Water

What usually interests me is the manner in which humans have invented forms for dealing with water - protecting from it, drinking it, storing it, using it for movement, and forms of pure enjoyment.

it's complicated

It is a very strange world in which we live. We could live in a garden of Eden, yet we accept pollution, environmental degradation, over population, squalor and ignorance. We prefer war over discussion (even at the level of interpersonal relationships).

Yet, it is a wonderful world! Trees sprout from the sidewalks, fish swim in the Gowanus canal (occasionally). Life is tenacious, complicated, beautiful.

The Greeks shall inherit the earth

I love that Monty Python interpretation of the Sermon on the Mount.

But according to the NY Times, that is just what young Greeks are doing: they are opting out of the global corporate hegemony in favor of artisanal  agriculture. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/09/world/europe/amid-economic-strife-greeks-look-to-farming-past.html?_r=1&hp

I have been looking a lot at contemporary agriculture and urban agriculture, in relation to overall systems of buildings that produce rather than simply consume. The global trend has been towards increased urbanization. Globally today, 50% of the world's population resides in cities. But upon what is the prediction that this will continue? The number of farms in Maine, for instance, increased this year for the first time in decades, reversing a trend towards consolidation. It is a complicated decision, based on economics, lifestyle, politics, philosophy... This is not an isolated trend. We see it in Brooklyn and Detroit and Nairobi as well.