Introducing: The Possible City
Solutions for the equitable, ecological cities of the future, today.
The solutions are already here.
For climate change, soil loss, delicious regenerative food production for everyone, housing, equitable access to a high quality of life; there are solutions that are achievable today. If one talks to the farmers, the builders, the ecologists, they will find that most of the technology we need, has existed for decades. In some cases, it has existed for millennia. Real nature-based solutions are all around us, they are resilient, and most of them are not reliant on high-technology or financial capital, but on local observation, awareness, and the free sharing of ideas and resources by everyday people.
Although the slick, corporate-backed solutions usually grab the headlines, the truth is that you, me, and the nature around us have solutions, too. A decade of working with and learning from people and nature around the world—regenerative farmers, philosophers, weeds, urban planners, trees, artists, city mayors, mountains, architects, and others—has made it clear to me that there are hundreds, thousands, millions of other ways to build ecological cities and lifestyles.
There are ways that, rather than relying on unrealistic concepts like endless economic growth, are instead rooted in directly enriching the living world that we are part of, and deepening our experience within it; ways that are complex but not always complicated; ways that empower individuals and communities to enact real solutions for themselves.
We need to start talking about these other ways.
Today, I begin telling illustrated stories of these ways. Stories not to uphold the system we currently inhabit, but instead to uncover the world we could inhabit. These are stories for The Possible City. These stories will be published here, every week, through words, illustrations, and images.
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Who Are You, Man?
Nice question. I am an ecological artist and regenerative practitioner who grew up in Silicon Valley, studied in Scotland, and has lived in East Asia since around 2011. Around this time, I founded the City as Nature creative ecology lab, and began work on the film Final Straw: Food, Earth, Happiness with my partner Suhee. You can find a bit more about why I started this publication on the about page.