As the saying goes, ‘necessity is the mother of invention’. It is not by chance that similar bywords exist in almost every other language, since many innovative solutions come indeed to light in times of generalized crises: for example, the trueque (barter) markets during the Argentinean corralito. Transforming plastic waste into building bricks is another good illustration of these innovations forced by need.
We speak of a 'food desert' to refer to an area with poor access to "shops offering products related to healthy eating habits". That is to say, a convenience store that sells Doritos and beers – however good that combination is – does not count to face these deserts.
In urban logistics, the ‘last mile’ refers to the final stretch of the transport of goods – for example, the distance a truck or a van completes carrying your last online find from a warehouse, a dock, or another trade logistics infrastructure in or near your city, until your door.
Worldwide rising prices of essential commodities – plainly put, food and energy- have made more evident the disproportionate vulnerability of poorer households in face of the socioecological crisis. An example: the extreme heat waves illustrate clearly the social inequalities derived from the -very unfortunate – combination of climate change and increasing electricity prices.
Recently, we were talking about the depave movement that had started in Portland almost two decades ago. Well, once you have taken out the asphalt of a piece of urban ground, you could plant a tiny forest in it. Other than really really small woods, a tiny forest refers to a dense fast-growing native woodland, based on an established forest management method developed in the 1970s by Japanese botanist Akira Miyawaki to help restore ecosystems.
