Chris Hadfield’s Mission Reflections.
I’m going to make a real effort to have a beer/30 minute convo with this man by the end of 2014. Committed!
Posts tagged hero.
Fantastic. And more than one album…
This guy helped New Yorkers charge their gadgets while the power was out.
Heroic bus driver traps a driver attempting a hit-and-run. At first I was confused about what I was watching. I thought it was just a video of a bicyclist hogging a lane. Then, in the next few frames, he’s flat out on the pavement and the car that hit him tries to take off. The bus driver, having witnessed the driver trying to speed away, swerves over and blocks the lane.
Bus to the rescue! attempted hit-and-run in Bethlehem, PA. 02.04.12.
On 02 April 2012 at approx. 3:06 p.m., expert cyclist Frank Pavlick was struck from behind while riding across the Fahy Bridge by a seventeen year old juvenile who was attempting to pass a LANTA bus. Immediately following the impact, the juvenile attempted to flee the scene to avoid identification and apprehension.
The driver of the LANTA bus, identified as Richard Gubish, Jr., saw the crash in his rear view mirror and also saw the driver attempting to get away. Mr. Gubish took immediate and decisive action and positioned his bus across the lanes of the bridge, effectively blocking the path of the getaway driver.
Another witness to the crash, Judson Smull, stopped to render aid to the injured Pavlick, who implored Smull to go after the offending driver to get the license plate. Smull also took immediate action, and following the lead of Mr. Gubish, positioned his car directly behind the offending vehicle, further blocking any attempt to escape.
This is Leilani Munter, biologist, environmentalist, and BAMF NASCAR racecar driver. She’s a great role model who fights tooth and nail to save dolphins. This is her car, which promotes the movie The Cove.
Leilani is racing in Daytona 500 Sunday February 26, 2012.
BiographyGenderLeilani Münter is professional race car driver and environmental activist. Discovery’s Planet Green named Leilani the #1 Eco Athlete in the world, beating Lance Armstrong for the top spot.
Leilani, who holds a degree in biology, has been adopting an acre of rainforest for every race she runs since 2007. She is politically active in the legislative fight for the environment on Capitol Hill and made two trips to the Gulf oil spill in 2010. Her accomplishments as a driver and activist have landed her on the pages of Italian Vogue, USA Today, Glamour, The New York Times, Esquire and Sports Illustrated named her one of the top ten female race car drivers in the world. “
With family ties in the music community – her brother-in-law is Grateful Dead guitarist and singer Bob Weir – Leilani’s motto is “Never underestimate a vegetarian hippie chick with a race car.” Leilani documents her efforts to go green on the Huffington Post and on her eco site http://carbonfreegirl.com/FemaleWebsite
Camila Vallejo was profiled in the NYTimes yesterday. She is everything OWS is not.
“In perhaps the most poignant set piece in the year of the protester, Ms. Vallejo addressed a dense ring of photographers and reporters in August while kneeling within a peace sign made of spent tear-gas shells, where she calmly mused about how many educational improvements could have been bought with the $100,000 worth of munitions at her feet.”
Three Women Jointly Receive the Nobel Peace Prize
(CNN) — Women’s rights took center stage Saturday at the Nobel ceremonies as three women recognized for their struggles against the backdrops of the Arab Spring and democratic progress in Africa accepted this year’s peace prize.
Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, and Leymah Gbowee, a social worker and peace campaigner from the same country, shared the prize with Tawakkul Karman, an activist and journalist who this year played a key opposition role in Yemen.
The three were chosen for their non-violent struggle against injustice, sexual violence and repression.
“Ever since the Norwegian Nobel Committee made this year’s decision known, the people of Norway have looked forward to seeing you on this stage,” said Thorbjorn Jagland, chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee.
“You give concrete meaning to the Chinese proverb which says that ‘women hold up half the sky,’” he said. “We thank you for the hope you awaken in us all.”
Jagland said the work of the three laureates should serve as warning to dictators even as more civilians were killed Saturday in Syria.
Fantastic.
Lisa P. Jackson is the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency and one of the most powerful women in America. Her position puts her at the center of the clash between the Obama administration and Congressional Republicans over environmental policy. With Republicans in control of the House, Ms. Jackson and her agency have been the target of a full-throated assault, particularly on the E.P.A.’s plans to regulate carbon dioxide emissions (NYT).
Environmentalists and ambitious careerists should get to know her:
- Interview with Little Pink Book, a career advice website for women
- Recently on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart
- Speaking schedule, maybe you can see her speak in your city!
- Twitter (a must follow for enviros!)
- Profile on Washington Post’s Who Runs Government
- The NYTimes has written 52 articles about Jackson and the EPA since Obama appointed her in 2008
His face at 2:10 is fantastic. Also, follow theatlanticvideo:
Cambodia’s Reforestation Project Works to Reverse Decades of Damage
The lush forest of Cambodia’s Koh Kong Province was destroyed when people fleeing the Khmer Rouge began living there, and now the Wildlife Alliance is working to regrow it. Filmmaker David P. Alexander talks about his adventures documenting the project in an interview with The Atlantic:
Working at Wildlife Alliance has been both a fascinating journey, and a challenging one as well. Everyone here is passionate about their jobs, and as such the work often carries over into the nights and weekends.
One time I was out searching for illegal loggers in the jungle, and I had a “seeing through the Matrix” moment. There I was, dripping sweat in the middle of the Cambodian rainforest, and I just realized that this is what all the “green” talk is about. You have people trying to cut down the forest, and you have people trying to protect it. It was great to see a concept as broad as preserving the environment reduced to eight guys on patrol in the jungle.
