recursion

While I was on a bike ride this lovely July 4th, I saw that the Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden is having a photography contest for flowers, wildlife, and visitors this summer. Photos need to be submitted by September 30th. I can't find any details online, so check out the park for details. It's worth a visit.

Two quick links from WorldChanging.

1. Density as Efficiency. Dense urban living (potentially) saves more energy than super-efficient single family Energy Star homes in a suburban patttern. This is interesting, because I was just talking to some friends who want to buy land out in the country and live sustainably. Not to begrudge their choices too much, because they are doing more for the environment than 99% of the people I know, but that sounds an awful lot like the vain quest for arcadia that promotes urban sprawl. You move out to the country to get away from it all, and pretty soon find you don't live in the country any more. I was wondering if living in the city was more sustainable. With this study, maybe it is possible to do so.

2. How Dense can we be? This has a link to the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy's super cool site Visualizing Density. Wow, what a great site. You can really get a feel for how livable density can be, if planned out appropriately. And you also get a feel for how monotonous suburan development really is.

If only I lived in the UK.