{"id":577,"date":"2009-09-28T06:36:13","date_gmt":"2009-09-28T14:36:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/canyoncountryzephyr.com\/blog\/?p=577"},"modified":"2009-09-28T13:15:00","modified_gmt":"2009-09-28T21:15:00","slug":"577","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.canyoncountryzephyr.com\/blog\/2009\/09\/28\/577\/","title":{"rendered":"The Birmingham Charter?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Neo-Green smart-city planers “from around the nation and world, met in Birmingham [Alabama] this weekend to take steps toward developing a new model for building cities that are more efficient and cleaner places for people to live, work, travel and play.”<\/a><\/p>\n

The planning wonks are seeking to design a new protocol for green cities “to be called the Birmingham Charter<\/em>.” Wow! And they met in Birmingham, Alabama? What an interesting piece of irony. One of the group’s participants, after receiving a flash of insight, believes “Birmingham could be the center of the ‘Green Building’ movement, with companies manufacturing materials and products designed to make buildings more energy efficient.”<\/p>\n

Of course, the ever elusive Sustainability Grail is at the core of the Neo-Green’s agenda, as they seek common ground for how cities of the future can “find a better way – a better way of developing, a better way of growing.”<\/p>\n

And now a quick review of reality – In 2008, the Birmingham News<\/em> noted that “The American Lung Association rated Birmingham one of the worst five cities in the nation under two measures for particle pollution…..”<\/a> Later that same year, the News<\/em> had this to say, “Pollution monitors in Jefferson County show elevated levels of toxic chemicals such as arsenic, benzene and formaldehyde, according to a report being released today by The Conservation Alabama Foundation.”<\/a><\/p>\n

The story goes on, basically in reverse, as Birmingham has had problems attaining Clean Air Act standards for over 20 years. Perhaps that’s one reason an infamous eco-freak declared Alabama’s largest city – Stinkingham. <\/p>\n

Of course, foul air is only one parameter of Green. A smart city might recycle more than a few per cent of it’s household waste. Or figure out a way to move folks around without commuter gridlock. And then there’s the small problem of sewage disposal, which recently became a major headache for Jefferson County, Alabama – home of Birmingham. Without detailing the facts, suffice it to say that several of the County government’s finest Homo erectus asphaltus<\/em> are looking at fun vacations al la the U.S. Justice Department thanks to a nefarious sewer scandal. And if you’re wondering, the sewage discharge was headed down one of the nation’s most biologically diverse rivers: the Cahaba.<\/a><\/p>\n

All this to say – being green isn’t a planning exercise. Sustainability isn’t an engineering term. All environmental issues are local; all of them. You begin with the basics and work out from there. Clean, healthy air and water is the bedrock of livability metrics. A lack of crime and corruption plays into the mix. Exurbia doesn’t work. Neither do cookie cutter lifestyles. <\/p>\n

Maybe the Birmingham Charter<\/em> will indeed be an epiphany, a design of the new green prototype. But you can make a hell of a case that we should fix what’s wrong first. No matter where you live. <\/p>\n

Mudd’s Prediction No. 12<\/em> – It won’t be long before the word Green is so five minutes ago. Like a bad rerun of Hee Haw<\/em>. On second thought, Hee Haw was a hoot.<\/a> <\/p>\n

I think I’ll take the day off, do some cloud watching, and lessen my impact on the planet. Work can wait. <\/p>\n

posted by Mudd<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Neo-Green smart-city planers “from around the nation and world, met in Birmingham [Alabama] this weekend to take steps toward developing a new model for building cities that are more efficient and cleaner places for people to live, work, travel and play.” The planning wonks are seeking to design a new protocol for green cities “to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-577","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.canyoncountryzephyr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.canyoncountryzephyr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.canyoncountryzephyr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.canyoncountryzephyr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.canyoncountryzephyr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=577"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"http:\/\/www.canyoncountryzephyr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":587,"href":"http:\/\/www.canyoncountryzephyr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577\/revisions\/587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.canyoncountryzephyr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.canyoncountryzephyr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.canyoncountryzephyr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}