According to the United Nations, a majority of the world’s population now resides in urban areas. The trend towards urbanization shows no signs of slowing, either. By 2050, two-thirds of the planet’s population will be urban. Urban areas are organically connecting into megaregions that don’t always respect existing political or natural boundaries. Marketing in megaregions demands...Continue reading
Here is an interesting notion for governing the commons and protecting native lands–give natural areas the same legal standing as people.
In his new book Half Earth: Our Planet’s Fight for Life, noted biologist E.O. Wilson outlines the possibility and benefits of setting aside half the Earth for nature. Specifically, not for people. How can we create, manage and maintain commons on this scale?
Want to buy your local radio station? A bunch of them may be for sale soon, and cheap, because of the mismanagement of radio frequencies.
Large Pacific storms are pummeling the Bay Area this weekend, which is keeping me from surfing. Since I can’t safely be in the water, I can at least enjoy announcing (via NatGeo) that Palau and Chile have created new marine protected areas in the Pacific.
As described in a recent New York Times article, the U.S federal government and the Delaware North company are locked in a contract dispute about who owns the brand naming rights and other marketing aspects of Yosemite National Park. President Abraham Lincoln first signed legislation to protect the Yosemite region for the enjoyment of all...Continue reading
We are social animals, goes the premise of this blog, and social animals build. You might think of the social insects as builders: ants and termites, bees and wasps. Social mammals also build for the community. For instance, tunneling mammals like prairie dogs, voles and meerkats build communal networks of tubes and chambers.
Fresh water may be the ultimate community shared resource or commons. It’s a finite and renewing resource. It’s essential for life as we know it. We spend billions of dollars on space exploration searching for it on other planets. How we make use of this scarce shared resource now and in the coming decades will...Continue reading
While listening to news recently about the current migrant crisis I began wondering if we need borders at all any more.
“We should stop and think about how we can use the ocean and not use it up.” –Sylvia Earle As of the last count that I could find, which was published in 2008, there are more than 400 ocean dead zones around the world.