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Environment


03.20.13: John Thackara

The Ecozoic City
How humans are reintegrating their endeavours into a larger ecological consciousness.
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10.27.11: Courtney Drake & Deirdre Cerminaro with William Drenttel

Design and the Social Sector: An Annotated Bibliography
This bibiography surveys the literature of social design — the spectrum from design process and thinking to the zones of social innovation.
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10.19.11: Alexandra Lange

Architecture Research Office
Interview with Stephen Cassell and Adam Yarinsky on the occasion of their National Design Award
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09.12.11: Rachel Signer

Don't Flush Me
Prototype for urban system to detect and prevent sewage overflows
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09.05.11: John Thackara

Iceland: Eaten Alive, or Growing to Live?
Exploding the myth of Iceland's "green" energy — with alternative suggestions
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06.15.11: Barbara Flanagan

Epiphany of an Ocean Swimmer
Essay on in the insights that come with immersion in the deep, cold sea.
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06.01.11: Julie Lasky

Ringing in the New Air
Nendo's Bell-Orgel collection for Tokyo's Isetan department store.
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05.10.11: Claire Lui

Can't Live With It, Can't Get Rid of It
Interview with Susan Freinkel, author of Plastic: A Toxic Love Story.
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04.25.11: Phil Patton

Sustainable Gold
Phil Patton on the conference “Gold: Substance, Symbol and Significance."
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04.21.11: John Thackara

Off-Grid Water
Strategies and resources for water conservation.
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02.03.11: John Thackara

Renewable Energy: Salvation or Snake Oil?
Critique of The Energy Report published by the World Wildlife Fund, which asserts that the world's energy needs could be met by alternative sources.
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01.12.11: John Thackara

The Gram Junkies: In Transportation Design the Key Issue Is Not Speed, but Weight
In the matter of mobility and modern transportation we all need to become gram junkies.
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12.02.10: John Thackara

Green Issues in Communication Design
Why do companies get environmental awards for polluting less, even though they are still polluting?
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09.09.10: Sculpture by Mara Haseltine

Pearl River
Oyster Island, Mara Haseltine's sculpture created to revive the oyster reefs that once flourished in and near New York City.
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08.18.10: Phil Patton

Mitsubishi i-MiEV Electric Car
Review of Mitsubishi's i-MiEV electric car.
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08.17.10: Photo by Susannah Sayler/The Canary Project

Hot Mountain
Photo documenting the effects of climate change in Peru, by Susannah Sayler of The Canary Project.
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08.02.10: John Thackara

Could Green Energy Kill the Desert?
Large scale wind power might not be as green as you think.
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07.28.10: Photo by Pieter Hugo

Permanent Error
Photo by Pieter Hugo of Ghana's Agbogbloshie slum.
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07.19.10: Ernest Beck

The World as Our Studio
Report on Worldstudio's hybrid business model for collaborating with for-profit and not-for-profit clients (while supporting a foundation).
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05.31.10: John Thackara

Whole, Whole on the Range
As a juror on the 2010 Buckminster Fuller Challenge, John Thackara reviews the highlight.
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01.21.10: Mitch Epstein

Why Not in My Backyard?
Mitch Epstein's photo of Amos Coal Power Plant, Raymond City, West Virginia 2004, from his book American Power (Steidl, 2009).
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01.14.10: Jane Margolies

Rising Currents
Report on "Rising Currents," an exhibition of New York City design solutions to the flooding predicted by climate change experts, which will be on view at the Museum of Modern Art, March 24–August 9, 2010.
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12.18.09: Jason Orton

All That Remains
Jason Orton's photograph of a tree in Dartford, Kent, one of few left over from a lush arboretum.
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12.04.09: Julie Lasky

CO2 CUBES
Description of CO2 CUBES: Visualize a Tonne of Change, a multimedia installation created for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Conference of the Parties (COP-15), held in Copenhagen in December 2009.
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11.24.09: Aspen Editors

Aspen Design Summit Report: Sustainable Food and Childhood Obesity
At the Aspen Design Summit November 11–14, 2009, sponsored by AIGA and Winterhouse Institute, the Sustainable Food Project focused on accelerating the shift from a global, abstract food system to a regional, real food system via a robust portfolio of activities — including a grand challenge and a series of youth-engagement programs.
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11.04.09: By Alexis Rockman

Hot Times in the Old Town
East 82nd Street, 2007, painting from Alexis Rockman's American Icons series depicting future landscapes ravaged by climate change
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10.14.09: Adam Harrison Levy

O Tannenbaum!
People are talking differently about Christmas trees this year. They’re downscaling or simplifying their annual rite.
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09.22.09: Jonathan Schultz

Better Place
Report on Better Place, winner of the 2009 INDEX Award in the Community category.
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09.09.09: Mark Dery

Paradise Fouled
Review of Crude, Joe Berlinger's documentary film about a lawsuit filed against Chevron by denizens of the Ecuadorean Amazon.
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08.29.09: Phil Patton

Triple-Digit Inflation
Phil Patton questions GM's sustainability claims for its Chevrolet Volt electric car.
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08.21.09: Karrie Jacobs

A Thousand Points on Light: Part II
Continuation of debate between lighting designer Leni Schwendinger and Dark-Sky advocate Susan Harder about proper illumination of urban, suburban and rural environments.
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08.19.09: Karrie Jacobs

A Thousand Points on Light: Part I
Debate between lighting designer Leni Schwendinger and Dark-Sky advocate Susan Harder about proper illumination of urban, suburban and rural environments.
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08.18.09: Teun Voeten

Hell in a Horse Cart
Photo of coal merchant in Shanxi Province, China, by Teun Voeten.
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08.07.09: Jason Orton

Going Coastal
Photo of Holliwell Point, Essex County, England by Jason Orton.
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07.30.09: Julie Lasky

When Worlds Collide
Report on TEDGlobal 2009, held July 21–24 in Oxford, England.
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07.01.09: John Thackara

The Internet of Things
Should we be sprinkling technological devices across the planet like dust?
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05.27.09: John Thackara

Make Sense, Not Stuff
John Thackara presents a three-step plan to connect design schools to the green economy.
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02.26.09: John Thackara

The Innovator Next Door
Whether it's narrowly defining innovation as technology, or imposing solutions on communities, John Thackara discusses the mistakes made by large companies.
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08.04.08: John Thackara

Alternative Trade Networks and the Coffee System
Alterative trade networks are emerging in the coffee industry, attempting to eliminate the middle man.
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01.05.07: John Thackara

Global Place — Or is it a Hat?
We must view the world with a new slant and take advantage of a huge design opportunity to create sustainable structures for the future.
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