http://ourfutureenvironment.org thoughts on the natural environment, recreation, social justice and the future Wed, 16 Jul 2008 16:25:06 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en It's already well blogged, this vertical farming idea, and its currently the 8th most emailed article on the NYTimes. Vertical farming is currently only conceptual and is the work of a Columbia professor, Dickson Despommier (of the apple trees) and his grad students. It begins with a skyscraper used to raise ... http://ourfutureenvironment.org/2008/07/16/vertical-farming/ This "auto-sufficient amphibious" city will mostly likely end up being some kind of eco-resort for the rich long before it becomes a refuge for the displaced. But oh I wish I could live on it now. Each city-pad can sustain 50,000 inhabitants and includes plans for self-sustainable resources, zero or no ... http://ourfutureenvironment.org/2008/07/06/a-city-for-climate-change-refugees/ Last Autumn I was wondering how or if my interest in anti-war protesting is related to my interest in why environmental activists become, well, active. Somewhere along this trail of inquiry I ran into the theory of Peace Parks. Wikipedia states that peace parks create friendly borders between countries and ... http://ourfutureenvironment.org/2008/06/29/an-environment-of-conflict/ I noticed a few visitors to the site are in the Philippines so I investigated Philippine eco-tourism websites. There are an abundance of sites offering caving trips, snorkeling, surfing, and wildlife watching. Apparently the Philippine government launched a 20 year eco-tourism plan in 1991 to boost the economy. But, just ... http://ourfutureenvironment.org/2008/06/26/eco-tourism-in-the-philippines/ In a world where an increasing number of people are able to spend money and time on things other than basic needs, the importance of understanding leisure- what people want to do voluntarily and outside of obligation- is increasingly important. How the world’s future inhabitants will ... http://ourfutureenvironment.org/2008/06/25/a-brief-introduction-to-leisure-studies/ The readings below will be/have been read in order to understand eco-tourism's past, present and future. Jackson, E.L. & Burton, T.L. (Eds.) (1999). Leisure Studies: Prospects for the 21st Century. State College, PA: Venture Publishing, Inc. A major volume of collected and commissioned articles for a leisure studies textbook covering progress and ... http://ourfutureenvironment.org/2008/06/24/major-readings-in-leisure-studies/ Eco-tourism can have a negative or positive influence on a local natural landscape or economy; this is not a new idea. But, a critical analysis of which and how individuals are affected in processes of eco-tourism is needed and relatively fresh in leisure studies. Eco-tourism studies, and those individuals studied, ... http://ourfutureenvironment.org/2008/06/23/critical-theory-and-eco-tourism-an-adventure-in-the-land-of-a-second-doctoral-exam/ I want to make a claim that an outdoor leisure environment, whether it takes the form of a public park, a private beach, or a green backyard, is correlated with a greater degree of understanding and empathy for our natural landscape. Marcelo Bonta writes of his concern about children ... http://ourfutureenvironment.org/2008/06/21/a-future-filled-with-heterogeneous-conservationists/ UNDERGROUND Interdisciplinary Graduate Conference November 6-7, 2008 Department of Comparative Literature Graduate Center, City University of New York 365 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10016   Call for Papers I am convinced that fellows like me who live in dark cellars must be kept under restraint. They may be able to live in their dark cellars ... http://ourfutureenvironment.org/2008/06/20/an-underground-cfp/ A new Google Earth feature (download here) visually represents the rates of deforestation across the world. Other new features of Google Earth Outreach include layers representing dams to endangered species to the South China Sea project. The Huffington Post asks what other layer could be next. I'm interested to see what ... http://ourfutureenvironment.org/2008/06/19/earth-outreach/