Saying the Tech Bloom is not commercially driven is like saying Mother Teresa had an interest in the poor. Alex Steffen More Quotes by Alex Steffen More Quotes From Alex Steffen By fundamentally changing how we design the places and systems that enable our daily lives, we can slash emissions way beyond the immediate carbon savings - because our own personal emissions are just the tip of a vast iceberg of energy and resources consumed far from our view. Alex Steffen design energy views Cities offer us powerful leverage on our most stubborn, wasteful practices. Long commutes in our cars, big power bills from our energy-hogging buildings, shopping trips to buy stuff that'll spend a few short months in our homes and long centuries in our landfills. Alex Steffen powerful practice home Copenhagen has done a remarkable job creating streets that are focused on bicycles and pedestrians. Alex Steffen creating done jobs Cabbies in particular seem to like discussing the fate the Earth. Alex Steffen fate particular earth The planet's biggest problems have to do with sustainability, environmental decline, global poverty, disease, conflict and so forth. Really, they're all interconnected - it's one big problem, which is that the way we're doing things can't go on. Alex Steffen environmental disease goes-on In almost all city governments in America, the small group of people who don't want change are able to block change. Alex Steffen block government cities Our cities need to change, fast. Tactical Urbanism is a guided tour of solutions created when local people decide they can't wait for politics to catch up before they improve their neighborhoods. This weathervane book deserves a place on any urbanist's bookshelf. Alex Steffen cities book people There’s more to being an environmentalist than occasionally signing an online petition and mailing your check to the Sierra Club. Really the most effective environmental actions you can take have to do with crafting your home and surroundings, your workplace decisions and your investment habits. Alex Steffen decision work home Powerful people doing bad things LIKE cynical, despairing citizens. Alex Steffen cynical powerful people At its very heart, Worldchanging is about using the best of people's new ideas, bringing them together and applying them to the massive problems that we all face. Alex Steffen heart people ideas For carbon-neutral cities, there are things worth talking about in how our consumption patterns can change - sharing goods, etc. - but those are a fraction of the impacts of transportation and building energy use. If we need to choose priority actions, the most important things are to densify, provide transit, and green the buildings. Alex Steffen impact cities talking In tough times, some of us see protecting the climate as a luxury, but that's an outdated 20th-century worldview from a time when we thought industrialization was the end goal, waste was growth, and wealth meant a thick haze of air pollution. Alex Steffen pollution tough-times growth time The most climate friendly trip we are ever going to take is the trip we never had to take because we were close to what we wanted. Alex Steffen going because never friendly We don't need a War on Carbon. We need a new prosperity that can be shared by all while still respecting a multitude of real ecological limits - not just atmospheric gas concentrations, but topsoil depth, water supplies, toxic chemical concentrations, and the health of ecosystems, including the diversity of life they depend upon. Alex Steffen health water war life Make no mistake: Tackling climate change is vital. But to see everything through the lens of short-term CO2 reductions, letting our obsession with carbon blind us to the bigger picture, is to court catastrophe. Alex Steffen picture climate-change change mistake When the Internet really first started to hit, people felt this would be the death blow: after suburbs and long commutes and television and the death of the family dinner, this would be the last straw that would totally break society. Alex Steffen dinner family death people We don't need more recycling, we need a completely different system of closed-loop manufacturing, and no matter how many cans I crush, my personal actions at the consumer level are of very little importance in getting us there. Alex Steffen need personal recycling matter What makes creative people tingle are interesting problems, the chance to impress their friends, and caffeine. Alex Steffen problems friends chance people One of the most unfortunate side effects of the urban activism of the '60s and '70s is the belief that development is wrong and that fighting it makes you an environmentalist. Alex Steffen wrong you fighting development The biggest thing growing cities need to do is minimize barriers to development so that as long as someone is doing good urbanism, they can get permitted quickly and get building quickly. Alex Steffen someone good building long
