Sustainable Ann Arbor forum series begins Jan. 12
The City of Ann Arbor is collaborating with the Ann Arbor District Library to host a “Sustainable Ann Arbor” discussion series that begins Jan. 12.
This series will bring together University of Michigan faculty, representatives from community organizations, city commissioners, city staff, and the public to discuss local sustainability concepts and efforts — past, present and future, according to a news release.
The series is organized around four theme areas and will be held at 7 p.m. in the Ann Arbor District Main Library at 343 S. Fifth Ave. on the second Thursday of the month from January through April 2012.
The sessions are:
- Jan. 12- Resource Management, including regional planning, natural areas, waste reduction, recycling, compost, urban forestry, water and air quality.
- Feb. 9- Land Use and Access, including transportation designs, infrastructure, land uses, built environments, and public spaces.
- March 8- Climate and Energy, including an overview of Ann Arbor’s climate action plan, climate impacts, renewable and alternative energy, energy efficiency and conservation.
- April 12- Community, including housing, public safety, recreation, outreach, civic engagement, and stewardship of community resources.
Each program will include short presentations followed by a question-and-answer session. The discussions will help guide the city’s sustainability planning efforts. The Sustainable Ann Arbor Forums are part of the City of Ann Arbor’s sustainability framework project.
More information on the sustainability framework and the Sustainable Ann Arbor Forums is available at www.a2gov.org/sustainability and on the State of Our Environment Report webpage at www.a2gov.org/soe.
Comments
outdoor6709
Wed, Dec 28, 2011 : 4:44 p.m.
from UK Daily mail, Britain's leading green activist research centre spent £15,000 on seminars for top BBC executives in an apparent bid to block climate change sceptics from the airwaves, a vast new cache of leaked 'Climategate' emails has revealed. The emails – part of a trove of more than 5,200 messages that appear to have been stolen from computers at the University of East Anglia – shed light for the first time on an incestuous web of interlocking relationships between BBC journalists and the university's scientists, which goes back more than a decade. They show that University staff vetted BBC scripts, used their contacts at the Corporation to stop sceptics being interviewed and were consulted about how the broadcaster should alter its programme output. (Read More) If man made golbal warming is real, why the need to lie?
shepard145
Wed, Dec 28, 2011 : 5:59 p.m.
It's even more ridiculous then man made global warming. The warming itself is irrelevant unless it tracks that changes in society (lower standard of living and less whatever) will then cool the planet!! ..at the end of the day, they are claiming actual CONTROL OF THE EARTH'S WEATHER if their nonsensical demands are met. The questions associated with human control of global weather are also carefully avoided because they lead to conversations that are so absurd that, even folded within their phony "science" wrapper, they would generate roars of laughter among any thinking audience.
shepard145
Tue, Dec 27, 2011 : 4:21 p.m.
Why not wager and lose your hero Obama's money Nate? Certainly he should start paying "his fair share" and busting him for $10k would be a great start. I do pity your generation – even beyond those spiffy nit caps. Not so long ago American youth were educated by the mass media to expect wonderful things – prosperity, gleaming cities, flying cars, space travel and cures for disease. While naïve, that vision also formed the foundation of one of the unique advantages Americans enjoyed over older cultures. Your short blurb reminds us that America's vision has been stolen and replaced with an absurd narrative of a planet ruined by the generations that made it great. Expanding deserts and rising oceans might kill millions because, while building the greatest nation in the history of the world, "they" drive SUV's, failed to recycle their applesauce jars and paid too little for electric power. No matter it's gibberish - perception is reality for too many. Those who profit from this massive fraud live in vast luxury, unquestioned in your immature minds, ill equipped to see the lies. Your generation's future vision has been infected with an impossible for profit illusion where US consumers control the earth's weather, economy killing government expansion is necessary, the weather is nearly "beyond the tipping point" and only unspecified action will make unknown, unclear improvements at limitless cost and sacrifice. Maybe it's time to grow up and admit that you've been swindled.
shepard145
Thu, Jan 5, 2012 : 1:39 a.m.
