Peter Berg’s Writings
Natural places are alike in that they have similar basic elements. They are conditioned by climate and weather, shaped by land forms and water catchement basins, possess soils and other geological characteristics, host native plants and animals, and have human populations with cultures that adapt to these natural features. The combination of these elements is a bioregional template. What makes places different from each other […]
Bahia de Caraquez, Ecuador On the day of the sixth anniversary of its Ecological City Declaration, Bahia de Caraquez flashed bright signals of evolving its truly own version of urban sustainability. It was eco-semana (ecology week) with events in vernacular earmarks such as a night-time Carnaval pregon (parade) with some marchers painted as earth features and animals, a cleanup of Rio Chone beach, a tour […]
November 29, 2004 Dear Friend of Planet Drum Foundation, Thanks for the generous support from those who responded to our recent mailing. We are glad to say that things are moving along very well toward reorganizing Planet Drum. Preparation of a Strategic Plan for completion by February is already underway. New members are being added to the Board of Directors, and we are building both […]
Peter and Judy returned to Japan on the Autumnal Equinox 2004. Soon after, we started receiving dispatches from this journey. Ecology leader and Planet Drum Foundation Board Member Kimiharu To acted as networker supreme as well as guide and interpreter for travels & presentations. Dispatch #1, A Prescription for Japan’s Cities, Sept. 26, 2004. A discussion about urban problems and examples of a workshop/presentation and proactive […]
This article discusses sustainable cities’ foundation in ecology and includes a guide for starting the transition to achieve bioregional sustainability in any city. There is a section with examples from Bahia de Caraquez, Ecuador. [Originally published in Urban Green Tech, (Tokyo) 2004] Introduction There is an undeniable and urgent new reality concerning the relationship between human beings and our planet. We have become aware that […]
Bahia de Caraquez, Ecuador Although economic thought is largely devoted to a seemingly unlimited array of activities and events surrounding production, distribution and consumption of goods, these are rarely seen as being nested in an ecological context. Most rational people concede that our well-being and ultimate survival as a species depends on sustaining interdependence and harmony with natural forces of life. Older environmental problems of pollution […]
Bahia de Caraquez, Ecuador It is tempting to dwell on the difficulties of pioneering dry tropical forest revegetation because the obstacles and challenges are a kind of earth news. Reporting them is a way to spread the whys and hows of carrying out work that is urgently necessary but involves truly arduous effort. There is a high spirit of creativity that goes along with it that […]
Bahia de Caraquez, Ecuador The chronological record for Greece that exists in Herodotus’ History beginning with the Trojan War is missing for coastal Ecuador. There was a similarly rich culture here in the same era but we don’t know its sagas. The archeological traces of ruins themselves are only partially explored here. It was a complex world but in a different way from the Greeks judging […]
Bahia de Caraquez, Ecuador Burro droppings and a partially gnawed algarrobo sapling. These powerful auguries must have been left just after we left the day before. They were in a planting site that although begun during the rainy season we had only now started to dig the first postholes for a protective fence. Renee and Bevan saw these signs of potential disaster when they luckily […]
Bahia de Caraquez, Ecuador Yellow squares of rice drying in front yards seen from the bus window on the six-hour ride out to Bahia from Guayaquil seemed a little early. It was the most sparse & peculiar rainy season since the Eco-city Declaration five years ago. Starting late in January, it gave up February and stayed truant another two months after that. Rain came again in May […]