Archive for the ‘biodiversity’ Category
22
Dec
Posted by palmsundae in Community, Global cities, Urban food, Walking and transit, biodiversity, small streets, trees. Tagged: bird, bird-watcher, city, clean, flock, green, habitat, Hiroo, hobby, landscape, leaf, ocean, orange, outdoor, parrot, persimmon, San Francisco, surfer, survive, urban, watchers, wild. 3 Comments
Walking on a small street in Hiroo, in central Tokyo, we heard a strange noise and saw some people staring at a persimmon tree. On closer examination, we saw that there was a flock of wild green parrots gathered in this tree. The green on orange colors perched on a leaf-less tree is sublime.
I have [...]
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14
Dec
Posted by palmsundae in Corporations, Culture, Garden diplomacy, Governments, Visionary, biodiversity, fellowship, public space, trees. Tagged: ARUP, fall, Gaimusho, gardener, ginko, Hitachi, Japan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Kajima, landscape, leaf, livable cities, new urbanism, ordinary, Satoh Keiko, talk, TEDxSeeds, unknown, Visionary, 外務書. 1 Comment
Last week I gave several talks about Tokyo Green Space, including at Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Gaimusho, 外務書). The 1960s modernist building and landscaping impressed me. You can see the bright yellow ginkos in the background and the last fall leaves in the foreground.
My main point to the Ministry was that Japan has not [...]
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3
Dec
Posted by palmsundae in Community, Corporations, Culture, Garden diplomacy, Governments, Residences, Urban food, Visionary, Walking and transit, biodiversity, heat island effect, public space. Tagged: biodiversity, blog, city, climate change, concrete, Copenhagen, environment, Huffington Post, nature, people, post-industrial, remake, sharing, street life, Tokyo, UN conference, urban forest, wildlife. Leave a Comment
The Huffington Post published my article entitled “Biodiversity Remakes Tokyo.” I will become a regular blogger, so if you like the article please leave a comment on the Huffington Post, post it to your Facebook account, or Tweet it to your friends. Thank you!
Here’s the first four paragraphs:
The Copenhagen UN Climate Change Conference addresses unparalleled [...]
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29
Nov
Posted by palmsundae in Community, Corporations, Culture, Garden diplomacy, Global cities, Governments, Visionary, biodiversity, fellowship. Tagged: achievement, article, balance, bonsai, design, failure, firefly, Ginza, honeybee, innovation, Japan Times, livable cities, model, nature, op-ed, people, rebuild, rice, satoyama, urban. 2 Comments
The Japan Times published my op-ed article “Tokyo’s urban design role.” My argument is that Tokyo’s past urban design failures paradoxically make it a model for rebuilding existing cities and designing hundreds of emerging cities. In the context of climate change and global warming, livable cities can create a new balance between people and nature.
I [...]
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24
Nov
Posted by palmsundae in Corporations, Culture, Visionary, biodiversity. Tagged: garden, Shinto, biodiversity, pesticide, Plant, 山田順之, Kajima, crow, river, Culture, safe, interactive, illustration, ya-o-yorozu no kami, eight million kami, honeybee, falcon, woodpecker, goat, healing, Yamada Yoriyuki. Leave a Comment
Recently I met with Yamada Yoriyuki (山田順之), Manager of the Office of Global Environment at constructino company Kajima and a leader in bringing biodiversity ideas to Japanese corporations. He showed me the new interactive illustration Kajima created of an integrated sustainable city, where bees pollinate community gardens, school fields are mowed by goats, falcons provide [...]
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16
Nov
Posted by palmsundae in Corporations, biodiversity. Tagged: Akasaka, beauty, care, compositino, construction, contrast, dream, escape, garden, hardscape, Kajima, landscape, miniature, modernist, mountain, office, pebble, pine, pruned, river, rock, traditional. 1 Comment
Recently I visited construction company Kajima’s headquarters in Akasaka to learn more about their extraordinary biodiversity program, and was charmed by the miniature Japanese garden in front of the modernist building. One could criticize the excess of hardscape, but it does make the small traditional garden pop in a dramatic way.
The perfectly pruned pines and [...]
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13
Nov
Posted by palmsundae in Community, Governments, Nodai, Visionary, Walking and transit, biodiversity, parks. Tagged: basket, block, bomb, bridge, canal, concrete, fall, fire, firefly, habitat, history, memorial, Nishigawa, Okayama, Shinagawa, stone, summer, Suzuki Makoto, Tokyo University of Agriculture, urban, volunteer, war, water, wood. Leave a Comment
During an October visit to Okayama, a friend stumbled upon an amazing firefly habitat inNishigawa park, a small canal with a lovely walking path cutting through the center of the city. Although now hatching below water, as the sign above shows, it was amazing to see how a city creats an urban habitat for fireflies. [...]
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29
Oct
Posted by palmsundae in Walking and transit, biodiversity. Tagged: children, life, mantis, pavement, Plant, platform, praying, Tokyo Metro, train. Leave a Comment
On a Tokyo Metro platform, I saw some small children and their mothers gathering around and pointing. On the harsh pavement of the train platform was a praying mantis. The children began screaming and running. I don’t think I had ever seen a praying mantis so far removed from plant life.
