The Sunday Diigo Links Post (weekly)

• “Environmental Heresies; The founder of The Whole Earth Catalog believes the environmental movement will soon reverse its position on four core issues,” by Stewart Brand

  Great article from May 2005, by Stewart Brand, on scientific thinking v romanticist thinking, applied to environmentalism and predictions for the future. Great stuff. It starts like this (and doesn’t slow down):
  QUOTE
  Over the next ten years, I predict, the mainstream of the environmental movement will reverse its opinion and activism in four major areas: population growth, urbani­zation, genetically engineered organisms, and nuclear power.
  UNQUOTE

  tags: mit_techreview, stewart_brand, environment, ecology, criticalthinking, futurismo

• “Premier rightly targets blowhard NIMBYists,” by Christopher Hume (Toronto Star)

  Backed by a recent announcement by Dalton McGuinty (that “the province will limit the endless NIMBY wrangling that accompanies its every attempt to introduce environmental measures”), Hume takes aim at Toronto NIMBYs and blasts away. No holds barred, great stuff:
  QUOTE
  The NIMBY response has become a given, a default position, an automatic reaction, a cliché. It’s the same whether we’re talking about highrise condos in north Toronto, narrowing Jarvis St. from five lanes to four, constructing a streetcar right-of-way on St. Clair Ave., rehabilitating the Wychwood Barns or trying to slow global warming to save the planet and this sorry ass of a city.

  Many residents assume that to live in a neighbourhood confers the exclusive right to decide what should or shouldn’t happen in it. In some cases, NIMBY opponents of homes for unwed mothers and the like have claimed the right to say who can live next door. The sense of entitlement behind such an attitude could sink a battleship.
  UNQUOTE

  So true.

  tags: nimbyism, toronto, christopher_hume, cities, environment

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.