lens on Climate Resilience
Every so often a new report comes out that reminds us all the climate crisis is a health crisis. This detailed new publication from the UNEP Copenhagen Climate Centre offers an important reframing of how we think about climate change impacts, and moves beyond traditional economic metrics to examine something far more fundamental: human health.…
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Bioplhilia and the need to fill our cities with nature.
Biophilia refers to the innate human tendency to seek connections with nature and other living beings. It reflects the inherent bond humans have with the natural world, which positively impacts both our physical and mental health.
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Is this a template for the Solar Punk City of the future?
Gelephu Mindfulness City in Bhutan aims to integrate Gross National Happiness principles with sustainable development, creating eco-friendly urban spaces rooted in cultural values. The project emphasizes mindfulness, environmental sustainability, economic diversity, and community-centered design, proposing an innovative model for future cities while ensuring genuine public consultation for success.
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Hedonistic Sustainability: Building a SolarPunk City
The real value of the SolarPunk movement has always been in making a sustainable future look desirable. No one is going to buy into the idea of a sustainable future if it looks like a worse version of the world we live in right now. So if we are to build sustainable cities, they really…
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Participatory Urbanism: A beginners guide
I recently did a speech to my local Rotary Club about a Participatory Urbanism project I am working on. To my surprise, the audience appeared equally interested in the whole Participatory Urbanism concept, as much as the project itself. So I thought it would be good to put together a quick explainer, which I can…
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Moving from an Egosystem to an Ecosystem
In an Egosystem, the individual is seen as the centre of the universe. Success is defined solely by personal achievement, and the value of community, empathy, and shared prosperity are all relegated to the background. The Egosystem is a world view where people are encouraged to compete at all costs, accumulate wealth for themselves, and…
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Connecting with nature | Field Studies
One thing I am personally involved in right now is getting more greenery into my local community and encouraging more people to connect with it. This excellent video delves into the concept of Nature Connectedness, and how it is about more than having contact with nature, it means having a sense of a relationship with…
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African’s quiet energy and environmental revolution
A quiet revolution is underway in Africa that appears to be going mostly unnoticed by the rest of the world. A green revolution in energy, transport and regeneration. A revolution that has the potential to unlock A Wonderful Green Future for the people of Africa.
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Let’s use the word ReGrowth, not degrowth
We know the word degrowth is unappealing, thanks to loss aversion theory.0 Loss aversion theory refers to a cognitive bias in which a situation is perceived as worse if it is framed as a loss, rather than a gain. Losses tend to be treated as if they were twice as large as an equivalent gain.…
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Transforming Lawrence Weston, Bristol, With the Power of Community
This inspiring video came to my attention recently and I felt it really deserved a blog post. For a while I have been thinking about writing a series of posts called “People who got stuff done, and how.” As the name suggests, it was going to be a collection of inspiring stories about Community Lead…