ModeShift - Part 43

Bluegrass, Mark Schatz, and the Approaching Main Stream

by Keith SchneiderOctober 4, 2011December 15, 201413

It wasn’t that I existed all these years without encountering bluegrass music. As a freshman at Haverford College in the 1970s I lived across the first floor of Barkley Hall from two upperclassmen –Â Peter Doan and Evan Lippincott — whose vinyl collection included the 1972 Nitty Ditty Dirt Band’s Will The Circle Be Unbroken. But not until this summer, when I arrived in Owensboro, Kentucky, where the International Bluegrass Music Museum is located, did …

Historic Preservationists Rally To Kill Clean Energy Projects

by Keith SchneiderOctober 3, 2011October 3, 20110

Add preservationists to the list of American interest groups determined to kill clean energy projects. Preservation Magazine published a good piece on the troubling trend in its summer 2011 issue. Along with all of the other concerns I’ve raised about the myriad and all-too-effective campaigns at the grassroots to curtail clean energy development, add this thought. At least in clean energy development the United States has the opportunity to replace scenic vistas with energy sources …

Shanghai’s Planned Community, Better For Ducks So Far

by Keith SchneiderOctober 2, 2011October 2, 20110

LINGANG PORT CITY: Shanghai, China â€” Dishui Lake, constructed where the Yangtze River meets the East China Sea, is a perfectly circular manmade lake that was meant to put people in close proximity to fresh water. The Nanhui Dongtan Wildlife Sanctuary, which lies on Dishui Lakeâ€™s eastern bank, is a 122.5-square-kilometer (47-square-mile) expanse of tall grasses and shallow, rain-fed ponds that also tests the lure of fresh water; in this case, to recruit great flocks …

Manila On 9/11

by Keith SchneiderSeptember 10, 2011February 7, 20150

MANILA — The sun rose here to another towering and impressive Asian skyline. On the 10th anniversary of 9/11, while the world joins the United States in honoring a terrifying moment, I see skylines here and in China that describe in clear line and form just how far that day blasted us off course. One measure is the scant alterations in the skylines of big American cities in the last decade. Another is that in …

Underlying Big Decisions, An Owensboro Operating System That Works, Mostly

by Keith SchneiderSeptember 8, 2011September 27, 20113

I’ve been working in Owensboro, Ky. this summer on What’s Done, What’s Next: A Civic Pact, a three-part project to help the city understand the new velocity of change in the 21st century and suggest ways that will lead to prosperity and a high quality of life. Right off the bat, itâ€™s important to note how different Owensboroâ€™s attitude about the future is from much of the rest of the country. Owensboro is in transition, …

Latest in NY Times: Kids Sports As Development Tool

by Keith SchneiderSeptember 8, 2011September 9, 20110

ELIZABETHTOWN, Ky. â€” Since 1937, when the Treasury Department established a bullion repository at nearby Fort Knox, gold has been the principal attraction of this city of 28,531 south of Louisville. Now, travel and tourism executives are counting on a $29 million youth sports complex under construction northwest of town to help fill Elizabethtownâ€™s 1,525 hotel rooms and drive development of hundreds more. Along with China, I’ve spent a good bit of time this summer …

China’s First (And Still Only) Sustainable Business Magazine

by Keith SchneiderSeptember 6, 2011October 14, 20112

SHANGHAI — The second edition summer issue of Eco-nomy, the new compendium of news and ideas about sustainable business, includes a piece from Circle of Blue’s Choke Point: China project earlier this year on the confrontation between water and energy in China. The page-long article is in Chinese, which is appropriate given that Eco-nomy is a fresh voice in Asia for describing the profitable alliances that develop when companies apply ecological principles to their business …

America: History In Five Words

by Keith SchneiderAugust 2, 20110

On a hike in the Upper Peninsula this week observed this sign: Nature Trail to Parking Lot. It struck me as either the most apt description of Michigan I’ve seen or the shortest history of the United States ever written. — Keith Schneider

Bill McKibben Organizes Fortnight of Washington Protests on Tar Sands Oil Pipeline

by Keith SchneiderJune 28, 2011June 28, 20115

My friend and colleague Bill McKibben this week joined 10 other prominent climate activists in calling for civil activism in front of the White House in August. I learned of the planned event, to protest the $7 billion Keystone XL tar sands oil pipeline from Canada to the Gulf Coast, from a young friend here in northern Michigan who is attending Middlebury College in Vermont, where Bill is a resident scholar. She’s also planning to …

The Temptations in Northern Michigan

by Keith SchneiderJune 26, 2011January 31, 20130

Though Detroit’s become a signpost for where the rest of America is heading unless we change our ways right quick, there was a time when it was vital. So vital, in fact, that Detroit produced music so blazingly good that it became a sound track of the American empire at its height. That, of course, was the sound of Motown. Last night The Temptations performed here in northern Michigan.Â One of the premier groups that …