Can Indian and U.S. Ingenuity Lead the World to Clean Energy Solutions?

Last week, India and the United States crossed another significant milestone in their efforts to create a clean energy future for their citizens and the rest of the world. Both countries announced an unprecedented funding opportunity for joint, collaborative research in three critical fields: solar energy, second-generation biofuels, and energy efficiency in buildings. Together, India and the U.S. are contributing $50 million across these three fields,... Read More

Multispace

Multispace was shot and edited in Copenhagen to compete in a 2010 short film contest sponsored by the Danish State Art Fund. Entries to the contest were directed to demonstrate how we can live more densely in order to relieve urban sprawl development pressure, enhance social opportunities, and encourage efficient use of public infrastructure. The creators of Multispace met as urban design graduate students at the University of Copenhagen. The idea... Read More

Catastrophe in Chile vs. Haiti and the Built Environment

When I was younger I remember feeling the Loma Prieta quake while at an after-school program, and then upon returning home, heading next door to see my neighbor’s swimming pool still thrashing about. It was a peculiar sight. (Photo: Creative Corps / Flickr) That sense of peculiarity has returned to me these last couple months. First the earthquake in Haiti occurring a little less than a year after I was in the country assisting with a post disaster... Read More

Weekly gRound-Up: 1/17/2010

This week, we wanted to focus the gRound-up on the earthquake disaster in Haiti, highlighting some articles that discuss the underlying environmental issues there. Deforestation in Haiti This video report by the New York Times shows how the cycle of deforestation and poverty is perpetuated Haiti. How to rebuild Haiti Jeffery Sachs, director of The Earth Institute at Columbia University, writes in the Washington Post on how basic infrastructure can... Read More

Building Practices in Port-au-Prince

The following photos were taken during a March 2009 field assignment in Haiti. The purpose of that trip was to conduct a post-disaster environmental needs assessment following the 2008 hurricane season. This gallery offers some images of what Port-au-Prince looked like at that time, and provides a visual context for the sort of building construction and materials that made the city so vulnerable to the January 12 earthquake. It also offers a brief... Read More