USA – Seeds of Good Anthropocenes

Indian Bend Wash – Resilient Safe Fail Urban Green Infrastructure

How can infrastructure protect urban areas from extreme weather, while providing other benefits when weather is non-extreme? Indian Bend Wash in Scottsdale Arizona is a 17 km greenbelt that runs through the Phoenix metropolitan area in the SouthWest United States. It is "green infrastructure" designed to provide both flood protection and recreation. Indian Bend Wash is a historic floodplain, which was urbanized in the 20th century. In the late 1960s, development in the floodplain [...]

Garry Peterson2016-10-21T00:20:01+00:00infrastructure, United States, Urban, urban ecology|Comments Off

mySidewalk: internet enabled democracy

How can the networking power of the internet be used to leverage more representative democracy? Imagine having a simple, direct way of informing city planners and local decision-makers of your views about traffic, schools, parks, libraries and other issues that affect your life. What if sharing your opinion on municipal planning was as simple as going online? mySidewalk offers online forums for community engagement. All photos from mySidewalk.com [...]

Anna Kusmer2016-05-11T14:00:30+00:00Technology, United States, urban ecology|Comments Off

The Farm

Can new communities founded on novel personal beliefs lead to lasting change? The Farm is an experimental community founded in 1971 when several hundred 'hippies' moved from San Francisco to Tennessee to develop a new way of living. The Farm is a long-lasting example of an intentional community that has evolved and produced a number of world influencing innovations. Ina May Gaskin, a founding resident, became a world famous innovator in midwifery. And both she and the NGO Plenty International, [...]

Garry Peterson2015-10-09T16:02:23+00:00community, Education, health, Social-Ecological Seeds|Comments Off

Seeds are existing initiatives which hold potential to shape the future. They are likely not widespread nor well-known. They can be social initiatives, new technologies, economic tools, or social-ecological projects, or organisations, movements or new ways of acting that have that appear to be making a substantial contribution towards creating a future that is just, prosperous, and sustainable.

We gather seeds from diverse research disciplines, communities of practice, and individuals that have different world-views, values, and problems. This diversity means that not everyone will agree on the importance or value of every seed.