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12
Oct
Posted by palmsundae in Nodai, biodiversity, trees. Tagged: American, Aoyama Gakuin, Bauhaus, campus, Episcopalians, garden, Ivy League, Meiji, Methodist, neo-Gothic, Omotesando, Shibuya, Tokyo University of Agriculture. Leave a Comment
Aoyama Gakuin, one of Tokyo’s oldest schools, is a green oasis between Omotesando and Shibuya. Founded by American Methodist Episcopalians 135 years ago, the campus includes elementary to university education and has educated many of the country’s elite. The grounds include soaring trees, gardens that combine Japanese and Western styles, and neo-Gothic buildings.
The tall pine [...]
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10
Oct
Posted by palmsundae in Residences, Walking and transit, biodiversity, small business. Tagged: suginami, balcony, pedestrian, garden, satoyama, 5bai Midori, 5x緑, season, police, change, plants, sun, growth, typhoon, Shiho, pottery, studio, #18, Melor, units, native, exposure, southern, shady, awning, north, theft, Reineckea carnea, Quercus acustissima, Quercus serrata, Camellia sasanqua, Quercus myrsinaefolia, Clematis terniflora, Carex siderosticta, Trachelospermum asiaticum, Trachelospermum jasminoides, Eurya japonica, Petasites japonicus, Ardisia japonica, Liriope muscari, Kerria japonica. Leave a Comment
Thursday 5bai Midori delivered the three “satoyama units” I ordered, two for my home and one for Shiho, the pottery studio I attend in Suginami. I was amazed that the delivery service was uninterrupted by Typhoon #18 (known as Melor outside Japan), the first typhoon to hit Japan’s mainland in two years.
5bai Midori’s native plants [...]
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10
Oct
Posted by palmsundae in Visionary, biodiversity. Tagged: AskNature.org, biomimicry, business, consultant, genius, global, innovation, Janine Benyus, nature, planning, sustainable, technology, TED Global. Leave a Comment
Janine Benyus gave a TED Global talk this summer about how biomimicry provides sustainable innovation inspired by nature. Benyus main claim is that “we are part of a brilliant planet and surrounded by genius.”
Examples she cites are JR West’s examination of the kingfisher to solve the problem of trains creating pressure and sonic booms when [...]
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27
Sep
Posted by palmsundae in Global cities, biodiversity. Tagged: apple scab, architect, Battery Park City, Battery Park City Parks Conservancy, compost, design, Eric T. Fleisher, fertilizer, Harvard, Harvard Graduate School of Design, landscape, leaf spot, Michael Van Valkenburgh, microbe, organic, pesticide, public, save, soil, space, Teardrop Park. Leave a Comment
I was proud to see a recent New York Times article about Harvard making its landscaping organic. Despite some initial resistance and skepticism that the new landscaping could withstand its heavy human usage, Harvard has found many benefits from abandoning pesticides and fertilizers: soil microbes now aerate the soil, its trees receive more nutrients and [...]
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24
Sep
Posted by palmsundae in Governments, Urban food, biodiversity. Tagged: agriculture, bee, box, casting, compost, crop, earthworm, ecology, Eisenia fetida, fertilizer, ocean, outer space, pavement, permaculture, red wigglers, Robert Blakemore, soil, taxonomy, ward, Worm. Leave a Comment
Recently I heard Robert Blakemore talk about earthworm biodiversity, ecology and taxonomy. Blakemore, a fellow at the Soil Ecology Research Group at Yokohama National University, reveals that less is known about soil than the oceans and even outer space. Soil is the foundation of our food and human life, even though in the mega-cities it [...]
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21
Sep
Posted by palmsundae in Governments, Nodai, Residences, biodiversity, small streets, trees. Tagged: bill, bomb, cheap, demolition, erasure, farms, fire, gardens, golf, habitat, hardscape, history, homes, inheritance, Komatsu, old, parents, perservation, pre-fabricated, property, tatami, tax, Tokyo University of Agriculture, wood. Leave a Comment
For a city that suffered tremendous human and structural damages from World War II fire bombs, it is sad how little efforts are taken to preserve older houses and farms in Tokyo. The tax code, which levies an inheritance tax on the real value of property, literally forces many families to sell or subdivide their [...]
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11
Sep
Posted by palmsundae in Nodai, TMG, biodiversity, heat island effect. Tagged: artificial, astro-turf, campus, chemical, daikon, dance, energy independence, enivornment, fertilizer, field, firework, grass, paving, pesticide, playing, storm run-off, Tokyo University of Agriculture, vegetable. Leave a Comment
University summer break extends through the end of September. I was a bit shocked to see the Tokyo University of Agriculture laying down astro-turf on a playing field close to the center of campus. Some artificial grass defenders might say that it reduces the amount of pesticide and fertilizer, and is somehow more environmental.
Still, I [...]
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