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And green is good. Unless you're thinking of Soylent Green, that 1970s film predicated on the Malthusian or Paul Erlich's Population Bomb concept. There are lots of problems with our tired old planet and the overcrowding of people is certainly one of them. But, we could be heading in the opposite direction and it won't be better, even if we avoid people-eating.
And just before we get into it, you have probably noticed that there's been a lot of blue in my blogs of late. I got carried away after a lesson in linkage so that instead of typing out a full url for a reference, I now code a key word (thanks coach) and you can check out the source or not. But you already knew that, didn't you. Back to the green.
Birth rates are falling. We need to reproduce and then some just to stay stable - the number is 2.1 I believe. Every female producing that many newbies and we'll be OK. The point-1 is the statistical solution to the problems of non-fertile uteruses, terminated pregnancies and deaths. Here's our 2025 global rates: Canada is at 1.25
Of course, some parts of the world have rates above 4.0 and immigration is considered to be the primary influencer of national population density in the future. Can you hear from some quarters the gibbering in fear that all those dark-skinned people, or Moslems or Chinese are coming here in "Great Replacement" waves. It's good to know that in some cities (take a bow, Ottawa) organizations set themselves up to welcome the newcomers to the neighbourhood. All of us can just play nice and keep voting for democratic institutions and compassionate reality as opposed to racist, uninformed bigotry. Back to good green news.
You know that your plastic recycling won't save the planet, or even the ocean beaches near you. But there are many great programs around the globe that deserve our attention. I started a folder of "Good News" items into which I put every email you sent me, every FB post and every piece of Wiki research concerning the answers to ecological problems. I'll share it with you in a later post. Right now I want to tell about a green good news story that came from the city synonymous with gambling.
Monaco won a green city of Europe award and we saw why. Back in 2019 we were staying in Nice in Southern France and took a train to the little state of Monaco. After checking out the casino and having a few cool ones (those little umbrellas are so cute), we wandered into town. The best sight was from a lookout where the skyline of rooftops appeared to be great rectangles of greenery. The folk simply used every flat surface of sun-exposed construction as a vegetation station. I swear we started breathing more deeply just looking at the sight.
This was the brainchild of the International Association of Horticultural Producers (AIPH) The awards recognise cities that place plants and horticulture at the heart of urban development. Other winners have been Chengdu, China and Hyderabad, India. Here's a shot of an innovation in London, host to a Green Cities Briefings in 2022.
Of course, our political cartoonist, Adrian Raeside, had to get in a few digs. He regularly tears strips off our municipal and provincial governments and certainly speaks for many in his "hate-the-bike-lanes" pieces. Most times he's simply doing his job of afflicting the comfortable and comforting (or amusing) the afflicted. Like this.
But Raeside is cranky at times. Look at what our neighbours on the planet are doing to keep things green. These are from my desktop folder of Good News items and thank you to all who have posted them wherever.
Are they all real? That's a good question. What if some are AI-generated or experimental only and not in productive use? Those last two seemed unrealistic because I couldn't envisage trainloads of businessmen, most without even a cell phone or newspaper in hand placidly riding along on a subway car. And in the Netherlands, do they put "SCHOOL" signs on buildings? Here's how to check. Ask Google (or any search engine) to give you a list of sites in response to your query "How to check authenticity of images" or "Detecting AI-generated images". One that I used (thanks coach) was at https://deepai.org/ai-image-detector and it told me that those last two pictures were probably fake; that is, there was a 97% probability that they were created, not real. So now what?
Why would someone post fake images such as those on a site and not identify them as being produced by AI tools rather than a camera? Well, they might have been advertisements for products that were in development and someone wanted to share the innovative idea with the world. There are benign reasons for their appearance, although reasons are not excuses for irresponsibility in this digital age.
For instance, those floating islands in Copenhagen harbour are in production now and are being installed on a schedule. The more complete story I found is this:
The project introduces a new archetype in urban space to the city’s harbour; a “parkipelago” of floating islands, open and free to be used by an increasing number of boaters, fishermen, kayakers, stargazers and swimmers. The islands reintroduce wilderness and whimsey to the rapidly gentrifying harbour, with endemic plants, trees and grasses above and anchor points below providing a habitat for birds and insects, seaweeds, fish and molluscs. the islands offer a constantly changing, generous, green space in the centre of the city. The project also hints at a new type of climate resilient urbanism, inherently flexible in its use and only using sustainably sourced and recycled materials.
The islands will be constructed by hand in the boatbuilding yards in the south habour of Copenhagen using traditional wooden boat building techniques. They will be moved seasonally between underutilised and newly developed parts of the harbour, catalysing life and activity. The first prototype island ‘CPH-Ø1’ was launched in 2018 and became a popular feature in the harbour, moving from place to place, hosting part of a photography exhibition, a series of talks and many seaside picnics. The prototype will be followed by three more islands to be launched in 2020, CPH-Ø1, CPH-Ø2 & CPH-Ø3 with plans for even more in the following years.
Copenhagen Islands was awarded the taipei international design awards for public space and the award for social design, It was a finalist in the Beazley design prize at the London Design Museum and has just been announced as a finalist in the Danish Design Prize. Copenhagen islands is a not for profit initiative started by australian architect Marshall Blecher and Danish Design studio Fokstrot, it is supported by københavns kommune, by og havn and den gode havneliv.
It has happened. More are being created. It won an award and is up for more. The not-for-profit initiative was started by verifiably real people. Relax.
And don't become jaded. As it says in the Max Ehrmann's Desiderata, which is still my touchstone text after so many years, "And whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul. With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful. Strive to be happy."
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