In this short article by Kim Stanley Robinson for Bloomberg Green, the sci-fi author and climate thinker writes about the “30 by 30” plan to protect 30% of land by 2030, which a growing number of countries are joining, and how it echoes “the preeminent conservation biologist of our time”, E.O. Wilson who advocated for the protection of 50% of land on the planet “for the sake of the thousands of species now in danger of extinction.”
The Cities of Things lab in Delft, Netherlands, is studying how we “live together with intelligent things, and relate to intelligent systems.” Their research has “a focus on the design of these new relationships and interactions.”
We already covered some of Amsterdam’s plans towards a doughnut economy but this concept, or otherwise the circular economy, are important parts of how cities can be transformed into Fab Cities, so it’s worth another visit. The DEAL (Doughnut Economics Action Lab) have launched An introductory guide to downscaling the doughnut which explains why and how the planet-wide concept can be scaled to a city.
During the first few months of the pandemic, when a lot of products, especially personal protection equipment (PPE) in healthcare settings, was in short supply or completely unavailable, a lot of people in various makerspaces mobilized to invent and produce replacements they could build quickly. Our own Communautique (coordinators of this year’s Fab City summit) were part of that effort with echofab and their design and production of a visor
Some topics you might have seen once in a while over the last few years: a movement to simply give money to people in need instead of thinking-up complex programs and going through NGOs; frugal innovation and Jugaad (“a colloquial word in India, which refers to a non-conventional, frugal innovation, often termed a ‘hack’”) as inspiration for western DIY; giving people back their agency, empowerment.
