sustainability

The Eastsider LA: “Life’s last journey on a street car named Descanso” (via @MetroLibrary):

Railway fan and Angeleno Heights resident Kevin Kuzma was checking out a railroad preservation forum when he came across a recent photo of the Descanso, a 101-year-old Los Angeles street car built to transport mourners as well as the deceased to burial services.

CarFree.us: “By the Numbers: My Financial and Environmental Impact of Commuting by Bicycle” (via @bikecommutenews):

I knew I was benefiting myself and the environment by commuting without a car, but to see the real impact is very amazing. These numbers don’t take into account the savings because of improved emotional and physical well being I am getting because of the exercise. They also don’t take into account the benefit to my community from interacting with my neighbors and fellow commuters. These numbers don’t measure the impact of the 40,000 people every year who’s lives are cut short because of car crashes.

LA Times: “Women pilots from World War II to be honored”:

The groundbreaking Women Airforce Service Pilots were buried without military honors and long denied benefits. But now they’ll receive the Congressional Gold Medal.

Rob Hopkins reminds us that the oil our world depends on is steadily running out. He proposes a unique solution to this problem — the Transition response, where we prepare ourselves for life without oil and sacrifice our luxuries to build systems and communities that are completely independent of fossil fuels.

Most will probably know the Nazca as the creators of the Nazca Lines — the giant drawings in the desert.

Nazca monkey from Wikipedia

LA Times: “Peru’s Nazca culture was brought down with its trees”

Deforestation left nothing to hinder ancient floodwaters on the desert plain, researchers find. Modern Peru could learn from the civilization’s collapse, they say.

The Nazca people of Peru — famous for their huge line drawings on an arid plateau that are fully visible only from the air — set the stage for their demise by deforesting the plain, allowing a huge El Niño-fueled flood to ravage the Ica Valley about AD 500, researchers have found.

“They died out because they destroyed their natural ecosystem,” said archaeologist Alex J. Chepstow-Lusty of the French Institute of Andean Studies in Lima, coauthor of a paper in the current issue of Latin American Antiquity. “As the population expanded, they put in too many fields and didn’t protect the landscape. The El Niño wiped away society.”

Check these guys out — a very cool project planned that they’re just starting out on.

The Path Less Pedaled is an exploration of what it means to live outside the lines. In March 2009, Laura Crawford and Russ Roca made the decision to drop out of the status quo and find others around the world who have done the same. Paring down their lives to just what will fit on two bicycles, Laura and Russ are embarking on an extended bike tour throughout the US and beyond – with the goal of connecting with and collecting the stories of people who followed a calling to live their lives in unique ways. Through photos, interviews, sketches, hand-bound books, and an extensive web presence, Laura (an art jewelry maker) and Russ (a photographer) will compile example after example of lives less ordinary – independent artisans and makers, small business proprietors, community activists and more.

Via Cyclelicious

Very funny talk with a serious message:

In James Howard Kunstler’s view, public spaces should be inspired centers of civic life and the physical manifestation of the common good. Instead, he argues, what we have in America is a nation of places not worth caring about.

Via Amsterdamize.