Suburbia sucks.

I'm sort of putting the finishing touches to today's GMO lecture in my ART+SCIENCE class, but before I move on from the land of sustainability, here is a TEDtalks lecture I quite enjoyed about the problem with space and why Americans in particular suck at working with it (note: some gratuitous swearing in this lecture, although I might add in a good funny way).

You should also check out Mark's (from Boing Boing) coverage of the current TEDtalks conference - the lucky dude is live blogging it as we speak.

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"No amount or combination of alternative fuels is going to allow us to continue running what we're running the way we're running it."

Right on.

As Kunstler was showing those bland suburban intersections, I found myself thinking of my home town. I found myself thinking about how aimless we were as teenagers - how we would meet up at gas stations and party in undeveloped subdivisions, drinking beers around bonfires started with palettes we'd swiped from beside the big box department stores half of us worked in. I never thought to attribute the malaise and vandalism I witnessed in those days to the ugliness of our surroundings, but it actually makes some sense. What was there to be proud of in a town where, as rumor had it and strip mall after strip mall evinced, we had the most retail space per capita in North America? Civic pride - a sense of community - was definitely missing.