You have a valid question about needing to change things – probably the most important question of the decade. Your question has been stolen and warped into the green economy fraud, a market largely divorced from reason or the market and propped up with lies, half truths, feelings and corruption. The short answer is no. The market that decides what and how to change things but it must be fueled with truth and reality. For example, if the world were beginning to run out of oil, the price rises and the market first finds other sources, then when those run low in a few hundred years, the market finds the best, cheapest, most reliable substitute. This is far different from some socialist nitwit community organizer making a declaration that America shall have electric cars …..when we have lots of cheap oil that we are not drilling for. ...an artificial economy causing artificially high prices that is seriously damaging our economy. ....then American consumers wonder why we need an electric car and don't buy it because it does not solve a problem we have - only one imagined. The list of such issues is long – most LEED points, E85 ethanol fuel, bio diesel, solar power, wind power and wave power. I am as clear as a heart attack sport, but being right is not everything.
Nathan Ayers
Sat, Dec 31, 2011 : 4:53 p.m.
A leed ap bashing community education on sustainability. So you paid a lot of money to the USGBC for some letters after your name, so you could present yourself to clients as someone trained in environmental and energy efficient design, and you don't think we need to change how we do things? The confusion in your mind sounds overwhelming, and now I have compassion for you. Good luck shep.
shepard145
Wed, Dec 28, 2011 : 5:48 p.m.
...and Al Gore's latest money maker makes an appearance – eugenics! LOL One of the many frustrations of the over population crowd is the fact that we grow more food on less acreage every year. Why do you think there are so few "family farms" Nate? ..because we don't need them. However, there are countries that have "enjoyed" population declines for decades where you can relocate and live the dream! Feel free to move to filthy corrupt declining Russia, any former Soviet country – perhaps lovely Bulgaria! LOL Take an ecology course?! LOL Oh we are clearly not on the same page – I am a LEED AP and one of those roaring with laughter inside when some college official running a school of eco blah blah asks us to hire some of his recent "professional eco activist whiner" graduates! I find that people who don't understand American exceptionalsim don't know a lot and have traveled less. …and by travel, I mean the real world – not Toronto or Paris. The more you learn about the world as it really is (as well as world history), the quicker you will cast aside your public school and PMSNBC democrat mass media "education" and understand the masterpiece that is United States…..a nation will survive even socialist ideologues like obama and his stooges.
Nathan Ayers
Tue, Dec 27, 2011 : 7:08 p.m.
Obama aint my hero, and your scorching case of american exceptionalism is flaring up again. We can't have unlimited growth on a finite planet. Take an ecology course and get over yourself.
dairy6
Tue, Dec 27, 2011 : 3:58 p.m.
Environmental regulations destroying a countries economy. What a joke! More republican scare tactics. Quote all studies you want. it's all BS. The party of fear baby! The world's gonna end, the sky is falling. Whatever.
dairy6
Tue, Dec 27, 2011 : 3:52 p.m.
Shep that is
sh1
Tue, Dec 27, 2011 : 1:20 p.m.
@Orwell, Canada pulled out of the Kyoto protocol in part to protest that the world's two biggest polluters, the US and China, would have been exempt (China as a third world country and the US since it never ratified it).
sh1
Tue, Dec 27, 2011 : 9:16 p.m.
Why don't you go ahead and prove it? The emails you mentioned were cleared of any implications of wrong-doing.
G. Orwell
Tue, Dec 27, 2011 : 2:37 p.m.
@sh1 There are probably many reasons why Canada pulled out. The whole global warming scam was NEVER about the environment since it was based on a big lie. CO2 is not a pollutant and it does not cause global warming that will lead to 20 feet rise in the sea level. Classic scare tactic. Second, it would destroy already weak Canadian economy because it would severely restrict CO2 emissions. Which means reducing economic activity. There was no way Canada could meet their obligations. AGW is not about saving the environment, it is about control over industries and countries. Like shutting down coal fired plants without proving an alternatives. Yes, coal fired plants are clean. They have scrubbers that take out nearly all pollutants. Finally, more emails were leaked just before Durbin that clearly show the global temperature data was manipulated and attempts were made to hide it. Google "climategate 2." I can prove more info if you need it.
Nathan Ayers
Tue, Dec 27, 2011 : 4:43 a.m.