Another moment that stands out was when I found a Bamboo Viper sleeping in my bungalow. I read about the snake later and apparently your hand falls off if it bites you, or something crazy like that.
MSNBC covers the destruction in Vermont.
Irene by the numbers:
- Death toll up to 41
- 10th billion dollar natural disaster in one year (2011) - a record
- Worst flooding since 1927
- 2 million evacuated
- 9,000 flights cancelled
- 4.5 million homes and business lost power
- Costs: $6 to $40 billion
- Obama: Amazing leader
- Eric Cantor: Big jerk face
Elderly couple rescued by brave emergency crew in Mount Holly, Vermont. Click for story and video.
Meanwhile, back in reality as Fox questions the need for our National Weather Service.
(via mikehudack)
Awesome. This is leadership. Recognize.
President Barack Obama holds conference call on Hurricane Irene with FEMA Director Craig Fugate, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, Chief of Staff Bill Daley, and John Brennan, Assistant to the President for Homeland Security, in Chilmark, Mass., Aug. 26, 2011. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
My friend, a brave CNN correspondent, Jill Dougherty's 2010 interview with Ghulam Haidar Hamidi, mayor of Kandahar, Afghanistan. Hamidi, a seemingly kind man and hopeful manager, was assassinated today at a city hall meeting. ›
This one really got me today. The loss of Hamidi matters to the field of city planning because, internationally, it sheds light on how Middle Eastern cities typically plan for their future - they don’t. Anyone who attempts to implement a vision for stability, human health and education, and economic development is quickly evicted from power.
I think Jill captures the ‘sentiment of hope’ in her interview, which I hope you take the time to watch here, or below. Hamidi clearly cares about helping the people of Kabul. He just wants to do the right thing. (So does the incredible Jill). Now, juxtapose these human acts against his assassination, here, and you’ll see how challenging instilling “hope” really is in the Middle East.
Hope is continually crushed. Leadership is persistently lost. And I cannot see how it will ever change. Ever. There will never be a Middle Eastern period of enlightenment, and that’s why they’ll never catch up or develop. They need an introspective enlightenment…
I know a courageous city planner, Michael Crane, who contracts with cities in the Sunni Triangle, Iraq. I say ‘courageous’ because he’s been almost killed in assassination attempts. This past spring, in Boston, I invited him to speak on one of my conference panels for the American Planning Association’s International Division, of which I’m a board member. Our panel topic was Challenges of International Planning.
Crane told a story that had everyone in the room the edges of their seats. He’d been working in a 5 story office building in Tikrit with other city officials. Assassins stormed the building in the middle of the day and killed over 30 people. They walked in, went floor-by-floor, and shot everyone on sight until they found the guy they were looking for - a low level, though visionary, city planner who was appointed by the mayor. After this man was shot dead, they got into their trucks and drove away. It was hours before “help” arrived in the form of locals and a smattering of troops.
After telling his story in near tears, he took a deep breath and wrapped up his talk. Focusing on his audience, he concluded by saying that, in the Middle East, the concept of city planning and economic development is completely lost once you enter Iraq. It’s a non-existent enumberance that, when implemented, turns out backwards.
Everything in war-torn, Middle Eastern cities, therefore, is a day-to-day hodge-podge of just fixing things. There are no computers and electricity is random. It’s inhumanely hot. Files and records are lost, and what are kept are impossible to decipher or enforce. Employees, if they show up, steal and bribe. There are no true building codes, environmental regulations, land use laws, or property rights (as we know them). The water is filthy. It’s just a chaotic mess of fixing things - a road gets bombed, the planners work with troops to fix it. A hotel “falls down” from cheap materials, the planners work with new construction crews to build another, equally shoddy building.
I gather that holding all this together is this rich milieu of culturally guided, benevolent anarchy. It’s a system of trust and feud, favors and family. You get things done on a daily basis, not a generational one.
You find bread today, not invest in a bakery for tomorrow. There’s no such thing as “retirement.” Which is fine if it functions well, if there’s support and family and friends to stitch it all together. But, add nasty terrorists to this mix and you get a tattered fabric of hopelessness and horrible death. There’s no hope for the people -the residents and children - when their closest city councils are blown to bits every other week. This was Crane’s blurb for the conference. He went off script for sure:
Michael Crane, AICP, Sr. Project Manager SGI
This presentation will be based on real examples of urban planning in Iraq. It will document personal experiences as planners tried to collect and analyze data, engage the public and politicians, and create new city plans for some of the most ethnically and politically sensitive areas in the country. The audience will learn with the benefit of hindsight to identify and avoid cultural and political pitfalls by hearing from our mistakes. They will also learn of the significant challenges of working in a war zone such as communicating to avoid detection, securing buildings before meetings, and the challenges of working with armed guards.
Benevolent anarchy + functional terrorism equals a reliably desperate community. Nothing can get done, and there’s little reason to hope for a better tomorrow, especially problematic when you have no positive pasts to emulate. It tears my heart. As a result of this formula, city planning in the Middle East is a cobbled together mash-up of corruption, nepotism, short-sightedness, and dangerous engineering (as you can see from the video, some building ‘engineers’ can’t even read). Worse, a military-force response is not the answer, it’s pointless.
More on the assassination: Here
More on my hero Jill Dougherty, an incredibly brave woman: Here
Climate Adaptation
by Michael Cote
I want to punch climate change in the face.
A blog about the interactions between the built environment, people, and nature.
I'm a climate change consultant specializing in climate adaptation, environmental law, and urban planning based in the U.S. In addition to traveling and hiking, I research, publish, and lecture on how cities can adapt to climate change.
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