China Trails 2020
The future of Chinese nature is at a critical juncture. Economic development and climate change offer new threats and possibilities to the organization of natural experiences for humans.
My longterm goal with this research is to map the people, places, institutions, and issues that would have to be knit together to create a sort of "Chinese Appalachian Trail." Such a trail system would preserve land for hiking and walking and link (often historic) human trails across multiple provinces. It would integrate a variety of cultural, scientific, and commercial projects at multiple scales, from local to national.
Lyn Jeffery, Director, Technology Horizons Program, Institute for the Future
contact: ljeffery@iftf.org
And so I write now to acknowledge the enormous debt we owe to the plants and to celebrate the beauty, mystery and complexity of their world. That we may save this world before it is too late.
Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/Jane-Goodall-Reveals-Her-Lifelong-Fascination-With-Plants-192136911.html#ixzz2NMTpBlzL
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Cities are at the center of our environmental future
abstract: The global environmental challenge becomes tangible and urgent in cities. Thus, it is critical that we understand the capabilities of cities to transform what is today a negative environmental impact to a positive one. We must make cities part of the solution. One point of entry to this question is to view cities as a type of socio-ecological system that has an expanding range of articulations with nature’s ecologies. Today, most of these articulations produce environmental damage. How can we begin to use these articulations to produce positive outcomes – outcomes that allow cities to contribute to environmental sustainability? The complex systemic and multi-scalar capacities of cities provide massive potential for a broad range of positive articulations with nature’s ecologies.
Delegating, not returning, to the biosphere: How to use the multi-scalar and ecological properties of cities.
Abstract: Our aim is to theorize the shifting relationship between cities and the biosphere in ways that can incorporate vanguard scientific, technical and social innovations. We specify that the city (a) generates third natures – specific new environments – such as heat islands, that today are destructive of the biosphere, and (b) that the city has systemic properties that correspond to those of the biosphere, but today are mostly flattened out of action through the ruptures that dominate today’s articulation between cities and biosphere. That is to say, our specific project agrees with the problematizing of the category ‘‘nature,’’ which pertains to our presence in the biosphere. But we do not take Harvey’s more absolute statement that the city itself is nature nor do we confine our analysis only to Latourian natures–cultures. Our analysis is less centered in the work of correcting a false binary, as is the case with both Latour and Harvey, notwithstanding their different objects of study.We focus on the complex in-between space that is the site of both the transactions between city and biosphere, as well as the site of the ruptures that characterize these transactions.
Huang Ying received her bachelor degree in international trade from Sichuan University but her true passion had always been for the environment. For the last twelve years, Huang Ying has been involved with various conservation works in Western China. She has experience working with GTZ Sino-German to coordinate nature reserves and implement natural resource management project in Sichuan along with a sustainable development project in Tibetan area with Winrock. In 2008, she joined Shan Shui Conservation Center (visit: http://shanshui.org/en/?page_id=45) to lead their rural development project and the “Village’s Eye” project in Ya’an. Three years later she pushed for a youth program called “Little Shan Shui Society” to promote environmental education and awareness among young kids through various fun informational events and summer camps. Currently, Huang Ying is in charge of the Nature School project which aims to promote eco-tourism and online eco-social networking.
“Respect local cultures. Realize the connection between nature and humanity. Understanding the dependency between human and nature is one of the biggest knowledge I gained from my conservation work.” —Huang Ying
Speaker’s Weibo: @Hi女侠
Shanshui Website: http://www.shanshui.org/