I'll bet 10,000 dollars of Mitt Romney's money that every single commenter bashing these meetings is over 50 years old. While these jokers hide behind screen names and lob Cheney spiked molotovs, young people that care about our planet and realize that humans are a part of nature are working on how to fix the mess your generation has left us.
outdoor6709
Tue, Dec 27, 2011 : 4:49 p.m.
I long for the days I beleived everything the government said. Today "green energy" is a scam to give money to political friends. <a href="http://www.denverpost.com/nationworld/ci_19623061?source=rss" rel='nofollow'>http://www.denverpost.com/nationworld/ci_19623061?source=rss</a>
actionjackson
Tue, Dec 27, 2011 : 12:46 p.m.
Hey Nathan, You should have seen what we got left with and fixed! Lake Erie, the air you breathe, landfills, etc...........
G. Orwell
Tue, Dec 27, 2011 : 6:06 a.m.
Not bashing it. I do support conservation and alternative energies. We need real alternative energies that work. Not solar and wind which are not cost effective. All the fake environmental groups won't support alternative energies that really work because they are supported by oil companies. For example, no real opposition to the BP Gulf oil spill. Where were all the environmental groups boycotting BP. The real alternative energy is the E-Cat cold fusion reactor. Puts out much more energy than it takes in. Currently on sale yet no environmental groups are promoting it. They are all just shills that supported AGW lies. For your information, ExxonMobile supports AGW and wants carbon taxes. Look it up.
G. Orwell
Tue, Dec 27, 2011 : 4:12 a.m.
I wonder why there isn't a word about "global warming?" Or, even "climate change." Maybe even those hosting this event is ashamed to be associated with these idiotic terms. What a year or two makes. Canada just pulled out of the Kyoto Protocol because it is a scam to tax the world so people like Al Gore, and companies like Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan can make more money. To fool the public into believing CO2 is evil is remarkable. CO2 is an essential and naturally occurring gas. Plants breath it to survive and grow. Without CO2 or at very low levels, there would be no life on earth. At least not as we k now it. It's comparable to saying O2 is evil. And most of the world fell for it. Now they are learning the truth as opposing AGW. Conservation and renewable energy is great. Let's not go overboard.
Allencic
Tue, Dec 27, 2011 : 2:05 a.m.
The simplest way for Ann Arbor to become a sustainable community would be for the City Council to pass a decree that all citizens of AA become Amish. If we could all just live our low energy lives like the Amish that would be the closest to a sustainable society that I can think of in the U.S. of A. Our yards could become vegetable gardens, we would get rid of our cars and drive horse powered buggies, and we would all wear simple black clothing (organic fibers only of course). All of those in AA still unemployed could easily be put to work cleaning up the horse pollution on the streets. Simple and sustainable.
Dog Guy
Tue, Dec 27, 2011 : 12:26 a.m.
Not mentioned herein is the May meeting in which the overwhelming community support in the first four meetings results in new millages, taxes, and "buckets" of untraceable money.
shepard145
Tue, Dec 27, 2011 : 12:08 a.m.
• Jan. 12- Resource Management, including how to save your community money by reducing their land fill costs while your taxes increase.. • Feb. 9- Land Use and Access: See mass transit, the mysterious transpiration of the future everywhere but Michigan. Learn how Michigan is the 2nd most governed state in the country and why we will never enjoy meaningful mass transit common in other areas of the country…..and public spaces. • March 8- Climate and Energy, a review of how Ann Arbor officials not only believe in the global warming fraud, but spend your money on Al Gore's profit making eco fantasy. Learn how Ann Arbor claims to control the earth's weather by wasting money on over priced buses and LED lighting. This presentation promises wall to wall laughs as they explain how they will cool the earth even more then recent record cold winters, when to expect results and what era they plan to return the planet's temperature to. • April 12- Community, the magic of socialism! Including special guest from Spain who had the joy of experiencing prosperity to bankruptcy only 7 years after electing the socialist political party to power on a "green economy" platform. See how they are trying to reverse course by abandoning great "green lie" but they are beyond failure's "tipping point". At the end, they will take questions about how soon the democrat party expects to bankrupt the United States via the great green fraud. Cookies and punch will NOT be provided.
actionjackson
Tue, Dec 27, 2011 : 12:47 p.m.
Cynics are as cynics think!
Homeland Conspiracy
Tue, Dec 27, 2011 : 1:36 a.m.
Keep watching Fox News